Of all the Bible characters, whose teachings do you most regard as applying to you in today’s age of “the dispensation of the grace of God”? 

Would it be, the Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as spoken in His earthly ministry as seen in the four Gospels, or is it perhaps the teachings of the ascended Lord Jesus given to Paul from heaven for us Gentiles of this age of “the dispensation of the grace of God”?

In the controversy over “Pauline truth,” some Fundamentalists have joined Modernists in attempting to exalt “the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth” (on earth) above the Word of God through Paul. They rhetorically ask, “Which should bear the greater weight with us, the words of Jesus, or the words of Paul?”

But do they ask this because they truly desire to obey these “words of Jesus” and to see them obeyed? Obviously, No. For they flagrantly disregard and disobey Jesus of Nazareth’s word of the Sermon on the Mount, the so-called the Great Commission, and much more.

With regard to the Sermon on the Mount, they don’t subject themselves to “the law of Moses” as Jesus of Nazareth called for (Matt. 5:17-19). They also do not bring gifts to altars of sacrifice (5:23-24); they do not give freely to all who ask of them (5:42; 10:8,9); they do not refrain from laying up treasures on earth (6:19, 25-26); they do not sell what they have and give alms (Luke 6:30; 12:33).

Then also while professing obedience to the so-called “Great Commission” as “the Church’s marching orders,” they do not proclaim faith and baptism for salvation (Mark 16:16); they do not and they cannot perform miraculous signs (Mark 16:17,18); they do not give the Jew first place in their ministry (Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8), and they certainly do not teach others to observe all things that Messiah on earth commanded (Matt. 28:20 cf. 23:1-3).

They set “the teachings of Jesus” (on earth) over against “the teachings of Paul,” not because they are determined to obey Jesus, but because they are determined to minimize that which God has “magnified,” which is the authority of Paul as “the apostle of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13).

They seek to exalt the teachings of the earthly Jesus above those of Paul because they have closed their ears to the oft-repeated and Spirit-inspired claims of Paul that the glorified Lord spoke again from heaven, to and through him, committing to him “the dispensation of the grace of God” and the program for the day in which we live (Acts 20:24; 22:6-10,17-21; 26:12-18; Rom. 11:13; 15:15-16; 16:25-26; I Cor. 3:10; 11:23; 15:3; II Cor. 5:16; Gal. 1:1,11-12; 2:7-9; Eph. 3:1-4,8,9; 6:18-20; Phil. 4:9; Col. 1:23-27; I Thes. 4:15; II Thes. 3:14; I Tim. 2:5-7; II Tim. 2:7-9; Titus 1:2-3, etc.).

They have forgotten the stern rebuke the Galatians received for failing to recognize Paul’s teachings as a message from the risen, exalted Christ (Gal. 1:6-12). They have taken lightly Paul’s words to the Corinthians:

“…if I [Paul] come again I will not spare: since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me…” (2 Cor. 13:2-3).

They have distorted Paul’s inspired admonition as to adhere to his teaching:

“If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing… from such withdraw thyself” (I Tim. 6:3-5).

- Minimally adapted from Cornelius Stam – ‘Two Minutes with the Bible’ – The Berean Bible Society