RECONCILIATION AND FAILURE OF THE LAW 85

Maranatha. The Lord cometh.

The first member of the structure, `A 1:1-9', may be summed up in three words: calling, confirmation, coming.

These words epitomize the position. The calling and fellowship among themselves and with all who acknowledge

Christ as Lord `both theirs and ours', the confirmation of the apostle's testimony to them by the spiritual gifts were to

prepare them for the great climax of their position, the coming of the Lord. For this, like the Thessalonians, they had

been saved, `to wait for His Son from heaven'. To show that these three words are not arbitrarily chosen we give the

structure of this opening member `A 1:1-9', as follows:

Called. Fellowship in every place. Theirs and ours.

Confirmation. Gifts (as 12).

Coming. Waiting for the coming.

Confirmation. Graces (as 13).

Called unto the fellowship of His Son.

The Gifts. - `All utterance and all knowledge' were given for the confirmation of the testimony of Christ. These

words define the purpose and place of the gifts given to the church during the Acts period. Mark 16:17-20 says:

`... these signs shall follow them that believe ... they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working

with them, and CONFIRMING the word with signs following'.

` ... which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was CONFIRMED unto us by them that heard, God also

bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and distributions of holy spirit according

to His own will' (Heb. 2:3,4 Author's translation).

Romans 15:8,9, speaking of the ministry of the Lord while on earth, says that He came:

`... to CONFIRM the promises made unto the fathers: and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy'.

This twofold ministry had a twofold confirmation.  The miracles wrought by Christ on earth were the

confirmation of His Messiahship (Matt. 11:1-5; John 5:32-38). The miracles wrought by the risen Christ (Mark 16)

through the apostles were a confirmation of the extended testimony to the Gentiles (1 Cor. 14:21; Gal. 3:5-14).

Writing to the Corinthians in the second Epistle, Paul says:

`For all the PROMISES of God in Him are yea, and in Him the Amen, unto the glory of God through US. Now He

which CONFIRMETH (bebaio) US with you in Christ, and hath anointed US, is God' (2 Cor. 1:20,21 Author's

`Us with you' is a strange expression until we realize its setting. The gifts were not for the confirmation of the

individual merely, they were evidences that the apostles were continuing that which Jesus began to do and teach

(Acts 1:1). A further consideration of these gifts will naturally be given when we come to chapter 12, but the

character and purpose of the gifts are already fixed by these few words.

The Coming. - The coming for which the Corinthian church waited was the apocalypse, the revelation of our

Lord Jesus Christ. Peter joined Pentecost to the day of the Lord (Acts 2:16-21), and Paul does the same here. The

hope of Israel is before all believers until Acts 28 (see verse 20, and 1 Pet. 1:13; Rom. 15:12,13). The other name

for the Lord's coming given in Corinthians is the parousia (15:23). This will be dealt with in its place. We would

only mention here that `coming' is not a good rendering of parousia. Instead of suggesting the process of coming it

indicates the fact of arrival. The apocalypse and the parousia were two phases of the hope of the church during the

Acts. The hope is expressed at the end of the epistle in the words Maran-atha `The Lord cometh', which further

associate the hope with Israel by the use of Aramaic instead of Greek.

Before leaving this section we would observe for our own sakes that the apostle looked beyond the spiritual gifts

to that other more individual and lasting `confirmation', which should show them `blameless in the day of our Lord

Jesus Christ'. The transition here from gifts to graces is repeated in 12 and 13, where the more excellent way, and