For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles.
Summary: Looking at the history of the world in four parts helps bring into focus the challenges God faced in redeeming his creation.
If we were to distill the history of the world into its basic parts, we might break it down like this:
Part I: False Start
From the creation of the world to the time of Noah and the Great Flood.
Part II: Right and Wrong
From the flood and the birth of Abram to the time when Israel goes into exile.
Part III: Lost in the Wilderness
From the time of the exile to the time of Jesus.
Part IV: Operation “Rescue”
From the time of Jesus until now.
The story of the world is summed up in Paul’s letter to the church in Rome when he writes, “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one.’” (Romans 3:10)
From the beginning of time people have turned from God and gone their own way. In Part I, God waits until only one righteous man is left in the entire world. The man’s name was Noah (Genesis 6:9). When God decided to put an end to unrighteousness, he allowed Noah and his family to be saved from the destruction that fell on everyone else (Genesis 7:1).
In Part II, God finds another righteous man called Abram (Genesis 15:6). Abram is not perfect, but he believes in God and is responsive to his instruction. God changes his name to Abraham and promises to make him into a “great nation” (Genesis 12:2).
Abraham’s descendent’s do indeed become a great nation, and God raises up a prophet among them who teaches them about God’s Law. They reluctantly follow God’s Law, but after many years, reject God and follow the way of the Gentile nations (e.g. 2 Kings 16: 2-4). Abraham’s descendants, known as “Israel,” became hopelessly lost.
Part III is the story of Israel’s eviction from their home and being spread out among the Gentile nations. Eventually some find their way back to their homeland, but the glory that was theirs in the beginning was never recaptured.
In Part IV, God comes to the rescue. He sends his son, Jesus, to demonstrate God’s love for his creation by allowing the people he made to kill him. Jesus overcomes death and begins the process of calling all people to himself. By now, the world is divided between the Israelites and the Gentiles. In God’s eyes, there is very little difference. Both are desperately in need of being rescued, but both have different needs.
The story of Part IV is the story of God rescuing his people. The Israelites and the Gentiles are like people who speak different languages. God sent the apostles who knew Jesus to his chosen people, the Jews. To the Gentiles he sends other emissaries with Paul as their chief spokesman.
The rescue operation is underway. Salvation is at hand.
Application: Thank God for salvation through Jesus Christ.
Food for Thought: Why did God need two different approaches for the Jews and Gentiles?
There are promises to Israel that God will keep and then there are promises to the church. God will keep every promise. But salvation is in Jesus alone whether someone is a Jew or Gentile.
The different Apostles to different peoples acknowledges the fact that the Jews had the OT law as a foundation and the Gentiles did not. It also acknowledges that there was a division and dislike between the two.
Romans 3: 1 – 9 acknowledges the advantage the Jews had be receiving the law and the OT relationship with God while also showing that we are all under the power of sin (verse 9 and later verse 23). Romans 6:23 shows that the wages of sin is death – separation from God, but the free gift if God is eternal life in Christ.
Ephesians 2: 11 – 22 shows how Jesus destroyed the hostility between Jew and Gentile, reconciling is all through Christ. No matter which we are, we need Jesus and we can be thankful for the cross which unifies and reconciles to God.
Thanks Rich!
My sense of your comment is that we (Jew and Gentile) are one people but two separate cultures. God is bridging that divide and bringing us together in Him through Jesus.
I think that both needed to clearly hear the voice of the Shepherd, and not the voice of a stranger.
John 10:14-16 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
John 10:3-5 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
Chris,
I love how you bring us to the Shepherd’s voice! That is such a powerful image!
I was just reading Job 12:11 —
“Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food?“
01-30-2022, Why did God need two different approaches for the Jews and Gentiles?
The term Jew was originally used to refer to people of either the Kingdom of Judea or the tribe of Judah. Other terms used include Hebrews, the Children of Israel or Israelites.
The term gentile is best translated back into English as a nation or nations. In many contexts throughout the Hebrew Bible, it is used to mean people who are not Jewish in a very general sense.
As Rich points out, the Jew’s had a biblical foundation which pointed to an ongoing, although often rocky relationship with God, and revelations of the coming Messiah “Jesus Christ”. The gentile, the rest of the world, as recorded in the OT, had only a sporadic occasional relationship with God.
They required two separate ministries and as Paul pointed out only a few were capable of ministering to both..
1 Corinthians 9:20-22
To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law, so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law, so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.
Great point, Ron!
Paul really was a bridge between the two cultures. That was an important part of his ministry.
Gal 3:28 —
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. “