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. What would we be missing?
Firstly, we would not realize that Christ is in us, 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 (John 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 be in us as the life-giving Spirit. He is our life, even our life supply, and is Himself to be formed in us.
Secondly, 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.
Thirdly, 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 which 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 and Christ 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 a greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is smallest 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 are 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. 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 all in all, and the church as the Body with Christ as the Head. For over fifty years I have been in the recovery. My time is nearing the end. There is still something which needs completing. This will fall upon your shoulders. You will continue this completing ministry, which consists primarily of these three items 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, nor the worship of God, nor 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 do you persecute 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. 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 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 do you persecute 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, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6). “And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.” 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 a conversion Paul’s was? Peter was merely told, “Follow 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 all-inclusive, and Christ the Head with the church as His Body. These became the very three things 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 shall thank the Lord for bringing us into the recovery. We shall 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!