02.10 - The Apostles as Inspired Agents

(10) The Apostles as Inspired Agents The Apostles, like the Prophets before them, were ordinary men, called from the ordinary avocations of life, commissioned and qualified by the Holy Spirit and the teachings of Jesus Christ to be His representatives in the world and messengers of His gospel to others. The very nature of the commission accords with the usage and meaning of the term “Apostle” as found in the New Testament, the Septuagint, and Hellenistic Greek, and is legitimately applied to the Twelve whom the Lord Jesus called, instructed, and commissioned to carry on His mission in the world after His departure. As a further equipment for this work Christ promised and imparted to them the gift of the Holy Spirit, Who should take of the things of Christ and show them unto them; Who should bring all things to their remembrance, declare to them things to come, and endue them with power and might from on high as His witnesses. The term “Apostle” is sometimes applied to ordinary evangelists and messengers in the New Testament, as also in the Didactic and early Christian literature; there were also “false apostles” “deceitful workers fashioning themselves into Apostles of Christ, and calling themselves apostles and were not.” (2 Corinthians 11:13; Revelation 2:2, etc.). “False apostles” were not false in name and title; it was not that they had no right or claim to be called Apostles because the name is not restricted either in the New Testament or Greek literature to the Twelve; but they were false in character and purpose. They were legalists, Judaizing teachers, and by bearing the name and title of “ apostles “ would the more effectually impose on the unwary, and succeed the better in their proselytising schemes.

When, then, we speak of “Apostles as inspired agents,” we must be understood as meaning the “Twelve” whom the Lord Jesus called, instructed, and commissioned, and who had companied with Him, and Paul, who, though not one of the Twelve, claimed to have seen Christ, to have been called, qualified, and commissioned by Him, and to have exhibited “ the powers and signs,” and to have done the work of an Apostle. The Apostles were not ordinary office-bearers in the Church, nor were they presidents, overseers, and governors in the early Church: they were preeminently witnesses of Jesus Christ, preachers of the gospel, and founders of Christian Churches. The relation in which they stood to the Lord Jesus and His Church, the revelations made to them, and the special commission given them, and the Divine inspiration imparted to them, imply that they were special messengers of Jesus Christ and of His gospel, and had special visions and revelations from the Lord Jesus, and were endued with gifts and powers and miraculous might as witnesses, teachers, and writers of the gospel and religion of Jesus Christ. As such they were distinct from all other messengers, missionaries, or apostles of the early Church; the inspiration and revelations that came to them were different from that of other persons bearing the name and title of “apostle”: their authority and mission were unique, and they could have no successors.