Even today a clear understanding of the Body of Christ is not fully comprehended among many, as seen in an insufficiency to differentiate it from all other systems, which even those attempting admixture of it with other systems, i.e. Judaism, Romanism and other religions. It is faith in the Lord Jesus that brings one into Christianity, and not the addition of any other doctrine. Good works have nothing to do towards being saved, because being saved is what effects good works.
Until Paul, the Jews didn’t know this was the beginning of Christ’s Body, the Church (Col 1:18; Eph 1:22, 23; 5:23; Col 1:24)! There will be a temporary millennial kingdom, with Christ and Christians ruling (Mat 19:28). At which expiration, eternity will be established with a new Heaven and a new Earth (Rev 21:1). Israel will inherit the new Earth and continue as God’s people, but no Fatherhood, for not believing in His Son; with the Christians inheriting the new Heaven, with Christ as the Head of the eternal Body and Church (Col 1:18)!
NC
Paul and Christianity (A)
The doctrine of the Church’s heavenly character was developed in all its power and beauty by the Holy Spirit in the Apostle Paul. Up to his time, and even during the early stages of his ministry, the divine purpose was to deal with Israel (“to the Jew first” - Rom 1:16; 2:9, 10). There had been all along a chain of witnesses, the object of Whose mission was exclusively the house of Israel (Mat 15:24). The prophets bore witness to Israel, not only concerning their complete failure (Deuteronomy 31:16-18; Isaiah 1:2-4; Jeremiah 2:13; Hosea 4:1-2; Amos 4:1-3; Ezekiel 16:30-32: 2 Kings 17:13-14), but also the future establishment of the kingdom agreeably to the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David. They spoke not of the Church as the Body of Christ. How could they, when it was still a profound mystery, “not revealed to the sons of men” (Eph 3:5)?
The thought of a Church composed of Jew and Gentile, “seated together in the heavenlies” (Eph 2:6), lay far beyond the range of prophetic testimony. Isaiah speaks in very elevated strains of Jerusalem’s glory in the latter day; he speaks of Gentiles coming to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising (Isa 60:3); but he never ascends higher than the earthly kingdom. We may range through the inspired pages of the law and the prophets, from one end to the other, and we will find nothing concerning the “great mystery,” the Church (Eph 5:32).
In the ministry of John the Baptist we find the same thing. The sum and substance of his testimony was, “Repent, for the kingdom is at hand” (every time the word kingdom appears it’s in reference to the millennium kingdom on the old earth, not the new heaven—NC). Nothing of the Church—the kingdom is the highest thought. The Lord Jesus Himself then took up the chain of testimony. The prophets had been stoned; John had been beheaded; and now “the Faithful Witness” (Rev 1:5) enters the scene, and not only declared that the kingdom was at hand (Mat 4:17), but presented Himself to the daughter of Zion as her King. He too was rejected, and like previous witnesses, sealed His testimony with His Blood. Israel would not have God’s King, and God would not then give Israel the kingdom.
Next came the Apostles. Immediately after the resurrection they inquired of the Lord Jesus, “Wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” Their minds were filled with the thought of the kingdom. “We trusted,” said the two disciples going to Emmaus, “that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel (Luk 24:21).” The Lord does not rebuke the apostles for entering the thought of the kingdom: He simply tells them, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons” (Acts 1: 6, 7).
Peter, in his address to Israel in Acts 3 offers them the kingdom. “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, and the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began.” It had always been the kingdom, and never the Church (for unbelieving Jews—NC)
The Church as seen in the opening of Acts exhibits but a sample of lovely grace and order, exquisite indeed in its way. In a word, it was still the kingdom, and not the great mystery of the Church. Those who think that the opening chapter of Acts presents the Church in its essential aspect have by no means reached the divine thought on the subject (there was a great deal more to reveal than what was introduced at its beginning).
Peter’s vision in Acts 10 is decidedly a step in advance of his preaching in Chapter 3. Still, however, the grand truth of the heavenly mystery was not yet unfolded. In the council held at Jerusalem (Acts 15) for the purpose of considering the question that had risen in reference to the Gentiles, we find the apostles all agreeing with James in the following conclusion:
“Simon (Peter) hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that the residue of man might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom My name is called, said the Lord, who doeth all these things” (Acts 15:14-17). Here we are taught that the Gentiles, as such, are to have a place with the Jews in the kingdom. But did the council at Jerusalem apprehend the truth of the Church, of Jews and Gentiles so truly formed in “one Body” that they are no more Jew or Gentile? A few members might have heard it from Paul (Gal 2:12), but as a whole they do not seem to have understood it.
The preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles by the mouth of Peter was not the development of the great mystery, the Church, but simply the opening of the kingdom, agreeable to the words of the prophets, and also to his commission in Matt 16: “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Peter received and used those keys, first to open the kingdom to the Jew, and then to the Gentile. But he never received a commission to unfold the mystery of the Church. Even in his Epistles we find no word of it. He views believers on earth, having their hope in heaven and being on their way there, but never as the Body of Christ, seated there in Him (the Lord only mentioned the Church but did not expound on it - Mat 16:18—NC)
It was reserved for Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, to bring out, in the energy of the Holy Spirit, the mystery of the Church, the heavenly Body of the Lord Jesus Christ. To him was committed what he emphatically styles his Gospel (Rom 16:25; 2Tim 2:8). But he could not, even in the midst of the Church at Jerusalem, speak openly on this grand subject; not wanting to develop it prematurely, few having sufficient spiritual intelligence or largeness of mind to enter into it. His fears, as we know, were well grounded. There were few in Jerusalem who were at all prepared for Paul’s gospel. Even some years later we find James, prominent in the leadership of the Church of Jerusalem, inducing Paul to purify himself and shave his head according to the law. What was this for? Just to prevent a breakup of the earthly Jewish religion.
“Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law: And they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.
What is it therefore? The multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come. Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them; Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law” (Act 21:20-24). Here then, we have abundant proof of the fact that the great mystery was not understood and would not be received by the Church at Jerusalem.
Sad to say, Paul acceded to James’ Jewish wishes (“unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law” - 1Co 9:20). Later, when Paul returned again to Jerusalem, after being warned by the Spirit to refrain (Act 21:4), the very thing that James dreaded and sought to avoid came upon them: an uproar was raised, and Paul was delivered over into the hands of the Gentiles. The Lord would send Paul to the Gentiles (Gal 2:7, 8) and if he would not go as a free man, then he must go as an “ambassador in bonds.” He could say, however, that it was for “the hope of Israel that he was bound with this chain” (Act 28:20). If his heart had not longed so after Israel, he might have escaped the bonds. He rendered Israel without excuse, and he himself became a prisoner and a martyr.
Until Paul, the Jews didn’t know this was the beginning of Christ’s Body, the Church (Col 1:18; Eph 1:22, 23; 5:23; Col 1:24)! There will be a temporary millennial kingdom, with Christ and Christians ruling (Mat 19:28). At which expiration, eternity will be established with a new Heaven and a new Earth (Rev 21:1). Israel will inherit the new Earth and continue as God’s people, but no Fatherhood, for not believing in His Son; with the Christians inheriting the new Heaven, with Christ as the Head of the eternal Body and Church (Col 1:18)!
NC
Paul and Christianity (A)
The doctrine of the Church’s heavenly character was developed in all its power and beauty by the Holy Spirit in the Apostle Paul. Up to his time, and even during the early stages of his ministry, the divine purpose was to deal with Israel (“to the Jew first” - Rom 1:16; 2:9, 10). There had been all along a chain of witnesses, the object of Whose mission was exclusively the house of Israel (Mat 15:24). The prophets bore witness to Israel, not only concerning their complete failure (Deuteronomy 31:16-18; Isaiah 1:2-4; Jeremiah 2:13; Hosea 4:1-2; Amos 4:1-3; Ezekiel 16:30-32: 2 Kings 17:13-14), but also the future establishment of the kingdom agreeably to the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David. They spoke not of the Church as the Body of Christ. How could they, when it was still a profound mystery, “not revealed to the sons of men” (Eph 3:5)?
The thought of a Church composed of Jew and Gentile, “seated together in the heavenlies” (Eph 2:6), lay far beyond the range of prophetic testimony. Isaiah speaks in very elevated strains of Jerusalem’s glory in the latter day; he speaks of Gentiles coming to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising (Isa 60:3); but he never ascends higher than the earthly kingdom. We may range through the inspired pages of the law and the prophets, from one end to the other, and we will find nothing concerning the “great mystery,” the Church (Eph 5:32).
In the ministry of John the Baptist we find the same thing. The sum and substance of his testimony was, “Repent, for the kingdom is at hand” (every time the word kingdom appears it’s in reference to the millennium kingdom on the old earth, not the new heaven—NC). Nothing of the Church—the kingdom is the highest thought. The Lord Jesus Himself then took up the chain of testimony. The prophets had been stoned; John had been beheaded; and now “the Faithful Witness” (Rev 1:5) enters the scene, and not only declared that the kingdom was at hand (Mat 4:17), but presented Himself to the daughter of Zion as her King. He too was rejected, and like previous witnesses, sealed His testimony with His Blood. Israel would not have God’s King, and God would not then give Israel the kingdom.
Next came the Apostles. Immediately after the resurrection they inquired of the Lord Jesus, “Wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” Their minds were filled with the thought of the kingdom. “We trusted,” said the two disciples going to Emmaus, “that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel (Luk 24:21).” The Lord does not rebuke the apostles for entering the thought of the kingdom: He simply tells them, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons” (Acts 1: 6, 7).
Peter, in his address to Israel in Acts 3 offers them the kingdom. “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, and the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began.” It had always been the kingdom, and never the Church (for unbelieving Jews—NC)
The Church as seen in the opening of Acts exhibits but a sample of lovely grace and order, exquisite indeed in its way. In a word, it was still the kingdom, and not the great mystery of the Church. Those who think that the opening chapter of Acts presents the Church in its essential aspect have by no means reached the divine thought on the subject (there was a great deal more to reveal than what was introduced at its beginning).
Peter’s vision in Acts 10 is decidedly a step in advance of his preaching in Chapter 3. Still, however, the grand truth of the heavenly mystery was not yet unfolded. In the council held at Jerusalem (Acts 15) for the purpose of considering the question that had risen in reference to the Gentiles, we find the apostles all agreeing with James in the following conclusion:
“Simon (Peter) hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that the residue of man might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom My name is called, said the Lord, who doeth all these things” (Acts 15:14-17). Here we are taught that the Gentiles, as such, are to have a place with the Jews in the kingdom. But did the council at Jerusalem apprehend the truth of the Church, of Jews and Gentiles so truly formed in “one Body” that they are no more Jew or Gentile? A few members might have heard it from Paul (Gal 2:12), but as a whole they do not seem to have understood it.
The preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles by the mouth of Peter was not the development of the great mystery, the Church, but simply the opening of the kingdom, agreeable to the words of the prophets, and also to his commission in Matt 16: “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Peter received and used those keys, first to open the kingdom to the Jew, and then to the Gentile. But he never received a commission to unfold the mystery of the Church. Even in his Epistles we find no word of it. He views believers on earth, having their hope in heaven and being on their way there, but never as the Body of Christ, seated there in Him (the Lord only mentioned the Church but did not expound on it - Mat 16:18—NC)
It was reserved for Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, to bring out, in the energy of the Holy Spirit, the mystery of the Church, the heavenly Body of the Lord Jesus Christ. To him was committed what he emphatically styles his Gospel (Rom 16:25; 2Tim 2:8). But he could not, even in the midst of the Church at Jerusalem, speak openly on this grand subject; not wanting to develop it prematurely, few having sufficient spiritual intelligence or largeness of mind to enter into it. His fears, as we know, were well grounded. There were few in Jerusalem who were at all prepared for Paul’s gospel. Even some years later we find James, prominent in the leadership of the Church of Jerusalem, inducing Paul to purify himself and shave his head according to the law. What was this for? Just to prevent a breakup of the earthly Jewish religion.
“Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law: And they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.
What is it therefore? The multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come. Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them; Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law” (Act 21:20-24). Here then, we have abundant proof of the fact that the great mystery was not understood and would not be received by the Church at Jerusalem.
Sad to say, Paul acceded to James’ Jewish wishes (“unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law” - 1Co 9:20). Later, when Paul returned again to Jerusalem, after being warned by the Spirit to refrain (Act 21:4), the very thing that James dreaded and sought to avoid came upon them: an uproar was raised, and Paul was delivered over into the hands of the Gentiles. The Lord would send Paul to the Gentiles (Gal 2:7, 8) and if he would not go as a free man, then he must go as an “ambassador in bonds.” He could say, however, that it was for “the hope of Israel that he was bound with this chain” (Act 28:20). If his heart had not longed so after Israel, he might have escaped the bonds. He rendered Israel without excuse, and he himself became a prisoner and a martyr.
