Paul’s ministry was completed in the late A.D. 60s when he was martyred. A period of about twenty-five years went by before John’s writings appeared. His Gospel, Epistles, and Revelation were written about A.D. 90. This gap in time was under the Lord’s sovereignty.
From what Paul tells us in Colossians 1:25 we know that Paul’s stewardship which he received from God was to complete the Word of God. The Word of God refers to the Scriptures, God’s full revelation. Thus, with Paul’s writings the divine revelation should have been completed. Why was it, then, that another ministry came along after his?
History records that before the end of the first century, after Paul’s martyrdom, the church was carried away by serious heresies. Thus, the revelation of God was damaged. John’s ministry came in to repair this damage.
One heresy was that Christ was not God. The Gospel of John was written to counter this false teaching. All twenty-one chapters bear strong testimony that Christ is God Himself. The Gospel begins by saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John declares clearly throughout his Gospel that Christ was not only the Son of God but God Himself. In 20:24-29 he tells us how Thomas doubted the resurrection of Christ. The Lord was patient with Thomas until he was convinced. Then Thomas said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Here is an example of John’s testimony that Christ is God.
A second heresy that arose taught that Christ did not come in the flesh. Satan on the one hand instigated the teaching that Christ was not God. If Christ was not God, He must be a man. But the subtle one on the other hand also was behind the heresy that claimed Christ had not come in the flesh; this means that He was not a man.
Notice how strongly John fought these errors. After stressing in the first verse of his Gospel that Christ was God, he tells us in verse 14 that this Word which was God became flesh. In his first Epistle he warned the believers not to believe every spirit but to test whether the spirit recognized that Christ had come in the flesh (1 John 4:1-3).
Christ’s Person is wonderful, and it is wonderful mainly in two aspects. One is that He is God; the other, that He became a man. It was these two points that Satan attacked by means of the heresies he inspired. What a damage to Paul’s completing ministry for these evil beliefs to creep in! It meant a breakage in the divine revelation. Another ministry was needed, not to complete but to mend.
Suppose I have a new jacket which gets torn. It must be mended. Where the tear is repaired, that place on the jacket will be stronger than the rest of the fabric. John’s ministry is to some extent stronger than Paul’s. The fact that he wrote after Paul is an indication that John’s writings are stronger. Compare also the Christ revealed in these two ministries.
Paul’s main revelation is of Christ and the church. The Christ he reveals is all-inclusive. In Colossians he presents Christ as the portion of the saints (1:12); the image of the invisible God (1:15); the Firstborn of all creation (1:15); the Firstborn from among the dead (1:18); the mystery of God’s economy, Christ in us, the hope of glory (1:27); the mystery of God (2:2); the embodiment of God (2:9); the Head of all rule and authority (2:10); the body of the shadows of all positive things (2:17); our life (3:4); and all in all in the new man (3:11). Surely the Christ Paul reveals is wonderful and all-inclusive.
Nowhere, however, does Paul reveal Christ as the universal Administrator in God’s universal government. God’s throne in the heavens is over the whole universe. Who is the One who carries out His administration? John tells us in Revelation 5.
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