PAUL AN APOSTLE TO THE GENTILES.
By D. E. Lindsey
The council at Jerusalem decided that the Jewish converts might observe ordinances of the Mosaic law if they chose, but these ordinances were not to be made obligatory upon the Gentile converts. Advantage was taken of this permission, to make a distinction between the observers of the ceremonial law and those who did not observe it, holding that the latter were farther from God than the former. Paul’s indignation was stirred, but these disturbers arrayed themselves against him in every church which he founded or visited. The Judaizing party looked upon Paul as an apostate, bent upon breaking down the middle wall of partition which God had established between the Israelites and the world. They visited every church he had organized, creating divisions, circulating false charges, and endeavoring to bring him into disrepute. Paul’s earnestness led him to teach the people from house to house as well as in public, instructing and entreating them with many tears. Although attacked again and again by the mob, subjected to insult and abuse by every means they could employ, he patiently bore it all, and continued with untiring zeal to push the gospel work and guard the interest of the churches yet young in the faith. Working with his own hands, in weariness and painfulness, enfeebled by disease, and at times depressed in spirit, he steadfastly pursued his work. His deepest anguish was caused by hearing of apostasy from the Church; and as he had opportunity, he wrote to the churches, giving reproof, counsel, admonition, and encouragement. Many a sleepless night was spent in prayer and earnest thought as he learned of the new and varied ways employed to counteract his work. Amid the constant storm of opposition, the clamor of enemies, and the desertion of friends, the intrepid apostle at times almost lost heart. But he looked back to Calvary, and with new ardor pressed on to spread the knowledge of the Crucified. The servants of Christ have ever been greatly hindered in their labors by the errors which have from time to time corrupted the Church. Paul had to accommodate himself to the different classes whom he met, and with whom he had to contend. He encountered, among others, a class who claimed that the moral law had been made void, with the precepts of the ceremonial system. He magnified the moral law, without making light of the conscientious scruples of those who were weak in the faith, or displaying his superior knowledge, but with true sympathy and love led them to nobler and more elevated views. When it was necessary, the apostle sought, in the most decided and impressive manner, to correct the false and dangerous ideas and practices which were prevailing in the churches. He was watchful for souls as one who must give an account to God. With great clearness he presented the doctrine of justification by faith. The great truth of justification by faith has stood through all the ages as a mighty beacon to guide the repentant sinner into the way of life. In almost every church there were some members who were Jews by birth. To these the Judaizing teachers found ready access, and many of them were persuaded to return to the observance of the ceremonial law as essential to salvation. Paul declares to disaffected brethren at Galatia, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” In the Galatian churches, open, unmasked error was supplanting the faith of the gospel. Christ, the true foundation, was virtually renounced for the obsolete ceremonies of Judaism. The teachers who had thus led the Galatian churches into error were hypocritical, unregenerate men, unholy in heart and corrupt in life. Their religion consisted in a round of ceremonies, by the performance of which they expected to receive the favor of God. They had no relish for a religion that taught that “except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” As before stated, Paul had been to Jerusalem to meet in council the elders, to settle this very question which now so agitated the churches of Galatia, and had the concurrent opinion of the council that the churches were free from the ceremonial law. At the council Paul’s divine commission had been recognized, and he had been received as a fellow laborer, and given an equal position with themselves. The glory of the gospel as preached by the apostle was the releasing of the Jews from their distinctive observances, and the admitting of the Gentiles to equal privileges as children of Abraham. Both at Corinth and Galatia old customs and ceremonies had been laid upon the people, by which they were held in bondage, and the work of the gospel had been largely hindered by their thus maintaining the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles. Even the elders of the churches had become more or less prejudiced against the apostle. Paul longed to be in harmony with them, but they, by their cowardice, only widened the breach. The disciples themselves yet cherished a regard for the ceremonial law. They were ready to make concessions, hoping to gain others by so doing. Paul felt that if, by any lawful concession on his part, he could win them, well and good. But he was not authorized by God to concede so much as they asked. His advisers were not infallible, though some of these men wrote under the inspiration of the Spirit of God; yet when not under its direct influence, they sometimes erred. At Jerusalem and at Antioch Paul had defended Christianity against the narrow restrictions of Judaism. He had preached the gospel to the pagans of Lycaonia, to the fanatics of Galatia, to the colonists of Macedonia, the frivolous art worshipers of Athens, to the pleasure-loving merchants of Corinth, to the half-barbarous nations of Dalmatia, to the islanders of Crete, and to slaves, soldiers, and men of rank and station in the multitudes at Rome. Now he was doing his last work. Reformatory action is always attended with loss, sacrifice, and peril. Paul had had a great experience in it all, yet we find him glorying in the same. Although able to rejoice in adversity, the apostle yearned for sympathy and companionship. The desire for love and sympathy was implanted in the heart by God himself. Christ, while suffering His hour of agony in Gethsemane, while bearing the guilt of sinful men, longed for the sympathy of His disciples. Paul was bound to his fellow disciples by a tie stronger than that of Christian brotherhood, but he must go before Nero, with a prospect of certain death. During that trying hour not a Christian of Rome stood by him. The aged prisoner, without money, without friends or counsel, just from a loathsome dungeon, is tried for his life. Paul and Nero stand face to face. A vast multitude stand waiting. Again the apostle has an opportunity to lift up the banner of Christ. Paul gazes upon the throng before him, Jews, Greeks, Romans, and strangers from many lands, but he sees only Jesus the Saviour of the world. Earnestly he points the people to the great Sacrifice. Thus he pleads calmly, his countenance all aglow with light. Nero quakes. The light of heaven appears to the sin-polluted chambers of his soul. He is afraid of God’s apostle, and dares not pass sentence. His blood-thirsty spirit is for a moment restrained. For a moment569heaven is opened to him, but for only a moment. After a short but wretched existence, Nero died, rushing hither and thither, beating his forehead, and crying, “I am lost, I am lost.” From the judgment hall of Caesar, Paul returned to his prison house. A work had begun that day which would increase and prosper, and which the emperor of Rome, with all his pomp and power, would seek in vain to destroy or hinder. Sitting day by day in his dreary cell, the aged apostle thinks of his son Timothy, and addresses him in several epistles. In the second we find his charge to the young preacher and his memorable and dying declaration. The emperor’s malice against Paul was heightened by the fact that members of the imperial household and also other persons of distinction had been converted to Christianity. As Paul was led to the place of execution, his manner and words were such that the hardened soldiers listened with amazement. The apostle was looking into the great beyond, not with dread or uncertainty, but with joyful hope and longing expectation. As he stood at the place of martyrdom, he saw not the gleaming sword of the executioner, or the green earth so soon to receive his blood; he looked up through the calm blue heaven of that summer day to the throne of the Eternal. In his dying testimony, preserved by Inspiration, like a trumpet peal we still hear his note of victory as he cries, “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.”