"And now Paul,
returning to Jerusalem, intimates the close of his ministry in those
parts to the elders of Ephesus at Melitus, predicting the efforts of
Satan, and calling upon them to watch and labor with the same
earnestness and energy as had marked his own labors amongst them....
He now returns to Jerusalem, the Holy Ghost warning Him, and the
disciples telling him by the Spirit, not to go up. On the
suggestion of the elders at Jerusalem, he accommodates himself to
Jewish ceremonies, the believers at Jerusalem being all zealous of
the law. This brings him into captivity; but the effect of the
captivity is to bring him into the place of testimony before the
Jews, who refuse grace to the Gentiles, before Lysias, Felix,
Festus, Agrippa, and Nero. But he is a prisoner all the time,
and as such he works at Rome. (Paul's gospel was a prisoner at
Rome from the first day.) This closes the testimony to the Jews; and
thus closes the history we have of the dissemination of the gospel
in apostolic times." (Collected Writings of J. N. Darby 19:30).
Thus the Jews rejected the
Lord Jesus when He came in grace here below, thereby closing the
history and trial of the first man [First Adam]. The second man
[Last Adam], having been exalted above, consequently sent the Spirit
in testimony to that exaltation first to the Jews, but they did not
repent of their wickedness. And finally, they did what they
could to hinder the grace flowing down from the glory, ministered by
the Spirit to the Gentiles. And connected with these repeated
exposures of their state, the Spirit proceeded with another work,
the opening of the
heavenly parenthesis on the day of Pentecost, the formation
of the Body of Christ on that day, the gathering in of Gentiles and
the unfolding of the heavenly truth of Christ's glory and the
position of the saints, through the ministry of Paul. All was
perfectly timed as only God can sovereignly do for His own
glorification in Christ. For God has but one purpose: to
glorify Himself in Christ--but in two spheres, the earthly and the
heavenly. The Spirit's present work regarding the
heavenly parenthesis
will end at the Rapture. Even so, come Lord Jesus!
Dispensational Truth, Volume 1, page 144-145,
R. A. Huebner |