By William R. Newell
Spiritual Order of Paul's Epistles
We believe that the order of arrangement of Paul's
Epistles to the Churches was Divinely established; and that there is
a progress of spiritual experience from Romans to II
Thessalonians. (1) In Romans man is shown with
righteousness: "There is none righteous, no not one." This involves
man's fundamental relation to God. Christ is set forth a
propitiation, meeting all Divine claims, and by His death releasing
man from the necessity of a righteousness and holiness of his own:
Christ becomes his righteousness, and a believer has the
witness of the Spirit that he is God's child. (2) I Corinthians. Here the subject is not
righteousness but wisdom. The words "wisdom" and "wise" occur
in the first four chapters twenty-five times, and the words
"foolish" and "foolishness" some eight times! In 1:30 we are seen as
of God--we that are in Christ Jesus who was "made unto us wisdom
from God"; which indeed includes "Righteousness, Sanctification and
Redemption" but Christ is looked at as our Wisdom. Indeed in
1Co 2:16, "We have the mind of Christ." Those declared
righteous in Romans, and become children of God, are now brought to
school,--as children should be. But lo! the wisdom of the world is
"foolishness,"--therefore God's "wisdom" is revealed to these
children of God by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit indwelling them (1Co
2:6-16). (3) II Corinthians. Here we find Christ our
sufficiency. Declared righteous in Romans, instructed by the
Spirit in I Corinthians, the believer has yet to learn his utter
weakness. The key-verses are here are 2Co 12:9-10 : "When I am weak
then am I strong," and, "My grace is sufficient for thee." Many
believers never find that God alone is their strength along every
line. Paul found it! Read 2Co 1:8-10. Again: "We have this treasure
in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness o the power may be
of God, and not from ourselves" (2Co 4:7-11). Again: "Our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is
renewed day by day" (2Co 4:16). Again: "Our flesh had no relief, but
we were afflicted on every side; without were fightings, within were
fears. Nevertheless he that comforteth the lowly, God, comforted us
by the coming of Titus" (2Co 7:5-6). Again: "Most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may
rest upon me" (2Co 12:9). (4) Galatians. The Epistles are linked
together, each leading on to the following. So, in 2Co 13:11, Paul
exhorts, "Be perfected" (Compare 6:14 to 7:1). Now the
Galatians are seeking to be perfected, but it is by turning back to
"religion," by observing "days, seasons, months, years" (Gal
4:10-11). "Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now
perfected in the flesh?" But Paul goes clear back to Romans Six, and
testifies to these Galatians, "I have crucified with Christ; and it
is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life
which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in
the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me" (Gal 2:20).
He goes back 2Co 5:17 : "If any man be in Christ he is a new
creation; the old things are passed away; behold, they are become
new"; and he sets before us the proper "rule of life" of the
believer in words which completely set aside "religious" life,
whether Jewish, Romish, or Protestant. "Neither is circumcision
anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as many
as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy and
[when the future time comes for blessing the real Israel] upon the
Israel of God" (Gal 6:5, Gal 6:16). Thus far we have seen
righteousness without works, in Romans; wisdom without education, in
I Corinthians; power without strength, in II Corinthians; perfecting
without "religion," in Galatians.
(5) Ephesians. Men on earth seated in the
heavenlies. For although named as "the saints that are at
Ephesus," and "all true [faithful'] believers in Christ Jesus" yet
that marvelous secret is opened out by which we are made alive with
the raised and glorified Christ--raised up with Him and made to sit
in the heavenlies [no longer in the earthlies as were Israel]
and made indeed to become the fulness of Christ our Head, who
filleth all in all. We are not yet in Heaven but are "sealed with
the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance,
unto the redemption of God's own possession unto the praise of His
glory." [An "earnest" is a foretoken of our inheritance.] (6) Philippians. Here we see Paul as a
sample believer of all these glorious truths, running the
wonderful "course" toward that coming "day of Christ"! (Php 1:6,
Php 1:10). Saying, as he runs, "To me to live is Christ, and to die
is gain" (Php 1:21); exhorting, "Have this mind in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus" (Php 2:5-8); crying, as he runs, "I count all
things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him
not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the
Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness
which is from God by faith: that I may know Him, the power of His
resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed
unto His death. I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on
that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. I press
on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus
minded. For our citizenship is in heaven. I can do all things
through Him that strengtheneth me: And my God shall supply every
need of yours, according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
(Chapter 3, entire; 4:13,19). Paul's word in Gal 3:17 : "Brethren,
be ye imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk as
ye have us for an ensample," is the key of Philippians. By
the grace of God certainly, but none the less truly, Paul was
enabled to run the Christian race in all its fulness!
(7) Colossians. Heavenly men on earth--yet
holding fast the Head in heaven, and becoming filled with His
fulness, is what we see here. All the fulness of the Godhead
dwelling bodily in Christ, with whom believers' lives are hid in
God, Christ becomes the object of all the believer's thoughts and
affections. Since you are raised together with Christ, "Set your
mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon
the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God."
The believer awaits Christ's coming--content not to be known or
manifested till the glory comes. Four desperate foes oppose this
mystery of faith of holding fast the Head in Heaven while walking on
earth. See them in Col 2:4, Col 2:8, Col 2:16, Col 2:18. (8) I Thessalonians. The Thessalonian
Epistles set forth the Personal Return of our Lord Jesus Christ--the
end of the earthly path of God's dear saints!
I Thessalonians gives The Church's hope, the
Rapture: "The Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the
dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are
left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to
meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord!
Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (1Th 4:16-18). The believer who knows himself righteous (Romans),
having the mind of Christ (I Corinthians), who has learned to glory
in his weakness (II Corinthians), and to walk by the "rule of the
new creation" knowing that he was crucified with Christ, who is now
living in Him (Galatians), and who sees with Spirit-enlightened eyes
the heavenly character and calling of the Church (Ephesians), and is
really becoming an imitator of Paul in the race--running the course
unto Christ--"the day of Christ" (Philippians), who is really
holding fast the Head, paying no attention to those who would delude
him with persuasiveness of speech and make a spoil of him through
"philosophy" and would judge us in "religious" things or rob us of
our prize by turning us to a self-humility that fails to hold fast
the Head (Colossians): such a believer is ready indeed for I
Thessalonians! And he is sincerely eager in daily, hourly
watching for His coming--for the Rapture of the Church! (9) II Thessalonians gives the second phase
of our Lord's Return, the "revelation of the Lord Jesus from Heaven
in flaming fire rendering vengeance to them that know not God and to
them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is the
great Day of Wrath of Rev 19:11-21. In II Thessalonians Paul guards
the saints from confusing the Rapture with that Day of
Wrath,--called "the Day of the Lord" (R.V. 2Th 2:1-3). The church at
Thessalonica was being tempted by its troubles to confuse the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him [the
Rapture] with the Day of the Lord--which sees the manifestation of
the Antichrist. Which terrible days, thank God, the Church is not
appointed to see! 1Th 5:9, Rev 3:10.
"For God appointed us not unto wrath, but unto the
obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1Th 5:9).
"Because thou didst keep the word of my patience, I
also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to
come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth"
(Rev 3:10). |
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