Understanding the New Testament Gospel Differences (Part 2)

Understanding the New Testament Gospel Differences (Part 2 --- To the Jews first)

We continue, from this post, to work through the comparisons, differences, and nuances, between the gospel of God and the gospel of Christ through the transition period.

To the Jews first, then to the Greek vs. to all men or nations

During the Kingdom gospel, Jesus, on multiple occasions, mentioned that He had come for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, (Matt.15:24). By saying this, He was excluding the Gentiles from His ministry. This was because of the plan of God to save the Jews first so that they, according to prophecy, could be the light to the Gentiles, (Isa.60:3).

The gospel of God was no different. Because this gospel was based on the Kingdom gospel, the audience was still the same. In the first few chapters of Acts, Peter and the other apostles were still going to the Jews only. The difference however was that the gospel messaged had changed to include the resurrection and possible soon return of Jesus Christ. The conditions to be ready for His return was to repent and be water baptized in His name for the remission of sins, so that the gift of the Holy Spirit could come upon them, (Act.2:38).

This trend continued for approx. 10 years after Jesus had ascended into Heaven. It is at this time when God showed Peter a vision of a sheet filled with all manner of animals, clean and unclean. The purpose and interpretation of this vision was to show Peter not to reject the call of a Gentile who desired to hear the gospel. Peter, for the first, and only time in his life, and still reluctantly, shared the gospel with Cornelius, (Act.10:1-48). The Lord saved Cornelius and his household and they received the gift of the Holy Spirit even before they were water baptized, which has other significance that I will not deal with here.

In the meantime, Paul had already been converted and spent 3 years in Arabia where we suspect that God had started to reveal to him some mysteries pertaining to the gospel of Christ. Nevertheless, the Word is clear that when Paul started his early ministry, he went about teaching the gospel of God, proving to the Jews in the synagogues that Jesus was the Christ, which relates to the gospel of God, (Act.9:20).

Paul continued this trend, ministering to Jews first, (Rom.9:1-3), because at this time (early Acts), there was still hope for the Jews to be saved! God had not yet cast Israel away, (Rom.11:1-2). As time continued however, Paul also started to minister the gospel of Christ to those Jews and Gentiles who responded to the gospel of God and would be open to hear it. 

After Peter's vision, and also through Paul's missionary ministry, we find more and more Gentiles becoming involved, not only in the church of God, which were the assemblies under the instruction of the 12 apostles in Judaea, but also in churches that sprang up under the initial persecution of 'Saul', like the church at Antioch (Act.13:1), and through churches that originated by the missionary work of Paul and his coworkers.

We must understand that there was now a significant mix of people in the churches. Most notably, we have Jews, who are circumcised and under the law and ordinances, and we also have Greeks who didn't really care about the religion of Israel, who are not circumcised and did not practice the full extent of the law, (Act.15:28-29). With this in mind, you will understand why Paul wrote about ordinances, and laws, and holy-days (Col.2:16), and dress-codes (1Cor.11:4-5), and eating meat sacrificed to idols (see Rom 14:1-23, 1Cor.8:1-13), and bearing with each other in the culture mix.

On the other side of the coin we have the gospel of Christ. There is not much to say about this gospel based on our current key point, but it is clear that we do not see this restriction of Jew first and then the Greek in reference to this gospel. What we clearly see in Paul's writings concerning the gospel of Christ, are statements about 'all nations', and 'all men', showing that the gospel of Christ is not bound to a particular nation or order of presentation.

Romans 1:5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

Romans 16:26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:

1 Corinthians 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and our's:

Ephesians 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

1 Timothy 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. ... 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

1 Timothy 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

2 Timothy 4:17 Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear:

The offer of the Kingdom was still available until 70AD

As mentioned briefly above, we know that throughout the entire Acts period, (in which Paul penned Galatians, Thessalonians, Corinthians, and Romans), the offer of the Kingdom was still legitimate. This is why the gospel of God continued steadfastly throughout this time. God had not yet cast away the Jews. As a matter of fact, just like Israel was in the wilderness for 40 years, in a time of testing, we see that it took about 40 years before Jerusalem was conquered by Emperor Titus and the temple was destroyed. Israel had failed the test and from this moment they were scattered into all nations. 

Although Paul placed all his focus upon the gospel of the grace of God after he was imprisoned in Rome, the fall of Israel was where the gospel of Christ truly became the gospel of the grace of God as we know it today. Remember, the message did not change, but the new recipients were those that were far hence (Acts 22:21), and those that were utterly without hope, and without God in the world, (Eph.2:11-12).

We will continue in the next post with several more key points to compare the differences between the gospel of God and the gospel of Christ.