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His earlier epistles are necessarily connected with kingdom hopes, Abrahamic
blessings, and Jewish teaching. We do not speak thus slightingly, far from it. God, Who
inspired the apostle's writings, intended that they should thus accord with the times.
From Ephesians onward, however, all these things are dropped. Not two baptisms, but
one, and that, not water baptism. No longer blessed with faithful Abraham, but blessed
with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. No longer related to the earth and earthly
hopes, for all our hopes and blessings belong to that other sphere of redemptive
purposes--the super-heavenly. No more ordinances, observances, fasts, feasts, and days;
all gone, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, the All in All.
The Ministry of Paul
Its relation to dispensational truth
The stewardship of the mystery.
"If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God
which is given me to you-ward" (Eph. 3: 2).
pp. 63-66
In our last paper we considered some passages of Scripture which threw light upon the
twofold ministry of the apostle Paul. We saw that there was a ministry which Paul
fulfilled during the Pentecostal dispensation, and that towards the end of the Acts, when
imprisonment and Rome lay before him, indications are given of an approaching change
in his ministry. To this new ministry we now address ourselves.
The title "apostle" is applied to Paul seven times in the epistles of the mystery
(Eph. 1: 1; Col. 1: 1; I Tim. 1: 1; 2: 7; II Tim. 1: 1, 11; Titus 1: 1). In two passages the
title "apostle" comes in combination with two others, viz., "herald and teacher of the
Gentiles" (I Tim. 2: 7; II Tim. 1: 11).
Another title, one which is peculiar to the present dispensation, is, "the prisoner." In
Eph. 3: 1 he calls himself "the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles," in Eph. 4: 1,
"the prisoner of the Lord," in II Tim. 1: 8, ". . . . the testimony of our Lord, nor of me
His prisoner," and in Philemon 1 and 9, "a prisoner of Jesus Christ."
In three passages the apostle refers to himself as a "minister," and in each case the
context indicates something peculiar and exclusive. The passages are Eph. 3: 7;
Col. 1: 23, 25. Each of them commences with the expression, "whereof I was made a
minister" (R.V.). For some reason the A.V. has rendered the same verb, "was made" in
Eph. 3:, and "am made" in Col. 1: Of what does the apostle speak? of what was he
made a minister? Eph. 3: 7 and Col. 1: 23 say, "the gospel," and Col. 1: 25 says, "the
church." To leave the matter here, however, would be worse than useless, it would be
misleading. The contexts of these passages indicate that the apostle is not speaking in