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The contrast between the two inspired statements of Acts 28: 23 & 31 is most
instructive:--
TO THE JEWS."To whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God,
persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and the prophets."
TO THE GENTILES AND ALL WHO CAME TO HIM.--"Preaching the kingdom
of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ."
The contrast is sharp and clear. To the Jews it is "Jesus"; to the Gentiles it is "Lord
Jesus Christ"--the title of the epistles to the churches. To the Jews it is Messianic
witness, "out of the law and prophets"; to the Gentiles it is not so stated. Other passages
show that the apostle was directly taught the mystery by the Lord Himself--it was a
revelation. Some deny the difference so patent here, but it is a quarrel not with us but
with the Holy Ghost. Christ in resurrection, not as King, but as Lord and Head of the one
body is now the theme. We may feel quite sure that the apostle would go over the
blessed truths which he penned in Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians to those who
came to his own hired house. In Eph. 6: 19 he asked them to pray for him that he might
have boldness to make known the mystery of the gospel for which he was an
"ambassador in bonds." The word "confidence" in Acts 28: 31 is the same as the
word "boldly" in Eph. 6: 19, and shows how the prayer was answered, if the "two whole
years" have any significance they would suggest the period of Israel's setting aside, as in
Hosea 6: 2, 3, during which the Gentiles are the particular objects of the dispensational
favours of God.
The concluding verses of Acts 28: form the great dividing line between the epistles
of the mystery and the epistles that include the remnant of Israel and kingdom hopes and
accompaniments. At the moment when Paul quoted Isa. 6: 10, the period of the
church's "babyhood" finished, and the "perfect man" standard was proclaimed. These
subjects we hope to deal separately, and we would ask our readers to reserve their
judgment until they have the opportunity of taking our statements to the Word of truth,
and seeing "whether these things are so."
The epistles written before the Roman imprisonment are 1 and 2 Thessalonians,
1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Hebrews and Romans.
After the imprisonment--
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. It is of the
utmost importance to see the difference that exists in these two sets of epistles. In the
early ones, Israel as a nation has its influence, millennial prefigurings abound, and,
humanly speaking, Israel's national repentance might bring the kingdom, and with it the
Saviour, even in the very lifetime of those to whom the apostle wrote. After Acts 28:
this was not the case. There was no Israel. The kingdom was entirely in abeyance,
Jerusalem was destroyed. The Gentiles, as such, were aliens to the commonwealth of
Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, and hence if the Lord had any gospel for
them it must be a gospel of sovereign grace indeed. This forms the basis of the first
epistle of the mystery--Ephesians.
The dispensations that have passed have never ended abruptly, but a certain
overlapping has taken place. The Acts of the Apostles is the history of this transition,