The question has come up quite often among believers:  Were the disciples out of divine order in choosing Matthias to take the  place of Judas Iscariot as one of the apostles?  Wasn’t Paul the twelfth apostle of the Lamb?

We say that Peter and the other apostles were not out of divine order in choosing an apostle to take the place of Judas.  Their foundation for this action was based on the Word of God.  David wrote in the Psalms:  “Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents”—Psalm 69:25.  Also note these instructions:  “Let his days be few; and  LET ANOTHER TAKE HIS OFFICE”—Psalm 109:8.  Judas was numbered with the apostles but he was a stranger and alien to the commonwealth of Israel.  Jesus remarked, “Have not I chosen you twelve, and ONE OF YOU IS A DEVIL.  He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for it was he that should betray Him, being one of the twelve”—John 6:70,71.

Peter realized that the Lord had set apart twelve men to take the gospel to men in darkness.  Their ranks were broken and he remembered the words of the Old Testament: “. . let another take his office.”  There were certain qualifications.  “Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection”—Acts 1:21,22.  Matthias was to “. .take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell.”   

Paul was not one of the twelve.  After the Jews opposed and rejected him, he informed them, “It was necessary that the word of God should FIRST have been spoken to you: but seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.  For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.  And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad. .”---Acts 13:47,48a.  The gospel of the uncircumcision (Gentiles) was committed to Paul, while the gospel of the circumcision (Jews) was consigned to Peter.  “(For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision,”  Paul said, “the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)”—Galatians 2:8. 

Paul was not the twelfth apostle but was chosen of God to take the gospel to the Gentiles.  His message was primarily to the Church, while that of the twelve was to Israel.

                                                                          --H.W.