Have you ever used Romans 15:16 to point out to someone that the Apostle Paul was βthe minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles,β only to have them argue that no, he was just a minister of the Gentiles, one of many who ministered to the nations? If you bump into someone who really knows his stuff, he may even point out that there are more verses that use the indefinite article to describe Paul as βa ministerβ (Acts 26:16; Eph. 3:7; Col. 1:23,25) than the lone Scripture that you can cite where he is called βthe minister.β
If anyone has ever called you on this, as youβve sought to press the apostleship of Paul, you donβt have far to go to turn the tables and give them pause and food for thought. You see, just a few verses earlier in Romans 15, Paul referred to the Lord Jesus Christ as just βa minister of the circumcisionβ (v. 8).
How can this be? How can the Son of God be anything other than the minister of the people He came to save (Matt. 1:21; 20:28)? I believe it is because, while the Lord Jesus was God in the flesh, He did not come into this world to sit in an ivory tower and dispatch other men to minister to the circumcision. He Himself was on the front line of the battle for the souls of men, standing shoulder to shoulder with other ministers of the circumcision, men like John the Baptist, the twelve, the seventy, and any and all others who ministered to βthe lost sheep of the house of Israelβ (Matt. 10:6) in the face of opposition that came from men and devils alike.
In the same way, there is no question that the Apostle Paul was the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, the preeminent minister of the uncircumcision, as even an examination of the passages where he is called βa ministerβ will show (Acts 26:16-18; Eph. 3:1-7; Col. 1:24-29). But like his Lord, Paul was in the trenches, duking it out with the enemies of his gospel, standing shoulder to shoulder in the battle for truth with men like Timothy and Titus and Aristarchus and Epaphras and others.
So stick to your guns when it comes to standing for the distinctiveness of the apostleship and message of Paul. In the face of opposition from men and devils alike, continue to insist that whether heβs called by the definite or indefinite article, the Apostle Paul was the genuine article! source
