For I will shew him what great things he must suffer for my name’s sake (Acts 9:16).

It should be noted that while the Apostle Paul is the pattern for our salvation he is not necessarily the pattern for our ministry. Why? Because for a start the Bible does not record any divine apostolic appointment after him and after the decease of the Lord’s other apostles. And what the Bible says matters since God’s inspired, preserved word is the final authority for the believer.

That means, since no other ‘apostle’ was appointed to replace him after his death, Paul remains the Apostle of Grace and the Apostle to the Gentiles, indeed to the whole world, to this day still ministering the Lord’s word for us through his writings

Another reason Paul’s ministry is not a pattern for us to follow is that Paul had a unique calling and ministry markedly different to that of the Lord’s apostles appointed when He was on earth. For example, he is the only apostle to have been caught up to the third heaven, and the only apostle divinely appointed Teacher of the Gentiles. 

But there’s more. Paul to witness to new truth revealed by God was appointed to suffer physically and in other ways more than any other man, save perhaps the Lord Jesus Himself. So much so, he and he alone of all the apostles, was given what we might call a ‘get out of jail free card’ should the brutal sufferings become too much for him to bear.

What’s that you say? Why should Paul be given a way out of suffering denied to other apostles?  This study will propose the answer. First though let’s see that Paul was and indeed still is a pattern for our salvation:

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 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 (1 Timothy 1:15-16).

Paul then is the first and supreme example in Bible history of salvation purely by God’s grace. As Saul he had been a murderous enemy of Jesus’ followers until the Lord arrested him on the Damascus road blinding him with his glory and instant bringing about his conversion, appointing him an apostle on the spot (read Acts 26:9-18).

But the uniqueness of Saul’s calling doesn’t stop there.  The risen Lord sends the disciple Ananias to lay hands on the now submissive Saul him so he could ‘receive his sight’. Understandably Anananias at first demurs knowing the ‘evil’ Paul has done to believers at Jerusalem. But the Lord insists:

Go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him what GREAT THINGS HE MUST SUFFER for my name’s sake (Acts 9:15-16).

And suffer hugely Saul, soon to be called Paul, certainly did. All through his years of ministry he was most brutally assaulted:

Are they (i.e. the false brethren opposing the gospel of grace) ministers of Christ (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a day and a night I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils, among false brethren. In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things which are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches (2 Corinthians 11: 23-28).

It can be truthfully said that, aside from the Lord Jesus Christ who in agony was put to death for our sins, no man on earth but Paul has suffered more, just as Jesus said he would. And Paul is in part drawing on his own experience when in 1 Corinthians 10:13 he says:

…God will not suffer you tempted above that which ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it.

So, did Paul have a ‘way of escape’ from the awful treatment he endured? Yes, he did. But as we shall see, the astonishing thing is: HE NEVER USED IT. Rather, he chose to undergo lifelong pain and punishment voluntarily, not by compulsion.

For example, when continually assaulted by ‘the messenger of Satan sent to buffet me’ Paul prayed three times asking the Lord to remove it. The Lord’s answer was: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee’…for my strength if made perfect in weakness’. And Paul’s response to that was:

Most gladly therefore will I will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, in necessities, in persecution, in distresses for Christ’s sake, for when I am weak then am I strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

The truth is that Paul suffered terribly so that the gospel of the power of Christ to save could reach you and I. You see, Christ died for sins and rose again for our redemption, but his death and resurrection of itself did not make his tremendous victory known to the world. That job fell largely to Paul as his foremost witness. As he urges the Colossian believers

…be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a MINISTER, who now REJOICE in my SUFFERINGS for you and FILL UP that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ IN MY FLESH for his body’s sake which is the church (Colossians 1:23-24).

It is an indictment on the so-called Christian church of today that Paul’s great suffering to bring us the fullness of grace, announced through him by the Lord is little acknowledged today. Indeed, the Lord’s revelation to Paul of the hitherto secret ‘dispensation of the grace of God and the mystery’ (Ephesians 3:1-5) is even shunned as ‘divisive. Yet this ‘completed salvation’ is the Lord’s most important message to the world today.

We can conclude that Paul CHOSE to SUFFER to get this vital news out to a desperately wicked world. That is, he was not divinely compelled to undergo such torment. He had a choice, because, as said earlier, he had a ‘get out of jail free’ card should he decide the suffering became too much. For Paul this posed an agonising decision as he explains in Philippians1:23-24:

For I am in a strait between two having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better. Nevertheless (for me) to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.

Here Paul is not talking about his death as many assume. He would have no choice about that; it would be inflicted upon him as it is upon us all.  What he is talking about is the ‘way of escape’ God had uniquely granted him. That was to ‘depart and be with Christ’, and that not through death as has often been suggested.  No, Paul was uniquely given the opportunity to while still alive depart to be with the Lord.

In the event Paul chose to continue to suffer rather can call a halt to the suffering process. And he did so for the sake of the saints at Philippi and elsewhere for they were he says  the ‘fruit of my labour’.

It is my conviction that to ‘depart and be with Christ’ without undergoing death was a special privilege awarded only to him and perhaps two others, Enoch and Elijah. Certainly, it is not available to believers like you and I despite false teachings such as that of the ‘rapture’, a word not found in scripture. No, we will die like all men and if we have ‘continued in the faith’ (Colossians 1:23) will await resurrection into the Lord’s kingdom on earth.

Now the key to correctly understanding Philippians 1:20-25 is to see that above all things Paul wanted to see Christ MAGNIFIED in his (Paul’s) body, ‘whether by life or death’. Thus, the only ‘gain’ he sought was not his own but to see Christ exalted and magnified through him whether by life or death. And so, he decides to remain on earth serving fellow believers rather taking a quick exit out to spare himself further pain.

John Dudley Aldworth

Email: johndaldworth42@gmail.com

Website: https://www.dayofchristmnistries.com›