Paul and the Scriptures

Marcus Cheng (Chen Chonggui) worked as a Bible teacher in the Swedish Covenant mission and seminary until he left the mission, possibly because of unequal treatment of Chinese and Western personnel, in the 1920s. Then he was chaplain to the warlord Feng Yuxiang for a time, and later the editor of an important Chinese Christian magazine (Budao; The Evangelist) and a teacher in other seminaries. He ended up as a supporter of the new Communist government after 1949, but in turn angered it by his frank, critical remarks in the late 1950s (in fact, he was summoned to Beijing and publicly denounced at a meeting of the standing committee of the Three Self in late 1957) and was subjected to a ferocious denunciation campaign, which hung over his head until his death in 1964.

He wrote the following about how the Scriptures became a part of Paul through the living Lord Jesus being revealed in him and were birthed by him into the church as his letters.

This is from the book Strength for the Storm, a collection of messages from Chinese Christians translated by Arthur Reynolds, a missionary with the China Inland Mission:

"'I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.' (Gal. 1:16b, 17)

"We read of the Lord Jesus that after His baptism 'he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased"' (Matt. 3:16, 17). Immediately afterwards Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert.

"The apostle Paul had a similar experience. His eyes had been opened to see the Lord Jesus and he heard a voice from heaven. Immediately afterwards he departed for the desert of Arabia and there, in that secluded place, he was alone with God. Where was this place situated? In all probability it was Mount Sinai, the place where God had handed to Moses the stone tablets of the Testimony. There in Arabia Paul spent three years--or parts of three years--in prayer and meditation.

"When Paul went to Arabia he had the five books of Moses, the Psalms of David, and the Book of Isaiah. When he returned he also carried with him, in his heart and on his lips, the Book of Romans, the contents of the letters to the Ephesians, the Galatians, the Thessalonians, and so on. Most theological colleges and Bible colleges today provide a three year study course for Christian workers. I pray that we may all learn lessons from the three years that Paul spent in Arabia.

"At the beginning of his letter to the Galatians Paul made it clear that he was an apostle 'sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.' It was a case of God taking the initiative in revealing His Son in the heart of Paul.

"Paul read his Bible section by section and verse by verse and all of them pointed to Jesus. He opened his Bible at Genesis 1:1 and he read that 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him' (Col. 1:16).

"Paul read in Genesis that 'God said, "Let there be light," and there was light' (1:3). He then wrote, 'For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ' (2 Cor. 4:6).

"When the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of Adam, Adam said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called "woman", for she was taken out of man' (Gen. 2:23). Paul wrote, with reference to this, 'This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church' (Eph. 5:32).

"Paul's lips and Paul's heart were alike full of Jesus. He perceived clearly that the Bible had only one theme--and that theme was Jesus. So Paul's preaching and writing had only one theme also. It was Jesus."