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Today's Pathway: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God Romans 1:1

Yesterday we began looking at Paul from the opening verse of Romans. We saw that he considered himself to be a slave of Jesus Christ. The second thing he mentions is that he was an apostle. I want to briefly look at the term. The word "apostle" means to be "sent forth as an ambassador". Thus, all believers are technically "apostles" because we have all been commissioned to be ambassadors for Christ (II Cor. 5:20). However, in this passage, Paul is not simply saying that God had called him to preach the Gospel, although this would be true (I Tim. 2:7). He is claiming to hold the office of an apostle. There are several verses that indicate that the "apostle" holds a specific office. Ephesians 4:11-12 says,

"And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."

The office of the apostle, like the office of the prophet, is no longer in existence today. Those offices are no longer needed because we have the totality of the Scriptures available to us today, which obviously was not true for believers during the New Testament time period. In addition, in order to hold the office of an apostle one not only had to have a direct call from God to that position (Luke 6:13; Gal. 1:1), but also had to be an eyewitness to the resurrection of Christ (Acts 1:21-22; Acts 9:3-7). Therefore, though very necessary in the early stages of Christianity (Acts 2:42), the office of the apostle has been done away with, and no man today can claim that office nor the authority that went with it.

Pastor Mark J Montgomery