Why Paul?

Have you ever wondered why God added another apostle? Jesus, while on earth, spent three years teaching and training the 12 apostles. After His death and resurrection, Jesus spent 40 days confirming what He had taught. After His ascension to Heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit upon them, giving them power to work miracles. As far as the record is concerned, the 12 never got out of Jerusalem. Some have concluded that because the 12 apostles did not “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), God needed a plan “B”. Was Saul of Tarsus, who later became Paul who evangelized the Gentile world, saved and sent to do what the 12 apostles failed to do?

Jesus on earth was the promised Messiah of Israel, who came to establish the prophesied earthly kingdom and sit on the throne of His father David. This was Israel’s program and hope. The whole world would come and bow before Israel’s Messiah in a glorious kingdom on earth. Jerusalem would be the capital city! This was the goal of prophecy. Even after Jesus was crucified on the day of Pentecost, this was the message of the 12 apostles in Jerusalem. Peter said that Jesus’ death fulfilled what the prophets said. Now Israel could repent of their rejection of Messiah, and Jesus would return “… which God had spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:18-21). This kingdom would be preceded by a time of wrath and judgment because of the world’s rejection of Jesus Christ. The 12 apostles were not negligent, but faithful in the face of tremendous opposition and persecution!

Yet neither the wrath and judgment nor the promised kingdom came. Paul’s salvation and ministry was not plan “B”. The apostle Paul was saved to reveal a new purpose to the world, forming a new people called the church, the body of Christ, and save individuals among the Gentiles. He called it “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Ephesians 3:1-6). It was “the revelation of the mystery, kept secret since the world began” (Romans 16:25). The prophesied wrath and Israel’s earthly kingdom now awaits a future day!

Recognizing the new ministry of the apostle Paul as separate and distinct from that of the 12 apostles is the key to understanding the Bible. Why Paul? God had a secret purpose that would interrupt prophecy and temporarily set His favored nation aside. “Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting” (I Timothy 1:16). True Christianity begins with Paul’s “no difference” ministry to the Gentiles, and is found in the books of Romans through Philemon. It is through Paul we learn “… there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (I Timothy 2:5,6). The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is now good news. This is the basis to offer salvation as the gift of God, and forgiveness of sins to all by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.