Litzman Paul, The Apostle of Grace

The Man to Whom Christ Gave the Final Gospel
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9969905-6-1
Verlag: Christ-life Publishing House
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten

More than a biography; Paul, Apostle of Grace is a Bible study workbook, including chapter review questions, focusing on Paul's gospel of grace given by Christ and God's ultimate plan from the beginning. Aside from Jesus of Nazareth, no person is more important to God's eternal plan than the Apostle Paul. God designated Paul as the apostle of Grace, finally revealing to the world the mystery He had kept hidden since Creation (Ephesians 3:9). This book shows Paul's invaluable mission given to him by Christ, our Lord. God needed someone resolute and bold, even brazen, yet a servant leader to bring in the new gospel after Christ's Cross provided salvation and spiritual change. Paul's life is a paradox: He was trained strictly in Jewish law yet called to preach Grace to both Jews and Gentiles, a zealous persecutor of Christians turned defender of the faith, even giving his life for it. His story is a study of transformation and God's unpredictable choices and mysterious ways to accomplish His plan. Christ chose Paul specifically to teach believers the Gospel of Grace, the message of 'Christ in you, the hope of glory' (Col. 1:27).

Autoren/Hrsg.

Litzman, Warren

Leseproben

CHAPTER 1

Paul and the Gentiles

Introduction

I believe many people don’t understand the significance of what took place in Acts 28 and its importance in God’s plan for the born-again believer.

And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers, Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: for the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. (Acts 28:25–27)

These verses are talking about the Jews who were in a meeting with Paul. When the Jews “agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word.” When they had disagreements, they got up and left. The terminology here does not mean he gave them one single word. It means that he gave them the Word. What was the Word that Paul gave to these Israelites? “Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias [Isaiah] the prophet unto our fathers.” Paul gave to these Jews the passage from Isaiah 6:9–10. Paul did not give it in his own words; he gave it as it came through the prophet Isaiah! Paul wanted Israel to know what was about to take place should not come as a surprise to them because of what Isaiah had to say in this regard 700 years earlier. Paul said, The one word I am giving to you comes from Isaiah, and this is what he said: “Go unto this people, and say, hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive.” He told them a time would come when Israel would see and hear but not understand, and a day was coming when they would not grasp anything God was doing.

What God Did for Israel

God sent His Son as a babe in Bethlehem to restore Israel. When Jesus began His ministry, He said to the apostles, “But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:6). The primary ministry of Jesus of Nazareth was to Israel. Everything Jesus said had to do with restoring Israel. On the Day of Pentecost and throughout the 36-year period of the book of Acts, Israel missed what Jesus came to earth to do for them. Jesus had come to earth working signs, wonders, and miracles in order to turn Israel to God; and they did not see it, nor did they hear it. Isaiah had said the day would come when God would not deal with Israel any longer. Look at what God had done for Israel. He had their King come to Bethlehem through a miracle to sit on David’s throne. He had their King die on Calvary for them. He sent the Holy Spirit to introduce them to Jesus, and they missed it all! Verse 27 of Acts 28 tells us why this had happened. “For the heart of this people [Israel] is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed.” They cannot see, hear, or feel the things of God any longer.

Verse 28 is the key to this entire passage. This verse starts with “be it known,” which is a legal statement. “Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.” So profound is this verse that two-thirds of the Bible is eclipsed by this statement. Everything written in the Bible from Genesis 12 to Acts 28 was overwhelmed, literally pushed aside, and will not be honored by God as far as salvation goes until Jesus comes back a second time to establish His earthly kingdom.

God’s Message to Israel

In Genesis 12, God called a man by the name of Abram (Abraham) out of Ur of the Chaldees and made a promise that his seed was going to number the sand of the seashore and the stars of the heavens. He said Abraham was going to be the father of a new nation. You must remember in the Scriptures there are only three races of people as far as God is concerned. There is the Gentile race, the Jewish race, and the new-creation race (2 Cor. 5:16–17; Gal. 3:26–29; 6:15; Col. 3:10–11), which are the born-again believers. There are only three races of people to God because there are only three predominant fathers in the Bible. The father of the Gentiles is Adam. The father of Israel is Abraham. The father of the born-again is our Heavenly Father.

It is important that you understand the fact that nationality, ethnicity, tribal affiliation, or any other group you want to identify with does not matter in God’s plan. Not even Jews and Gentiles ultimately matter in God’s plan because three times Paul said when you are born again, or are in Christ, you are no longer Jew or Gentile (Rom. 10:12; Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11). Neither the Gentile nor the Jewish race survives being born again! The plan of God is not that Jews or Gentiles should reign. The plan of God is that you must be born again! You must be of the race that God fathers.

God is saying in these verses that the day has come when everything He had said to Israel is being temporarily set aside. When God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees and said he was going to be the father of a new nation, God dealt with the one race of people birthed by Abraham, and that is exactly what He did for the next 1,700 years of biblical history. For these 1,700 years, there had been a message for Israel. That message was that if you repent and do what God tells you to do, you will rule over the land. Israel never did that.

The Gospel of Self-effort

What is it about repentance and water baptism that is different from grace? Repentance and water baptism are things you do! When Jesus died on the cross, and once the transition between law and grace was completed, He would never again accept repentance and water baptism as the means of salvation because those are things you do. After the Cross, salvation became a matter of simply believing on the finished work of Christ at Calvary. Acts 16:31 is the first time this change was introduced, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” A whole new gospel coming out of the book of Acts that did not belong to the Jews was emerging here. What the Jews called the gospel of Moses, and later was called by Paul the gospel of circumcision, was actually a gospel of self-effort. To this day, the Judaistic message centers on self-effort. Multitudes in Christianity have adopted that same gospel of self-effort, believing there is something they can do to be saved or to stay saved, to the ignorance of what Christ did for them and as them on the cross. Instead of Christ on the cross being their complete means of salvation, religion continues to add repentance and water baptism as conditions for salvation.

Different Ways God Has Worked with People

Before Genesis 12, we have the longest time period in the Bible. From Adam to Abraham covers more than 2,300 years. During that period of time, there were four dispensations. These dispensations are four different ways God dealt with humanity in the first 12 chapters of Genesis. Those four dispensations are the Dispensation of Innocence, the Dispensation of Conscience, the Dispensation of Human Government, and finally, the Dispensation of Promise.

All human beings up until Genesis 12 were of the seed of Adam. All of these people were Gentiles. Abraham, who came out of Ur of the Chaldees, was a Gentile. By Genesis 12, God showed that no group of people had it within themselves to obey Him. He could not leave it up to man’s free will to please Him. What God did through Abraham was to raise up an entirely new kingdom, a whole new nation called Israel that came out of Jacob. God proclaimed this nation would be the only people He would deal with. From Abraham to the Apostle Paul, Israel was the primary people God dealt with.

Four-fifths of the Bible deals with the people who have very little to do with Gentiles. They are another family, a different nation, and they have a different father. I make this point because all our lives we have been taught from the four-fifths of the Scriptures written to Israel mixed with the one-fifth that pertains to us, the born-again. On the one hand, this has made us believe that God is the one who accomplishes things, like He did for Israel, while on the other hand we believe if we don’t get busy and do things, then nothing will be accomplished. We become comminglers, mixing self-effort and grace, not knowing the difference between the two.

In Acts 28, God moved to a new family of people, the new-creation race (2 Cor. 5:17). When Paul stood before Israel and said the day had come where Israel is blind, deaf, and rejecting God’s plan, a new phase of God’s plan emerged. A new group of people was going to be dealt with, who had never before been dealt with, especially in the Scriptures. You must realize that from the time God began to work with Abraham, His entire interest was in Israel. From Genesis 12 to Acts 28, Jews were the prime group of people to God. Occasionally, there was a Gentile here and there and a nation here and there that was blessed of the Lord. God blessed them because He wanted to “spank” Israel, so God gave them power as they came against Israel. Never during this time did the plan of God belong to the Gentiles.

You may recall that Jesus of Nazareth called His disciples together and told them to preach that the kingdom was going to be established...