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prevent the reader from realizing that they are an integral part of the preceding passage.
It is not the full truth to say that in this new company the Gentiles are joint partakers of
His promise in Christ by the Gospel, the complete statement is that the Gentiles were
joint partakers of His promise in Christ by the Gospel WHEREOF PAUL HAD BEEN
MADE A MINISTER. When writing late to Timothy, the Apostle adds a similar rider,
he does not simply say to Timothy:
"Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead"
(II Tim. 2: 8),
that would be a salutary word indeed, for without the resurrection all are without hope.
Paul was more incisive and exclusive; what he did say was:
"Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead
ACCORDING TO MY GOSPEL: WHEREIN I SUFFER . . . . . unto bonds"
(II Tim. 2: 8, 9).
The same Saviour and the same Resurrection provides Peter's Gospel with blessed
assurance of the fulfillment of the promises made to David concerning his THRONE
(Acts 2: 24-30). The same Saviour and the same Resurrection has taken us "far above all
. . . . . thrones" as we have seen in Eph. 1: 19-23. The Gentiles members of this "Body"
do not inherit and share `promises', they share on equal terms "His promise", and that
found in the gospel entrusted to Paul alone. These believers do not share the promise of
the Father (Luke 24: 49; Acts 1: 4; 2: 33). These joint partakers do not take to
themselves the promise of Acts 2: 39. These fellow heirs do not inherit the promises
made unto `the fathers', and which were confirmed during the earthly ministry of Christ
(Rom. 15: 8). They are concerned with `the promise of life' which antedates the
beginning of the ages (II Tim. 1: 1, 9; Titus 1: 2, 3). The seal which they have received is
"the Holy Spirit of promise" not `of the promises' (Eph. 1: 13) for they were, while in the
flesh, "strangers from the covenants of promise" (Eph. 2: 12). The teaching of Eph. 3: 6
is not that the unequal partnership that existed between the Jewish believer and the
Gentile believer has been exchanged so that the Gentile now enters into the promises,
originally held so exclusively by the Jew, on equal terms. No, the teaching is that a
new promise is brought to light, a promise that Abraham never knew, a new man has
been created, and into that new company and concerning that one new promise no one
has precedence over another, the membership of this Body is `concorporate' and the
partaking of the promise found in the Gospel preached by Paul the Prisoner, is a
`joint partaking'. The new company as Paul wrote to the Colossians is `a new Man' and
it is `created' not `evolved' from the period covered by the Acts.
"Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian,
Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3: 11).
The claim of the Apostle to have received a new dispensation, together with a special
gospel, we must consider further, but this must occupy our attention in subsequent
articles.