If you’ve studied your Bible much, you already know that most NT concepts have their origin in the OT. An amazing number of favorite NT scriptures like “the meek shall inherit the Earth,” come from the OT – Psalms 37:11 in this case.

Nor did Jesus invent the idea of feeding your enemies, as Proverbs 25:21-22 proves. This and many other ideas all came from the OT. But today, we’re going to talk about Paul. See, most people have the idea that Paul invented a new brand of Christianity that had never existed before; that Paul’s teaching against the law of Moses, the unnecessarity of circumcision, the temple, and the rituals of Moses were all given to Paul by divine revelation and to no one else in history. Today, you’ll see that simply wasn’t true at all.

First, we need to back up all the way to Moses himself. When Moses came down from receiving the Ten Commandments, his face glowed with the glory of God.

Exodus 34:29-30 …when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.

This seems odd at first; but when you continue reading, you see that Moses was giving them the law…

Verses 31-35 And Moses… gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him in mount Sinai. And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face… And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone: …

This vail was not there for Moses’ benefit, but for the people; Paul tells us that even the best of us “see [God] through a glass, darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12). We know only a small part of the ultimate truth. In Romans 11:32, Paul told us that Israel was kept in blindness – in unbelief – so that God could one day have mercy upon them, just as he, himself, received mercy because he committed his sins in ignorance (1 Timothy 1:13).

Jesus said of the Pharisees “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin” (John 15:22). This is because “where no law is, there is no transgression” (Romans 4:15), and “sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Romans 5:13). In other words, the less Israel knew about God, the less their sins counted against them. Now, talking about Moses’ vail Paul said…

2 Corinthians 3:13-16 And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.

Paul said this vail blinded the eyes of Israel, so that they couldn’t understand the whole truth; in other words, so that they could only see Moses “as through a glass, darkly.” And that at the time of Paul, this vail covered the writings of Moses.

The most important part of this passage is verse 13, which the KJV doesn’t make clear;

2 Corinthians 3:13 (BBE) And are not like Moses, who put a veil on his face, so that the children of Israel might not see clearly to the end of the present order of things:

2 Corinthians 3:13 (Rotherham) And are not just like Moses, who kept putting a veil upon his face, so that the sons of Israel should not look steadily unto the end of that which was TO BE DONE AWAY.

2 Corinthians 3:13 (Murdoch) and are not like Moses, who threw a vail over his face, that the children of Israel might not behold the termination of that which was abolished.

Putting these translations together, it is clear that the reason Moses wore that vail was so that Israel could not see clearly that the law of Moses was to be done away! Moses wore that vail so that Israel would not see what was BEYOND the law of Moses; to shield them from the real POINT behind the rituals and sacrifices!

That vail allowed them to see only the physical temple, not the pattern behind that temple that existed in heaven – the pattern that INSPIRED the temple! Likewise they saw only the physical laws, not the spiritual laws which inspired them. You’ll see why that is relevant soon.

THE ABOLITION OF MOSES

The whole world knows that Paul taught against circumcision and said that the rituals of Moses were meaningless and that “circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter” (Romans 2:29), that “in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6).

But what no one realizes is that Paul was a latecomer to that teaching! He wasn’t even the second person to teach it! During the time Jesus was on this Earth, He made frequent (veiled) references to the destruction of the temple. For example,

John 4:21-24 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, NOR YET AT JERUSALEM, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The time was coming when Jerusalem (where the temple was) would not be important to worship God; that worship of God would be done in spirit, not in a physical place. In fact, Jesus said there, that the time “now is” when that would be true. In other words, the temple had ALREADY been replaced, and no one knew it yet. Another subtle clue was in…

John 2:19-21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.

This was a dual prophecy, speaking of His body which was to be killed and raised again in 3 days, and also of the literal temple which was to be destroyed within 40 years and rebuilt 3 thousand-year days later at the beginning of the second resurrection.

But of course, the apostles didn’t understand these references until much, much later. Jesus often complained about their lack of understanding, asking them “Are ye also yet without understanding?” (Matthew 15:16).

Most of you already know this. But what you don’t know is that, after Jesus’ death, Paul wasn’t the first one to revive and popularize this teaching. Stephen was!

STEPHEN

We first hear of Stephen in Acts 6 where he was made a deacon, and worked powerful miracles and brilliantly debated heretics. Then he was brought before the council of the Jews, with the high priest and other important people in the Jewish religion. Most people know the story, but what they don’t pay attention to is what Stephen was accused of teaching!

Acts 6:11-14 Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words AGAINST MOSES, and against God. And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and THE LAW: For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and SHALL CHANGE THE CUSTOMS WHICH MOSES DELIVERED US.

Now, granting that these were false witnesses, bribed to condemn Stephen; but for lies to have any hope of sticking, they have to have a fair amount of truth in them. No one accused Stephen of flying, or of being a werewolf, or of worshiping the moon. They accused him of things he actually did, but which seemed sinful to the Jews. They said he…

1. Blasphemed “this holy place” (the temple)
2. Blasphemed the law of Moses
3. Said Jesus would “change the customs which Moses delivered to us!”

Their justification for these accusations is that they heard him say “Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place” (the temple), and “change the customs which Moses delivered us.” Now that’s EXACTLY what they said about Paul, decades later:

Acts 21:21 And they are informed of thee [Paul], that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.

Acts 25:8 While he answered for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all.

So Paul was accused of preaching against the temple, and against the law of Moses – just like Stephen. But now let’s go back to Acts 7 and see how Stephen responded to these charges.

Acts 7:1 Then said the high priest, Are these things so?

As you read this, you’ll note that Stephen didn’t answer the question directly. He didn’t say “I never said that!” Being a great debater and orator, he went about proving his point by showing WHY what he had said was right, rather than stating a simple yes or no.

So beginning with the story of the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he goes through a brief summary of the Jewish religion. But in the process, he shows that God never wanted a temple! This was the point he went to such effort to make! First, he reminded the Jews of the promise of Christ through Moses…

Acts 7:37-39 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,

It’s easy to miss what Stephen was saying there; Moses promised them a PROPHET. And Stephen says that this PROPHET – Jesus – was in the church in the wilderness! An this prophet “our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them!” Now compare that statement to Paul’s apparent leap in logic in

1 Corinthians 10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Again, if Paul DIDN’T get his inspiration from the teachings of Stephen, then at the very least God inspired Him to understand the same unique things! Meanwhile, Stephen’s point was that God wanted to dwell in the people; but they rejected Him, and wanted an idol to worship instead.

Acts 7:44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.

Note the emphasis that the tabernacle was built according to a heavenly pattern! To the Jews, the temple was the house of God on Earth (which it was), but to them the temple had become the end, and not merely a MEANS to an end! Remember, they had that veil on; they couldn’t see beyond Moses’ commands to build a tabernacle and see that the true tabernacle wasn’t merely a tent in the desert!

Verses 46-48 [David] found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built him an house. Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,

The temple was the single greatest thing in the Jewish religion, and the temple of Solomon was the most glorious version of it; to the Jews, it was the greatest wonder in the world. And to answer the charges that he had been preaching against the temple, Stephen showed that the temple was ridiculous in the first place! He showed that by quoting the words of God, Himself in the OT!

Verses 49-50 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things?

Thus, Stephen proved that God never wanted a building as a temple, but that He had something BETTER in mind! Stephen was seeing BEYOND the veil, and seeing the REAL PURPOSE behind the law of Moses and the temple of God! And that’s why Stephen looked like an angel when He began this speech!!

Acts 6:15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

Just as Moses’ face glowed when he relayed God’s words to Israel, so Stephen’s face glowed when HE relayed God’s words to Israel! Stephen was offering them a look behind the veil, a look none of the Apostles were able to give them! And unlike Moses, Stephen didn’t put on a veil; they could see and UNDERSTAND what Stephen said!

Stephen WAS teaching against the rituals of Moses! And he WAS teaching the uselessness of the temple! And the Jews wouldn’t accept it, and hated and killed him for it!

Acts 7:54-58 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him…

So powerful was the message that he relayed from God, that they could simply say “he is full of new wine.” This was CLEAR! This was PROOF, that they couldn’t deny, and there was no veil to hide the truth from them! But they absolutely refused to hear it, so they could only kill the messenger!

Acts 7:58-8:3 …and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem… As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.

So now for the irony; Saul was the leader of the band that killed Stephen. Saul, later became Paul. And PAUL was the man who carried Stephen’s teachings to the NT church! And apparently, the Jerusalem Christians, though constantly exposed to Stephen’s teachings for some time, never picked up on the point he was trying to make; the vail was still “untaken away” when they looked on it – even the apostles!

They were simply not ready to accept that the religion they had grown up believing in was merely a shadow of the true religion; that the rituals they thought took them closer to God, were actually invented to keep people from getting too close to God! And so even 20 years later, Jews were sent up from Palestine to undermine Paul’s teachings, teachings which were no different than Stephen’s!

Acts 15:1,5 And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

Stephen was martyred, among these same Jews, for teaching the very same things that they condemned Paul for teaching. But Stephen’s message had been rejected by the Jews, and the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. Paul was able to see it, because Paul had the scales removed from his eyes.

Acts 9:18 And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.

But, although Paul believed that he preached without a vail (2 Corinthians 3:13), most of what Paul said was still very difficult to understand; perhaps we could say the vail was still there, but much thinner than Moses’ vail. More people have misunderstood and abused the words of Paul than any other writer in history. Even in Paul’s life, this was happening:

Romans 3:8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

And even the best intentioned apostles had great difficulty understanding what Paul said –

2 Peter 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Notice that Peter said that these “unlearned and unstable” men twisted Paul’s works and the other scriptures as well – the other scriptures which had a vail over them! And in a way, because of Paul’s confusing writing style, frequent insertion of parenthetical thoughts, and tendency to run off for several chapters on tangents, there was in a sense a vail over his writings as well.

Stephen spoke without a vail. The Jews killed him for it, and even the early Christians didn’t seem to really understand it, or else they wouldn’t have persecuted Paul for teaching the same things. I myself have often seen times when people agreed with what I said, thought it was wonderful, but it didn’t mean anything to them! They forgot it, and never truly grasped it – they would accept it, but they wouldn’t EMBRACE it!

And so it was with Stephen; he certainly talked with everyone in the church about the destruction of the temple and the abolition of the laws of Moses, and they couldn’t argue him, and they may have even believed him, but when He was gone they quickly forgot it because it wasn’t what they wanted to believe! It wasn’t what was important to them!

So God waited for the church to grow and mature so that they would be ready for the truth when it came. And when the time was right God, in a masterful stroke of divine irony, gave the man who murdered Stephen the job Stephen was sent to do – teach the world what Moses could not teach them.

To teach the world to see clearly to the end of that which must be abolished; to see beyond it, to understand the spirit behind the letter. Today, we thank Paul for this; but if Paul hadn’t murdered Stephen, we might be thanking Stephen for explaining it to us, and doing a much clearer and better job than Paul did.

John 16:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

Jesus told the apostles this the night He died, almost certainly speaking about these very things. They couldn’t hear them then, and so He tried to teach them through Stephen. They still couldn’t hear them, so finally He gave them to Paul; and Paul managed to get through to most of them. Well, some of them. Sort of. Those who had ears to hear – and that was rather the point all along.