The Lord Jesus Christ, the risen Man in glory, sent Ananias to Saul of Tarsus as the man of the moment to reveal the whole counsel of God to us. At that time he was the person most opposed to the gospel, but God would make him the vessel to magnify His grace in him and reveal to us through him His secret plan. We do well to consider both the revealed plan and the way the Lord has chosen to reveal it to us.
God in Old Testament times successively revealed many things concerning Himself, but the full manifestation came when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became man. The four Gospels preserve to us a record of this. However, the last chapter of God’s plan could only be communicated after the Lord Jesus accomplished redemption and returned to heaven as a Man, sending the Holy Spirit down to dwell in His people. Paul, who was Saul of Tarsus, was chosen by the Lord Jesus to reveal that last chapter to us. Ananias said it succinctly to Paul: “The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of His mouth. For thou shalt be His witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard” (Acts 22:14-1514And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. 15For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. (Acts 22:14‑15)). Paul had a sense of this when he said, “A necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! For . . . a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me” (1 Cor. 9:16-17).
All Truth
Shortly before the Lord was rejected by His earthly people, He told his disciples while in the upper room, “I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of [from] Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you” (John 16:12-1412I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 13Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. 14He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. (John 16:12‑14)). The disciples needed the Holy Spirit before they could receive and appreciate those communications. The natural man does not understand spiritual things. After Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down to dwell in the disciples, they preached the resurrection of Jesus Christ and forgiveness of sins to the Jews, but the stoning of Stephen closed the doors of blessing to Israel. This was the final rejection of the testimony of the Holy Spirit as spoken through Stephen. This sets the stage for the Lord to open His counsel of blessing to the whole world, including the Gentiles. The Apostle Paul is the one chosen to do this, as he says in Galatians 1, “I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (vss. 11-12). Paul gives us what the Lord could not reveal while He was on earth. He further states in the following verses, “It pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen” (vss. 15-16).
Paul a Pattern
Not only are all the counsels of God revealed through Paul, but as the chief of sinners, he is a pattern of Christian blessing, as he says, “According to the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me power, that He has counted me faithful, appointing to ministry him who before was a blasphemer and persecutor, and an insolent overbearing man: but mercy was shown me because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief: but the grace of our Lord surpassingly over-abounded with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. Faithful is the word, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. But for this reason mercy was shown me, that in me, the first, Jesus Christ might display the whole long-suffering, for a delineation of those about to believe on Him to life eternal” (1 Tim. 1:11-15 JND). God is always consistent with Himself in what He does, and in how He does it.
Five Revelations
The following five scriptures show distinctly the revelations Paul received from the Lord in heaven:
2. The rapture: 1 Thessalonians 4:15.
4. The Lord’s supper: 1 Corinthians 11:23.
5. The resurrection from among the dead: 1 Corinthians 15:51.
May the Lord give us to understand the blessings He has planned for man. May we not be content with an oversimplified understanding of the counsels of God revealed to us. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:2929The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29)).
D. C. Buchanan