Ascension Life Booklet Paul's Revelation

I tell you, brothers, the gospel which I preach is no human affair. I owe my knowledge to no man's instruction and to no man's teaching. No! It came to me by direct revelation from Jesus Christ. (Gal. 1:11-12 Barclay)

When we study the four gospels we see plainly that Jesus knew why He came. He knew his main mission was not just teaching and performing miracles. He came to set man free from the effects of the transgression of Adam. This could only be done through a redemptive work that included a death, burial andresurrection. Jesus came to bring the fire of God's judgment down upon Adam and his works! In Luke 12:49-50 Jesus said, "I came to throw fire upon the earth. and what is my desire? O that it were even now kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo: and how I am sent up until it is accomplished" Barclay translates it. "I have come to set the world ablaze. What is it that I want? Would that it were already kindled! I must be plunged in to a flood-tide of suffering, and there can be no relief for me, until I have gone through it to the end." (Weymouth). Not only would the work of the cross provide the fire to burn up the old man it would also become the fuel of the Gospel message that would set the Church ablaze! Jesus came to set us ablaze with the same light, life, and glory that He Himself was driven with.

In John 12:24, He said, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." When you plant a kernel of corn, the fruit produced is many more kernels like the one planted. Jesus knew that it was only by His death, burial and resurrection that he could reproduce Himself through His body, the body of Christ. All those in Christ would be brought into the same conditions He was in, conformed to his image. Many sons would be brought to glory by the planting of the Son.

In John 12:31-33, He said, " Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This He said signifying what death he should die." Here Jesus proclaimed that sin and the sinner would be judged at the cross, identified with Him there, and that Satan would be dethroned. The Jerusalem Bible says," ...now the prince of this world is to be overthrown." Another says, " Now the prince of this world will be deprived of his sovereignty."

All the redemptive themes declared by Jesus deserved and needed explanation and expounding. But without the sending forth of the Holy Spirit the disciples were not capable of comprehending them at that time. Jesus said, " I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now." The Jerusalem Bible says, " ...they would be too much for you now." Goodspeed says, " ...you cannot take it in now." (Jn.16:12-14) What was it He wanted to tell them? It was the things concerning His redemptive mission, what He would accomplish in His death, burial and resurrection, our identification with Him in that work, and what it would produce in us.

The disciples couldn't receive them then because they weren't ready for them, they were insensitive to spiritual things (not having been born again themselves yet), and these things hadn't happened yet. They were the "things to come" under the New Covenant Jesus was to inaugurate. They were those things that happened to Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection when He identified with humanity and there wiped out what Adam produced in them!

You know, the disciples didn't even get it when Jesus said He was going to die and be raised again. In Luke 18:31-34, Jesus told them He was going to be mocked, scourged, and put to death; But the third day He would rise again. That seems clear enough, but verse 34 says, "And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken," Now, it wouldn't do too much good to try to get across to this group what Jesus was going to accomplish and provide in his death and resurrection, when they couldn't even get it that He was going to do it. Once when Jesus spoke of His coming death, Peter even rebuked Him and said, "Be it far from thee, Lord: This shall not be unto thee." (Matt. 16:22) When Jesus did die, the disciples were all discouraged and disillusioned. They didn't even believe those who first told them Jesus was risen. Read the 24th chapter of Luke.

The object of the incarnation (the reason Jesus came) was to enter into His death, burial and resurrection. The foundation of Christianity and the gospel is Christ's death, burial and resurrection. The disciples of Jesus did not understand His death and resurrection--in fact they didn't even believe it until Jesus appeared to them and instructed them concerning its necessity to fulfill prophesy. And even then they knew very, very little about what had actually been accomplished in that work and who they were and what they had as a result of it. Even in the Book of Acts, they gave almost no explanation of it. They proclaimed the facts of it, but they did not explain the results and fruit of it-- what it means to the believer.

Then, as now there is a desperate need to have an in-depth, detailed, rich, comprehensive explanation concerning what had happened, what had been accomplished, and who the believer is and what he has as a result of that redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This information is found primarily in Paul's writings. That's the revelation of Jesus Christ Paul was given. Here lies the importance, the significance of that revelation. It is my objective to launch an intensive investigation into all that Christ Jesus did in His death burial and resurrection until we are absorbed in the consciousness of our place in Christ and Christ's place in us.

I must impress on you, my brothers, the distinctive feature of the glad tidings, I proclaimed it-namely, its super human nature. It was not from man that I received it nor by man that I was taught it: it came to me directly through a revelation given by Jesus the Messiah (Gal. 1:11-12 Way)

In the four Gospels, we see the historical events of Jesus' crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension recorded by eye witnesses. The gospel--Christianity itself--is based upon and centers upon these events. But in the Gospels we have no explanation except for a few suggestions from Jesus as to what His death and resurrection meant to us. In the book of Acts we see those events proclaimed by the eye-witnesses, the apostles. Yet we still have no explanation as to what had actually been accomplished. In studying the sermons in Acts, you will find that they follow a certain pattern. An Old Testament text is taken that foretold of Christ, then a brief record of His career is given, then an appeal is made to repent and believe. There is no explanation of what Christ's redemptive work accomplished or who the believer is or what He has as a result of it.

It is in the epistles that we find out what God did for us in Christ. Of those twenty-one New Testament epistles, Paul evidently wrote fourteen. And of the seven written by others, three have only one chapter each.

In Paul's epistles we find the gospel explained. In the Old Covenant the historical account of the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai in Exodus was followed by much explanation of the law in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Without the explanation it would have been difficult for Israel to carry out the terms of that law. So it is in the case of the New Covenant. The work of redemption, the consummation of the Father's plan of the ages, was accomplished totally and completely by the Lord Jesus Christ. But without an explanation of that accomplishment, it would be difficult--impossible--to fully enjoy the benefits of that covenant.

Has it ever seemed strange to you that the great burden for formally wording the "theology" so to speak of the New Covenant fell upon one who was not even with Christ in his earth walk, instead of one of those in the "inner circle?" Some say Paul was chosen to do this formulation because of his educational background, but Paul himself called his accomplishments "dung." No, Paul was selected by the Spirit to bring forth the bulk of the New Testament theology because he, more than any other Apostle, had a revelation imparted to him directly by Christ, of what Christ's redemptive work had actually accomplished.

The Church has not failed in her proclamation of the gospel so much as in her explanation of the gospel. And because she hasn't explained the gospel, believers have stayed ignorant of their place and privileges in Christ. The believer can never overcome and fully enjoy his inheritance and express Christ in the world until he has a rich understanding of his redemption in Christ, his righteousness in Christ, his identification with Christ in his redemptive work, his union with Christ in spirit and the reality of the new creation. All of these are found in vivid detail in Paul's revelation.

When you really know who you are and what you have in Christ, the faith problem is settled. Faith is not a matter of trying to believe. It is a matter of knowing your place and rights and acting on them. Faith then becomes an almost unconscious assurance. Instead of telling the believer who they are and what they have, the ministry for the most part has demanded that they "do" and "believe." Paul never took that approach in his letters. He told the believers who they were and what they had in Christ and then told them to act like it.

The disciples' knowledge of Jesus in His earth walk was limited to their senses. Their knowledge of His death and resurrection was limited to sense knowledge. The most important aspects of Christ's death and resurrection, however, could not be seen with the physical senses. His substitution, bearing and becoming our sin, our sickness, spiritual death and His mighty triumph over Satan and hell could only be seen in the Spirit. And this information could only be revealed in the spirit, as it was to Paul.

This revelation of Christ's redemptive accomplishments, the believer's identification with Christ in them, and the believer's place and provision because of them had to be given. And, thank God, they were. They were given to the Church by the Spirit through Paul!

In Christ,
Gary L. Garner

Paul’s Revelation

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