Part 3 - ‘The Outgoing to The Gentiles’

This Article is part of a multi-part Study Series called Three Pivotal Points in The Book of Acts.

The explanation for the delay in the outpouring of God’s overdue wrath is found first in Paul’s Romans 5:20 declaration that “where sin abounded, GRACE did much more abound.” Yes, the outpouring of God’s pure “grace” has interrupted and delayed the outpouring of God’s wrath on Israel and the world... those who refuse to receive His Son as Savior.

Here we will see how God’s super abounding GRACE poured out to the Gentiles has interrupted the prophetic timeline for JUDGMENT upon Israel and the World with Israel’s stoning of Stephen.

Israel had rejected the three members of the Triune Godhead, individually. Recall how that Israel had killed the prophets who God the Father had sent to them, then they killed “the Son of God,” then going on to reject the Holy Spirit speaking through Stephen (Acts 7:51-60). Stephen’s stoning was as the ‘third strike’ in baseball, when... and you are out! In this case, “Israel, you are fallen.” (Rom. 11:10-13, 25)

Amazingly, at the very moment when the prophetic clock had reached the hour of judgment, God in Hisgrace interrupted the prophetic program by ushering in a new un-prophesied (secret) program – with a previously unknown purpose of God.

This new program of God, Paul calls “the mystery,” having a purpose which “had been kept secret since the world began,” but which secret became revealed to and through Paul (Rom. 16:25-26, Eph. 3:1-9).

“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, 2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: 3 How that by revelation he (Jesus) made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6 That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body (of Christ), and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: 7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. 8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery (of the joint body, Gentiles and Jew as “one in Christ”), which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:” (Eph. 3:1-9)

While in Acts 7 Stephen had seen Christ “standing” at the Father’s right hand ready to return in wrath and destroy His enemies, in Acts 9 we see Jesus reaching down and save (not destroy) Saul of Tarsus (Paul), the former leader of the world’s rebellion against Jesus Christ. Not only does Jesus save Saul of Tarsus by His grace but He also sends him forth -- no longer to be Saul the opponent, but now Paul, “the Apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13).

Soon after Saul was struck down by the blinding “light” of Jesus from heaven on the road to Damascus, God tells Ananias to go Damascus to find Paul and pray for his lost sight, saying for:

“...He (Paul) Is A Chosen Vessel Unto Me, To Bear My Name Before The Gentiles, and Kings, and The Children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). Recall that Paul was a Roman Jew, well suited for this multi-racial calling.

Paul’s own account of his commission from Christ is equally clear:

“...And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I Have Appeared Unto Thee For This Purpose, To Make Thee A Minister and a Witness Both of These Things Which Thou Hast Seen, and of Those Things In The Which I Will Appear Unto Thee” (Acts 26:15-16).

Paul goes on to say he received multiple, progressive, revelations of Christ (2Cor. 12:1, 7)! Paul goes forth as “the Apostle of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13), as a new apostle sent forth with a new revelation concerning a new gospel program and a new dispensation called “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:2)

Israel’s prophetic program had called for one day salvation and blessing going to the Gentiles through a redeemed Israel (Gen. 22:18, Isa. 59:20-60:3, Luke 24:47, Acts 3:25-26, etc.). But Israel rejected the King and His Kingdom. So now we see Paul going “to the Gentiles”; was is not in fulfillment of the prophetic order, but rather in spite of Israel’s rejection and unbelief that had stopped prophecy’s fulfillment for a time.

Although Israel had rejected her Messiah both in His incarnation and yet again after His resurrection, God had a secret purpose to accomplish through Christ, which was then revealed to Paul and through Paul. Just when the prophetic clouds of judgment lay heaviest on the horizon, God in His infinite grace and manifold wisdom interrupted prophecy that had been spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began (Acts 3:21) in order to usher in His secret purpose – “the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began (Rom. 16:25)  

Note that these two “since the world began” statements (above) must refer to something that is vastly different; they cannot be speaking about the same thing at all. Peter’sspoken by all the prophets” cannot be the same as Paul’s formerly secret” information. Actually, Paul’s “mystery… kept secret … since the world began” interrupted Peter’s referenced prophetic “since the world began” when it became revealed to Paul by Jesus from heaven.

Far from being the fulfillment of Israel’s prophesied Pentecostal program, the outgoing of this new grace gospel to the Gentiles under Paul’s ministry was the result of the new, formerly secret, program revealed to and through Paul.

Hence, Paul writes explaining Israel’s “fall” and loss of their calling, for now.

“I say then, Have they [Israel] stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather Through Their Fall Salvation Is Come Unto The Gentiles, For To Provoke Them To Jealousy. “Now if the Fall Of Them Be The Riches Of The World, and the Diminishing Of Them The Riches of The Gentiles; How Much More Their Fulness?

“I Speak to You Gentiles, Inasmuch as I Am The Apostle Of The Gentiles” (Rom. 11:11-13a).

Conclusion:  

These three pivotal events we’ve now seen in Acts and Romans are where Paul explains the fall of Israel and God’s reason for sending salvation “to the Gentiles.

Paul was given of Jesus from heaven to bring his ‘Mystery Gospel,’ a gospel salvation that is totally apart from Israel’s calling under her prophetic program.

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my (Paul’s) gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of ‘the mystery,’ which was kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the (grace) prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations (all races) for the obedience of faith:” (Romans 16:25-26)

Know also that Israel’s calling and promises will be ultimately restored, but only AFTER the Rapture that will end the grace age we enjoy today. Then, all prophecy will be fulfilled in “the ages to come.”

Rather than setting forth a pattern for the church today to follow during today as I once had thought years ago and as is commonly supposed in Christendom, the time and modus operandi seen in the early Acts period of the Twelve Apostles has ended.

We now know that the Book of Acts and Romans together reveal WHY Israel’s program, which had begun in early Acts, was then set aside by God, put in abeyance… until today’s “all men” Gentile age ends … with the Rapture.

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this ‘mystery’ (of God’s formerly secret plan), lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, UNTIL the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” (Romans 11:25)

The truth seen in Paul’s epistles demonstrates how God has interrupted Israel’s prophetic program… just at the point when prophecy called for His wrath to be poured out. He did this by inaugurating a new program of “grace and peace.” This is confirmed by the declaration of the epistles of Paul that the fulfillment of prophecy, for the present time, has given way to the unfolding of the secret purposes of God’s ‘grace -- as revealed through the message committed to Paul by our ascended Lord from heaven’s glory.

- By Richard Jordan as largely adapted by Arthur J Licursi -