In the early days, German philosophy had gained the ascendency in many of our theological institutions, and there came a strange new slogan.
You’ve heard it continuously back then: “Back to Jesus.”
I didn’t know what it meant.
Then I read someone had declared that Paul had altogether too much influence over the church, and that we are to give up the Pauline revelation and go “back to Jesus.” (in the four gospels)
The four Gospels, you remember, were written years after Christ’s resurrection.
Matthew’s gospel was written between A.D. 70 and 90
Luke’s gospel was written between 63 to 80 AD.
Mark’s gospel was written from between 65 to 70 AD.
1 Peter was written roughly 62–64 A.D., and 2 Peter was likely written shortly before his death.
The gospel of John was written from 80 to 110 AD.
The book of Revelation was written before 70 AD.
The Epistles of John (1, 2, and 3 John) were likely written between 90-95 AD.
That meant that after two generations of the resurrection of Jesus John wrote his epistles and then the gospel.
Paul quoted Jesus only twice, and in John’s Gospel, there were only two traces of the Pauline Revelation.
One is John 1:16–17: “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
And two in the gospel of John chapter 14-17 has tremendous revelation hidden in it of the results of the finished work of Christ on the Cross, and the Holy Spirit is emphasizing the Johnine epistles in this hour.
But the first thing we must do is receive the revelation in the Pauline epistles, to understand our identity in Christ in order to have a walk with God on the earth.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke did not have any of the Pauline revelation in them.
They recorded only events up to the resurrection and ascension.
They knew what had taken place on the day of Pentecost and the tremendous upheaval that followed the preaching of the Apostles in Jerusalem, Samaria, and in the Roman Empire, yet they never made mention of it.
The gospel of John I believe was book he wrote after the destruction of Jerusalem, when he himself was banished from the holy land; and was banished to the Isle of Patmos.
You remember, in John 20:30–31, he declared, and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
You see, the object of his writing was that we might have faith in Christ.
Then I said to John, in my imagination, “Brother, why haven’t you told us more about the miracles that occurred under your ministry through the name of Jesus?” And then it seemed to me as though John answered, “I wrote only what the Holy Spirit told me to.”
I talk to the cloud of witnesses, and sometimes I can hear them and sense when they show up in the spirit in our midst, but they can hear us, they just live in another dimension that we cannot see.
Then I sensed one of the greatest literary miracles of all ages.
The four men who had written these Gospels had been shut in, as it were, by the Holy Spirit. They had been unable to give their interpretation of the miracles or what the miracles meant. They wrote only what The Holy Spirit had permitted, or rather, had inspired them to write.
You can’t conceive of anyone writing a book like Luke or Matthew, or John or Mark, who had the experiences they had, with Jesus after his resurrection without those experiences intruding themselves into the biography of the man of whom they were written, unless they were led by the Spirit what to and what not to write.
John must have known of the Pauline revelation. Paul’s letters had some circulation during those two generations, and John had met Paul and had visited with him.
He had learned from the mouth of Paul what Christ had done for him in His great substitutionary sacrifice.
Luke, a disciple of Paul, traveled with him about eighteen years.
He had been Paul’s helper and had taken care of him when he was in prison, yet he does not write anything about the Pauline revelation.
The same thing is true of the book of Acts. That is another literary miracle.
Luke loved Paul. He lived in the consciousness of the finished work of Christ. Christ’s ministry at the right hand of the Father was one of the dearest facts of his life without doubt, and yet he never mentions it.
Mark was Paul’s companion for years, yet you can see no hint of the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ in his gospel.
Let us notice some of the things that they knew but never wrote about.
None of them mention Christ as a substitute, the sin-bearer, the one who would put sin away by the sacrifice of Himself.
The New Creation was not mentioned. John gives us the little talk that Jesus had with Nicodemus, but the ruler of Israel did not understand it.
John had a great opportunity there to have put in what he had come to know about the new creation.
Not a word is mentioned about Christ becoming our righteousness, or how He was delivered up on account of our trespasses and raised when we were justified.
Not a word is mentioned about the body of Christ. The nearest is John 15:5, where Jesus said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches.”
What an opportunity John had then to develop the theme and how glad we would have been if he had done it. No, God shut him in and enabled him to say exactly what He wanted him to say and nothing more.
There is nothing about the great ministry of Jesus at the right hand of the Father, of His being a Mediator, Intercessor, Advocate, High Priest, and Lord.
All this sums up to one tremendous fact: that when you read the four Gospels, you are standing in the presence of God Himself, unseen, but He is there.
He is the Author of those four matchless documents.
He is there unveiling His Son, and the Son is the unveiling of Him.
In the Pauline Epistles, we have the Father unveiling the work that He wrought in His Son and through Him. He is also unveiling the family, the body of Christ, the sons of God.
But we are interested in another phase of it—a contrast of the Pauline revelation, and Jesus’s teaching. Paul’s handling of faith is an illustration.
Jesus continually urged His hearers, the sons of that first covenant, to believe.
In such Scriptures as Mark 9:23, Jesus said, “All things are possible to him that believeth.”
Again, He said to His disciples in the midst of that storm on the sea, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” (Matthew 14:31).
Whosover shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. (Mark 11:23–24)
Why didn’t Paul urge in his epistles people to believe?
He urged the unsaved to believe on Christ, but he never urged the church to believe.
We are believers. We are the sons of God.
Ephesians 1:3 declares, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings.”
We are in the family. All that the Father has and all that He wrought in Christ, and all that Christ is, belongs to us.
We don’t need faith for a thing that is already ours.
The thing for which I must have faith is something that I do not possess.
Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are your’s. (1 Corinthians 3:21)
Whether Paul gave you the revelation of it or Peter or John, it makes no difference. They unveiled is simply what belongs to us.
Now we can understand why our modern preaching in regard to faith has been almost destructive.
Paul’s revelation gives us a perfect redemption.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. (Ephesians 1:7)
Notice the tense here. Not, we may have it if we have faith enough; no, “In whom we have [now] redemption through his blood,” we have “the forgiveness of [our] sins.”
The Greek word does not mean forgiveness, as it is translated; it is remission. That comes always in the new birth.
Forgiveness is something we get when we sin as believers, and that word means deliverance from the force and power of sin, it is sent away from us.
Remission is something that the sinner gets when he comes into the family.
The Greek word aphesis (forgiveness) is used in Colossians 1:14 and Ephesians 1:7: “In whom we have redemption…the forgiveness of sins.”
Not only have we a perfect redemption in the Pauline revelation, but now we could go back in time and stand by the side of the cross with John, and we can say,
“John, do you know what Jesus is doing on the cross? He is being made sin now. Watch Him, and when He cries that last bitter cry. It is finished and yields up His spirit, as your substitute and mine the suffering is over.
He was busy preaching the gospel in Hades and when He was raised from the dead Satan was conquered, then the new birth becomes a possibility; so that man can be justified, receive the nature and life of deity, and become the very righteousness of God in Christ.”
John looks mystified and draws near, and says, “Pardon me, but what are you talking about?”
You see, before Jesus’s resurrection and he breathed into them the Holy Spirit (John 20:22) causing the new birth of their spirit the disciples knew nothing about what Christ was doing for us.
Jesus had broken into the realm of physical sense knowledge, had been manifest among them as the Son of man and of God for three and a half years, and they didn’t know Him.
They didn’t know what He did on the cross and what He did during the three days and three nights. They didn’t know what His resurrection meant, nor what He meant when He said to Mary, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father” (John 20:17).
All this was unknown to them.
It is deeply important that we understand the difference between the Pauline revelation and the ministry of Jesus and its teachings as recorded in the four Gospels.