The purpose of Paul
Paul was born in “due time”. To be an apostle he had to have seen our Lord. And he did. The 11 disciples thought Mathias was to replace Judas as “one who witnessed the resurrection”. And he did. Mathias knew Christ in His in carnation, but it was Paul who saw Christ in His true self. Having seen a great light from Heaven he said “who are you Lord”. Paul later described that incident as having seen the Lord. Paul saw the “lo I am with you always” and not the one who has to come again.
Paul was qualified but not like the 11. Paul did not witness the incarnation but as he said “the gospel I preach to you did not come by man (an incarnation) I did not receive it by man, nor was I taught it by man but by revelation of Christ”. As Paul was on the road to Damascus he saw a great light that shone brighter than the carnally visible sun and he said “Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecute. 16 But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you.
This is proof of who Christ is. He is not a man. And this shows us that the revelation of Christ has not just 1st and 2nd comings but is progressive in nature, that scripture saying of the revelation “ both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you.” Paul was sanctioned to testify of the progressive revelations of Christ. Paul started preaching and became better and more clear by “the things which I will yet reveal to you.”
This then is the proof that Paul witnessed the resurrection not as an event but a persona invisible to the naked eye. And it also shows that the revelation is progressive by multiple revelations not just 1st and 2nd comings. As Christ said of Himself “I am the resurrection”. Paul saw a resurrected, glorified Christ. The very thing that the 2nd coming seekers look for in a carnal way. But that He is not. Paul meandered away from seeing Christ as a man needing to rule earth in a human form later saying “for it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shown in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” being Gods expressions snd behaviors . And he saw it first like that on the road to Damascus and circumvented the need for a 2nd coming to do so.
It was because of this that Paul began his journey and transformation away from the Satanic antichrist way of thinking like the Jewish leaders who said “when does the Kingdom of God come?” The answer? “It cometh not with (carnal) observation”. Luke 17.
This is why we need to see Paul’s letters as progressive and not all as having equal authority. This is “rightly dividing the word of truth”. We learn to see in the word who temporarily put on humanity, the “lo I am with you always, even to the end if the age”. The one who said “I will never leave you or forsake you”. And if we can learn to see this we need not be preoccupied with another coming and another Kingdom because the kingdom is now at hand.
When the disciples were told “there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of God coming in power”? And this is what Paul experienced. A timeless event of a being outside of time. Some are delighting to see an event in time and matter. Time and matter is unfit to fully display the One who is outside of time. The One who said “they shall not enter My rest. This one calls us outside of human boundaries like Paul said “You observe days months seasons and years. I’m afraid for you that I’ve labored in vain “?
Yes those who see the revelation of Christ as a physical event are in a scary mindset. It is not a 1st and 2nd coming but progressive revelations “until you come to a full measure and stature of Christ” through the gospel. The gospel defines the Full revelation through a series of smaller revelations for transformation, for transfiguration. Your transfiguration.
To be “the full measure and stature of Christ” is accomplished by faith which is our invisible embelical cord to the invisible God. Paul said ” I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. And salvation is the full package from sanctification to justification atoned and glorified saint of which you are called to be.
It is that our new bodies are as invisible and ubiquitous as His. And his exactness is what is gifted to us by the cross. This is what John saw from the book of Revelation when he saw one of us and tried to bow down to worship him. That glory said “see that you do not do that because I too am one who keeps the testimony of God. Worship Him”. This one has a glorified body before a 2nd coming, which the 2nd coming mindset denies for they wait for another man Jesus.
So it is by the gospel the work of God has it’s conclusion and not for those who wait for another conclusion for the saving called the 2nd coming.
Paul is one of the 12 and counted as foundation stones of the Kingdom of God of which all who can receive the conclusion of their teachings, that is all who stand on their finished works are counted as “living stones” built on the foundation and more clearly seen outside their parrabolic form that was visual on earth to the carnal senses. But we are members of the house hold of God now.
So if we get stuck in our thinking and transfiguration at mid way points in Paul’s transformation and transfiguration, we stop short of the full message that he was developing through his epistles, Meaning if we see all scripture as equally relevant, we stop short of the full gospel message.
People who see all scripture equal, use lessor verses to cancel greater verses that are designed by God to conclude the gospel of God unto salvation and the work of God to be accomplished in our own personal walk of faith as we reach for why Christ laid hold of us”. And I assure you that we are apprehended by the word of God for something much greater than to wait for a person at a 2nd coming for a purpose to be revealed now. That is Christ in you. The hope of Glory. The Glory working in us now that creation groans to see. That creation desires to honor. That God desires to see for “it is the Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom” and “I give you the keys to the Kingdom” being the Word of the gospel. And you can have it while those who resist God walk about you.
This is why 1 John says of us “The world does not know us because it did not know Him”. This is us “as He is” is our invisible part that co-rules and reigns. Those of us who like Christ who “being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal to God”? Yes! We sit with Him in the heavenlies. We sit beside Him. The price of the blood is a sufficient price for this gift and it insults God for you to refuse the gift. The second coming seekers reject this gift and ascribe it to another Jesus. That is another gospel. And that is the gospel Paul started with. But I assure you he didn’t stop there.
So stand on the finished works of Christ and the foundation of the kingdom and accept that “ye are saints and fellow citezines of the house hold of God” now. The other kingdom coming is the competition that is to be rejected.
The Kingdom of God is at hand! Operative and active today