What Is the Grace Doctrine? Part 2

By Mari

The Apostle Paul was not part of Jesus’s earthly ministry to Israel; in fact he relentlessly resisted the followers of Jesus Christ just as the rest of the leaders of Israel did in a great persecution of those who believed, the little flock (Luke 12:32).

After Paul was saved on the road to Damascus by the risen Christ Jesus and made the apostle of the uncircumcision (Gal.2:7), he then separated himself from the Lord’s earthly ministry to the circumcision. The Apostle Paul said he will know no man (Christ) after the flesh anymore:

2Co 5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

Jesus Christ was Israel’s Messiah. He was sent only to the house of Israel in His earthly ministry. (Mat 15:24)

There are reasons that Jesus was sent only to the house of Israel. Jesus’s message to Israel recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is not the gospel we follow today because we are not a continuation of Israel.  God is NOT done with Israel, though they have been cast away for a time, through our present dispensation of grace. (Rom 11:15a)

The Lord Jesus sent only to Israel, expected them to take the knowledge of Israel’s God to the whole world.  However we know they refused Jesus because they didn’t believe who He said He was: the Messiah, the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh. There were also spiritual truths that those unbelieving Jews missed because of their lack of faith in Jesus as the Christ.

The Jews wanted a Savior to save them from their enemies and usher in the Kingdom, to usher in the new covenant, pay for their sins in the future and somehow atone for the sins under the covenants. Jesus could/did/will do all of this and that was their message to Israel: Jesus is the Christ, the Mediator of the covenants, and Israel’s Savior before God and men.

For Peter and the 11, the cross was an historical reality, a fulfillment of prophecy, and a way to convict unbelieving Jews of their rejection of God in hopes to call them to repentance. (So Peter could (and did) preach the cross, but NOT the gospel of it, NOT the mystery of it, NOT the glory of it.)

The Apostle Paul, on the other hand, was given a new, heavenly message. While the 12 Apostles received their message from the Lord when He was here on earth before He died and resurrected, the Apostle Paul received his message from the risen Christ in heaven. Because his message was so different, Paul calls it “my gospel” (Romans 2:16), and this IS our gospel today. He tells us what it is in the following verses:

1Co 15:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all That which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

The Jews looked upon Paul’s message from the risen Christ with envy and spoke against the message and the messenger, contradicting him and blaspheming Christ!

Act 13:45 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. 

Paul became bold and turned away from unbelieving Israel because of their deliberate, scornful rejection of the cross and gospel of grace. He therefore turned to the Gentiles (Act 13:46).

The Apostle Paul’s message from the risen Christ to both Jew and Gentile is the CROSS. The gospel, the good news of the cross (the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins) had NEVER been preached prior to Paul.

The 12 Apostles had not understood the significance of the cross; that it was to pay the penalty for our sins, so how could they have preached that significance? They could not and did not.

We know they did not preach this by looking at what Peter DID preach at Pentecost. He was still preaching as John the Baptist had preached; water baptism for the remission of sins.  (Acts 2:38)

Do your own search to see if the cross was preached as good news at Pentecost. It is futile, but you should prove this true or not, for yourself.  Once you have done so, you won’t be easily persuaded to believe what is taught by many, that Paul’s gospel was the same as Peter’s gospel. Read early Acts and compare it to what Paul taught us Gentiles. It is good to study the word of God as directed by God, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2Ti 2:15).

Peter did NOT preach the cross as good news! He taught it as an accusation and SHAME to Israel as he BLAMED Israel for the death of Jesus Christ! He said:

“…the God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus; whom ye DELIVERED up, and DENIED Him in the presence of Pilate” (Acts 3:13). 

The Apostle Paul speaks of the cross as GOOD NEWS from God! Paul said:

“He that spared not His own Son, but DELIVERED Him up FOR US ALL, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32).

See the difference? Peter said to Israel of the cross, “You did it. You delivered the Lord, your Messiah to die”

Paul said, “God did it, He delivered the Lord to die, He did it FOR you.”

This was not the TWELVE Apostles’ message to the people of Israel. They were NOT proclaiming that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. THEIR message was that Jesus was the Son of God, THEIR message was to bring people into the kingdom, into belief in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to become a part of the Nation of God, Israel, and to worship God under the LAW as given by God through Moses.

The Apostle Paul was NOT ever one of the twelve apostles (Acts 1:26). He was raised up, a man born out of due time (1 Cor 15:8), by the risen Christ to take to the Gentiles the brand new message of the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24) through the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18-19).

The Apostle Paul taught the glory of what the cross accomplished for us, our heavenly destiny, our role and who we are in Christ!  A mystery made manifest that had been kept hid in God, kept secret since the world began; that when simply believed, we were instantly saved, made a new creature, a member of the body of Christ!

More to follow…

Answer: http://graceambassadors.com/downloads/tracts/HowFaithGrows_SingleFold_3.75×5.5.pdf