The revelation of God up to the point of Paul’s ministry included creation, the law, redemption, the person of Christ, the ways of God, and His government. There was but one thing lacking now, and that was the revelation of the mystery of the church, which, when given, completed or filled up the Word of God.
Some of the features of the doctrine of Paul are: Christ — the Son of David and heir of his throne — rejected by the Jews and by the world; crucified and slain; raised up again by the power of God and by the glory of the Father, seated in the heavens in the righteousness of God, having answered God’s righteous judgment against sin, death, judgment, wrath, the curse of a broken law, all borne and passed through to the glory of God; sin put away, sins borne; the “old man” judicially dealt with, and set aside forever; a man — the Second man — the last Adam — in heaven in divine righteousness. The Holy Spirit is personally on earth witnessing to the righteousness of God and to the justification of the believer according to its full display. Eternal life by and in the Spirit and its conscious possession is communicated to the believer by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit acts as the power of this life in the believer’s walk, guiding, directing, controlling and rebuking him. The believer in Jesus is sealed with the Spirit, his body is a temple for His indwelling, uniting him to Christ — a Man in glory — and thus the bond of union with one another and with Christ. His presence and baptism constitutes “one body,” composed of such, here in this world. God dwells among His saints here, as a habitation, in Spirit, not in flesh. The Holy Spirit is the power for the exercise of the gifts that Christ, when He rose and ascended up on high, received as man, and bestowed on men — members of His body. He is “dividing to every man severally as He will,” reproducing too, “Christ,” the “life of Jesus,” in the mortal bodies of the saints. The Holy Spirit is the power also of worship, communion, joy, love and prayer, teaching the saints to await the hope of righteousness by faith, even the glory itself. He is leading them to wait for Christ and producing the longing of “Come” in the Bride, while her Lord delays, for He is the One who is the object of her hope as the Bright and the Morning Star. Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit is transforming the saints into Christ’s image by unfolding in the liberty of grace the glories of Him in whose face shines all the glory of God!
After Epaphras saw Paul and learned the deep and paramount importance of that knowledge for which Paul was a minister, he was so fully convinced of the value and importance of their meaning that he himself likewise labored earnestly in prayer for them that they might “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”
May the Lord open the understanding of His beloved people, that in the midst of the confusion and corruption of such an evil day when men are saying, “What is truth?” and yet not caring for the reply, they may find that there are such principles in the Word of God as no amount of man’s failure can ever touch, and which can always be practiced by those who desire to walk with God and to keep the word of the patience of Jesus till He comes. May we all learn to walk together in unity and peace and love in the truth, for His name’s sake.
F. G. Patterson, adapted