11/24/23
Many theologians and lay people offer strong objections concerning any distinction between the Gospel of the Kingdom as preached by John the Baptist, Jesus, and his disciples, from that of Paul’s Gospel, the gospel of the grace.
Did Jesus and the apostles teach one gospel and Paul another? Good question!
If we were to distinguish that there are two gospels, one for the Jewish people and the other for the Church, would this be bad theology? Or is there a greater truth in the statement? Well, let’s take a closer look at the question.
Let’s begin with Jesus’ earthly ministry and the twelve. We are all aware that Jesus came to the Jews first. Jesus commanded the twelve,
Matthew 10:5-6, “Go not into the way (places) of the Gentiles, and into any (walled) city of the Samaritans enter you not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Why did He command them to stay in Israel to teach His gospel? They were to follow in his footsteps and continue spreading His message to the Jews that he was the expected Messiah, the Son of God.
In Matthew 15:24, Jesus said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Isaiah 9:6, “A Son is given.”
Jesus was connecting his presence with His Father’s purpose. Jesus was born under the law to redeem those who were also under the law.
Galatians 4:4-5, “When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them (the Jews) that were under the law.”
Jesus narrowed the apostle’s focus to those more receptive, those who knew the law, and those expecting the Messiah.
Therefore, the disciples’ ministry would be the same as the Lord’s. Go only to the “Lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
John 21:16, After the cross and after his resurrection, Jesus is with his disciples. He turns to Peter and asks him three times, “Love you me more than these (meaning the other disciples)?”
Peter replies, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus replies, “Feed my sheep.” Even though they had put him to death, He still told Peter to “Feed my sheep.”
Jesus earthly ministry began in October of 26 A.D. and ended at the cross in April of 30 A.D., 3 ½ years later. The place, Israel. At that time, the temple stood; animal sacrifices were being offered, and the Pharisees and Sadducees replaced the Levites. The temple was without the Ark of the Covenant, without the mercy seat, without the eternal fire, but most importantly, the people were without the God-ordained Levitical priests.
From the days of Malachi, about 436 to 408 B.C., God had exposed and condemned the unfaithful priests of Israel. He rebuked them and cursed them.
God said to the priests, Malachi 2:1, “I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to your heart.”
God’s covenant had been with the Levites, not with any priests appointed by men. Therefore, in my view, any sacrifices made by these self-appointed priests, from Malachi to the temple’s destruction in 70 A.D., were worthless, as Malachi wrote, Malachi 2:3, “dung” unto the Lord.
During Christ’s ministry, the Jews were under Roman rule and governed by Pontius Pilate, the fifth prefect of the Roman province of Judaea. Pilate served from 26 A.D. to 36 A.D. He served under Emperor Tiberius and is best remembered for the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Until Paul began his ministry, some seven years after the cross, about 37 A.D., except for a few Gentiles, they had been on the outside looking in. Any believing Jews who had received Christ were still participating in Temple worship and holding to specific rules of the law, as in tithing, circumcision, eating unclean foods, etc.
When the Lord came to the Jews, he first called out the 12. He then began to confirm his new covenant with the people. The law Moses had received was written in cold stone, but now,
Jeremiah 31:31, “Behold, the days come, said the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.”
Verse 33, “This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; — I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people —– Verse 34, “For they shall all know me —- for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.”
For three-and-a-half-years, Jesus confirmed this new covenant with the Jews. All they had to do was believe that He was their Messiah, the Son of God. And by many signs and wonders, healing and miracles, He had set out to prove to the people of Israel and their religious leaders that the Father sent him and that he was the Son of the Living God.
During Jesus’ earthly ministry, those saved had confessed that Jesus was the Son of God. Speaking of the Lord,
John 1:34, John the Baptist said, “This is the Son of God.”
Peter confessed that Jesus was the “Son of the living God.”
The Samaritan woman at the well confessed that Jesus was the “Son of God.”
The Roman centurion acknowledged after Jesus’s death that He was “The Son of God.”
After the cross, on the day of Pentecost, 3,000 believed.
Also, the Jewish Eunuch said to Philip, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
This was Jesus’ message to the Jews that He was the promised Messiah. But even after all his healing, miracles, signs, and raising of the dead, he was rejected.
John 1:11, “He (Jesus) came unto his own (the Jews), and his own received him not.”
The response of the people of Israel after three-and-a half-years of signs and miracles was,
Luke 19:14, The “citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, we will not have this man (Jesus) to reign over us.”
Mark 15:13, “And they (the people) cried out again, Crucify him.”
Please read carefully: The following occurred before the cross. Jesus is speaking to the 12 apostles:
Luke 18:31-34, “Then he (Jesus) took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished (fulfilled.)”
“For he (Jesus) shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spit on.
And they shall scourge him and put him to death: and he shall rise again the third day.
And they (the 12) understood none of these things: and this saying was HID from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.”
The apostles had no understanding of the Lord’s death, burial, and resurrection until after his resurrection. Also, they did not know Paul’s gospel of grace, and for the next twenty-one years, until Peter had his vision of the sheet, none of the apostles understood that the Gentiles had received the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
With this in mind, there was no way the apostles could teach Paul’s gospel of grace, that we are saved by faith and faith alone, not by the works of the law. Peter wrote some thirty years after the cross and shortly before his death,
2 Peter 3:15-16, “Even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you; As also in all his (Paul’s) epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned (untaught) and unstable twist as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”
Peter calls Paul his brother, a fellow Christian, a fellow apostle. Many have, and continue to deny, Paul’s apostleship, yet Peter owns up to him. He calls him beloved and mentions Paul as one who had an uncommon measure of wisdom given to him.
Let’s get to Paul’s gospel: Paul converted about 34 A.D., three years after the cross. In Galatians 1:11, you can read his story. He writes that his gospel was “not after men” but came from the Lord himself. After Paul’s Damascus Road experience, he never went to Jerusalem, where the apostles were, but went into Arabia and Damascus until 40 or 41 A.D.
Paul now arrives on the scene with his gospel. He writes in,
Romans 11:13, “For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles.”
1 Timothy 2:7, “I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity (truth).”
1 Timothy 2:8, “Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my (Paul’s) gospel.”
So, what was Paul’s gospel? It was a gospel of the grace of God and by faith alone. I believe the following verse summarizes Paul’s gospel.
1 Corinthians 15:1-2-3-4, Paul writes, “I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you” — “By which also you are saved if you keep in memory what I preached to you.” —– “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And that he was buried, and that he rose again on the third day.”
That was/is Paul’s gospel; we can call it the gospel of grace, which is the gospel for us today.
Phil LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com