Why was Paul called the apostle to the Gentiles?

How little those that saw or knew of Paul evangelizing the Gentiles appreciated the feelings with which he had entered on the work! 'And I said, Lord, themselves know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believe on Thee.' His heart yearned over Israel, his burning desire was to have laboured in their midst. When the Lord had told him to retire from Jerusalem, because the Jews would not receive of him testimony concerning Christ, he even pleads that he was just the man to go to Jerusalem, that they themselves knew how he had hated the Way, how he had imprisoned and beat in every synagogue the believers. Yea more, he summons up the most terrible tale of persecuting zeal as the crowning reason to be allowed to preach to the Jews, and as a reason why they must surely welcome him if no other preacher of the gospel. 'And when the blood of Stephen Thy witness was shed, I also was standing by and consenting, and keeping the garments of those that slew him.' It is evident that Paul used all this as standing him in good stead to labour among the Jews. But He that made the heart knew best, better far than Paul, and He said to him, 'Depart; for I will send thee forth far hence to the Gentiles.'

The determining word was thus spoken: whatever might be Paul's feeling, he now learns the will of the Lord concerning his labours. It was not merely now, Get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, but 'I will send thee forth far hence to the Gentiles.' No Israelite more fervently sought to commend the gospel to the Jews; no servant pleaded for it more earnestly with his Master. The freedom with which he appeals is a standing lesson to us of the liberty into which the gospel brings us. 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty' (2 Cor. 3:17). But we should also learn that the gospel leaves no uncertainty for the path and the service. The true light shines. Christ is the way, as well as the truth and the life, and He is not more truly the way to the Father than in Paul's case toward the Gentiles. The gospel is heavenly light shining into the heart and on the path here below.

Who could suppose that he could do anything else? Yet he had more to tell them, and also to tell us, that of which we have not previously read. He had another vision. A second time had the Lord appeared to him and spoken to him. On this occasion the appearance was the more remarkable, seeing that it was in the Temple at Jerusalem on Paul's first return to the city after his conversion. Engaged there in prayer, he fell into a trance, and saw the Lord, who said to him, "Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem; for they will not receive thy testimony concerning Me" (22:18). With that freedom which characterised, as we have seen, Ananias (9) and Peter (10), Paul reminded the Lord, he here tells his hearers, of his former ways as a persecutor, with which the Jews were cognisant. His past conduct he looked on as sufficient to make the Jews more ready to listen to him. But the Lord's reply was imperative and decisive. "Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles" (22:21). What could he do, he might ask, but endeavour, as he had done, to carry out his mission?

The incident at Jerusalem is full of interest spiritually, because it communicates the perfect ease and intimacy in which scripture sets forth the relations of the servant with the Master. It would have been easy to have suppressed the account, if it had not been of standing moment and general value. The statement of it had the most distressing effect on the Jews who had listened till then. This excited their indignation to the highest. Nevertheless, as we see, the apostle brought it plainly out to vindicate the direction of his labours without limit as apostle to the Gentiles. We may be quite sure that naturally he had as great a reluctance to go at the word of the Lord on such an errand as the Jews had to hear about it. Traditionally the Jew was everything in the matter of religion; all this feeling and the ground of it was overthrown in the cross of Christ. How true, as the apostle wrote to the Corinthians in his Second Epistle (2 Cor. 5:17), 'The old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God, Who reconciled us to Himself by Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation'! The power of such a ministry is especially shown, not in abiding at Jerusalem, but in going out toward the Gentiles wherever they may be; for we are not Israelites, nor yet the lost sheep of that house. We are not the people, but rather in comparison 'dogs' according to the law. Now, however, all is changed. It is the gospel, and all things are become new. As the mission of our apostle is for heaven, so is his direction towards the Gentiles.

No wonder that he himself shrank even in the presence of the Lord; but so Paul is to learn in his trance at the temple of Jerusalem. 'Make haste,' said the Lord, 'and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, because they will not receive of thee testimony concerning Me.' This was very painful to the apostle's heart, others had tasted similar sorrow even before Christianity. Moses knew it in early days, though the stiffneckedness of the Jews then was as nothing compared with what it was proved at the cross. And afterwards Jeremiah and others of the prophets drank enough of this cup to feel the bitterness and grief. But Paul was as remarkable as Moses for the love of Israel, and tasted the bitterness of the Jew more perhaps than any of their prophets. In divine ways he was just the more suited to be sent as Christ's ambassador to the Gentiles. Had he loved Israel less, he had not been so fit for the new and heavenly mission. In everything it must be above nature to represent grace in any measure aright.

It may be noticed that to bear Christ's name before Gentiles has the first place, the sons of Israel being put last, with 'kings' placed between them. He was to be 'apostle of Gentiles' (Rom. 11:13). For this, the call of the Lord from heaven was most appropriate. On earth He had sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. When He sends from heaven, Israel ceases to have any such place. All mankind, before this, had joined and been lost in one common guilt. The Jews had even led the Gentiles to crucify Him. Israel's superiority after the flesh was therefore clean gone. Sovereign grace alone governs henceforth; and therefore, if any are to be prominently named, it is rather those who are most needy. Of such Saul was characteristically apostle.

But now he goes farther, and refers, not to false brethren that were at work undermining the gospel by the law, but to those who took the most prominent place at Jerusalem. "But of those who seemed to be somewhat, whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person; for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me; but contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter: (for he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me towards the Gentiles:) and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision." All the insinuations of these Jewish teachers, that there was not a substantial agreement between Paul and the other apostles, were thus disappointed. It turned out that Paul was the communicator, not Peter; and that the three chiefs there had given the right hand of fellowship to Paul.

Therefore, instead of disagreeing with Paul, or seeking to alter the character of his ministry, as though it were faulty, or not of God, the twelve gave over the work among the Gentiles to Paul and Barnabas, mutually agreeing each to keep to his own line. "But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed to me, as the gospel of the circumcision was to Peter (for he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles): and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace which was given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship; that we should go to the heathen, and they to the circumcision" (vers. 8, 9). Whether among Jews or Gentiles, it was God who wrought; and the labourers were but the vessels of His grace. It is happy to observe these brethren, equally called and commissioned of God, recognizing the grace given to each other, even though their line was essentially different, and though they had received no sort of authority from each other.

In the verses we have just quoted, we must not suppose that the "good news of the uncircumcised (or, uncircumcision)" is different in any way from the "good news of the circumcised (or, circumcision)." It is not a different good news. There is only one good news, but it is presented to different people: one to the Gentiles, the other to the Jews. We must notice also that Paul is put on an equality with Peter. One is the apostle to the nations, the other is the apostle to the Jews. Peter is not placed in the smallest degree above Paul. They are alike, and there is not the least sign of Peter wishing, or expecting, to be considered in a higher position than Paul: nor, is there any record that James and John considered Peter above Paul. Further, there was no sign of the least jealousy between these great servants of God. They recognized that Paul had been entrusted with the good news to the nations, and they knew well that it was the Lord Jesus Christ who had entrusted this good news to him: gladly then do they give the right hands of fellowship to Paul and to Barnabas. Do not think that this is a matter of no importance. Alas, there are many millions of Gentile men and women today, who believe that Peter is the head of the church; and even the foundation of the church. Although the Lord greatly blessed Peter, he is the apostle of the circumcision, and only of the circumcision. Paul is the apostle of the uncircumcision, that is of the Gentiles. Paul is the only one of the apostles who writes about the Church, the body of Christ. The Lord entrusted this to him, as he had entrusted to him the gospel of the uncircumcision.

The distinction here made between the gospel of the uncircumcision and the gospel of the circumcision is one which should be carefully observed. To Peter was entrusted the latter, the main end of which was to bring the elect of Israel forth from legal bondage into the adoption and liberty of sons. But in the gospel of the uncircumcision there is found, besides the amplest exposition of the free grace of God and of the mystery of the Church, an element also of distinct and special prophecy to which further reference will be made hereafter (Infra, chap. 6:16). Let it here only be remembered that God's present mission of grace to the Gentiles is for a limited period and a special end. It is not to convert the nations to Himself, but to take from among them by the power of His gospel a peculiar people for the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 15:14).

Gal. 2:8. "He that wrought in (energized) Peter for the apostleship of the circumcision, wrought also in me (energized me) towards the Gentiles." Both Peter and Paul were endued with divine power and impelled by divine fervour to execute the commissions entrusted to them.

64 He puts James first among the pillars, as we see in Acts 15. He held the first place at Jerusalem; when he speaks of gifts and the apostleship he only names Peter. Apostleship in the work of the gospel depended upon the gift of God. Now as God had wrought among the Gentiles by means of Paul and Barnabas, He had likewise wrought among the Jews by means of Peter. He had wrought powerfully in the one toward the Jew, and in both, though chiefly in Paul, toward the Gentiles; and owning the grace of God in the work, they agreed that each should labour according to their gifts, in the spheres entrusted to them of God. Paul thus became the apostle to the Gentiles, to whom Christ had sent him: Peter, to the Jews only, among whom God had blessed him. Peter had however, begun the work with the twelve, and God had used him at the first, to open the door to the Gentiles; but he did not continue to labour among them, and renouncing the commission given to him in Matthew 28, he left the apostleship of the Gentiles wholly to Paul and Barnabas, who had been sent to that work, and blessed in it by the Lord.

This latter - Barnabas - soon disappeared; he was too much linked with Mark, his kinsman according to the flesh, and Paul remained as apostle of the Gentiles throughout the whole world, and of the assembly of God which united both Jews and Gentiles in one - a subject of which he alone spoke - the assembly composed of true Christians, united to Christ by the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ, in which there is neither Jew nor Greek; for the two have become one assembly, one body, united to Christ the head of the body, and members one of another. Such is the apostle to the Gentiles: with them Peter had nothing to do.