By the time Paul had wrote to Timothy, he had understood more of why God used him. Having been a Pharisee of the most religious sect, taking pleasure in the death of Stephen, and a persecutor of the people of “The Way”. Which is a collection of sojourners and pilgrims of the persecution of the first believers departing from Jerusalem on earth as having any relevance with God.
According to Paul’s own words to Timothy he says “For I am the least (meaning most undeserving) of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church (a people not a building) of God.” And that “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor (of believer’s), and an insolent man; and that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief, meaning a Āprototype (chief originallyĀ from the Greek is “protos” and Paul being the first to follow made him a “prototype”).
Paul goes on to say 16Ā However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ would show all longsuffering, as a pattern (or progression) to all who would believe. Presumably us, and all who track him through his pilgrimage from being an enemy of God in whatever capacity they were, to being a Saint. Not in human terms of religious piety, but the righteousness of faith that squelches all accusation. Why? Because we rely on the things that God says about us. “For even the angels in Heaven behold the face of the Father in these little ones.” Meaning us.
Even as Jude said “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, but could not bring anĀ accusation against him, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” Showing two things. First, he did have the authority we have of rebuking demons. And second, Michael could not entertain wrong doingĀ in Moses.
Again from Zechariah:
3Ā And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of theĀ Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
2Ā And theĀ LordĀ said unto Satan, TheĀ LordĀ rebuke thee, O Satan; even theĀ Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand I plucked out of the fire?
3Ā Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments (his own feelings of himself), and stood before the angel.
4Ā And the Lord answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.” The Lord does this for us as well. But you see Paul early on working for Satan with his accusations and condemnations towards the early believers.
Paul was in transit from being a son of Satan, to being “a fellow citizen, saint and member of the household of God having been built upon the foundation of the Apostles and the prophets Jesus Christ the Chief cornerstone.” A kingdom that takes no earthly form to appease the human senses.
You see Paul use to defend the old religious order of a physical Jerusalem that was despised by Christ who said “not one stone shall be left upon another” showing His distain for the idolistic notion it had become. From this Paul was in transition.Ā
So we follow Paul through his steps, and realize the gift of God in Christ of “being seated at the right hand of the Father, far above all principalities and powers.” In “The Kingdom of God at hand”, the Jerusalem of God the one on earth dimly resembled, If you are able to accept it.
It’s kind of strange that Paul would use the phrase, having been built upon the foundation of the Apostles, because he became one of the first 12 foundation stones as being the 12th Apostle as he said here 10Ā According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
Paul was a foundation stone upon which he stood. In escence we stand upon his own works as well.
He was the 12th born in his own time, as one who has seen the Lord not in human form but in Christ’s original, always new form that never fades or ages. Like what we get. Like Paul said “we are newly created in Christ, old things have past away, all things become new and all things are from God”. Meaning not of creation. If indeed you have truly “put off the old man” which is not the flesh, but the deeds iyf the flesh carried about by it’s carnal persuasions. ( Colossians 3)
This is another concept from Paul’s mature Epistles. That the body is a body of beliefs. Like a political body. The physical body is neither good or bad but a vessel for either. “For we have this treasure in Earthen vessels that the Glory and the Excellency would be seen as God’s and not ourselves. If the body was bad, John would not have said that āas He is, so are we in the worldā. And one of the reasons The Word became flesh and dwelled among us was to show us that we can be that too. To be “Christlike”.
Paul in an earlier Epistle said “I reach out to lay hold of why Christ laid hold of me” of being the resurrection that “the father’s strive for day and night” as being their earthen task and objective. Then later Paul instructs us in Romans to “recon ourselves dead to sin and raised in newness of life”. This is the purpose completion of the old Covenant . Ā His task was obtained. And Christ’s purpose in Paul is that through his Epistles we can track his journey to arrive at the same place, and fulfill scripture that says “coming to Him as living stones, built up a spiritual house”. Of something that supercedes the structures of the Law and the prophets of being building blocks familiar to human senses.
This is what qualified Paul to be the twelfth apostle. The works that Christ worked in him when He said to Paul “for this reason I have appeared to you, for you to testify of the things you have seen, and the things I have yet to show you. God had completed that task and his sojournship by the time Paul had confessed his new citezineship.
With the concept of a progression in mind, it stands to reason that we would walk through his steps and go through his transformation to reach a destiny of s shared glory, if we use his more mature teachings to cancel his earlier ascertations.
Paul made some inaccurate accertations in his earlier Epistles, but they were mended along the way for us to follow, for “no other foundation can anyone lay but what is laid in Christ. And “if anyone builds upon these works, presumably us, they shall receive a reward.” Showing us that our eternal works have to do only with God’s building project of rescripted and re-spirited souls.
Peter testfies that “the earth and all the works associated with it will be burned “. So let us be sure to invest in God’s projects, and what platform is our foundation.
Ā Joining Paul on the platform, we continue to build. āCome up hither”. This is the place of our building, out storage and what we own.
When Christ said “greater works shall you do because I go to the Father”, this is what He meant. Christ the Chief cornerstone had to be set in greater place, along with the foundation stones upon which we stand, we now build upon these works and fulfill Christ’s words that “greater works shall ye do”. Why? Because we have a place to do it. In spirit and truth with Christ āThe Chief cornerstoneā from whom all of the architectural angles are derived. Come join us here because we are “the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, with God the Judge of all, and the spirits of just men made perfect,Ā
Christ spoke to the Samaritan lady at the well and said “the time that is coming is already here when you will not in Samaria, or Jerusalem worship the Father. For the Father is Spirit and truth and seeketh such”. This is God’s Kingdom and the place of our citezineship, the affections of our hearts and the other Jerusalem. The real one the one on earth mimicked in a finite way. But God’s things are infinite.
Store not up your treasures on earth where they corrode and are stolen, but store up your treasures in Heaven on that foundation, where they remain in their undeminishable eternal Glory. Where your heart is, so is your treasure.
It is not as though we are building something that didn,t previously exist though, because we cannot add to or take away of the things of God. Gods things are forever new. The building project that takes place is in the spirit of our minds. This is the place God replicates Himself. They just become new for us in that we hadnāt experienced them before.
The mind is a place for information, and the mind that has been expanded to house the Holy Spirit is far greater than the expanse above the earth because even an ounce of eternity far exceeds all of the created realm because āThe earth with all its works shall be burned for the eternal to remainā. So if all we understood was an ounce, that is what you keep forever. Hopefully you recieve more.
This is our invitation too and why we can say “The Kingdom of God is at hand” just as much today as when Christ first said it. Reep your rewards today.
You see this invitation was never retracted. The blood of Christ through the eternal spirit was sufficient to deliver our Heavenly goods. Our full inheritance is in effect. We are in the New Covenant, there will not be a 3rd Covenant. And no the old wine is not better, and you cannot mingle the two.