Two Gospels: Jew and Gentile
Romans 10:9-13 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (10) For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (11) For the Scripture says, "whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." (12) For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. (13) For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
There is only one gospel of salvation. Both Jews and gentiles alike, come to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, and no other way. When He teaches us how to be saved in the scripture quoted above, the Holy Spirit clearly tells us that there is no distinction between Jew and gentile. But although we both come into the kingdom through the same door, and that door is Christ, we come in from two distinctly separate people groups. And so it is because of where we come from, that there are then two gospels. There is only one gospel “of” salvation, but there are two distinct gospels “after” salvation.
Galatians 2:6-9 “But from those who seemed to be something--whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favouritism to no man--for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me. (7) But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter (8) (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), (9) and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul stated that our Lord Jesus had committed the gospel for the uncircumcised to him, while our Lord had committed the gospel for the circumcised to Peter. Clearly there are two different gospels, one to the circumcised, and the other to the uncircumcised. We have already seen that there is no difference between the two gospels with regards to salvation, so where then does the difference lie between them? The difference lies in the backgrounds of the two people groups that come into the kingdom. We have already seen that the gentiles, before they come into the kingdom, have no pre-existing covenant relationship with God. And so, the gentiles that come into the kingdom enter the covenant relationship with the Lord, called the New Covenant, and nothing more. That however, is not the case with regards to the Jews who come into the kingdom, for as we have already seen, they already have a covenant relationship with God, and that is the covenant of the law. So, as far as the Jews are concerned, the question is asked what happens to the first covenant that they already have when they partake of the New Covenant. We have already seen earlier that God makes their first covenant obsolete and replaces it with the new covenant. However, although God makes the first obsolete and replaces it with the new, in this life (and only in this life), He deals with the Jewish believers differently to the gentile believers. And so it is in the way that God deals differently with us in this life, that we have the two gospels.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments