The Power of God to Salvation
Introduction
If you’ve been following my
article series, on miracles, posted on Mondays, you’ll notice that one of the
verses I focus a lot on is Romans 1:16, which the apostle Paul writes, For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,
for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
In this article, I want to
focus on the latter part of this verse; for
the Jew first and also for the Greek. The word Greek is being used
to refer to everyone who wasn’t a Jew. In other words, Gentiles.
For the Jew First…
The Israelites were God’s
chosen people as far back as Exodus when He established His covenant with them
at Mount Horeb. Even when He had them carried away in Babylonian captivity, He
assured them that they would return to the land (Jeremiah 29:10).
In the New Testament, Jesus
sent the seventy out on the limited commission and told them, “Do not go into the way of the
Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 10:5-6)
Approximately 400 years had
passed between the end of Malachi and the beginning of the Gospel dispensation.
Jesus wanted to give them opportunity to repent and turn back to God. At the
time, they were still God’s chosen.
Even during Paul’s travels,
he always went into the synagogues first to reason with them, from scripture,
that Jesus was The Christ (Acts 17:2, 17; 18:4, 19). These learned individuals
should have been able to see what was right in front of them as He pointed out these
things directly from their own writings.
The Transition
However, the Jews weren’t
the only ones that would receive salvation through the blood of Christ. The
gentiles were to be accepted as well. The Old Testament foretold of this event.
Most notably, “Behold,
the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah- not according to the covenant that
I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them
out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband
to them, says the LORD. “But this is the covenant that I will make with the
house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their
minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be
My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his
brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of
them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity,
and their sin I will remember no more.”
(Jeremiah
31:31-34)
Isaiah had this to say about
it, Indeed He says, ‘It
is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of
Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a
light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the
earth.’ (Isaiah
49:6) This, of course, was referring to Jesus.
There are other passages,
but these will suffice to make my point. Even Jesus spoke on this matter even
though his disciples didn’t understand it at first.
…And also, for the Greek.
During the Upper Room
discourse, Jesus said this to His disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you
cannot bear them now. "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He
will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but
whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”
(John 16:12-13)
Jesus told them there are
things they can’t bear right now. I’m going to suggest to you that He was, in
part, referring to salvation for the gentiles. The reason they couldn’t bear it
is, as we stated before, salvation was; essentially, for the Jews. That’s where
He wanted them to begin. Also, the thought of preaching salvation to the
Samaritans would have been unheard of since the Jews has a strong dislike to
them. This was a matter of waiting until the right moment.
When Jesus was resurrected,
and right before He ascended back into heaven, He told the eleven this, "and that repentance and
remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem (Luke
24:47). As far as they were concerned, He meant the Jewish nations.
Finally, in reminder of the
power of the Holy Spirit begin given, He said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea
and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
On the day of Pentecost,
Peter’s first gospel sermon concluded with this statement, “For the promise is to you and to
your children, and to all who are afar off, as
many as the Lord our God will call.”
(Acts
2:39) The highlight phrase means the gentiles. He wasn’t speaking about
distance but those separated from God as they were not of the Jews (Eph. 2:13).
It wasn’t until Acts 10,
some 10-15 years later, that Peter and the rest of the apostles finally
realized that the gentiles were also accepted. Peter goes on to defend this in
Acts 11.
When the Jews continued to
reject the message, Paul made this statement, “It was necessary that the word of God should be
spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of
everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46). This was a
verbal slap in the face to the Jews who continued to consider themselves God’s
chosen people.
Conclusion
A lot of people, today, take
religion for granted. They assume because they “go to church” and believe in
God, that makes them a Christian. There’s so much more to it than that and
people need to read their bibles to understand that. If you don’t know what a
true bible-based Christian is, I ask that you read my article called, The Bible Christian.
Be thankful that God has
accepted all individuals (2 Pet. 3:9; Titus 2:11) to become children of God.
It’s not too late to do what God has commanded (Mt. 7:21-23)
Comments
Post a Comment