"A light to lighten the Gentiles" was part of old Simeon's announcement in the sacred enclosure of the temple (Luke 2:32). He held for a moment the Babe in his arms, of whom the prophets had spoken. He saw God's salvation and was satisfied. Years, however, had to pass ere his prophetic words received a fuller accomplishment.
The Child grew, increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. He commenced His ministry on earth, called people around Him, ate with sinners, sent forth laborers to preach, but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The line which divided between them and the Gentiles, they were charged on no account to overstep: "Go not into the way of the Gentiles" was His peremptory command (Matt. 10:5), for to the lost sheep of the house of Israel was He sent (Matt. 15:24). How fully the Syrophenician woman felt the dispensational barrier that existed between her, of the race of Canaan, and the former conquerors of the land, the children of Israel. The centurion, too, though probably one of the conquering race of his day, and holding office in the Roman army which garrisoned the country, acknowledged that privileges in which he did not share belonged by birth to the people of Israel. So he sent the elders of the synagogue to ask the Lord to heal his servant who was sick (Luke 7:2, 3). Before the cross, no mission was sent to the Gentiles.
On the day of the Lord's resurrection, however, He announced to His disciples that Gentiles were not to be excluded from the blessings they were commissioned to proclaim. The day of Pentecost came, Jews and proselytes heard the word, and three thousand were converted and sealed; but as yet no Gentile was evangelized, though God that day announced by Peter, in words perhaps not then understood, His determination to bless Gentiles equally with souls of the house of Israel. "The promise," said Peter, "is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Acts 2:39. But this divine purpose was still awaiting fulfillment.
The time for its accomplishment now drew near. Peter, who had made the announcement and had quoted Joel's prophecy, which was in harmony with it, the keys of the kingdom having been committed to him by the Lord (Matt. 16:19), used them to open the door to the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius. But as yet the Apostle of the Gentiles was unknown to the apostles. The hour having come, however, for Gentiles to be saved and to be made one with those who had been Jews, the servant especially intended to evangelize them was brought into light by the conversion of Saul, one hitherto most zealous for the law, and the determined opponent of the Lord Jesus and His disciples. He now became a most marked example of grace, and was a chosen vessel to bear Christ's name before Gentiles, kings, and the sons of Israel (Acts 9:15). Paul, separated for that work from the womb (Gal. 1:15, 16), was made acquainted by Christ Himself, while still on the ground near Damascus, with the special service to which he was appointed (Acts 26:16, 17). Still the hour was not yet come for him to go forth on that mission. Later on, in the temple at Jerusalem, while in a trance, he received his instructions to depart unto the Gentiles (Acts 22:21). Henceforth he was to be known as their apostle (Rom. 11:13).
What a mission was this! Gentiles, as such, formed the special sphere of his work, a sphere bounded only by the confines of the habitable earth in its truest and widest sense. The Romans viewed their empire as conterminous with the habitable earth (Luke 2:1). The limits of Paul's field of labors reached far beyond that. Wherever any of the human race were found, who were not of the seed of Jacob, there were some of those to whom Paul was commissioned to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. What a field, and what a message! Grace was thus displayed in a double way. Paul was a most wonderful example of grace. The persecutor of the Church, most zealous for the law, became the most ardent champion of grace, and the conserver of the liberty of those who had once been Gentiles (Gal. 5:1). To the Jews, the eleven could go, and Paul as well. His special work, however, was among Gentiles, who were no longer hidden in darkness as outside the circle of dispensed divine favor.
Those once far off shared in it equally with those who were nigh (Eph. 2:13).
But Paul had another line of service entrusted to him, and the field for that was only bounded by the number of the true saints of God on earth. It was given to him "to enlighten all with the knowledge of what is the administration of the mystery hidden throughout the ages in God, who has created all things." Eph. 3:9; J.N.D. Trans. For evangelistic purposes the Gentiles were Paul's field of labor; for teaching the dispensation of the mystery, he was to have all saints as his audience. Paul was a minister of the gospel and a minister of the Church (Col. 1:23-25). Wherever a Gentile was found, there was one to whom Paul could preach the unsearchable riches of the Christ. Wherever a saint was met with, there was one whom he was to enlighten as to the dispensation of the mystery, till then hid in God who created all things.
Gentiles heard the glad tidings and rejoiced (Acts 13:48). Saints too must have received with interest the unfolding of the dispensation of the mystery. Has every Christian who reads these lines entered into something of what this second ministry of Paul's really was? There was a mystery, now revealed, which concerned equally all the saints of God. Are all willing to hear about it, and to be instructed in it? But are only human beings interested in it? It is true, they alone share in the blessings connected with it. There is, however, another order of beings who feel an interest in the unfolding of it; namely, the angelic powers in the heavenlies, who learn by the Church the manifold wisdom of God.
What scenes have they witnessed! They saw earth emerge out of chaos at the fiat of the Almighty, and prepared by Him for the introduction into this scene of an entirely new creature—man—who was created on the sixth day (Gen. 1:27). They attended God at the giving of the law (Acts 7:53). The heavenly group praised God at the birth of the Lord Jesus. They ministered to Him in the wilderness; one of them strengthened Him in the garden. He was seen of angels while in life; His tomb was watched by them after His resurrection. He whom they worshiped and obeyed as God, they saw in human form as a man, and witnessed His death on the cross. The creation of man, the incarnation of the Son of God, His life of dependence on God, His death of shame and suffering, with all this they were familiar. But now a new thing was disclosed to them by the Church. He as man was Head in heaven of a body which was on earth, united to Him in the closest way. Of this wonderful truth the angels learned from the Church of God. He had ascended up to heaven, angels, authorities and powers being made subject to Him. And those very angelic powers learned that as man He was not complete without His body, He in heaven its Head, and the saints on earth. His body.
What a ministry then was that entrusted to Paul, concerning as it did all Gentiles, all saints, and all angels. To no one else was such grace given. How fully Paul felt the grace of it! How far has each true Christian understood and entered into the subjects of it?