PREFACE

There are two primary purposes in offering to the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, another book on Pauline Theology.

First, there is a real need of a new emphasis on Paul’s particular teachings on the subject of Christian victory: the fact that a believer may and should be filled with the Holy Spirit; that, in fact, God commands it; that a believer will be judged by Christ for the defeat in his Christian life if he does not go on in his experience to spiritual manhood. Paul is the great revelator of the believer’s riches in Christ.

Second, there is a further need for a criterion, a touchstone, to determine just what is church truth. The church has always had, and now has much more, conflicting and contradictory teachings advanced, with scriptural proofs, heralded as church doctrine. Is there a real criterion? Paul says emphatically, "Yes." It is his own epistles, given unto him by "revelation of Jesus Christ." He pronounces an anathema upon any deviation from that by angels, men or even himself. This he does on the authority that "a dispensation was committed to him" and that he was "the apostle to the Gentiles," and that "he was put in trust with the gospel." Throughout this volume we shall enlarge upon this theme: "Go to Paul’s epistles to get your church doctrine."

We trust this volume will be found beneficial as a textbook on Pauline Theology. It is perforce only an outline study, allowing much room for classroom enlargement.

We dedicate it to the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and commit it to the Holy Spirit’s trust.

 

E. C. Bragg, Trinity College, Dunedin, Fla.

February 27, 1974

INTRODUCTION

Pauline Theology is not just another course in Pauline Epistles, nor is it an extension of Systematic Theology. As compared with Pauline Epistles, Pauline Theology does not go into the life and journeys of Paul, nor does it outline the doctrines and purpose of each of his epistles. There is a natural overlapping in places, as all seminary work does. But Pauline Theology goes into the specific teachings of Paul as the great revelator to the church. It systematizes his theology and it defends his unique position as "the apostle to the Gentiles" and revelator of church doctrine. Hence it is a defense of Paul’s unique apostleship and gospel. In fact, it is preferred that the student first became familiar with Paul’s epistles through a careful reading of them before undertaking this particular course. A familiarity with Paul’s general position and epistles will enhance this study. As compared with Systematic Theology, Pauline Theology takes up where it leaves off. It goes deeper into the riches of God’s revelation to the church, "the better things which God provided us" (Hebrews 11:40). There are so many rich truths revealed by the Holy Spirit only through Paul which find no place of expression in the eleven cardinal doctrines of Systematic Theology.

We shall consider one great truth in our course as fundamental to all the rest. We shall term it our "Fundamental Postulate." For the purpose of logic we form this postulate in the form of a syllogism. The syllogism has three parts — the major premise, the minor premise, and the conclusion. If you can prove the major premise, and then the minor premise growing out of the major, then the conclusion must automatically follow (if there is no error in your chain of reasoning). One year’s course of Pauline Theology will be occupied with proving the two premises. This syllogism must be learned:

Major Premise: Paul is the revelator to the church.

Minor Premise: Only unto Paul was committed the complete revelation of church doctrine.

Conclusion: Therefore we must build our church doctrine on Paul’s revelation.

Negatively we shall see that, if Paul doesn’t teach it, it is not distinctively church doctrine. This position at first is startling to those who have never steeped their souls in Paul’s epistles. Its truthfulness grows upon one’s thinking. But whether the student dares to boldly accept the whole syllogism without equation, or only lets it flavor his theology until he becomes more Pauline in his convictions and teachings, the study will be profitable to keep his church doctrine pure, and guarantee his not "being removed from Paul’s gospel to another gospel which is not another gospel but a perversion of the gospel of Christ" (Galatians 1:6, 7). Paul himself uses his own teachings as a criterion of the brother who walks disorderly (Greek "those who break rank") and of those who set up their own commandments, creating new doctrines not received from Paul (II Thessalonians 3:6-14). If they didn’t receive it from Paul, "Mark him and withdraw from him."

How confusing are the varied opinions taught as "church truth." Where is the criterion? No wonder when the Seventh Day Adventist tries to saddle Sabbath observances on the Christian, the Christian has no answer, since he sees no distinction between the Old Testament and the New—between Moses and Paul. The Protestant who plainly ignores the Holy Spirit’s explicit declaration that "this dispensation is committed unto Paul" and that Paul is "the apostle to the Gentiles," and goes to the Old Testament to build his church doctrine, is just as guilty of misinterpretation of church doctrine as the Roman Catholic who builds his doctrine on the "traditions of men" (infallibility of the Pope and College of Cardinals). Both are in error and miss true commandments of God, The former ignores the great dispensational lines the Holy Spirit Himself has drawn, and builds his doctrines upon Scriptures never given for the church as doctrine. How many interesting theories would have died aborning if our syllogism had been believed?

How few ever come to the real full knowledge of the church as a unique body, "hidden from all ages past," a truth only Paul reveals, but which is now revealed. Elijah was not a deacon in the First Baptist Church of Chebar. The church is just not in the Old Testament at all. God kept it hidden only in His own heart, until He was ready to reveal it, and we shall see that He chose only one man to whom He revealed the complete system of church truth. Most folks have not read deeply enough in Paul’s gospel to see that the church is not just converted, renovated, Christianized Judaism, revamped and with Christ added. The church is a brand new thing, and, we shall see, the best thing God ever made, His most prized possession, and His Son’s eternal bride. The two ordinances of the church are not mere converted Jewish rites. The Lord’s Supper is not synonymous with the Pascal Supper; the sprinkling of the ashes of the red heifer is not the same as Christian baptism. So the Lord’s Day is not a changed Jewish Sabbath. (Never be guilty of calling Sunday "This beautiful Sabbath Day." It just isn’t, and never was, and never will be.) Again, the church is a brand new thing, hidden from all ages past, its every ordinance and rite is brand new, and as such it needed a brand new revelation as distinct as was Moses’ on Sinai. Now such does Paul declare His gospel to be—a new direct revelation—and he defends it against all comers. Such we shall do also.

Therefore we shall see in our course that there is a complete body of church truth in the New Testament, given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit and by direct revelation of Jesus Christ, to only one apostle, Paul. It is in this sense we call it "Pauline Theology." It pleased Christ to separate one man, even before he was born (Galatians 1: 1 5), to the particular and peculiar position of being His revelator to the church.

It further pleased Him to reveal only to this one man the whole complete system of church truth. I do not know why He passed over all the others, but we shall see some suppositional reasons later. But "known unto Him are all His works." Paul gives this complete system of church truth in his thirteen recognized epistles Romans through Philemon) and in the Hebrews. (We shall consider why we believe Hebrews was written by Paul.)

Our course is outlined by our basic syllogism. The major premise will occupy our attention first: Paul is "the" (not "a") revelator to the church. This is his unique apostleship, Paul as the "chosen vessel," "the steward of the mysteries of God," and the "apostle to the Gentiles." The rest of the book will be occupied with the consideration of the minor premise: Only unto Paul was committed the complete system or revelation of church doctrine. We term this division Paul’s unique gospel, those great church truths which Paul, and Paul only, reveals, proving that unto him was committed the complete revelation of church doctrine. Thus it is "the gospel according to Paul."

We might here further inquire into the need for this course. It will enable us to follow Paul’s admonition to Timothy: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (II Timothy 2:15). A thorough understanding and indoctrination in the truth of our postulate will enable the student to rightly divide the word of truth. There are untold "wrestings" of the Scriptures, a world of "deceitful handlings of the word of truth," a twisting of the Word of God to fit some pet theory, the building of innumerable false doctrines, the founding of cults and ‘isms—all built upon either ignorance of, or deliberate ignoring of, this fundamental truth of Paul’s unique apostleship and revelation. For illustration, how utterly foolish, and impossible of justification, to try to reconcile with Paul the applying of the law principle for salvation, justification by works, when Paul distinctly says, "We are not under law, but under grace." To be firmly indoctrinated with the Pauline doctrine of absolutely pure grace is to be freed forever from any enslavement to any effort toward salvation by works or law.

What utter confusion there is when this great truth of Paul’s unique position is ignored. There is such a vast array of human opinion taught as church obligations until the weak brother, in bewilderment, asks, "What are we to believe?" What simpler standard can there be than this one: "Go to Paul to see if he teaches it; if he does not, then it is not a church doctrine."

Again, through the course we shall see that our postulate is the touchstone of all the error taught as church doctrine, the misapplying of the Scriptures, making them teach what the Holy Spirit never intended them to teach. A man may have all manner of eloquence and bring lovely, witty, unique, startling, original, entertaining, cute, little messages from all over the Word of God, but if he isn’t Pauline in his theology and preaching he isn’t preaching the gospel. He may be able to bring wonderful applications from all over the Bible, bolstering new precepts for the church, but if Paul hasn’t included them in "his gospel," then that preacher is misapplying Scripture (Peter calls it "wresting the Scriptures to their own destruction"), leading his hearers astray, and is not a "God-approved" workman.

Further, from our text above, it will contribute to a God-blessed, God-approved ministry. Paul calls his preaching and ministry a number of times as conducted "in the sight of God" (as II Corinthians 2:17; 4:2). I often wonder what God things of these "brilliant expositors" and "common-taters" who shoot off on a tangent, confounding rather than expounding the Scriptures. I have often said, "I would rather be true to the Book than startling in my teaching." Theirs may be more ingenious, and have a lot more appeal to the fleshly saint as being looser, allowing more play to the imagination, but we shall both have to answer to God. Shall we be men-pleasers or God-pleasers?

It will spell the death knell to a lot of accumulated rubbish man has added through the church dispensation as "aids to worship," "means to grace," "necessary steps," etc. How much of ceremonial, man-made ordinances, human traditions, and methods of worship, built upon Old Testament modes, are seen to be worthless in the light of Paul’s gospel. He goes back to the true spirituality of our worship, that Jesus said would come, and condemns all the "will-worship," "the rudimentary elements of this world," and "commandments of men" (Titus 1:14), "the observance of days," "bodily exercise," and prohibitions.

But there is one more very important need of this course and it is not the least at all. It will contribute to a growth in grace, "that ye might grow up into Christ in all things." To become thoroughly Pauline, steeped in his rich revelations of our position in Christ as a part of His body, possessor of His life, hidden in Him, crucified with Him, buried with Him, risen with Him, seated in the heavenlies in Him, complete in Him, filled with His Spirit, heirs with Him, will be to come to full age in Him. It will be to become "the spiritual ones" in Him, instead of the "weak brother." Here in Paul’s gospel alone do we get the "epignosis," the full or exact knowledge of Christ.

As God calls, instructs, and enables you to be separated unto the ministry by the Holy Spirit, it is of paramount importance that you be fully grounded in this truth and become Pauline in your teaching and preaching. Not that you will not be permitted to draw illustrations and spiritual truths from the whole Word of God—it "was all written for our learning": nor yet that you should ignore the teachings of Jesus, nor of the General Epistles; but it does mean that you have built your church doctrines upon the great church apostle and revelator, Paul.

Twice, in Galatians 1:8, 9, Paul calls down a special anathema (curse or devoted to judgment) upon any man, or an angel, or even himself, if they preach any other gospel than he had already preached to them. That is mighty all-inclusive. We shall repeatedly warn that this does not mean that Peter, James, Jude, Mark, Matthew, Luke, were not inspired or that they wrote contrary to Paul, nor that it is not for us. What they wrote is a part of the "all Scripture inspired of God and profitable." They all wrote for the believer and revealed wonderful truths. But this is very important: It pleased God to reveal only to them what He did reveal; but it also pleased God to pick another man separate from all the rest and to reveal to him alone the complete system of church doctrine, to commit to him alone the dispensation.

You will find no doctrine of the church revealed to any of the other New Testament writers, that is not revealed to Paul more completely; but contrariwise, you will find very, very much that was revealed only to Paul. It is this that is revealed only to Paul which forms the basis for our study of Pauline Theology and proves our minor premise. We shall see more graphically as we progress that if you take Paul’s fourteen epistles from the New Testament, you would know almost nothing at all of church truth which is distinctly church truth. We would know nothing of the truth of the church as the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, and the living relationship of the members one of another and to the Head, Christ. No other apostle even so much as mentions these truths. The four great mysteries for the church are taught only by Paul. The great doctrine of justification by faith is taught only by Paul, and is not even mentioned by any other New Testament writer. The believer’s identification with Christ in death, resurrection, ascension, and position now in the heavenlies, is given only by Paul, etc.

In fact, the apostle Peter had to learn these great truths the same way we learn them—from Paul (II Peter 3:15, 16). This is a very revealing portion and we shall refer to it again. It speaks graphically of Paul’s unique position and goes far to prove our syllogism.

Our method of procedure will perforce be a mere outline. A book could be written on each distinctively Pauline revelation, and many have been written. But we shall only introduce in broad outline the syllogistic proofs and leave to your future studies all the minute details.

To those who think that our position is startling, and maybe a little too extreme, I would recommend a little closer consideration of many of the great exegetes of church history. You will find many indications that our postulate guided them also. Time would fail us to tell of the many we have found in our own research, from the early Church Fathers to the present day. But as far as I can ascertain, this present course is the first time any effort has been made to systematize into one coherent whole, this great truth of Paul’s unique position in the New Testament.

Even Martin Luther so firmly believed in Paul’s unique place that he refused to include James in his translation of the New Testament; because he thought he disagreed with Paul, he termed James a "right strawy Epistle," i.e., nought but stubble.

Dr. C. I. Scofield, in his Reference Bible, indicates our position, in the "Introduction to Romans," p. 1189, and the "Introduction to Hebrews," p. 1289. Dr. Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on Acts 22:2 1, states: "The Epistles of Peter, John, James, and Jude are great and excellent; but, when compared with those of Paul, however glorious they may be, they have no glory comparatively, by reason of the glory which excelleth. Next to Jesus, St. Paul is the glory of the Christian Church. Jesus is the foundation; Paul, the Master-builder."

Dr. T. D. Bernard’s invaluable book, The Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament, comments on the utter absence of church doctrine in the book of Acts, as a part of the plan of the Holy Spirit to wait for Paul’s epistles to fill the need of explaining the truth of Christ within the believer, while Acts was the gospel to the unsaved.¹ My syllogism, in embryonic form, is found in this book: "Who are the appointed teachers of the church? Peter and John, the two chief Apostles; James and Jude, the brethren of the Lord? We take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus, and own the highest authority which association with Him can give. But the chief place in this system of teaching doesn’t belong to any of them, nor to all of them together. Their united writings form but a second volume, and that a very thin one, just one-fifth the bulk of the first, to which moreover it bears in some degree a kind of supplementary relation. The office of working out the principles of Christian faith into full proportions and clearly defined forms was assigned to another, to ‘Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle.’ "2 And then he goes on to note that Christ wanted an entirely different kind of a man, divorced from all the earthly associations the twelve had with Christ.

For those who shout "Back to Christ," and ignore the Epistles, Dr. Oswald Chambers, in his book, The Psychology of Redemption, says: "The Gospels always present in nugget form the truth, and if we want to know the stages of evangelical experience, we must go to the Epistles which beat out into negotiable gold the nuggets of truth presented by our Lord."³

Sir Robert Anderson, inThe Silence of God, states: "‘My Gospel’ three times repeated by Paul, are no mere conventional expressions. They are explained in several of his epistles and with peculiar definiteness in his letter to the Galatians. He there declares in explicit and emphatic terms that the gospel which he preached among the Gentiles was the subject of a special revelation peculiar to himself. Not only was he not taught it by those who were apostles before him, but he it was who by Divine Command, communicated it to the twelve," etc.

We should take note here in this Introduction of a warning against the abuse of our postulate. We have noted those who ignore it altogether, and confuse church truth with kingdom and Jewish truth--those who build all kinds of ingenious interpretations upon other than Pauline revelations. Now we wish at the very outset of our course to warn against those who, having seen a little of this truth, press it beyond all proportion and go way over into ultra-dispensationalism. We Shall devote a whole chapter to them later. They would take only Paul and throw out all the rest. Because it is not written about us, they think it is not for us. They forget that "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable." This is extreme dispensationalism; i.e., the dividing of the Scriptures into water-tight compartments. We must again warn the student that to ignore any of the Scripture is to miss some God-given revelation to your heart. James and John and Jude and Peter were just as inspired as Paul, and they wrote to the church, for the church, and about the church. What God revealed to them is just as much for us as what Paul wrote. All we contend is that the New Testament distinctly teaches that to Paul alone was committed the whole complete perfect revelation of church truth, and therefore we must go to him to build our system of church doctrine.

In closing this Introduction, there is one more thing to note. We believe that Paul received the whole of it at one time in Arabia shortly after his conversion --the whole gospel which he preached. We shall see this taught in Galatians 1, 2. Dr. C. I. Scofield was probably the first to teach that Paul got two distinct revelations: one, the first, in Arabia, embodying a partial and elmentary revelation of church truth; the second, while he was in prison, embodying the deeper revelation of the mysteries, contained in the prison epistles. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, in The Kingdom in History and Prophecy, follows Scofield in this belief.⁵

But there is too much of the deep truths of Christ as Head of His body, and we as members, His bridegroomship (as II Corinthians 11:1-3), and the mysteries (s in Romans 16:25, 26) in the first general epistles of Paul to support this. Nowhere does Paul make any statement of a new direct revelation from Christ of deeper truth as in Galatians 1: 11, 12, of his Arabian revelation. I grant you that there is a deeper spiritual tone and a deeper revelation in the prison epistles, but instead of crediting it to a further revelation, I believe it is due to a more mature, more spiritual church to whom he was writing and could reveal new depths of his gospel, which he was hindered from giving prior to this to the more infant church.

As a proof of this, see his writing to the Hebrew saints (Hebrews 5: 11), to whom he said: "Of whom (Melchisedec) we have many things to say and hard to be uttered (explained) seeing ye are dull of hearing (sluggish hearers.)" Here it was not because Paul had no revelation about Meichisedec, but he could not reveal it to the Hebrew saints because of their sluggishness of hearing--something like this complaint concerning the Corinthians, "I could not feed you meat, but milk" (1 Corinthians 3:2: "I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it; neither yet are ye able.") But to the Ephesians, etc., he could send them a choice beefsteak, not milk-toast.