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Things that be of God.
ROMANS
Separated unto the gospel of God (Rom. 1: 1).
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"Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them" (Acts 13: 2).
Here the word `separate' is the Greek aphorizo, and it is the identical word that is used
by Paul in his epistles regarding his own peculiar apostleship.
"Separated unto the gospel of God" (Rom. 1: 1).
"It pleased God Who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His
grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles (heathen)"
(Gal. 1: 15, 16).
Neither Paul, Peter, John nor any of the apostles `sent' their epistles, rather they
`delivered' them as "sent" from God. While for convenience we speak of Pauline or
Petrine doctrine, that only means that God made choice of His ministers, making Paul
"the Apostle of the Gentiles" and Peter the minister and "Apostle of the Circumcision".
At Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost "there were `Jews' out of every nation under
heaven", and Peter addressed the gathering as "men of Judea, and all that dwell at
Jerusalem", referring them to the prophet Joel for an explanation of the out-pouring of the
Spirit. The earthly ministry of the Saviour Himself was limited to "the lost sheep of the
house of Israel" and no messenger was sent to "the Gentiles" until He had finished the
redemptive work of the Cross, and even then this was not independent of Israel.
Stephen's speech is addressed entirely to "Men, brethren, and fathers", and God is the
God of the O.T. Peter refers to "our beloved brother Paul" as having written one epistle
to the same Hebrew Christians to whom he was writing, although it contained "some
things hard to be understood". The expression "The Apostles" which occurs 21 times in
Acts 1: - 11: refers only to "The Twelve". Paul comes into the apostolic order in the
thirteenth chapter.