In Paul's writings he's constantly reminding us that we are members of the one supernatural Body of Christ, a special combination of receiving believers from every walk of life, from every corner of the globe, by virtue of having believed this Gospel. Now verse 25.
Colossians 1:25-26
"Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation (stewardship, economy) of God which is given to me for you, (Gentiles) to fulfill (or bring to completion, to correct) the word of God; Even the mystery (the secret, the law of Christ) which hath been hid (most people don't even want to read that. We think they must close their eyes when they come to some of these words, but here it is, these things which have been hidden) from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints."
This is from the pen of the Apostle Paul. He said in Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4, “the fulness of time” and then here in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 10 he says, “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ” and we'll look at it in more depth when we get there. But allow me to say this, that those who have become receptive of Christ's Spiritual essence now operate in what can be called the spiritual realm wherein is found the darkness of nights faith. In other words we do not operate by our five senses but by Faith's unsensingness (if this is a word) or feelings of mans flesh. As these are but the tools through which Satan influences both the newly redeemed and the unredeemed alike. And this can be called the lower life of man because of the Satanic influence through mans limited knowledge, imaginations, feelings and emotions. Oh! goodness go on up into chapter 2.
Colossians 2:2-3
"That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, (listen this isn't Greek, this is all so plain if we'll just read and study it) to the acknowledgment of the mystery (the deeper secrets) of God, and of the Father, and of Christ: In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
Because He's God! But what are we reading? He has now seen fit by His Grace (the law of Christ, if you will) to release these things that had been kept secret (not understood by mans intellect, knowledge or our five senses), and is now sharing them with us through the Apostle Paul because they are spiritually discerned or received. God has never revealed these Truths before to mans inward parts or our heart. Now just for a moment let's go to II Corinthians chapter 11. We studied these verses, but they've blessed our hearts so that we've been using them over and over. You see this is what we've got to get people to understand. Oh! they only want to go by what Jesus said. Well that's all right up to a point, but Jesus didn't reveal these mysteries in His earthly ministries. Because He was limited by restraint of the Holy Spirit and the command of the Father. For He said that He only spoke as the Father said or gave command. Some say, "Oh I'm going by what Peter says", but Peter didn't have the mysteries. But look at what Paul says in verse 5
II Corinthians 11:5
"For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles."
He's not a step behind Peter in authority, in fact he's ahead of Peter. Then he repeats it again in verses 22 and 23, and he's referring to the Twelve in Jerusalem.
II Corinthians 11:22-23
"Are they Hebrews? so am I, Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft."
Just what is he making reference to? The inward revelation heard from God through the ontological essence of Christ's Spirit within him. Through whom God is now speaking to those who have become His again, "IN Christ". Then come into chapter 12, and drop down to verse 11. And again Paul is defending his apostleship here. He is trying to show the authority he has as the Apostle to the Gentiles. The stewardship which was given him not by mans standards but by God's, for mans standards pale in comparison to God's.
II Corinthians 12:11
"I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: (what did he mean by that? Well they were putting him down. They were constantly saying, `Now wait a minute Paul, you're all right, but after all Peter had more authority. Peter is the big wheel in Jerusalem.' And others used Apollos as their example, but look what Paul says) for I ought to have been commended of you; (Paul was the one that brought them out of pagan darkness, not Peter, not Apollos) for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, (but in his humility he says) though I be nothing.”
When we've become receptive of divine revelation we do not hold of it tightly like a nonspiritual person would, instead we allow it to sit on a shelf as it were until such time as God by His divine providence proves His own revelation through Christ's ontological essence within us. In some cases this may take years before He does so. But through all those years and revelations of Himself we gain more Love and Trust in His faithfulness and Grace's activities, as we remain in Christ. Paul has now become uppermost in authority and this not of his will but God's Will. The Twelve are now behind him. They are still beating a dead horse, so to speak, because God has turned from Israel (because they broke His Law's and Covenant's and then on top of all that denied Christ because they did not understand the spirit of the Law or the Prophets), as they had turned from Him and they were the apostles for Israel. (Galatians 2:9) God had set Israel aside and now turned to the whole human race, and this was all part and parcel of the revelation of the mysteries which had been hidden in God, but now have been revealed to this man. And I'm sure just like the Church today, Paul was up against himself when he said, "All in Asia have turned against me." For this is our exact situation in which we find ourselves even today because that which is known or called church has turned its back on God's Gospel which is Paul's message of Grace which works through Love in the darkness of Faith's receptivity.
For he has admonished us to walk by faith, this is to say by trusting Him and not by sight or by mans feebleness of the five senses all of which as we all know are of our flesh. We're not to seek for signs, wonders or miracles as many of the babes and those of Israel still do, because they've not learned to do without milk of the paps. God wants us to learn to walk by trusting Faith alone. Because it works through Love and Grace or what can be called the higher realm "in spirit" which leaves behind the milk of the breast and awaits the light of revelation which builds Love and faith's receptiveness within our new man, wherein is the ontological essence of Christ restored or rehabilitated. For if man receive of the divine light of God's revelation as many have unknowingly and then built houses on sand and even sand castles which will not stand in or of themselves. When the true Body of Christ is removed from this earth in order to facilitate the judgment or wrath which is to come upon all disobedience and lawlessness of man. And like the first dating long before Jesus' appearance when God judged Israel's lawlessness, the first time and then after His ascension when both the Temple and Jerusalem were judged in 66-70 AD. God will again judge Palestine as the house of God and from there spread out to include all those of the world because of unbelief in His Son.
Now we'll look at what Peter himself says about Paul and his letters, turn to 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 13:
2Peter 3:14-18
“Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, (as said above Peter and the others did not have revealed to them the secrets as Paul did) which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, (even Peter is ostracizing the Judaizers of his day) as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction (study also Titus). Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the (he is labeling the Judaizers for what they are) wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen
Now we're going to take a bold stand here and say that those who profess to be "Christians" and deem it necessary to follow the ways of Hebrewism or Judaism are the equivalent of the Judaizers of Peter's and Paul's day. In fact the church as we know it and as a whole falls into this category as well. For it is on the same course as Israel was and is to this very day. For the reasons stated above.
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