How different is the new truth Paul reveals from what came before?
The new truth Paul reveals is as different as night and day from what came before. It is a whole new body of truth never stated before: the Gentile body of Christ, the Holy Spirit indwelling individual believers, and Christ's blood atoning for the whole world's sins. These were absent from Christ's earthly ministry, latent in earlier Scripture until Paul.
Les explains that Philippians 1:10 is often missed. The King James renders a Greek word as 'excellent,' but that word is translated differently elsewhere in the New Testament. Les suggests reading it as 'different': 'that you may approve things that are different.' He then asks, 'How different?' and answers, 'as different as night and day.' The same God is involved, but a whole new body of truth is now being revealed that had never been mooted before. Les emphasizes that Christ's earthly ministry said nothing about a Gentile body of Christ, nothing about the Holy Spirit indwelling individual believers, and nothing about Christ's blood atoning for all the sins of the whole world. Those truths were latent in earlier Scripture but not plainly stated until Paul.
That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;