Other Cases

This will be seen as we examine other cases in Scripture, "written for our learning”. The history of the "father of the faithful" will help us understand this. In Abraham's path we are introduced to him, and to the dealings of God with him. In Abraham we see the gradual unfolding of God's lessons for the soul, before the doctrine of these things is developed to us in the New Testament scripture.
Like ourselves in our measure, he had to pass through all in an experimental way to reach the perfect end. With the saint in the New Testament, if he were to accept what is taught there, it would allow him to begin in the place where others ended. But the state of soul and the power of the flesh and the deceivableness of our own hearts, are such that we must learn, too, all the lessons in an experimental way.
In Paul we see one who learned these things practically, but with much difference from ourselves. Speaking for oneself, and perhaps for others, we learn them through failure, in which we experience (more like Peter) the extricating ministry of Christ. Paul's case differed much, for in him we see rather the true heart taught, the singleness of eye met, so that he had more of the preventive or preserving ministry of Christ, rather than the restorative or extricating. At the same time he was passed through circumstances of varied kinds that the lesson might be experienced in his own soul. We see failures in his life, but they were few.
We all experience, in a sense, the threefold way in which God revealed Himself to Abraham. He was called by the "God of glory" Acts 7:2. He was sustained by the "Almighty God," and all was provided by "Jehovah-Jireh." This was his history as a saint. But all was not revealed to him at first.