First the Question: The Apostle Paul did NOT work under the authority of the Apostle Peter with his keys. But contrariwise. Galatians 2:7. True or False?
Please take a moment to respond at the LLM Question of the Day
Today let us consider, THE GOSPEL OF JOHN....THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, pt. 11 of 12
THIS IS THE LORD’S DOING
In Acts 5:29-30 we learn that God raised up Christ in incarnation, the Seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16), the Seed of David, to be Israel’s Savior. (Acts 13:23). In 1 John 4:14 we read, “we do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.”
Did the Apostle John, in 1 John 4:14, intentionally contradict what the Apostle Peter said in Acts 5:30 or what the Apostle Paul said in Acts 13:23?
At the time the LORD Jesus declared that “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10), He said He saved the publican, “forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham.” (Luke 19:9). Most Christians do not believe that Christ meant what He said in Matthew 15:24, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Surely the risen LORD led the apostle Paul to confirm this truth in Romans 15:8 and Galatians 4:4, as well as in Acts 13:23 (which we have mentioned). In Romans 15:8 we read these words of the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul, “Jesus Christ was a Minister of the circumcision (the Jews) for the truth of God to confirm promises unto the fathers.” Now note the words of Galatians 4:4-5, “God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.” Who was under the law? Israel.
Perhaps, we should not say that the majority of Christians do not want to believe Matthew 15:24, but they prefer to believe John 3:16, “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” They find it very difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile Matthew 15:24 with John 3:16.
CHRIST RAISED UP IN RESURRECTION TO BE ISRAEL’S SAVIOUR
If Christians have difficulty in reconciling Matthew 15:24 with John 3:16, we are not surprised that they have more difficulty with the statement in Acts 5:31-32, that Christ was raised from the dead to be Israel’s Prince and Savior, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. The first mission and work of the Holy Spirit was to witness to this all important truth.
Let us note Christ’s words in Matthew 21:42, quoted from Psalm 118:19-24, “Jesus saith unto them, did ye never read in the Scriptures, the Stone Which the builders rejected, the Same is become the Head of the corner? This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” Surely when we read in 1 Peter 1:18-23 that we are redeemed by the precious blood of the LORD Jesus, Who was, by God, foreordained to be the spotless Lamb, we know that the rejection, the death, the resurrection and the ascension of the sinless Christ was the “LORD’s doing.” And surely all of this is marvelous in our eyes. Surely the day that Christ, the Creator of all things, cried on the cross “Finished,” is the day in which sinners should rejoice and acknowledge that it is the day which the LORD made.
HOWEVER, what made Paul break forth with Romans 11:33-34, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past-tracing-out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? and who hath been His counselor?” The apostle Paul uttered these words AFTER he quoted, in Romans 11:7-10, what is quoted in John 12:39-41, concerning the fulfillment of Isaiah 6:9-10; the truth that God blinded Israel.
In Matthew 21:42 we have recorded the words of the LORD Jesus, stating that ‘blinded’ Israel’s rejection of Jesus as their Messiah, in incarnation (in the flesh), was the LORD’s doing. What Paul said in Romans 11:33-34, was to let us know that blinded Israel’s rejection of Jesus their Messiah, in Resurrection, was likewise the LORD’s doing. (Ephesians 1:11).
Do we really believe that God is omnipotent and omniscient? Do we believe Ephesians 1:11, that God worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, and that members of the Body of Christ have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of God? We learned in 1 Peter 1:18-23 that the LORD Jesus, from BEFORE the foundation of the world, was foreordained to be the Lamb of God to shed His precious blood that BY THAT SHED BLOOD believing sinners should be redeemed.
Now let us note something else that God purposed in Christ from before the foundation of the world, His eternal purpose concerning the Church, Which is the Body of Christ, “according as He hath chosen us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children (sons) by Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will.” As we read this wonderful, profound truth in Ephesians 1:4-5, we should know that this was The Eternal Purpose of God which He Purposed in Christ Jesus our LORD (Ephesians 3:11).
We read in 2 Timothy 1:9-10, “God hath saved us and called us with a HOLY calling (Not an Earthly Calling or a Heavenly Calling), not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ Jesus BEFORE the world began. But is NOW made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, Who hath abolished death, and hath brought life an immortality (incorruptibility) to light through the Gospel.” (2 Timothy 1:9-10).
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” Acts 16:31, while there is still time!
So There You Have it!
Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide. The time is short
Grace be to you and peace, from God: our Father, and The LORD Jesus Christ.
In The LORD Jesus Christ,
The Lion and Lamb Ministry
Pastor David Picos, D.D.
Minister and Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
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