Paul is essential for dispensationalism. He shows us how important it is to separate verses into their proper context and audience. It makes sense. He was a Jew before he was a Christian, and his ministry was to the Gentiles. He had a phenomenal understanding how the difference between the theology of the Jews and the theology of Christianity. He was able to see and express the different contexts of different teachings clearly. Paul wrote the epistles from Romans to Philemon, which are purely Christian.
Many opponents of dispensationalism (covenant theology) will attack Paul. Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic church when he read the book of Romans, which is a Pauline epistle. Muslims and liberals also attack Paul’s writings. They will cite how different his teachings are from Jesus and the Old Testament and ask if Paul is even teaching the same thing. Peter was the leader of the church after Jesus. He approves of Paul!
2 Peter 3:15-16: “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”
Peter believed that Paul’s writing was part of God’s Word! They are reliable.
Acts 15:5-11: “But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.”
Peter approved salvation by grace and not by works! He was approving of Paul’s teaching and not a doctrine of faith and works.
Galatians 1:15-16: “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.”
Paul here shows that the other apostles did not teach him, but that the revelations given to him were form God Himself.