Romans 1:1-2

God saw fit to save Paul and commission him as the Apostle of the Gentiles. In Romans 11:13 we read, Paul speaking,

For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 

Although there were other apostles, so far as the writing of the Bible’s concerned, there’s only one apostle of the Gentiles, and that’s the Apostle Paul. His 13 letters, and his letters alone are written to and for the Church, the Body of Christ today!

By the way, we never hear of the terms the Body of Christ, salvation by faith alone, the integration of Jew and Gentile into one Body, or the terms IN Christ or Christ IN us outside Paul’s epistles. The four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Hebrews, the Jewish epistles and the book of Revelation, don’t speak of these things.

 

Paul addresses believers, those who’ve received God’s Grace by faith alone.

So, he begins this incredible Epistle written to Gentiles at the center of the Roman Empire.

 

The opening to this epistle to the Romans begins in verse 1 but it continues for the first 7 verses in one long sentence.

If we were to read just verses 1:7 as one sentence, without the parenthesis, or the bracketed section of the passage, it would read like this,

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

In this way we’d see Paul introducing himself, his role as an apostle, who he’s writing to and a nice greeting to those people.

However, this wasn’t the way Paul opens this letter.

He introduces a huge wealth of knowledge and wisdom in his introduction and countless sermons have been preached on just this one sentence that spans 7 verses of scripture.

Now the New King James version that we’re reading from here does break the passage into two sentences, but the King James and the older translations don’t.

We should also notice that the phrase “to be” that appears three times in this passage are in italics in your bible, meaning they were added by the translators and aren’t in the original text.

The Lord Jesus Christ was not declared to be Son of God, but He was declared Son of God. Paul was not called to be an apostle he was declared an apostle. Believers are not called to be Saints, but they’re called Saints.

We’ll read the whole sentence without the “to be” and then go back and break the sentence down.

 

Romans 1:1-7,

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ, to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

As we said, one seven verse sentence in the truer translations.

 

This is the longest greeting that Paul gives in any of his Epistles, but it follows the same pattern he gives in all of his Epistles. He gives his name, who the epistle’s from, Paul, then who he’s writing it to. Then he ends with grace to you and peace.

So, this is his salutation or greeting in The Book of Romans.

 

As we’ll see, Romans is a foundational book and it’s essential for doctrine for the church today. Even from chapter one he’s laying this foundation to establish the believers in Rome and, by extension, us today.

So now let’s jump into these opening verses and as we do we’ll define these foundations and that’ll be useful for us during our journey through this book.

 

Romans 1:1,

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God 

Immediately we have a wealth of information to digest.

We’ll break this opening verse down further.

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ,

Paul calls himself a bondservant of Jesus Christ.

The term “bondservant” can mean slave, servant, or bondman. It’s someone who’s fully devoted and bound to serve another. Paul’s use of the term here displays both humility and honor. Although he was a free Roman citizen, he chose to identify himself as a bondservant or slave of Christ, emphasising his total commitment and the privilege he felt in serving the Lord. He took the position of a bondservant willingly.

The Lord Jesus Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, but He never makes us His slaves. We must come voluntarily to Him and make ourselves His slave because He’ll never force us to serve Him.

Next in the verse we have,

called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God 

or without the “to be” which, as we mentioned before was added by the translators,

called an apostle, separated to the gospel of God

What a wealth of knowledge there is behind this simple phrase, and it’s knowledge we need in order to understand Paul, his letters and the times or the dispensation in which he lived.

 

Paul is a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God and we see here his heart motive, his authority and his mission.

He’s not trying to boast in himself, he’s serving the Lord. His authority, of course, is that the Lord Jesus Christ called him an apostle.

An apostle is one sent by the Lord.

Paul’s calling as an apostle is very different from the special calling of the other 12 Apostles so prominent in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and the early part of Acts.

Paul is not one of the original twelve apostles.

He’s called an apostle and given a gospel to preach, not by Peter, or any man. His gospel is not from those who’re already preaching another gospel in Jerusalem, the gospel of the kingdom, the prophesied kingdom on earth.

God gave Paul this message when He made him an apostle and appointed him his ministry.

His whole mission and purpose is that he’s been called an Apostle to preach and teach the gospel to the Gentiles, to you and me, and to the Jews who are now on the exact same level in God’s eyes as the Gentiles, as Romans 10:12 tells us,

For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

 

Also, in 2 Timothy 1:10-11 read,

but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. 

 

Paul was not always this servant, this preacher, apostle and teacher to the gentiles.

In Acts chapter 9 Christ appeared to him in a blinding light and appointed him a chosen Apostle.

This was after Christ’s death and Resurrection. Jesus has already left the earth, ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit down to earth on the day of Pentecost and the original 12 apostles have been preaching in the early part of Acts while Paul is still unsaved and known as Saul of Tarsus.

He wasn’t even a believer in Jesus at that time and in fact quite the opposite. He’s wreaking havoc on the church, entering into every house and rounding up men and women and committing them to prison.

He’s the enemy, the Antichrist in a sense, opposing Christ.

 

In Acts 9:5 when Christ does appear to him, he’s on his way to capture some more Christians. In Acts 9:3-6 we read,

As he (Saul) journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.

Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 

And he (Saul) said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” 

So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” 

 

Jesus Christ didn’t have to save Paul, he didn’t deserve it, but the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus who revealed himself to Paul and then explained to him the gospel of his death and resurrection and how he could be saved even though he didn’t deserve it.

He’d been going around arresting people who claimed to believe that Jesus was the Messiah and opposing Christ and he was fanatical about it. How could he be called an apostle?

Christ explains to him that he’s not being sent to preach the message of “do good and then I’ll bless you with a high position”. Instead, the message is trust Me and by My grace you can be saved. You don’t deserve it, and you didn’t earn it, but I’ll give it to you by grace.

1 Timothy 1:15-16,

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. 

However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.

 

Paul says that he’s a pattern by which the Lord’ll show His longsuffering, His patience to those who are going to believe on Him for eternal life.

 

So, we see there was a time when Paul was not a servant and then a time which he was.

In Acts 9:13 the Lord called a man named Ananias to go to Paul to tell him about this special apostleship and then Ananias answered the Lord back saying,

“Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. 

 

In Act 9:26 we read this,

And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple. 

 

Something very special happened to this man and we read about that in Acts chapter 9 and in most of his Epistles such as this in 1 Timothy 1:11 where he says,

according to the Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God which was committed to my trust.

 

Now we should look at a bit further at the difference between the apostleship of Paul and the original 12 who were appointed during Jesus’s earthly ministry, the ones that walked and talked with Jesus while He was in the flesh on earth.

Let’s flick back and look at Matthew chapter 10.

Here’s where we find the list of the chosen apostles out of Israel’s Disciples of Jesus.

In Matthew 10:2 we read,

Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.

You see, we don’t find Paul amongst them. Paul was not one of the 12 apostles.

 

Judas Iscariot, who went out and committed suicide after he betrayed Jesus, leaving only 11 apostles, which could not have continued because of the great weight of prophecy relating to there being 12 apostles.

In Acts 1:24-26 we read this about the appointment of Judas’s replacement,

And they prayed and said, “You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.”

And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

See they didn’t just cast lots; they prayed and asked God to show them who the replacement would be which God did.

That replacement had to have been with them all since Matthew 10 and he had to have walked and talked with Jesus as the other eleven did.

 

Paul wasn’t there in Matthew 10.

He wasn’t even saved back there in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John when these apostles were called to be Apostles of Jesus Christ.

So, obviously, when Paul says he’s called to be an apostle by Jesus Christ it wasn’t here.

He didn’t get saved until after the resurrection and ascension of Christ.

Paul’s call to be an apostle was not to be among the twelve Apostles of Israel.

In fact, Paul himself testifies that in First Corinthians 15. He lists the witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus, and he says Jesus was first seen by Cephas (Peter) and then of all the twelve. That’s Paul saying he’s not one of those twelve because he says, last of all he was seen of me. After being seen by the twelve you see.

He certainly doesn’t think he’s one of the twelve.

 

Many bible scholars, teachers and preachers think that Paul replaced Judas.

They’ll say Paul wrote 13 Epistles in the Bible but where’s the book by Matthias? We don’t have one so the twelfth apostle must be Paul.

It’s a bit of a lame argument because where are the books from Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Lebbaeus and Simon the Canaanite who were absolutely part of the 12?

 

Pauls a different Apostle with a different apostleship.

He was separated to a gospel that was hidden to the twelve original apostles, a gospel that had remained a mystery since the foundation of the world until revealed to Paul.

We’ll find out much more about this mystery as we go on.

It’s this gospel that Christ himself revealed to Paul that saves us today.

In fact, when we read the whole Word, we soon become aware that the language and the conditions for salvation are so different in Pauls epistles from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Jewish epistles and Revelation that it’s really very difficult not to see that there’s been some sort of massive change.

 

As we read before in Acts 9:15, Jesus says Paul’s a chosen vessel to make him (Christ) known and to preach Him (Christ) to the children of Israel, to the Gentiles and to Kings.

Paul’s separated to preach to preach the gospel, but a dispensation of the Gospel that was committed only to him, and we’ll soon see how that differs from the gospel preached by the other twelve apostles in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and the early part of Acts.

 

So, what is this thing called “The Gospel”? Why is it so foundational to everything Paul writes? Nothing’s more foundational to Christianity than the gospel.

As we’ll soon see in Romans 1:16, it, the Gospel,

is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

And, we find this in 2 Corinthians 4:3,

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:

See, if that gospel is hidden to us then, according to Paul we’re lost. It’s only through the power of the gospel that a man can be saved, so it’s really important we know exactly what this gospel is that Pauls called to preach.

 

Why is it that a number of Gospels are spoken of through the bible and they’re quite obviously not the same. We’re going to define exactly what Paul is talking about when he mentions “The Gospel”.

 

The word gospel simply means “good news”, or “glad or good tidings” nothing more.

Now think of this. Somebody asks you, “Have you heard the good news?” What would you say to them? Wouldn’t you say, “What good news?” Of course, you would!

We all instinctively know that all good news is not the same and yet this obvious fact is chucked out by most people who read the phrase “the gospel” in the bible.

We’ve been taught, falsely, that “the gospel is the gospel” and “there’s only one gospel,” but this is simply not true of the Bible.

Now, we must always, like a cracked record, go back to 2 Timothy 3:16,

All, Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,

All Scripture!

Only when we look at the whole counsel of God can we appreciate the differences in the varied types of “good news” that the bible gives us.

 

God’s not given only one gospel, one item of good news, down through the ages of history. He’s given many. He’s defined the word “gospel” by giving each piece of good news, each gospel, titles, or labels, just as the herbs and spices in your spice rack at home.

Not all spices are the same although they’re all spices. We need a label on each one to tell us what type of spice it is.

Likewise, in the bible we have the “gospel of the kingdom”, the “gospel of the grace of God” the “gospel of the circumcision” and the “gospel of the uncircumcision” and they’re not the same.

When we see the phrase “the gospel” in the bible without any title, we should immediately ask: “Which gospel?” and the context will give us the answer.

Here’s an example.

In Luke 9:6 we read this,

So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

But if we’re looking at the whole counsel of God we’ll see how Verse 2 of Luke 9, the same chapter, explains how the Lord had sent them “to preach the kingdom of God”. Not the cross, but the kingdom, since He, the King, was in their midst.

The good news, the gospel they were preaching was the good news that the kingdom of heaven was at hand and about be set up on earth.

These disciples couldn’t have been preaching the same gospel as Paul did later, “the preaching of the cross,” because it would be at least two more years before the Lord began to tell them how He must suffer and die.

We see that in Matthew 16:21, quote,

From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.

This is the first the disciple had heard of this dramatic news.

In the next verse, Matthew 16:22 we see that Peter, quote, “began to rebuke Him” to the point where Jesus tells Peter this in Matthew 16:23,

But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

 

Also, none of the twelve even understood what Jesus was talking about and we see that in Luke 18:33-34 and we read and it’s Jesus speaking,

They will scourge Him (Jesus Himself) and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”

But they (the twelve disciples) understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.

 

You see “the gospel of the kingdom”, the good news of the final coming of this long prophesied glorious kingdom on earth, had been committed to the twelve while Christ was on earth in the flesh. The good news, “the preaching of the cross” and “the gospel of the grace of God” was later committed to the Apostle Paul and to us.

1 Corinthians 1:18, Paul speaking,

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Acts 20:24, Paul again,

But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

 

Today we don’t proclaim the kingdom rights of Christ and the promises and covenants to Israel. Today, in this dispensation of grace in which we find ourselves we proclaim Ephesians 1:7,

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

 

Now let’s move to Romans 1:2 and we’re making progress.

 

Romans 1:2,

which He (God) promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, 

From these verses we see that the gospel Paul’s preaching has to do with God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, Who was promised through the prophets and the scriptures.

Salvation by grace alone was also prophesied for centuries but the difference with those prophesies and Paul’s revelation of the gospel was that the prophets, although they searched diligently, never knew how salvation by grace could be a reality or when it would happen. You see the big question was how can a holy and totally righteous God save a sinner?

We can read this in 1st Peter 1:10-2,

Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.

You see this gospel that Paul’s charged with was a mystery that was only revealed through Paul.

Look ahead a bit to Romans 16:25-26,

Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith—

We should also look at Ephesians 3:1-7, a vital verse in understanding that what Paul was given to preach was a mystery to all before him, including the twelve apostles. Here again we see Paul’s style of cramming massive amounts of wisdom and knowledge into single sentences,

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.

 

Paul’s mission was to preach the gospel of salvation, but a dispensation of the Gospel that was committed only to him, and we’ll see how that differs from the gospel preached by the other 12 apostles in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

In fact, when we read the whole Word, we soon become aware that the language and the conditions for salvation are so different in Pauls epistles from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Jewish epistles and Revelation that it’s really very difficult not to see that there’s been some sort of massive change.

So, what was this massive changed that occurred with Paul?

 

The answer to that question is the golden key that unlocks the Scriptures.

To get to that answer we must set aside a great deal of church tradition, and we must be obedient to what Paul wrote in his later epistle 2 Timothy 2:15 and I quote,

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Rightly dividing the word of God!

This doesn’t come by using “snatch and grab’ methods of reading the Bible where verses are taken in isolation and sermons built around them.

We need to see the whole Word and understand that God has revealed His plan to mankind progressively, over time, and what was revealed to Noah, or Moses, or the 12 apostles during Jesus earthly ministry was not always given to us, the Body of Christ today, for our obedience or our marching orders, so to speak.

Today, we’re incredibly blessed to have the entire revealed Word of God in the form of the Bible, but those other parties did not. Because of this there’s no excuse for any of us to be ignorant of God’s purpose and plan. It’s been fully revealed to us, and nothing is hidden or kept secret as it was in previous ages. Even Jesus’s own twelve apostles had no clue that in their own lifetimes a change in God’s timeline, a new dispensation, would come into existence.

 

So, to begin to see what changed with the salvation and the apostleship of Paul we need to be aware that our Lord Himself came to this earth in human flesh under the law of Moses.

He came amidst the covenants that God had made with Israel and He taught His disciples complete subjection to that law.

Galatians 4:4 tells us,

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

Now we should keep in mind that everything in the Bible from Genesis 12 all the way up until Paul’s Epistles and then after Paul’s epistles, were directed primarily to the Jews, the nation of Israel. They were God’s called out, separated people, marked for a special purpose and to who God gave great and precious promises.

A promise is a one-sided affair where God tells the people He will perform something and it’s not conditional on anything they do.

Then God gave them, through Moses, the law, which was to show them God’s righteousness and how far away they were from that standard. He made covenants with His people, which, unlike promises, required them to be obedient to the terms of those covenants.

If they were obedient, they were blessed if they were not obedient they would suffer.

We today don’t understand covenants in quite the same way but they’re similar to our contracts today, a binding agreement between two parties.

Under these promises and covenants Israel would experience great blessings when they were obedient to their part.

They’d live in peace and prosper greatly, and they would be a nation of priests to who the entire world would come to learn of God and salvation. All they needed to do was believe God and His Word and be obedient to their side of these covenants.

We see all this in the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

Furthermore, they lived under a timeline to these blessings that was given to them by God, through the prophets over hundreds of years.

But, the nation simply couldn’t keep their side of the covenant, the law.

Now God had a problem!

He must keep His promises to Abraham, Issac and Jacob, and by the way to King David, but Israel’s disobedience prevented those promises becoming a reality.

Of course, it was a problem that God fully knew before time began and He knew how to fix it.

 

In Ezekiel:37 we see the Lord promising, through the prophet, to fix this situation of Israel’s inability to keep His law.

Then in Jeremiah 31:31, God speaks, again through the prophet, and gives the solution.

Let’s read this vitally important prophecy that’s repeated in Hebrews 8:8-13,

“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

No more shall every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

 

God would amend the Old covenant, not do away with it, but modify it so it became a new covenant.

This new covenant is the one that Jesus ratified in His blood when He said in Matthew 26 verse 28,

For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Under this new covenant God would put His laws into the hearts and minds of Israel and so their most basic desire, their heart motivation was keeping the law.

In an amazing display of wisdom and power God ensured that His law would be obeyed, ensuring that the great and precious promises to the nation would come to pass. Israel would never be disobedient again.

 

This brief account of the promises and covenants to Israel should let us understand that this is the environment into which our Lord Jesus Christ came into when He took on human flesh in that manger in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago as we saw before in Galatians 4:4,

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

 

In Mattew 28:19-20, in what’s popularly called The Great Commission, we see that the twelve apostles taught their hearers subjection to Moses’ law and they set the example themselves in absolute obedience to the Lord’s commands, and we quote,

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

 

Then, in Matthew 23:1-3 we read,

Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.

Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.

In other words, follow the law as given by the scribes and Pharisees.

In the early chapters of the Book of Acts they practically lived in the temple.

In Acts 2:46 for example, we find them “continuing daily with one accord in the temple.”

In Acts 3 verse 1 Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.

Acts 3:8-11 we see the lame man healed by Peter and John entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God.

Acts 5:20,21,25,42 we see the apostles constantly and daily in the temple teaching.

In Acts 22:12 we see that Ananias, the person who baptized Paul, was “a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there”.

 

Then, at the great council at Jerusalem, which we see in Acts chapter 15, it was agreed only that the Gentile believers were not to be subjected to the law of Moses. The situation relating to Jews wasn’t even discussed. They had, until that time, remained under the law, and they assumed they were to continue that way.

God had not, up until then, given the twelve apostles any revelation that released believing Jews from the law.

In verses such as Acts 15:1,19,21 and Galatians 2:3,7,9 the law and circumcision were being demanded of believers.

Then, in Acts 21:20-25, we see that although it had been quote “written and concluded” that the Gentiles should not be subjected to the law of Moses, the Jews which believed remained, quote, “zealous of the law.”

 

Until Paul we simply don’t hear anything like Romans 3:21,

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

Nor do we hear anything like Acts 13:38-39,

Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man (Jesus Christ) is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

 

As to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 and the other commands of Jesus, they obeyed these too.

They sold their goods and turned the proceeds over for the common good as Acts 2:44-45 tell us, and we read,

Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

We read the same in Acts chapter 4:32-37 that quote,

Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.

 

Even the apostles went out in obedience to what the Lord told them in Matthew 10 verses 9 and 10,

Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food.

Peter meant it when he said to the lame man at the temple gate: “Silver and gold have I NONE” in Acts 3:6.

 

You see all this was a foretaste of the wonderful kingdom of Christ, and the “times of refreshing” referred to in Acts 3:19,

Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

The world at this time lived under the expectation of the long-prophesied kingdom of God that would be set up on the earth, with Christ Himself ruling over it for a thousand years and with Israel restored to its land in peace and prosperity in the role God had intended for it all along.

The day of Pentecost was the first move toward this wonderful kingdom and that’s what Peter preached on that day in Acts chapter 2, saying that this was the fulfilment of the prophet Joel, and he was referring to Joel 2:28-32.

So, we see the apostles carrying out all the details of their commission recorded in Matthew 28:18-20, The Great Commission.

They didn’t choose what they wanted to obey and ignore the rest.

Of course, they didn’t get to all nations with this kingdom program, but this wasn’t due to any failure on their part.

It was because Israel, this greatest nation, separated unto God, stubbornly rejected the Messiah.

God had promised that a Messiah, a Christ, a Redeemer, Who would be God in human form and that this Christ would die for the sins of Israel and the entire world and would usher in this glorious kingdom on earth.

That Christ, Who was God, came 2000 years ago and took on human flesh from a human mother in Bethlehem of Judea. He was named Jesus according to God’s instructions, and Jesus means Saviour.

 

Over the 33 years of His human existence on earth Jesus proved beyond all doubt that He was indeed this long promised Jewish Messiah. This was proved by the incredible and perfect fulfillment of hundreds of ancient prophecies that spoke of His coming and by mighty signs and wonders that He performed that could not possibly be denied as coming from God Himself.

The greatest of all those signs was His resurrection from His death after 3 days, again according to scripture. This displayed beyond any possible doubt that Jesus was this Christ, the Messiah.

Israels failure was that in spite of this great weight of evidence and the obvious clear and precise prophetic timing in which the Messiah came, they would not believe, and instead violently rejected any suggestion that the Messiah had come, and they still do today.

 

It’s right here that this change in God’s timeline took place.

It’s because of this rejection that God would usher in a new dispensation that would interrupt, temporarily, the coming kingdom of God to the earth.

God finally, but temporarily, set aside Israel as a nation and interrupted the prophetic program that started with Abraham and was spoken of for hundreds of years by the prophets.

This interruption to prophecy and the setting aside the coming of the kingdom of heaven was the putting in place of the dispensation, the age that you and I are now living in known as the Age, or the Dispensation of Grace.

This incredible dispensation where salvation, eternal life, is offered on the basis of God’s grace through faith alone, plus nothing, is temporary.

Although it’s been the spiritual reality now for 2000 years it will end and it’ll end with the great catching away, the rapture of the Body of Christ from the earth as Paul explains in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 and we read,

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

After this event, the end of the age of grace, God’s great timeline will revert back and after a great tribulation and judgement by God on the earth, Israel will finally turn to Jesus Christ and will partake in the fulfilment of this great new covenant that began on the day of Pentecost but was interrupted, to begin again after this age of grace.

Then salvation will not be through free grace through faith alone. Sure, it’ll still ultimately by God’s grace. Mankind can never be saved without God’s grace, but it’ll again rely on the shed blood of Christ plus the works of the law, and we see this in the so-called Jewish epistles of Hebrews, James, 1st and 2nd Peter, 1st, 2nd and 3rd John, Jude and Revelation.

To announce, preach and teach this new dispensation of grace which was not spoken of by the prophets but was kept secret from the foundation of the world, God used His most bitter of all enemies Saul of Tarsus, who will become Paul the great apostle to the Body of Christ.

Until next time friends, may God bless you richly.