Grace4You

The day that Paul got saved on the Damascus road, it was the best day of his life. The Messianic Church's most vicious and feared persecutor would come to know Christ as his Savior and that is the most unforgettable experience any person will ever have. Unfortunately, most Christians do not get pass his salvation experience. To them, he was just another Apostle like the rest of the twelve, not understanding the purpose for which he was called to be an apostle. When the Lord sent Ananias to meet Paul, his heart was immediately gripped with fear, because he had heard how ruthless this man was, but the Lord said to him. “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine, to bear my name before Gentiles, Kings, and the children of Israel. This is one of the most amazing statements in all of the Bible. For those of us who understand the role of prophecy in the Bible, going as far back to the Abrahamic covenant, in Genesis chapter 12, it was the plan and purpose of God to bless the world through Israel. Salvation is of the Jews the Lord Jesus said to the woman at the well. The Lord also told the Syro- phoenician woman, that He was sent to minister to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. However here in Acts 9 v 15, we see a role reversal. Paul is chosen as the apostle to go to the Gentiles first, whereas before it was Israel first. Here we begin to see that God was about to make a dispensational change. It did not happen overnight. The Lord Jesus spent several years training and preparing Paul for his ministry among the Gentiles. Throughout Paul's ministry, he constantly reminds us that he is the Apostle to the Gentiles. As Gentile Christians, you think we would be reading his letters first and foremost to see what God has to say to me as a Gentile Christian, but instead we are all over the Bible, naming and claiming promises that are not consistent or compatible with the present dispensation of grace. Because of Israel's unbelief and rejection of Christ as her Messiah, God began to gradually set her aside in unbelief. With the eventual setting aside of the favored nation because of unbelief, it paved the way for the revelation of mystery. This is just one of the several phraseology that Paul uses in reference to the dispensation of the grace of God ( Ephesians chapter 3 ). The revelation of the mystery was given to Paul by direct revelation from the Lord Jesus. He calls it the mystery for this simple fact, you can search the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find anything about the dispensation of the grace of God outside the letters written by the Apostle Paul. Why? Because it was hidden in the heart of God from ages and generations until the Lord made it known to the Apostle to the Gentiles. I have never heard a pastor in mainstream christianity preach from Ephesians chapter 3, and my question to you would be why. We can't just preach the parts of the Bible that we like, we have to preach it rightly divided, so that the plans and purposes of God falls in their proper dispensational order. No wonder the body of Christ is broken into thousands of denominations and there is total confusion on every side. You cannot mix the law of Moses and the dispensation of the grace of God together, because they are not compatible. In Paul's epistles, he repeatedly reminds us that we are not under law but under grace. Many Christians understand grace as a divine favor of God but not as an economy under which the whole world is living. Paul would be sent to the Gentiles to preach Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, kept secret since the world began. It is of extreme importance that as Christians, we understand that Paul did not preach Christ according to the kingdom gospel with regards to it's terms and conditions of salvation. It was his custom however, to quote from the old testament to prove mainly to the Jewish people among the Gentiles, that Christ was in fact the promised Messiah. This was the whole purpose of the Jerusalem council. There were some Judiazers who, were saying the Gentiles couldn't be saved unless they were circumcised and observe the law of Moses, and it caused a tremendous amount of tension among the saints that Paul had to travel to Jerusalem to communicate this special revelation that the Lord Jesus had revealed to him concerning the Gentiles. Salvation was to be sent to the Gentiles by grace through faith alone in the finished work of Christ at the Cross. In Galatians chapter 1 vs 11- 12, the Apostle Paul writes: But I make known to you brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. There are a lot of well meaning Pastors and Bible Teachers, who erroneously teaches that when the Apostle Paul went up to Jerusalem to visit with Peter, that the purpose of the visit was to learn from him about the Lord Jesus. How could we arrive at that conclusion, when Paul says otherwise? His message did not come from man, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Well either Paul is lying or I am reading the wrong Bible. Peter preached Christ according to prophecy, that which was already foretold by the prophets, pertaining to that earthly kingdom that will be set up right here on earth ( Acts 3 v 20 ). The kingdom gospel focuses on the Lord Jesus as Israel's Messiah and King as well as ruler over the whole earth. It looks forward to the return of Christ to establish His millennium kingdom, where Israel will once again become the preeminent nation. So while the whole Bible is for my learning, as I previously mentioned not everything in it is for my obedience. So many times I have heard Christians saying, I follow the whole Bible, and I know it sounds spiritual but stop lying to yourself. No one follows the whole Bible, because God makes it virtually impossible for you to do so. If that is the case, then it means we are living under the law of Moses and the dispensation of grace at the same time and the Bible clearly dispels that notion. According to Romans 16 v 25, Paul preached Christ according to the revelation of the mystery ( The dispensation of the grace of God_ Ephesians chapter 3 ). As members of the body of Christ, we have a heavenly calling, hope and position, according to the doctrines of grace. It is salvation by grace through faith alone in Christ Jesus plus nothing else. We must not allow the traditions and commandments of men to blind our minds from this blessed gospel of the grace of God.