From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part 42 of a series. Read part 41.

Jesus the Messiah came to redeem a people not only from among the Jews, but "out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation."

And the angel said unto them: "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:10-11)

As we continue our study of this text from the libretto of Handel's Messiah, let us next focus upon the angel's words, "which shall be to all people." The evangel of Messiah Jehovah, the announcement of the coming of the Deliverer, was not to be exclusively a message to the Jews, or involve a way of redemption only for Israel.

The phrase in the original Greek is actually "to all the people." Some commentators, certain Dispensationalists in particular, claim that the use of the definite article in the text means that this message was exclusively to Israel. But none of the other Biblical statements regarding the scope of the Messiah's redemptive work support this position.

"To the Jew First"

The Apostle Paul, himself a Jew, declared by divine inspiration that

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 [i.e., the Gentile]. (Romans 1:16)

Jesus declared that the evangel would be preached first to the Jews, because the apostles' preaching would begin at the geographical center of Israel. But it would soon become a proclamation to all the nations:

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)

When Paul entered any city on his missionary journeys, it was his practice to first preach the Gospel in the Jewish synagogue. Some Jews in some of those places believed the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah. But the case of the Jews at Antioch was far different, and Paul's response to their unbelief was prophetically significant:

So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the Word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul.

Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, "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. For so the Lord has commanded us: 'I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.' "

Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the Word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And the Word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. (Acts 13:42-49)

This instance, and many others in the Gospels and in Acts, fulfilled Old Testament Messianic prophecies such as these:

And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people; for the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious. (Isaiah 11:10)

And now the Lord says, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel is gathered to Him (for I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and My God shall be My strength), 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 49:5-6)

The "Gentile Church" is Not the "Mystery"

Dispensationalist commentators also assert that the proclamation of the Gospel to the Gentiles, and the gathering of believing Gentiles into the Body of Christ as the so-called "Gentile church," is the "mystery" of which the Apostle Paul speaks in Colossians. But that is not what Paul himself says. He speaks of one church of both Jew and Gentile,

of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the Word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:25-27)

In view of the angel's statement in Luke chapter 2 that his Messianic announcement was "to all people", we are obliged to ask questions. First, what is a "mystery" in Scripture? A mystery, according to the Word of God, is some aspect of God's plan that was hidden at one point in time but is later revealed. With this in mind we we must ask a second question: What is the mystery of which Paul is speaking in Colossians?

Some commentators say that the mystery is that the Gentiles would partake of salvation along with Israel. But that was no mystery. The truth that salvation was for both Jew and Gentile by faith alone in the Messiah alone was never a hidden truth.

God told Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 that in the Messiah who would come through Abraham's descendants, "all the nations of the earth will be blessed" - not Israel only. In Isaiah 49:6 God said that through the coming Messiah He would "restore the preserved ones of Israel," and, "I will also give You [Messiah] as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth."

Although most of God's Old Testament saints were Jews, Scripture records many occasions of individual Gentiles, and even whole Gentile cities, like Nineveh, repenting and turning to the Redeemer.

So the salvation of the Gentiles itself is not the mystery spoken of in Colossians. What, then, is it? We have the answer at the end of Colossians 1:27: "Christ in you, the hope of glory." The mystery of God's plan that has now been revealed is that the Messiah not only would come to earth, not only would die, not only would be buried, not only would rise from the dead - the Messiah would actually live in each member of His redeemed church during this age. "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

We find this confirmed in other passages. In John 14:23 Jesus says, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him." In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, "I have been crucified with Christ; yet it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me."

"Christ in you, the hope of glory" - or to translate it more directly, "Christ in you, the guaranteed expectation of glory" - is the mystery that was hidden and is now revealed. Under the Old Covenant, Christ did not dwell within believers. The Holy Spirit did not dwell within believers, except in specific cases for specific purposes. That is why David prayed in Psalm 51, after his great sin, "Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me."

That is a prayer that no believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, Jew or Gentile, needs to pray under the New Covenant. Paul declares in Ephesians chapter one that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the down-payment, or guarantee, of our final redemption - when we shall not only have Christ living within these mortal, sinful bodies, but we shall be like Christ forever, when we will have glorified bodies like His for eternity. That is the "hope of glory."

The Middle Wall Broken Down

The Holy Spirit also spoke of this through Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians:

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh - who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands - that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2:11-18)

In Jesus the Messiah there is absolutely no division or distinction between Jew and Gentile. His Messiahship is "for all people."

"What God Has Cleansed"

At the beginning of the Christian church many of its members, even the apostles, did not yet truly understand this. But God soon made the truth that the Gospel is "to all people" graphically clear - first to Peter, and through him to the rest of the church:

Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the Word of God. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, saying, "You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!"

But Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning, saying: "I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object descending like a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came to me. When I observed it intently and considered, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air.

"And I heard a voice saying to me, 'Rise, Peter; kill and eat.' But I said, 'Not so, Lord! For nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth.' But the voice answered me again from heaven, 'What God has cleansed you must not call common.' Now this was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven.

"At that very moment, three men stood before the house where I was, having been sent to me from Caesarea. Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, 'Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter, who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.'

"And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, 'John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?"

When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life." (Acts 11:1-18)

The Council of Jerusalem

Acts chapter 15 records an apostolic council which met at Jerusalem to confront a most serious issue resulting from the conversion of these and other Gentiles: Some within the church were insisting that Gentiles had to effectively become Jews in order to be saved. They wanted to require believing Gentiles to enter into the Old Covenant rite of circumcision. They claimed, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved" (Acts 15:1).

And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: "Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the Gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

"Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they." (Acts 15:7-11)

Peter now truly understood what the angel had signified in announcing the Messiah's birth: It was "good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." As Paul under inspiration would write to the church at Rome,

...there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:12-13)

Every Tribe, Nation, and Tongue

The Apostle John saw a vision of the ultimate fulfillment of this truth. He saw the glorified Messiah on His throne:

Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:8-10)

Dear reader, the offer of the Gospel of salvation from the wrath of God through the shed blood of Jesus the Messiah is free to all. It is free to you.

Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other (Isaiah 45:22).

"As I live," says the Lord God, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?" (Ezekiel 33:11).

Hear the words of the Messiah Himself:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).

Next: The Heavenly Army

hm_42

Copyright 1998-2024

TeachingtheWord Ministriesmmmmmwww.teachingtheword.org

All rights reserved. This article may be reproduced in its entirety only,
for non-commercial purposes, provided that this copyright notice is included.

We also suggest that you include a direct hyperlink to this article
for the convenience of your readers.