CHAPTER XXIII

THE LETTERS OF THE APOSTLES

ALTHOUGH the God-Spell ends with Paul in Rome there are two appendices to which a brief allusion must be made-the epistles and the Apocalypse.

Paul and the other Apostles were not only preachers, some of them were also writers. There are thirteen epistles of Paul, two of Peter, three of John, and one each of James and Jude, together with an anonymous one addressed to the Hebrews. Most of these were written because of circumstances that prevailed in the churches or that affected the individuals to which they were addressed. They furnish interesting lights on the history of the early church, and are full of wise counsel.

Early letters

The earliest of the Epistles of Paul were the two to the Thessalonians. They are marked by the simplicity that characterised the early years of Christianity. One idea stands out in each of them; the believers were waiting for the return of Christ: they were to be the Apostle’s “crown of glorying before our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming.” He prayed for them that they might be unblamable “at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Their hope for their friends who had died was that they should be raised from the dead when “the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout . . . and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” They knew of the times and seasons which were to indicate the time of the coming of the Lord. Their persecutions were to be recompensed when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven, though that event would not take place until there had been a falling away (an apostacy) from the truth.”

Next in order, probably, was the Epistle to the Galatians. It was written to oppose the efforts of some who were trying to introduce Judaism into the Church. It emphasises the fact that there is only one gospel, anything else is not really a gospel. That gospel had been preached to Abraham when God promised him that in his seed, the Christ, all the families of the earth should be blessed. The import­ance of it in a personal sense is seen in the fact that the inheritance connected with the promise was not that of the law, but that “as many of you as have been baptized into Christ did put on Christ . . . and if ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.”

Questions and answers

The two Epistles to the Corinthians were written in response to letters from them asking for guidance, and as a result of reports of evil practices among them, yet they contain much that is of universal application, not the least important being the necessity of unity in the Church. The command of a weekly memorial meeting is emphasised. Paul had “received of the Lord” particulars in relation to the breaking of bread and the drinking of wine. In the midst of these instructions there occurs one of the outstanding chapters in the New Testa­ment, the Hymn of Love, the greatest thing in the world, for now “abideth faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”

A remarkable chapter sets out the place of resur­rection in the Christian faith. If there be no resurrec­tion of the dead, that is, of the dead body, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished; only when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, shall the saying come to pass, “death is swallowed up in victory.” The second epistle sets forth the place of judgment in the scheme, “for we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things in the body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad.”

Important teachings

The Epistle to the Romans was written before Paul had been to Rome. It is more like a theological treatise than an ordinary letter and is an excellent exposition of the doctrines of the early Church. It sets forth the majesty of the God as evidenced in creation, the necessity of judgment “in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ.” An allusion to the Abrahamic promises leads to the subject of faith, evidenced by Abraham himself in his implicit belief in the promise of God, and then to an important section which deals with the problems of sin and evil and their removal. Sin and death came by one man, Adam, and as a result, death reigned. In like manner righteousness and life come through the obedience of Christ, that, “as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness, unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Such a result may accrue to those who have been baptized into the death of Christ, and who have realised the result in their later life-dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ.

There follows an elaborate argument on the whole subject. Sin is viewed not only as an act but as a principle, a law of sin in the members of the individual, causing Paul to say, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?” only to respond “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” It is noticeable that in the course of the whole argument Paul does not make the slightest allusion to the common idea of a devil, or a hell of consciousness and suffering. “The wages of sin is death, and the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

A later section of the epistle deals with Israel’s part in the plan. They were beloved for the fathers’ sake but had been cast off for their sins. Under the figure of an olive tree Paul shows that Israel were as branches broken off because of unbelief so that Gentiles might, contrary to nature, be grafted into the olive tree and thus share in the promises made to Abraham. The final section of the epistle is taken up with rules for daily conduct and a doxology of great power.

Paul’s stay in Rome is marked by a group of Epistles, those to the Ephesians, the Philippians, and the Colossians, and a personal one to Philemon. They contain evidence of a gradual falling away from the simplicity of the faith. Philosophy and vain deceit, the traditions of men, the “rudiments of the world,” had corrupted the early simplicity of the Truth as it is in Jesus, and these epistles are directed against such tendencies. Yet the old simplicity is there. The covenants of promise are still referred to; believers are regarded as fellow citizens with the saints of the past, fellow heirs of the old promises. A seven-fold unity is enjoined, One body (the Church, the body of Christ), one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. The same salvation is proclaimed, the coming of “the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory.” The way to this end is also the same, burial with Christ by baptism that they might be raised by him through faith. Their life was hid with Christ in God, only to be received when Christ “who is our life” is manifested at his second coming.

The last group consists of letters to Timothy and Titus. They are more intimate in character, but they lay down principles for the guidance of the church and those who serve the church. They speak of the great degeneracy that was to mark the last times, when men should be “lovers of self,” “lovers of money” and “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” As the Apostle reached the end of his career and recognised that his death was at hand, he wrote, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day,” “according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus.”

Old and New Covenants

The anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews is a remarkable exposition of the “betterness” of the religion of Christ when compared with that of the Mosaic dispensation. Jesus is more excellent than either angels, Moses, Aaron, or Joshua. Yet the truth in him had its foundations in the past, and all that had gone before had been a preparation for him. “Better” is a keynote to the epistle: better promises, better sacrifices, a better hope, for Jesus had entered into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption, an end that exceeds all the promises of the law, and is only possible because Jesus had died as the sacrificial victim whereby the Abrahamic covenant had been confirmed. His death and resurrection indicated how the principle is to be understood that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. An outstanding chapter defines faith, “the assurance of things hoped for, the proving of things not seen,” and proceeds to illustrate that faith by many examples recorded in the Story. In every case it was a faith that worked by love, and it rested on the old promises, confirmed by the death and resurrection of Jesus, showed that while “here we have no continuing city” we look for “the city which is to come,” in contrast to the idea of one to go to. An important section of this epistle emphasises the fact that Jesus was of the same nature as all human beings, that “He might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is the devil.” As the “sting of death is sin,” this saying identifies the devil with the sin nature, or sin power in us, which is to be brought to naught through Christ.

Keeping the faith

The Epistle of James was evidently written by the person spoken of as “James, the Lord’s brother.” It is very practical, and is mainly concerned with the actions and the duties of the believer. It extols the virtue of patience and exhorts its readers to “be patient until the coming of the Lord.”

Two Epistles of Peter follow. They are wonderful indications of what a change can be wrought in any one by an association with Jesus; they are as unlike the sayings of the Peter of the early days as they could possibly be. He speaks of Jesus as “the chief corner stone, elect, precious,” and refers to the sufferings of the Christ and the glories that shall follow, adding to this the idea that in some way the Christian has to make up that which was lacking of those sufferings-a wonderful and suggestive thought. The old lessons of the past are reiterated. “All flesh is as grass,” but “the Word of the Lord abideth for ever.” The great hope of the new dispensation is emphasised, and attention fixed upon the time when the Chief Shepherd shall be manifested. Peter gives a word of warning. “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” There were enemies around seeking for some way of stopping the progress of Christianity; the pagan authorities as the embodiment of the sin-power of the time. Peter had been put in prison by the Jewish authorities in Judaea, and the “sojourners of the Dispersion” were likely to have similar experiences in Asia Minor. There is no need to imagine the Devil of a past theology roaring like a lion in his search for the souls of believers.

A second letter used the great judgments of the past to illustrate judgments to come, and the dangers of false teachers or prophets. In it Peter spoke of a new heaven and a new earth wherein righteousness shall dwell, once more linking the New Testament with the Old in its hopes and expectations, for it is in the Old that the details of the new heavens and the new earth must be sought Peter ends his second epistle with an exhortation to “grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” and the ascription to him of glory both now and for ever.

John’s three Epistles are marked by the things that characterised the man. The great Christian virtue is love, and its duties and obligations are spoken of and emphasised. The simple truths of the Christian religion are insisted on. The place of Christ as the propitiation for sins, the fact that he came in the flesh, i.e., the flesh of men and not in some other kind of flesh; his coming again to cause his followers to be as he is now; spirit and not mere flesh and blood. They need life, and eternal life is only to be found in him. He adds his testimony to that of Paul in relation to the simple things of the religion of Christ.

The list of the Epistles is completed by that of Jude, a short letter in which he shows the necessity of contending earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and building ourselves up on that most holy faith.

These are only a few thoughts on the letters of the New Testament. They would require volumes for their proper treatment yet they form a part of the great Story and must have at least a passing allusion in this review.