CHRIST AND PAUL
William Mealand

WHY IS IT that today there is no impelling conception of the risen Christ and, through Him, of a gracious, understanding God and Father? And is it not true to say, that because of this lack, and understatement of the evangel, people are kept at a great remove from the glorious God they should intimately know?

From long years of experience and observation, we are inclined to think one reason lies in the fact that Paul's evangel and heralding of truth to the nations has been so tragically unheeded. Enrichment of life, and a rare illumination of mind in the things of God, always attended his ministry, and wherever a recovery of the precious truth be enunciated has been grasped, there has been vital blessing. It has not, however, been clearly seen that his teaching is progressive, ever mounting upwards and leading, as it were, to a pinnacle of grace and glory.

Now, it is surely true to say that the zenith of grace was reached in the grand unfoldings of the prison epistles. Therefore it is for us in these later days to base our position upon them. Since within them we have Paul's latest and quite unique revelation from the ascended Christ Himself, should we not rest our constructive thinking on such a great announcement?

Paul alone gives us the truth of the body of Christ as a designation of those who, hearing him and others with him, have steadfastly stood by his teaching. But this is not all. When the flood tide of grace came, and the apostle to the nations was entrusted with "the administration of the grace of God," so specially given to him, that body became a joint body, an altogether new and rare organism. And very simply and beautifully is it set forth.

"In spirit the nations are to be joint enjoyers of an allotment, and a joint body, and joint partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus, through the evangel of which I became the dispenser, in accord with the gratuity of the grace of God, which is granted to me in accord with His powerful operation" (Eph.3:6,7). But so short a quotation may fail to bring home to heart and mind the sublime import of the apostle's message, It calls for the whole chapter and paragraphs of the next. For there is Paul's fervent prayer and marvelous doxology, followed by an exhortation which surely stands alone for spiritual breadth and grandeur.

Indeed, so transcendent a statement should in itself give settlement of belief, and, in harmony with the Philippian and Colossian letters, establish the standing and outlook of all believers. It is one of vivid clearness. Paul tells us there is "one body and one spirit, according as you were called also with one expectation of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, Who is over all and through all and in all" (Eph.4:4-6).

Surely, in this sevenfold summary of belief, we have a spiritual program that should be satisfying to all believers in Christ Jesus. It is a simple yet comprehensive declaration, which, had it been faithfully adhered to, would have meant volumes of blessing to the assemblies of God's people. But when its clarity is marred by addition or subtraction of words, its beauty and beneficence are gone. We should remember that whatever preceded the teaching Paul unfolds in his rare trio of prison epistles, it is absorbed and carried forward to a veritable zenith of grace. We do not read such language elsewhere, the phraseology of which is so fitting to this wondrous era of grace.

Maybe its purely celestial character is not seen as completing what hitherto was but fragmentary. In his presentation of the Christ of God, Paul is unique as the interpreter of the risen Christ "Head over all to the ecclesia which is His body, the complement by which all in all is being completed" (Eph.1:23). Again, who but Paul so writes of Christ as the One through Whom God purposes to reconcile the universe to Himself?

When we note the language which so characterizes Ephesians do we not feel that the last word has been written with regard to the present attitude and future destiny of the body of Christ? The tendency to merge teaching which should be kept apart, causes confusion of mind and detracts from the full enjoyment of the grace and truth for this time present. Take, for instance, the subject of baptism. John's baptism by water was distinctly for the time being. Note the words of Christ Himself to John. "By your leave, at present, for thus it is becoming for us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matt.3:15).

It was truth just for the time, a test of faith at that particular era, and truth at that moment. It was also fitting that the King should thus come into line with the proclamation of the kingdom. Therefore, His disciples continued to administer the rite in accord with the evangel they preached. When, however, the kingdom proclamation met with final rejection at Rome, the practice of baptism appears to cease. And Paul emphatically declares that baptism is not included in his own special testimony (1 Cor.1:17). Therefore, the "one baptism" mentioned in Ephesians is evidently in spirit, for everything in that unity is spiritual.

We may think of other things which obtained just for the time, but when we enter upon our celestial citizenship, things made with hands have little appeal. And the apostle Paul was brought into the light and liberty of this realm that he might pass on to others the illumination and enrichment he himself received. It is well, too, to bear in mind the distinctiveness of Paul's commission. It so stands by itself. Some of its wording sets the apostle quite apart as a pioneer and pathfinder in the realm of grace. From the glory above the brightness of the sun came a voice in utterance of these expressive words: "I was seen by you for this, to fix upon you before for a deputy and a witness both of what you have perceived and that in which I will be seen by you, extricating you from the people and from the nations, to whom I am commissioning you" (Acts 26:16,17). Now, the words purposely italicized, surely prepare our hearts and minds for such a revelation as Paul unfolds in Ephesians. And that revelation discloses the transformation that was to affect the body of Christ. It was to become a joint-body. This was a new and unparalleled thing, a perfect equality of membership of the body of Christ unheard of before. Neither Peter, nor the other apostles present with Christ in His earthly ministry, mention anything like it. Paul's heralding of the evangel alone led to it as part of his stewardship to the nations.

There is nothing in nature, or in aught "made with hands" to compare with its divine beauty. Its grandeur is, that it is "in spirit." Why, then, seek to make a blend of Paul with Peter, or even with John? It is no disparagement to the other writers, to emphasize the value of Paul's ministry. If we would realize maturity in both grace and knowledge, he is our true teacher. If we would live and walk in spirit, and enter into the very "depths of God," he is also our guide.

Many godly men of the past, who from various causes may not have fully seen the vastness of such grace as the great apostle discloses, have yet sensed, as it were, something of its celestial character. Who but Paul gives us so exalted a conception of Christ? Who associates the Lord of life and glory with such fullness of reward and regal potency? And who, but he, points the believer to so glorious a consummation of God's purpose as we find unfolded in the sacred Scriptures?

As "the Image of the invisible God," Christ is set forth as by no other. Well, then, may the faith he brings us into be the one faith for believers of today. It makes Christ not only our Expectation, but the Reconciler of the universe. And for our everyday life, brings Him so near to our hearts. Should we not, then, thank the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as did Paul himself, for such rare communications of grace?

Well may Paul have found in Christ his all in all, for he had found in Him the Daysman of God Who could lay His hand upon them both. Paul knew man, but how much he also knew of the power of Christ! And so he was greatly used by God as the ambassador of Christ. It has been said that "Paul never knew Jesus in His life-time, but nevertheless it was he who best understood Him." He proclaims the Christ of God in a way to bear Him to the heart in an effulgence of grace and glory.

Would that more preachers and teachers of today could thus see the might and majesty of Christ, as so set forth. But most of them hark back to Christ's earthly ministry or to other epistles rather than Paul's, and do not therefore reach the heights of grace and knowledge they would attain by study of Paul's peerless ministry. How enhanced their messages would be if they heralded Christ as the Image of the invisible God and the Son of His love! Ministries would be profoundly changed, and their sermons, dry and dead, would be freshened by the dew of heaven and throbbing with life in its fullness.

There is need for Christ to be preached as Paul preached Him. And in his writings, the grandeur of the themes are their own eloquence as they so movingly tell of God's indescribable gift of the Son of His love. Preachers who would saturate themselves in such divine phraseology, could bring truths to the enlightenment of the heart, unheard of by many of God's people. Darkness would be pierced, and a wonderful light and liberty rest upon speaker and hearer alike. And to our God there would ascend a fragrant odor, for His Christ would be truly exalted, and His excellencies magnified as never before.

May it then be, that to us, to whom God has made known so rich an understanding and blessedness, there might increasingly come "the knowledge transcending love of Christ."