Section 3 - A New Operation
                  The Law
 

A New Operation

To Paul, therefore, was given the privilege and responsibility of revealing this well-concealed secret of God, announcing this grand news that Christ is now operating among the nations. 

Col.1:24-28  I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for you, 
and am filling up in my flesh, in His stead, the deficiencies of the afflictions of Christ, 
for His body, which is the ecclesia of which I became a dispenser, 
in accord with the administration of God, which is granted to me for you, 
to complete the word of God—
the secret which has been concealed from the eons and from the generations, 
yet now was made manifest to His saints, to whom God wills to make known 
what are the glorious riches of this secret among the nations, 
which is: Christ among you, the expectation of glory— Whom we are announcing, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, 
that we should be presenting every man mature in Christ Jesus; 

A Hitherto Unknowable God

To believers of the Circumcision’s evangel under Peter’s supervision among the people of Israel, God revealed His love for His people Israel through the sacrifice of His Lamb. He is still the All-Sufficient God, El Shaddai, Who demonstrates His power through His wonderful miracles. He is still the One Who calls them into His flock through His Shepherd. He is still the One Who will fulfill all His promises to their patriarchs. And He is still the Lawgiver Who expects them to meticulously observe His laws, as well as the Judge Who will severely penalise them for any infringements! He is revealed as a loving Father - but a very stern One.

To believers of the Uncircumcision’s evangel preached by Paul among the nations, however, everything is new! They have had no prior record of God which they can compare with. The patriarchal promises mean nothing to them for they have never heard of these. They have not heard of the analogy of Shepherd and little flock. The laws of Mt Sinai were never given to them. So, knowing the True God is a totally new experience for them. And to these hitherto estranged people of His creation, this ‘Unknowable God’ at last reveals Himself through His evangel.

Act.17:22-29 Now Paul, standing in the center of the Areopagus averred,
"Men! Athenians! On all sides am I beholding how unusually religious you are. 
For, passing through and contemplating the objects of your veneration, 
I found a pedestal also, on which had been inscribed, 
`To an Unknowable God.' 
To Whom then, you are ignorantly devout, This One am I announcing to you. 
The God Who makes the world and all that is in it,
He, the Lord inherent of heaven and earth, is not dwelling in temples made by hands,
neither is He attended by human hands, as if requiring anything, 
since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all.
Besides, He makes out of one every nation of mankind, 
to be dwelling on all the surface of the earth, 
specifying the setting of the seasons and the bounds of their dwelling,
for them to be seeking God, 
if, consequently, they may surely grope for Him and may be finding Him, 
though to be sure, not far from each one of us is He inherent,
for in Him we are living and moving and are, 
as some poets of yours also have declared, `For of that race also are we.'
The race, then, is inherently of God; 
we ought not to be inferring that the Divine is like gold, or silver, or stone, 
a sculpture of art and human sentiment. 

Eph.3:8-12  To me, less than the least of all saints, was granted this grace: 
to bring the evangel of the untraceable riches of Christ to the nations,
and to enlighten all as to what is the administration of the secret, 
which has been concealed from the eons in God, Who creates all, 
that now may be made known 
to the sovereignties and the authorities among the celestials, 
through the ecclesia, 
the multifarious wisdom of God, in accord with the purpose of the eons, 
which He makes in Christ Jesus, our Lord;
in Whom we have boldness and access with confidence, through His faith. 

Paul realised the fact of the grace of God in his own extreme case of sinning. This was the pattern God was now using in His dealings with those of the nations.

1Tim.1:15,16  Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all welcome, 
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, 
foremost of whom am I. 
But therefore was I shown mercy, 
that in me, the foremost, Jesus Christ should be displaying all His patience, 
for a pattern of those who are about to be believing on Him for life eonian. 

A Different Evangel

The major change in outlook of the believers of Peter’s evangel, from the orthodox belief of the nation of Israel, was concerned with the acceptance of Jesus as the Son of God as well as their prophesied and long-awaited Messiah (Deut.18:15,18,19). 

But everything else, except for adjustments to improve the spiritual intent of the law, remained the same. They still looked forward to the establishment of the kingdom of God and the blessings associated with that event. Many years later, when thousands of Jewish people had come to believe in the Christ, they were all intensely zealous for the law as well as for the rite of circumcision and were adamant for their strict observance (Act.21:20)! 

And here comes Paul preaching something else to those of the nations, something the Circumcision believers found very difficult to reconcile to their understanding of God’s operations. Not only was Paul saying that God was now operating a ministry among the nations, He was even preaching to these people of the Uncircumcision that, because of Christ’s death on the cross, God was actually calling them into an intimate relationship with Him - without their having to submit to the initiating rite of circumcision or their having to approach Him through the observance of the law or the offices and intermediary of the Jewish Temple system.

To the believers of the Circumcision evangel, this different message through Paul must have been quite perplexing and very upsetting, to say the least.

This message reveals a facet of God hitherto unknown and unsuspected - even by the messengers in heaven. He does not leave humanity to its own resources to overcome the flesh - an impossible task because it is incapable of overcoming death. There is no way humanity can remove or annul the penalty incurred by Adam’s sin. Even the law, given to His chosen people, cannot do this - though Israel was invited and encouraged to make the attempt to keep it. All human efforts must prove futile in theory as well as in practice. Humanity has to be convinced of this inexorable fact. And God will bring about this realisation through every event and through every experience He engineers for humanity to that very end.

This revolutionary change in the method of God’s dealings with humanity sets aside all human endeavour and standards as qualifications. As it is a mortal blow to human pride and prestige, it is for all people a pill impossible to swallow. It requires a recognition and an acknowledgement of God as GOD - the Subjector, the Placer, the Supreme - and not as a robot reacting to the stimuli of man’s dictates and machinations. God’s will, not man’s! An attitude exemplified by Jesus Christ Himself when He declared, ‘Not My will, but Thine be done’ (Lk.22:42)!

Paul’s message, being a separate and different evangel, differed radically on many points from that preached by Peter and the other Circumcision apostles. We need to differentiate one from the other so as to avoid ambiguity and confusion.
 

The Meaning Of ‘Evangel’

The often heard word ‘gospel’ is translated from the Greek 'eua[n]ggelion', which may be better translated ‘evangel’ as English already has the well-understood derivatives evangelise and evangelist. This word has the meaning of good news, glad-tidings, and more literally well-message. It would be good to bear in mind that, whenever we come across such phrases in the ‘New Testament’, that these are all translated from the same basic Greek word ‘euaggelion’. It is this common ambivalence given to this word, found within each version of the bible, that has caused much truth to become more hidden from us. 

Somehow this word ‘gospel’ has been accepted as referring to one, and only one, good news that is from God to humanity. This misconception is compounded when the word is attached to the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, giving the idea that this same, one and only, good news has been tailored to suit different audiences. The scriptural evidence, however, will not support such a concept.

The word evangel, or gospel, is a common noun such as the words law, language, history, etc. In Scripture, whenever we meet with the word ‘law’, we know that we have to depend on a qualifying word, or the context, to determine whether it refers to just the Decalogue, the whole ‘Old Testament’, or even secular law such as the law of the Medes and Persians. We know that the ‘law of Germany’ and the ‘law of Malaysia’ cannot refer to one and the same system of law set up by a single judicial body but delegated to Germany and to Malaysia separately. We know that the language of the Russians is not the language of the Japanese; that the history of India cannot be the history of Mexico!

So, too, when we come across the word evangel, or gospel, or any of their equivalents within the same version of the bible, we have to pay greater attention to exactly what is being referred to. Scripture refers to a number of different good news! For example:

(a) The Evangel which God brought to Abraham said that in him would all the nations be blessed (Gen.12:3; Gal.3:8). It did not speak of the birth, life, death, burial, or resurrection of Jesus, nor of the necessity to ‘accept the Lord Jesus’ as personal Saviour for the salvation of the individual. 
(KJV, RSV, NIV: Gospel)

(b)  The Evangel which Gabriel brought to Zechariah spoke of the greatness and mission of John the baptist (Lk.1:13-19) rather than of the essential, axial, position of Jesus Christ in God’s scheme of salvation. 
(KJV: Glad tidings; RSV, NIV: good news)

(c)  The Evangel which a heavenly messenger brought to the shepherds spoke only of the birth of Jesus, and not of the sufferings, death and resurrection through which salvation is effected (Lk.2:10,11).
 (KJV: Good tidings; RSV, NIV: good news)

(d)  The Evangel which Timothy brought to Paul informed him of the faith and welfare of the Thessalonians (1Thes.3:6). This good message cannot, for obvious reasons, be the very same message that Paul himself had first preached to them.
 (KJV: Good tidings; RSV, NIV: good news)

(e)  The Evangel of the Circumcision is put directly in contrast with 
      the Evangel of the Uncircumcision (Gal.2:7,8) 
as ‘a different gospel which is not another’ (Gal.1:6-9 KJV)
 (KJV, RSV, NIV: Gospel )

(f)  The Eonian Evangel announced by a messenger over the earth to warn people to worship God (as Creator and not as Redeemer) or face His further wrath. It is a declaration to counter that of the Antichrist who demands worship for himself. It is specifically for that particular eon. (Rev.14:6,7; 13:15-17). 
(KJV: everlasting gospel; RSV, NIV: eternal gospel)

A Belonging To

In Scripture (Gal.2:7,8) we have the terms 
      ‘the evangel of the Uncircumcision’ [to euanggelion tês akrobustia] 
      and that ‘of the Circumcision’ […tês peritomês]. 

In the Greek it is clear that one is an evangel of, that belongs to, the Uncircumcision 
                   and that the other is an evangel of, that belongs to, the Circumcision! 

The preposition ‘to’ used in the KJV and NIV should not be used for these phrases, as it is an interpretation, not translation, according to doctrinal understanding that there is only one and the same message!

In verse 9, we have the example where ‘to’ or ‘unto’ may be used correctly: 

and, knowing the grace which is being given to me, James and Cephas and John, 
who are supposed to be pillars, give to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, 
that we, indeed, are to be for the nations   [ eis ta ethnê, literally into the nations; 
                                                              KJV: unto the heathen; NIV: to the Gentiles], 
yet they for the Circumcision    [ eis tên peritomêv, literally into the Circumcision; 
                                                 KJV has unto the circumcision; NIV has to the Jews].

Two Separate Evangels

At the very beginning of his letter to the Galatians, Paul refers to a situation serious enough for him to become somewhat agitated over.

Gal.1:6-9  I am marveling that thus, swiftly, 
you are transferred from that which calls you in the grace of Christ, 
to a different evangel, which is not another, 
except it be that some who are disturbing you 
want also to distort the evangel of Christ.
But if ever we also, or a messenger out of heaven, 
should be bringing an evangel to you beside that which we bring to you, 
let him be anathema!
As we have declared before and at present I am saying again, 
if anyone is bringing you an evangel beside that which you accepted, 
let him be anathema! 

The Galatians had, through Paul, received God’s special message of the grace of Christ which was applicable to them, and had become believers of that message. After Paul had left them, some from the Circumcision group of believers (even Peter feared their opinions) had come to Galatia and, overstepping the conditions of fellowship, had added other teachings and conditions to his evangel. These addenda, though applicable to the Circumcision evangel, were unauthorised additions to his message - and which, in effect distorted the evangel which belonged to the Uncircumcision (among whom the Galatians were counted)!

Scripture labels this resultant contaminated, corrupted, and distorted message 

Gal.1:6  ‘a different ( [h]eteron, word examples: heterosexual, heterodox) evangel’ 

In the book of Acts, chapter 21, we see the Circumcision believers in Jerusalem as still ardent observers of the law. They were very upset over news they had heard that Paul had been teaching believers of the Circumcision, scattered in foreign lands where Paul carried out his missionary work, not to observe circumcision, to give up Moses and the law, and to cease from their traditions. Paul was willing to testify, under oath, before all the elders of the ecclesia at Jerusalem that he was not guilty of such charges (21:20-25). These are, however, the very teachings he was ardently promulgating among those of the nations under his ministry! 

If there is only one and the same evangel for all humanity how could such a charge ever have been brought up in the presence of the Circumcision leaders against Paul? This clearly shows that the doctrines accepted under the Circumcision evangel differed in essentials from those under the Uncircumcision evangel!
 

The Rite Of Circumcision

The very first characteristic that sets the Jew apart from all others is the acceptance of circumcision. God had promised Abraham that he would have a child and heir to all his blessings. Abraham believed God. But he and Sarai assumed that they had to work out some way for the promise to come true. The result was that, through Hagar the maid, Ishmael was born. 

But God would not accept the ‘help’ of Abraham. He would carry out His promise according to His time-frame. He then instituted the covenant of circumcision, which was a token cutting off of the flesh, a sign of non-dependence on the ability of the flesh, to be strictly observed by his descendants throughout their generations. This marked them out from the rest of humanity as a people in special covenant with God (see Gen.17 for the story). Anyone of Israel, then, not having circumcision, would be outside of this relationship and approach to God.

Jesus, when He came in flesh, did not say or do anything to indicate that this rite was to be abrogated or made redundant. He, Himself, had undergone circumcision. So, under the Circumcision evangel, this observance, bringing its adherents under the umbrella of the patriarchal promises, was still very much in prominence.

On the occasion of the conversion of Cornelius who was an uncircumcised proselyte, it became clear to the believers that such proselytes (termed proselytes of the gate) were also to be accepted under Peter’s ministry (Act.11:1-18).

While Paul and Barnabas were ministering at Antioch, some, coming down from Judea, taught the brethren that, "If you should not be circumcised after the custom of Moses, you can not be saved." (Act.15:1). 

When this was brought up before the apostles and the whole ecclesia at the Jerusalem Council, it was made very clear that, outside of a few restrictions to facilitate fellowship between the Circumcision believers and those of the nations, none of the Mosaic law was to be imposed on ‘those from the nations who are turning back to God’ for that would be ‘placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we are strong enough to bear’. These believers of the nations were not to pay any heed to ‘some coming out from us disturb you with words, dismantling your souls, whom we gave no assignment’. (see Act.15 for the story)

Under Paul’s evangel, circumcision has no significance whatever. It neither qualifies, nor disqualifies, a person who has been circumcised from being called to be part of the body of Christ. 

1Cor.7:18,19  Was anyone called having been circumcised? 
Let him not be de-circumcised. 
Is anyone called in uncircumcision? Let him not circumcise. 
Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, 
but the keeping of the precepts of God. 

Gal.5:6  For in Christ Jesus 
neither circumcision is availing anything, nor uncircumcision, 
but faith, operating through love. 

Gal.6:15  For in Christ Jesus 
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything, 
but a new creation. 

2Cor.5:17  So that, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: 
the primitive passed by. Lo! there has come new! 

Col.3:9-11  …stripping off the old humanity together with its practices, 
and putting on the young, which is being renewed into recognition, 
to accord with the Image of the One Who creates it, 
wherein there is no Greek and Jew, Circumcision and Uncircumcision, 
barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman, but all and in all is Christ. 

Rom.8:29,30  that, whom He foreknew, He designates beforehand, also, 
to be conformed to the image of His Son, 
for Him to be Firstborn among many brethren.
Now whom He designates beforehand, these He calls also, 
and whom He calls, these He justifies also; ...

Eph.4:22-24  to put off from you, as regards your former behavior, 
the old humanity which is corrupted in accord with its seductive desires,
yet to be rejuvenated in the spirit of your mind,
and to put on the new humanity which, in accord with God, 
is being created in righteousness and benignity of the truth. 

Rom.10:11,12  …Everyone who is believing on Him shall not be disgraced.
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, 
for the same One is Lord of all, being rich for all who are invoking Him. 

Rom.10:13  …everyone, whoever should be invoking the name of the Lord, 
shall be saved. 

Eph.3:4-7  …the secret of the Christ,
which, in other generations, is not made known to the sons of humanity
as it was now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets): 
in spirit the nations are to be 
joint enjoyers of an allotment,
and a joint body, 
and joint partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus, 
through the evangel of which I became the dispenser, 
in accord with the gratuity of the grace of God, 
which is granted to me in accord with His powerful operation. 

The Law

As mentioned earlier, observance of the law was essential under the evangel of the Circumcision. It was woven into the very fabric of that system.

Gal.5:3  Now I am attesting again to every man who is circumcising, 
that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 

Jas.2:10  For anyone who should be keeping the whole law, 
yet should be tripping in one thing, has become liable for all.

The law had never been given to the nations (Deut.4:7,8) and, therefore, its terms and conditions never applies to them. And those who believe through the evangel of the Uncircumcision, the evangel that applies to them, do not come under its jurisdiction. In fact, they are strongly advised not to ‘infringe on the copyright’, so to speak. As far as they are concerned, the questions of ‘law’ and of ‘works of law’ do not arise at all!

Gal.3:14  that the blessing of Abraham may be coming to the nations in Christ Jesus, 
that we may be obtaining the promise of the spirit through faith. 

Rom.3:19 Now we are aware that, 
whatever the law is saying, it is speaking to those under the law,… 

Rom.3:20b   …for through law is the recognition of sin. 

Rom.7:7,8  But sin I knew not except through law. For besides,
I had not been aware of coveting except the law said, "You shall not be coveting."
Now Sin, getting an incentive through the precept, 
produces in me all manner of coveting. For apart from law Sin is dead. 

Gal.3:19  What, then, is the law? On behalf of transgressions was it added, 
until the Seed should come to Whom He has promised, 
being prescribed through messengers in the hand of a mediator. 

Gal.3:21  Is the law, then, against the promises of God? 
May it not be coming to that! 
For if a law were given that is able to vivify, 
really, righteousness were out of law. 

Gal.2:21  I am not repudiating the grace of God, 
for if righteousness is through law, consequently Christ died gratuitously. 

Gal.3:10  For whoever are of works of law are under a curse, for it is written that, 
Accursed is everyone who is not remaining in all things written in the scroll of the law 
to do them. 

Gal.3:12  Now the law is not of faith, but who does them "shall be living in them." 

Gal.3:13  Christ reclaims us from the curse of the law, 
becoming a curse for our sakes, for it is written, 
Accursed is everyone hanging on a pole, 

Rom.8:2-4  …the spirit's law of life in Christ Jesus
frees you from the law of sin and death. 
For what was impossible to the law, in which it was infirm through the flesh, 
did God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sin's flesh and concerning sin, 
He condemns sin in the flesh,
that the just requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, 
who are not walking in accord with flesh, but in accord with spirit. 

Gal.2:15,16  We, who by nature are Jews, and not sinners of the nations, 
having perceived that a man is not being justified by works of law, 
except alone through the faith of Christ Jesus, 
we also believe in Christ Jesus 
that we may be justified by the faith of Christ and not by works of law, 
seeing that by works of law shall no flesh at all be justified. 

Rom.3:20a   because, by works of law, 
no flesh at all shall be justified in His sight,… 

Gal.3:11  Now that in law no one is being justified with God is evident, 
for the just one by faith shall be living. 

Gal.4:4,5  Now when the full time came, 
God delegates His Son, come of a woman, 
come under law, that He should be reclaiming those under law, 
that we may be getting the place of a son.     [see Eph.1:5 and 4:13]

Rom.7:4-6  So that, my brethren, 
you also were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, 
for you to become Another's, Who is roused from among the dead, 
that we should be bearing fruit to God.
For, when we were in the flesh,
the passions of sins, which were through the law, 
operated in our members to be bearing fruit to Death.
Yet now we were exempted from the law, 
dying in that in which we were retained, 
so that it is for us to be slaving in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter. 

Gal.2:19,20  For I, through law, died to law, that I should be living to God.
With Christ have I been crucified, yet I am living;
no longer I, but living in me is Christ. 
Now that which I am now living in flesh, 
I am living in faith that is of the Son of God, 
Who loves me, and gives Himself up for me. 

Gal.3:23-25  Now before the coming of faith we were garrisoned under law, 
being locked up together for the faith about to be revealed. 
So that the law has become our escort to Christ, 
that we may be justified by faith.
Now, at the coming of faith, we are no longer under an escort, 

Gal.3:17,18  Now this am I saying: a covenant, having been ratified before by God, 
the law, having come four hundred and thirty years afterward, 
does not invalidate, so as to nullify the promise. 
For if the enjoyment of the allotment is of law, it is no longer of promise.
Yet God has graciously granted it to Abraham through the promise. 

Back to:
....Main menu of articles

....Section 1   -    Introduction
..........................The Advent of Jesus Christ 
....Section 2   -   The Promise of Holy Spirit 
..........................Mankind in Need of God 

Proceed to:
....Section 4   -   God's Operation
....Section 5a   -   The Body of Christ
....Section 5b   -   The Body of Christ
....Section 6   -   Conclusion