SABBATH THOUGHT 2026-03-21—REVELATIONS OF PAUL

May God bless you on His Sabbath day!

I presume that most people think of John the Apostle as the great Revelator. If you think about it, however, he has that title simply because one of his epistles is called the book of Revelation. Did you know that the apostle Paul revealed much greater and many more ‘mysteries’ than John? A lot of time is spent analyzing Revelation but it does not focus on matters of salvation. Paul, on the other hand, revealed vitally important pieces of salvation. In fact, he had so many revelations that he was given a “thorn in the flesh” to keep him from becoming self-exalted:

[NET2.1] 2 CORINTHIANS 12:1, 7 It is necessary to go on boasting. Though it is not profitable, I [Paul] will go on to visions and revelations [G0602 = apokalupsis] from the Lord. … 7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations [G0602 = apokalupsis], a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.

Paul had so many revelations from God that the other apostles even looked into his writings for understanding:

[NET2.1+] 2 PETER 3:15-16 And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our dear brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom given to him, 16 speaking of these things in all his letters. Some things in these letters are hard to understand, things the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures.

What were the revelations given to Paul by God? What follows are brief mentions of a few of them. God revealed to Paul and the other apostles astonishing knowledge that was sought after by the prophets for millennia:

EPHESIANS 3:2-5 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me [Paul] for you, 3 how that by revelation [G0602 = apokalupsis] He [God] made known [G1107 = gnorizo] to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery [G3466 = musterion] of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known [G1107 = gnorizo] to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed [G0601 = apokalupto] by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:

Mystery is a poor word choice. A mystery is an unexplained phenomenon or puzzle, usually unknown to everyone whereas a secret is deliberately hidden information that is known by someone. God knows all things so nothing is a mystery. All that He revealed were secrets known by Him. This, too, Paul revealed:

GALATIANS 1:11-12 But I [Paul] make known [G1107 = gnorizo] to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

One piece of the Gospel that God showed first to Paul was that salvation included the Gentiles[1]:

ROMANS 1:16 For I [Paul] am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

[NET 2.1] COLOSSIANS 1:26-27 that is, the mystery [G3466 = musterion] that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed [G5319 = phaneroo] to his saints. 27 God wanted to make known [G1107 = gnorizo] to them the glorious riches of this mystery [G3466 = musterion] among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

When the Gentiles were called to salvation, it came as a shock to the apostles; after all, Israel was the chosen people of God. Peter was first aware that God was calling them in his vision of unclean animals[2]. However, it was not until Paul took salvation to the Gentiles and the physical observances of the Law of God came to a head at the council in Jerusalem[3] that they truly accepted that “God … visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.”[4]

Matters of salvation were revealed and understood by all the apostles but it was mainly Paul who revealed the critical details and recorded this knowledge for us today. Because spreading the Gospel is key to God’s plan of salvation for mankind, one of the revelations given to Paul was a warning about the wrath of God that would come upon any who suppress the TRUTH:

ROMANS 1:18-19 For the wrath of God is revealed [G0601 = apokalupto] from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

At first glance this may seem unremarkable but that word, wrath, is not simply anger. It sums up the absolute fierceness of the vengeance of God culminating in unimaginable torments of punishments that end in death. Some noteworthy recipients of this warning were the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees. They rejected and suppressed the revelation that Jesus was God in the flesh:

1 TIMOTHY 3:16 And without controversy [without question] great is the mystery [G3466 = musterion] of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.

They also vehemently spurned the idea that salvation was not by the righteousness of men who strictly kept the Law but through the righteousness of God[5]:

ROMANS 1:17 For in it [the Gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed [G0601 = apokalupto] from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

The problem for the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees was their prideful reliance upon rigorous law-keeping to establish their own righteousness. Their greatest suppression of the Truth was when they swayed the people, Herod, and Pilate to crucify Jesus[6]. They rejected Him as the sacrificial Lamb for the sins of the world whom Paul once persecuted but quickly realized he could no longer deny (“kick against the prods”[7]):

1 CORINTHIANS 2:2-8 For I [Paul] determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery [G3466 = musterion], the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Perhaps the greatest secret revealed to Paul was that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ brings salvation through the remission of sin:

1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I [Paul] declare [G1107 = gnorizo = make known] to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you–unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

A vital component of the Gospel is that salvation requires having the righteousness of God, which is through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ:

ROMANS 3:21-22 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;

1 TIMOTHY 3:9 holding the mystery [G3466 = musterion] of the faith with a pure conscience.

GALATIANS 3:22-23 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed [G0601 = apokalupto].

More than any other apostle, Paul, knew that Good Works are required for salvation[8]:

1 CORINTHIANS 3:13-15 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed [G0601 = apokalupto] by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

His Good Works even caused him much suffering:

2 CORINTHIANS 11:23-27 Are they ministers of Christ?–I [Paul] speak as a fool–I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. 24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness–

God does the works of righteousness unto salvation but Good Works are also required for eternal life. The works of those called unto salvation benefit others because they are motivated by agape love produced by God’s works in the ekklesia. The letters to the townships in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 prove this among many others including:

2 CORINTHIANS 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the Body [of Christ], according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Another secret had baffled the prophets and Jews for centuries. It was that God was not raising up a physical nation, but a Kingdom made up of eternal spiritual children through the resurrection from the physical to the spiritual:

1 CORINTHIANS 15:51-54 Behold, I [Paul] [show] you a mystery [G3466 = musterion]: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed– 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Paul also connected the marriage of a man and woman with the glorious eternal marriage of Christ and the ekklesia:

EPHESIANS 5:30-32 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery [G3466 = musterion], but I [Paul] speak concerning Christ and the [ekklesia].

And do not forget Paul’s attempt to describe the joys and glories of the eternal Kingdom to come:

1 CORINTHIANS 2:9-10 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed [G0601 = apokalupto] them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

ROMANS 9:22-23 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He [God] might make known [G1107 = gnorizo] the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,

Only a very few have glimpsed the throne of God and Paul was one who visited the third heaven in vision[9]. The only other apostle who had such an experience (that we know about) was John so that he could write the book of Revelation.

Paul also had revelations of the dark side of this world and explained that the end will come when the man lawlessness is revealed. He understood this even before John wrote Revelation:

[NET2.1+] 2 THESSALONIANS 2:3-4, 6-12 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not arrive until the rebellion comes and the man of lawlessness is revealed [G0601 = apokalupto], the son of destruction. 4 He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, and as a result he takes his seat in God’s temple, displaying himself as God. … 6 And so you know what holds him back, so that he will be revealed [G0601 = apokalupto] in his own time. 7 For the [mystery] [G3466 = musterion] of lawlessness is already at work. However, the one who holds him back will do so until he is taken out of the way, 8 and then the lawless one will be revealed [G0601 = apokalupto], whom the Lord will destroy by the breath of his mouth and wipe out by the manifestation of his arrival. 9 The arrival of the lawless one will be by Satan’s working with all kinds of miracles and signs and false wonders, 10 and with every kind of evil deception directed against those who are perishing, because they found no place in their hearts for the truth so as to be saved. 11 Consequently God sends on them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false. 12 And so all of them who have not believed the truth but have delighted in evil will be condemned.

As one who studied under the respected Pharisee Gamaliel[10], Paul was acutely aware of the important preeminence the Jews had in keeping the oracles of God:

ROMANS 3:1-2 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? 2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.

He also provided great detail regarding the changes to the Law of God and the restoration of the priesthood to the order of Melchizedek:

HEBREWS 7:11-12 Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? 12 For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.

Perhaps the most stunning disclosure of Paul was that the revelations of the Gospel given to him were also meant for the rulers and authorities in HEAVEN:

EPHESIANS 3:8-10 To me [Paul], who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach [the Gospel] among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery [G3466 = musterion], which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the [ekklesia] to the principalities [G746 = arche = rulers] and powers [G1849 = exousia = authorities] in the heavenly places,

What was the fellowship he disclosed?

1 CORINTHIANS 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

It is amazing to think that by establishing the Body of Christ, God revealed to the spiritual authorities in heaven that He was creating eternal children through a communion and fellowship with His Son! The Gospel to the ekklesia is about salvation for mankind but it was also a testimony unto the heavenly rulers of the PURPOSE of the plan of God for mankind that was hidden from them until then.

There is not enough space to mention everything that Paul revealed. His epistles are more instrumental than any other in revealing the fullness of the Gospel. In contrast, what John recorded in Revelation about the end-times events is only temporary. Far and above in importance are the secrets of God revealed through Paul—they are knowledge unto salvation for all nations, all eras, and all eternity. In all regards, Paul is the greatest revelator who “turned the world upside down!”[11]

May God’s grace and peace be upon you!

Steven Greene

https://sabbathreflections.org

sabbathreflections@gmail.com