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The first part of this ministry is described in verse 20. At Damascus, Jerusalem,
Judæa, and then to the Gentiles, the apostle proclaimed repentance. This constituted the
first part of his commission. The second part, which depended upon a revelation
subsequent to the visitation on the Damascus road, now lay before the apostle, and is
epitomized in verse 18. This verse contains a wonderful summary of the blessings
opened up during the present dispensation of the grace of God to the Gentiles, and is very
different from the summary given in verse 20.
In verse 22 he discloses that up till the day in which he was speaking he had said
"none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come."
When we read the epistles of the mystery (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, &100:), we
read many things concerning which the prophets and Moses said nothing, for the apostle
there opens up the secret which had been hidden by God since the ages and generations,
and revealed to him for the first time, as recorded in Eph. 3: 8, 9, "Unto me, who am less
than the least of all saints, is this grace given. . . . to enlighten all as to what is the
dispensation of the mystery."
A similar passage to this one of Acts 26: is Acts 20: There the apostle is
contemplating imprisonment, and there he alludes to the two-fold character of his
commission. Calling together the elders of the church of Ephesus (verse 17), he
reminded them of the nature of his ministry, "testifying both to the Jews, and also to the
Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." The parallel
with Acts 26: is further seen by reading verse 27. "I have not shunned to declare unto
you all the counsel of God." He had said nothing beyond that which Moses had said, and
had declared all the counsel of God. Yet the epistles of the mystery not only contain
much concerning which Moses says nothing, but reveal a counsel and a purpose which
are entirely distinct from anything hitherto proclaimed in Scripture. Either we must join
the ranks of those who by mistaken zeal attempt to "harmonize" the Word of God, or we
must see that the apostle contemplated a yet future and distinctive ministry. This change
is indicated in verses 22-24:--
"And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem. . . . bonds. . . . abide
me. but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I
might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord
Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."
Here, with bondage before him, the apostle contemplates this new ministry, the "those
things" of Acts 26:, the "prison ministry" of the prisoner of the Lord for the Gentiles.
That this does contemplate a future ministry is further confirmed by the fact that at the
end of the ministry of the apostle in relation to the dispensation of the mystery, his prayer
is answered, and he can say, "I have finished my course" (II Tim. 4: 7). If we will but
clearly distinguish between the first part of Paul's ministry, which occupies the period
covered by the Acts, and the subsequent ministry into which he entered when Israel was
set aside in Acts 28:, we shall be enabled to see more clearly what our own course
must be.