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Scripture Reading: Acts 9:1-15; 26:13-19; Gal. 1:11-17; 2:20; 3:27; 4:19; Col. 1:24-29
Without Paul’s completing ministry, there is no way for Christ’s heavenly ministry to be carried out. Of course, without Christ’s heavenly ministry, Paul’s ministry would have no ground. These two ministries work together — the one in the heavens and the other within us. Paul’s ministry reflected what Christ was ministering in the heavens.
Christ’s heavenly ministry began in Acts 2. Between chapters 2 and 9 Christ’s ministry was proceeding, but Paul’s had not yet begun. Something was missing. Yes, Peter was ministering, but if we compare his ministry with Paul’s, we will sense a lack. In Acts 9 the story of Paul’s momentous conversion is recorded, a conversion that was brought about not by any human being but by the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus from the heavens.
In Hebrews 3:1 Paul calls the Hebrews to whom he was writing “partakers of a heavenly calling.” The word heavenly shows that Paul’s calling was specific. Those Hebrews were companions in receiving the heavenly calling.
This was not a calling on earth. Consider, in contrast to Paul, how Peter was called. Peter was at the Sea of Galilee, fishing with his brother, when a man from Nazareth came by and called them. “Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men,” the Lord Jesus told them (Matt. 4:18-19). How much I loved this story when I was young! I longed also to be a fisher of men. How much better to be a fisher of men rather than a fisher of fish!
After we consider Paul’s calling, however, we will see that there is no comparison between the two. Peter’s calling was marvelous, but it was simple and from this earth. Peter was called by the Lord Jesus in His incarnation. That call is easy to understand. Paul’s calling, on the other hand, is beyond our comprehension. The call to Saul of Tarsus came from the heavens, not from the Jesus on this earth but from the ascended, glorified One in the heavens.
Saul of Tarsus had a strong character. He was happily nearing the end of his journey from Jerusalem to Damascus, eager to arrive and fulfill his task of arresting all those who believed in Jesus. It was midday as he approached Damascus. Suddenly “a great light flashed out of heaven around” him (Acts 22:6). He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (v. 7). He must have thought, “What do You mean? I have been persecuting Peter, and John, and Stephen. But all those whom I have persecuted were on the earth. I have never harmed anyone in the heavens. Who can this be, saying that I am persecuting Him?”
So he asked. Calling this unseen One Lord, he said, “Who are You, Lord?” (v. 8). The answer came, “I am Jesus.” Saul must have been filled with consternation. Jesus was crucified and buried. How could He be speaking from the heavens? How could He be alive?
Such was the calling of Paul. All mysterious!
Paul’s completing ministry is to tell us that God is through with religion. Religion is an enemy to God’s economy. Have you ever heard the gospel preached with this as its message? You have no doubt heard that God condemns you because of your sinfulness and worldliness. Have you ever been told that you must get out of religion and that religion is God’s enemy? What you have heard as the gospel is not the completing ministry. The gospel pertains not merely to sin and the world. What God wants is not religion. He wants His Son revealed in you (Gal. 1:16). This is the completing ministry. At the time of Saul’s calling he was not gambling or cheating others. He was an upright, honest man. He could say of himself, “As to the righteousness which is in the law, become blameless” (Phil. 3:6).
But Saul was altogether in religion. He needed to be rescued. He needed revelation. Why did the Lord Jesus come to preach the gospel directly to Saul? Peter, James, and John all knew how to preach the gospel. Their preaching, however, was to sinners. They would not have known how to preach the gospel to such a zealous religionist as Saul. What was the gospel message Saul heard from the Lord Jesus? A light from heaven first made him fall to the ground. Then a voice asked, “Why are you persecuting Me?” When Saul replied, “Who are You, Lord?” the voice answered, “I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you persecute.”
Could Peter have preached such a gospel? No. Only Christ Himself could. In his own sight Saul of Tarsus was not sinful or against God; he was zealous for God and righteous according to the law. Yet actually he was against God and His economy. God’s economy is that we forsake the law and religion and have His Son revealed in us. At the time when Saul was called, however, Peter did not clearly realize this. John and James did not know this in a full way either. Thus, the Lord Jesus Himself had to touch Saul directly.
Why was the Lord after Saul? The Lord needed an apostle to complete His revelation. There may be many preachings, but they do not adequately complete God’s revelation. The purpose of Paul’s calling was to get the one person who could complete that revelation (Col. 1:25).
Without Paul’s ministry, what would we lack? We would have the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and at least the four Gospels in the New Testament. What would we be missing?
First, we would not realize that Christ is in us and that He must live in us and be our life and life supply. In the other forty-three books this point is not clearly stressed. Of course, John’s Gospel mentions that we must abide in Him and He in us (15:4) and that because He lives, we also shall live (14:19). Without Paul’s writings, however, these words would not be easy to understand. It is Paul who tells us that Christ must live in us, must live in our spirit, and must be in us as the life-giving Spirit. He is our life, even our life supply, and is Himself to be formed in us.
Second, Paul’s writings reveal Christ as the all-inclusive One. No other books of the Bible reveal Christ as the embodiment of God, as the Firstborn of all creation, as the Firstborn from among the dead, and as the reality of all positive things.
Third, only in Paul’s writings do we find Christ as the Head and the church as the Body. This thought was not there before Paul’s ministry. It is his Epistles that develop this truth.
These three points are the completion of God’s revelation. Because of Paul’s writings, we know that Christ in us is the hope of glory, that Christ is the all-inclusive One, and that the church is the Body with Christ as the Head.
I hope that now we can all see how significant Paul’s calling is. Peter was called to be a fisher of men, but Paul was called to complete the revelation of God. There is no comparison. The Catholic Church may exalt Peter, but he was after all only a fisherman. I am more appreciative of Paul.
Our calling is like his. We were not called by the earthly Jesus during His incarnation. Our calling came from the ascended, exalted Jesus, not from the Sea of Galilee but from the heavens.
It is a principle that the one who is born later is greater. You recall the Lord’s words concerning John the Baptist: “Truly I say to you, Among those born of women there has not arisen one greater than John the Baptist, yet he who is least in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he” (Matt. 11:11). Though John was greater than all the prophets of the past, he was inferior to a little one in the kingdom of the heavens. Do you consider yourself greater than Adam and Abraham and Moses? You are greater than all of them because you came later. The later, the greater. The earlier ones are in the initial stage, but now you are in the completing stage.
From Adam to Abraham there were two thousand years. From Abraham to Christ were another two thousand years. Now from Christ to us there are another two thousand years. Surely we agree that the first and second set of two thousand years were not all that great. Even in the third two thousand years those born at the beginning were not as blessed as we who were born at the end. Why are we the most blessed? It is because we stand upon the shoulders of all those who have gone before. Noah stood upon the shoulders of Adam. Abraham was upon the shoulders of Noah. Moses was upon Abraham. Then the New Testament saints are upon the shoulders of those from the Old Testament. Today we stand upon the shoulders of Peter, Paul, and Martin Luther. To tell the truth, I wish I had come along later. Then I could stand upon your shoulders; as it is, you are upon mine.
You are in the time of the completing of the Lord’s economy. The Lord’s recovery today is completing His economy. Before you came into the recovery, I doubt that you saw much of these three matters: Christ in you as the hope of glory, Christ as the all-inclusive One, and the church as the Body with Christ as the Head. I have been in the recovery for over fifty years. My time is nearing the end. There is still something that needs completing. This will fall upon your shoulders. You will continue this completing ministry, which consists primarily of these three items that we have mentioned.
Paul said that it pleased God to reveal His Son in him (Gal. 1:15-16). At the time of his conversion, God was happy to reveal Christ in Paul. In our gospel preaching we must tell people not merely that they are sinners in need of Jesus and that they must repent before God. They also need to know that Jesus must come into them as their life. They need Him to live in them. Without this in our gospel preaching, it is incomplete.
Saul of Tarsus, as we have said, was not a sinful person. He was not an idol worshipper. But though he was blameless and zealous for God, he did not have Christ in him. At the time of his conversion, God specifically revealed His Son in him. From then on, Paul was different. He realized that what mattered was not the law or the worship of God or good works. Rather, he must have Christ as a living person in him.
The second of the Triune God must enter into our being. Another person, a divine person, must come into us, to be our life and our life supply; to be formed in us; to be one with us, even to become us; and to make us one with Him, even to become Him.
Sometimes Christians ask new ones, “Are you saved? Have you been regenerated? Have you received the Holy Ghost?” I heard such questions asked even fifty years ago. But never once did I hear the question, “Do you have the Son of God living in you?” It would be good to ask people this. The central point of the gospel is that the Son of God comes into you as your person. If your gospel preaching misses this, you have not preached in a full way.
How did the Lord Jesus indicate to Paul at his conversion that He was all-inclusive? When He called to him from the heavens, “Why are you persecuting Me?” He was implying that all those whom Saul had been persecuting were part of Him. Peter, James, and Stephen were included in Him. For Saul to persecute them was to persecute Jesus.
In Saul’s thinking, Jesus of Nazareth was a man on this earth who had been crucified and buried. To his astonishment this very One came to him from the heavens. Here is a further indication that Christ is all-inclusive. Not only are all His disciples included in Him, but He is also present everywhere. He is on the earth, but He is also in the heavens.
What a marvelous gospel message the Lord Jesus preached to Saul! The words were simple, the sentences short. But how much they implied! Saul realized that this One whom he had been resisting was all-inclusive. He was every one of His believers, and He was everywhere, both in heaven and on earth. Saul recognized that he could not escape from this all-inclusive, all-present One.
How did Saul learn at his conversion that the church is the Body of Christ? Again, the Lord’s words, “Why are you persecuting Me?” caused him to realize that the believers were one with Christ. Saul may have thought, “I have not been persecuting anyone in the heavens,” but the Lord was indicating to him that those whom he had been persecuting were members of His Body. Because they were one with Him, for Saul to touch them was to touch the Head. Suppose I beat someone on the arm. He will protest, “Why are you beating me?” If I reply, “I am not beating you. I am beating your arm,” he will no doubt say, “Look, if you beat my arm, you are beating me,” because the arm is a member of his body. Similarly, from the Lord’s words Saul could infer that all the believers were the members of Christ.
After Saul realized who was speaking to him, he raised a second question: “What shall I do, Lord?” (Acts 22:10). The Lord said unto him, “Rise up and enter into the city, and it will be told to you what you must do” (9:6). The Lord by this word was indicating that Saul could no longer be individualistic. He was to go into Damascus, where his next step would be shown him by an otherwise unknown believer named Ananias. Now that Saul had been brought into the Body, if he wanted to know the Lord’s will, he must go through a member of the Body rather than be told directly by the Head.
Do you see how marvelous Paul’s conversion was? Peter was merely told, “Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Paul’s case was not that simple. With his calling there are indications of Christ in me, Christ as the all-inclusive One, and Christ as the Head with the church as His Body. These became the very three things that he preached. Without Paul’s completing ministry of these three things, there would be no completion to God’s revelation. These three crucial points are the components of Paul’s ministry.
When we see how precious these are, we will thank the Lord for bringing us into the recovery. We will realize that it is here that there is the completing ministry. What Paul preached long ago is being recovered. Hallelujah for the completing ministry — Christ in me, the hope of glory! Christ the all-inclusive One! Christ the Head of the Body and the church, the Body of Christ!
