Over the last month I have had two comments made to me concerning the relationship between Paul and Jesus. Does Paul’s writing accurately convey the religious teaching Jesus preached? Did Paul start his own religion, borrowing Jesus as the figurehead? I firmly believe we cannot believe anything Jesus said if we do not believe what Paul said… and vice versa. Two reasons give some support to this conviction.
The Cohesiveness of Scripture
When we considered how the Bible is put together and who the authors were, dividing Jesus and Paul as if they are two different philosophers completely misses the evidence. Only a few inferences to explain this proves the New Testament authors believed something unifying about the two men.
Mark, sometimes called John Mark (Philemon 1:24; 2 Timothy 4:11; Acts 15:37–40) and Luke both spent significant time with Paul. Many consider Luke to be God’s grand historian for the evidence and objectivity he brings to the task in writing and compiling the facts for Theophilus regarding Christ’s story and the apostles’ actions after the ascension (Luke 1:1; Acts 1:1). Aside from the apostle’s own writing, John and Matthew, we have these two men who recorded the events as declared to them in their own gospel accounts. Luke likewise recorded Paul’s conversion, early ministry, and the attestation that Paul taught for 16 years before he met the apostles. Luke explains that after those 16 years, the apostles verified the doctrines he taught as the same as their own (Acts 9:26–28; Galatians 1:18–20). Luke sailed with Paul through the second half of his journey, even joining him in Rome. The authors Mark and Luke, half of the whole four-part testimony of Jesus Christ given by the inspired Word, manage to spend significant time with Paul as well as the apostles and earliest disciples—and they testify to unity.
John and Peter both served in the inner-circle of Jesus’s earthly ministry. Both men wrote extensively to Asia Minor. John wrote to the churches in Ephesus and Laodicea in the opening chapters of Revelation expounding upon their start in right doctrine. Who planted and ordained the elders in those cities? Paul was the early Christian presence and prophetic guide for those locations. Luke writes of Paul’s assurances for eldership in Ephesus (Acts 20) and warns of factions and deceptive teachers much the same way as in 1 Timothy as he sends Timothy into that ministry (likely taking place at the same time). Thus, John’s Revelation warning is composed after this establishment by Paul—warning the churches not to veer from the born-late apostle’s doctrine. Not only does John verify Paul’s ministry work as he corresponds with Paul’s planted churches, but he wrote his gospel to be collected with Paul’s letters at the time of those same churches who would bring forward the received canon of Scripture.
Peter likewise verifies Paul’s writing by calling it Scripture, while utilizing the apostle’s writings as solid doctrine to the churches who have already received the Pauline letters (2 Peter 3:15–16). Peter, the apostle whose own confession serves as the founding of the early Christian church, consider Paul’s writings as sound doctrine not to be parted (Matthew 16:16–18).
The Presupposition of Scripture
For the sake of brevity, the canon (those New Testament books we have received) that we have demonstrates the apostles and earliest churches scrutinized all that was written and only included what the apostles and earliest disciples verified. The accounts we have of Jesus are only those from men who attested of a unified ministry. Luke and Mark especially testified of the apostle Paul as serving the true Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We do well to look to the books of Scripture with view to their wholeness as one big book with complete and cohesive doctrines. This presupposition stands on a firm foundation that God truly inspired Scripture by the work of His Holy Spirit (Hebrews 1:1–2; 2 Timothy 3:15–16). The only way to come to a conclusion about Paul having a different gospel than Jesus is to discount the very accounts of Jesus in at least Luke, Mark, and John (perhaps to a lesser extent) who share ministry with the apostle Paul. I believe Scripture speaks loudly of a unified, inspired whole. And not only do the 27 books of the New Testament offer a consistent, beautiful, authoritative deposit for our faith, but all 66 books at that! We can trust Paul’s ministry because it was Jesus’s ministry.
Pastor Chris
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