We believe that the order of arrangement of Paul’s Epistles to the
Churches was Divinely established; and that there is a progress of spiritual experience
from Romans to 2 Thessalonians.
ROMANS: RIGHTEOUSNESS WITHOUT WORKS. In Romans man is
shown without righteousness: "There is none righteous, no, not one." This
involves man’s fundamental relation to God. Christ is set forth a propitiation,
meeting all Divine claims, and by His death releasing man from the necessity of a
righteousness and holiness of his own. Christ becomes his righteousness, and a
believer has the witness of the Spirit that he is God’s child.
1 CORINTHIANS: WISDOM WITHOUT EDUCATION. In 1
Corinthians the subject is not righteousness but wisdom. The words
"wisdom" and "wise" occur in the first four chapters twenty-five
times, and the words "foolish" and "foolishness" some eight times! In
1:30 we are seen as of God - we that are in Christ Jesus who was "made unto us wisdom
from God"; which indeed includes "Righteousness, Sanctification and
Redemption" but Christ is looked at as our Wisdom. Indeed, in 2:16, "We
have the mind of Christ." Those declared righteous in Romans, and become
children of God, are now brought to school, - as children should be. But lo! the wisdom of
the world is "foolishness," - therefore God’s "wisdom" is
revealed to these children of God by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit indwelling them (2:6-16).
2 CORINTHIANS: POWER WITHOUT STRENGTH. In 2 Corinthians we
find Christ our sufficiency. Declared righteous in Romans, instructed by the Spirit
in 1 Corinthians, the believer has yet to learn his utter weakness. The key-verses here
are 12:9,10: "When I am weak then am I strong," and, "My grace is
sufficient for thee." Many believers never find that God alone is their strength
along every line. Paul found it! Read 1:8-10. Again: "We have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from
ourselves" (4:7-11). Again: "Our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is
renewed day by day" (4:16). Again: "Our flesh had no relief, but we were
afflicted on every side; without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless he that
comforteth the lowly, even God, comforted us by the coming of Titus" (7:5,6). Again:
"Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses that the power of Christ
may rest upon me" (12:9).
GALATIANS: PERFECTING WITHOUT RELIGION. In Galatians we
see how the Epistles are linked together, each leading on to the following. So in 2
Corinthians 13:11, Paul exhorts, "Be perfected" (Compare 6:14 to 7:1).
Now the Galatians are seeking to be perfected, but it is by turning back to
"religion," by observing "days, seasons, months, years" (4:10,11).
"Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in the
flesh?" But Paul goes clear back to Romans six, and testifies to these Galatians,
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ
liveth in me; and that life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith, the faith
which is in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me" (2:20). He goes
back to 2 Corinthians 5:17: "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation; the old
things are passed away; behold, they are become new"; and he sets before us the
proper "rule of life" of the believer in words which completely set aside
"religious" life, whether Jewish, Romish, or Protestant. "Neither is
circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as many as shall
walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy and (when the future time comes
for blessing the real Israel) upon the Israel of God" (6:5,16).
EPHESIANS: MEN ON EARTH SEATED IN THE HEAVENLIES. In Ephesians
the marvelous secret is opened out by which all true believers in Christ Jesus are
made alive with the raised and glorified Christ - raised up with Him and made to sit in
the heavenlies (no longer in the earthlies as were Israel) and made indeed to
become the fulness of Christ our Head, who filleth all in all. We are not yet in heaven
but are "sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our
inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession unto the praise of His
glory." (An "earnest" is a foretoken of our inheritance.)
PHILIPPIANS: A SAMPLE BELIEVER RUNS THE COURSE. In Philippians
we see Paul as a sample believer of all these glorious truths, running the
wonderful "course" toward that coming "day of Christ"! (1:6,10).
Saying, as he runs, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (1:21);
exhorting, "Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (2:5-8);
crying, as he runs, "I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a
righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the Law, but that which is through faith
in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him, the power of
His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death. I
press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by
Christ Jesus. I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded. For our
citizenship is in heaven. I can do all things through Him that strengtheneth me; And my
God shall supply every need of yours, according to His riches in glory in Christ
Jesus." (Chapter 3, entire; 4:13,19). Paul’s word in 3:17: "Brethren, be
ye imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk as ye have us for an
ensample," is the key of Philippians. By the grace of God certainly, but none the
less true, Paul was enabled to run the Christian race in all its fulness!
COLOSSIANS: HEAVENLY MEN ON EARTH FILLED WITH HIS FULNESS.
In Colossians we see heavenly men on earth - yet holding fast the Head in
heaven, and becoming filled with His fulness. All the fulness of the Godhead dwells
bodily in Christ, with whom believers’ lives are hid in God, and Christ becomes the
object of all the believer’s thoughts and affections. Since you are raised together
with Christ, "Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are
upon the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (3:2,3). The
believer awaits Christ’s coming - content not to be known or manifested till the
glory comes. Four desperate foes oppose this mystery of faith of holding fast the Head in
heaven while walking on earth: beguilement through enticing words; philosophy and vain
deceit, after the tradition of men; the ritual observance of outward ordinances and holy
days; the worshipping of angels (2:4,8,16,18).
1 THESSALONIANS: THE RETURN OF CHRIST FOR THE CHURCH. In 1
Thessalonians we have the church’s hope, the Rapture: "The Lord Himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the
trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are
left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air;
and so shall we ever be with the Lord! Wherefore comfort one another with these
words" (4:16-18). The believer who knows himself righteous (Romans), having the mind
of Christ (1 Corinthians), and to walk by the "rule of the new creation" knowing
that he was crucified with Christ, who is now living in Him (Galatians), and who sees with
Spirit-enlightened eyes the heavenly character and calling of the Church (Ephesians), and
is really becoming an imitator of Paul in the race - running the course unto Christ -
"the day of Christ" (Philippians), who is really holding fast the Head, paying
no attention to those who would delude you with persuasiveness of speech and make a spoil
of you through "philosophy" and would judge us in "religious" things
to rob us of our prize by turning us to a self-humility that fails to hold fast the Head:
such a believer is ready indeed for 1 Thessalonians! And he is sincerely eager in daily,
hourly watching for His coming - for the Rapture of the Church!
2 THESSALONIANS: THE REVELATION OF CHRIST FROM HEAVEN. In 2
Thessalonians we have the second phase of our Lord’s return, the "revelation
of the Lord Jesus from heaven in flaming fire rendering vengeance to them that know not
God and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1:8). It is the
great day of wrath of Revelation 19:11-21. In 2 Thessalonians Paul guards the saints from
confusing the Rapture with that day of wrath, - called "the Day of the Lord"
(2:1-3 R. V.). The church at Thessalonica was being tempted by its troubles to confuse the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him (the Rapture) with the
Day of the Lord - which sees the manifestation of the Antichrist. Which terrible days,
thank God, the Church is not appointed to see! (1 Thess. 5:9; Rev. 3:10).