Tag Archives: Gentiles

Clay Feet!

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CLAY FEET

“When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned, For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

“When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, ‘You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?'” Galatians 2:11-14.

Even Peter! How strong are the traditions that enslave a person’s conscience!

 

Peter was far from Jerusalem. There were no scrupulously traditional Jewish believers in the vicinity of Antioch, so he freely mixed with Gentiles according to the dream which had led him to enter Cornelius’ the centurion’s house in Caesarea and eat with him (Acts 10). But when a group of Jewish believers came from James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, he slipped back into his old Jewish attitude of exclusivism.

For Peter it was not a matter of conscience or conviction. He had long dealt with the right or wrong of eating with Gentiles – which was an expression of reconciliation; the Holy Spirit had seen to that. Here it was a matter of the fear of man and Paul was quick to rebuke him, even publicly, for going back on his conviction in order to appear loyal to his Jewish heritage. He wasn’t even honouring the word of God but rather Jewish customs which actually contradicted God’s intention.

In his defines of the gospel of grace he preached, Paul referred to this incident to convince his Galatian readers that he had actually stood up to the great Peter whom he had just described as one of the “esteemed” leaders of the church in Jerusalem.

By Peter’s behaviour he had inadvertently dishonoured the gospel of Christ which was the good news of salvation through Him alone. Peter was insinuating that Jesus had not really destroyed the barrier between Jew and Gentile through His death; that Jews were still superior to Gentiles, and showed it by their refusal to eat with fellow Gentile believers. In the end he was saying that he had to uphold the customs of his forefathers which took precedence over the truth of the gospel.

For Paul this was unthinkable. He had given up too much for the sake of the gospel and suffered too much at the hands of his fellow Jews because of their fanatical loyalty to useless traditions to sanction Peter’s hypocrisy by keeping quiet. To say nothing meant that he was allowing Peter to lead others, even his companion Barnabas, astray. If it meant publicly exposing Peter’s cock-eyed thinking, so be it.

Paul does not record Peter’s response. Did he defend himself? Did he make excuses? Did he graciously acknowledge his error? We do not know. All we know is that Paul clearly understood the message of the cross and he defended it fearlessly even to standing up to Peter himself. It was not his intention to belittle Peter or to show himself better than Peter. It was always and only his motive to hold Jesus up as an all-sufficient Saviour for both Jew and Gentile.

Paul had long since come to understand that, at the cross, everyone stands on level ground. There is no longer a difference between Jew and Gentile. All the differences that existed were artificial and man-made. The Jews, as God’s covenant people were chosen, not to make them exclusive, but to set them apart for a divine purpose – to show the world that their God was the only and true God by the way they lived.

They failed dismally, anyway, and all they did was to show how impossible it was to be like Him by following rules and rituals, most of which they made up, without having their hearts changed. It took the Son of God to show them how to love like the Father, and then to die in the place of sinners to reconcile them to the Father. Where, in all that, were they better than anyone else? They stood on level ground with every other human being in both their sin and their eligibility to receive God’s grace through the death of His Son.

Thanks to Paul’s understanding and clear presentation of the truth, Peter and his companions received correction and we have this letter which presents Jesus to us as the all-sufficient Saviour of sinners plus nothing.

How true it is that anyone, including Peter, can have “clay feet”!

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

No Loose Cannon

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NO LOOSE CANNONS

“Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure that I was not running and had not been running my race in vain…” Galatians 2:1, 2.

In Paul’s autobiographical sketch, he was insistent that at no time did he get permission from the leaders of the Jerusalem church to preach to the Gentiles, and he also did not learn what to preach from them. He was God-ordained, God-instructed and God-commissioned to go to the Gentiles.

There was another reason why he was sent by revelation to Jerusalem. It was important that the leaders of the early church were in complete harmony with one another in what they taught and what they did, especially as there were many false teachers who were undermining the unity of the church. There were to be no loose cannons acting independently of the Body of Christ, inventing doctrines of their own and setting up splinter groups wherever they went.

Throughout his life as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul kept in touch with the church in Jerusalem and the church in Syrian Antioch, the two main centres of Christianity at the time. He and Barnabas functioned as leaders at Antioch for years before they were commissioned by the Holy Spirit through the leaders of the church there to go to the rest of the empire with the gospel (Acts 13).

Paul’s brief visit to Jerusalem after his years in Arabia was just an introduction of the erstwhile persecutor to Peter to reassure him of Paul’s authenticity in case Peter thought that he was an infiltrator with another agenda.

“…As for those who were held in high esteem – whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favouritism – they added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they recognised that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. 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.” Galatians 2:6-8

Paul’s visit to Jerusalem after his second missionary journey (Acts 18:22), achieved his purpose. The Jerusalem church leaders could have no doubts about him when they listened to his story. And what a story! He didn’t major on his achievements as much as on the things he suffered for the sake of the gospel; beatings, imprisonment and even stoning at Lystra and being left for dead. No fake apostle would ever endure experiences like that for a lie.

He would also have told them of the miracles God did for him and his companions; like Peter, a miraculous release from jail in Philippi through an earthquake, and the even more miraculous conversion of the jailor and his entire family; deliverance of a demon-possessed girl which landed him and Silas in prison; his survival of the stoning episode; his escape from the murderous intentions of fanatical Jews time and again, all told one story – God was with him and working though him.

He would also have related to them the leading of the Holy Spirit – how he and Barnabas were chosen and commissioned by the church leaders in Antioch after a season of prayer and fasting; how he was blocked for going further into Asia Minor and redirected, through a dream, to move westwards into Macedonia. How he was directed towards the Gentiles because of the hostile attitude of his fellow Jews.

Paul had to learn to read his circumstances because this was mostly the way that the Spirit led him. There were times when the Lord Himself encouraged and reassured him by a personal visit when he was at the end of his tether. Throughout all his experiences, good and bad, Paul was learning how to walk with the Lord and to be led by the Spirit.

There could be no doubt in the minds of Peter and his fellow leaders that Paul was a genuine apostle; that the message he preached was the same message they preached and that he was a God-ordained apostle to the Gentiles. They were united in heart and gladly endorsed Paul’s ministry.

“James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognised the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.” Galatians 2:9, 10.

How much better it would have been for the witness of the church, had leaders down the ages followed the example of the apostles and worked hard to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There were and are too many loose cannons with agendas of their own, building their own kingdoms with teachings they invented instead of doing what Jesus commanded – “Follow me!”

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

From God’s Perspective

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FROM GOD’S PERSPECTIVE

“But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult with human beings. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.” Galatians 1:15-17.

Why was Paul giving such a detailed description of his life history? Somewhere along the line it was not only his gospel message that was being attacked but also his credentials as an apostle. After all, he was not one of the Twelve. Who gave him authority to preach what he preached and, what’s more, to call down a curse on anyone who preached anything different from his message?

And what a message! He was actually insisting that people abandon the Law of Moses as a way to be accepted by God, and embrace and worship a human being, and one who had been executed by the Roman authorities, as God because He claimed to be God. That did not sit well with the Jews. On top of that, he was inviting Gentiles to have a share in the covenant God made with Abraham, telling them that they were also Abraham’s offspring if they believed in Jesus.

From a Jewish point of view, what Paul was doing was outrageous. However, although he was a Jew, he had another perspective, one that overrode human opinion. What was God’s side of the story?

First of all, He had a plan. Paul’s early life as a fanatical Pharisee, far from being his chosen way of life, was only an interlude and a preparation for the destiny God had prepared for him before he was born. At the precise moment, Jesus broke into his life in a personal encounter which shook him loose from his presuppositions and set him on course for his life work – introducing the rest of humanity to the God who had already revealed Himself to one group of people.

He had gone about it the wrong way because he did not understand the truth but his encounter with Jesus put him right. God was not fazed by his foolish notions and bad behaviour. He was a product of his times, but He did not leave him to perish in his unbelief. Grace stepped in at the critical moment, opened his eyes and turned him around.

Paul had a lot of unlearning to do. Instead of getting it second-hand from the ones who had spent time with Jesus, he set off by himself to learn first-hand from the Master. Where better to be alone with Him than in the desert of Arabia, where his ancestors had had many an encounter with the pre-incarnate Son during their forty-year sojourn in the wilderness?

Paul spent three years – the same amount of time as the other disciples – learning to be a disciple; his own desert “Bible College”, person-to-person with Jesus. It’s no wonder he was so insistent that he had authority to preach what he preached! No one spends time alone with Jesus for that long without being transformed from the inside out, thoroughly purged of all the old wrong thinking. What you think, you become. Paul became an apostle, called and commissioned, for the rest of his life, to be an ambassador for the kingdom of God and for his King.

Notice how he said, “to reveal His Son in me”. The years in Arabia were much more than a time of changing the way Paul thought. They were also a time for changing his attitudes and responses so that he became a completely new man. He spent three years “contemplating the Lord’s glory.” Jesus did not sit down on a rock beside him and teach him his spiritual ABC. By His Holy Spirit He was in him, revealing and leading him into all truth, making real and becoming to him “Christ in me, the hope of glory.”

When Paul left the “sacred halls of learning”, not in a classroom or lecture hall in an esteemed institution, but under the wide open sky, he carried with him much more than knowledge. He carried in him the presence of the Son of God, both his tutor and his model. It’s no wonder that he was so adamant about the truth of his gospel. The author was resident within him, guiding him and speaking through him so that it was always and only truth that he presented to anyone who would listen.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

To God Be The Glory!

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TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

“Now to Him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith – to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.” Romans 16:25-27.

What a magnificent doxology and ending to this superb letter! In Paul’s characteristic style, and in one long sentence, he encapsulated the gospel.

The gospel – what is it about? It is the message Paul proclaimed about Jesus Christ. He is the good news; His birth, foretold by the prophets in detail – who He was, His ancestry, the circumstances of His birth; His life, His character and His works; His death and resurrection; His rule and His coming kingdom – it’s all there in the Old Testament and fulfilled with precision and to perfection by His coming.

The good news, hidden from men’s understanding in the past but revealed in Jesus Christ, is that God’s mercy is for the whole world, not just for the Jews. The prophetic message was that the Gentiles would have a share in this salvation. The Jews thought that God was exclusively for them. The Gentiles were despised and side-lined in their estimation, but they missed the plot. They were to be the vehicle of God’s revelation to the world so that the Gentiles also should come to the obedience of faith.

The purpose of the gospel, and Paul never lost sight of this, was that God’s glory would be revealed to all of creation and, in the process, the usurper, the devil, would be publicly unmasked, disarmed and judged for who he was, once and for all – a liar, and a fraud, claiming the title of “Lord” which belonged to only one person, the Son of God.

God chose a drastic but effective way of exposing him; He put His own Son in the firing line. Jesus – as a human being – faced the worst that the devil could inspire fellow humans to throw at Him, betrayal, injustice and execution in the cruellest way possible, without retaliating. He absorbed it all and then bounced back – alive and free to claim His title because He had earned it by the life of a perfect son, and the death of a perfect Lamb.

“In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what He suffered.” Hebrews 2:10.

Could there have been another more effective way to show His love for all mankind and to reveal His wisdom than by the plan He devised? He punished His own Son for guilt that was not His so that the guilty might go free. Perfect justice and perfect love!

What comfort for his readers to know, and for all readers down through the ages, that this God who accomplished this magnificent salvation, is also able to establish weak, frail and fallible humans in the truth so that they will both stand and persevere until the moment they are removed from the presence of sin into the glorious presence of God forever!

Paul’s reassurance must have meant much to these people who lived under the constant threat of death at the hands of ruthless persecutors. Like believers in the Middle East today who have the sword hanging over their heads for no crime other than claiming that Jesus is Lord, many of the faithful men and women who heard Paul’s words would perish under cruel persecution, but God had established them and they were safe anyway.

To this God, who planned salvation, carried it out and rescues those who believe in Him, goes all the glory and honour. Through it He revealed to all mankind who He really is – not some far off, indifferent or callous tyrant but a God who came near, lived and died and returned in victory to proclaim liberty to the captives.

To Him, and Him alone be the glory! Amen.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

 

A Place For The Gentiles

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A PLACE FOR THE GENTILES

“For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. As it is written:

‘Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name.’

And again it says,

‘Rejoice, you Gentiles, with His people.’

And again,

‘Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; let all the people extol Him.’

And again, Isaiah says,

‘The root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in Him the Gentiles will hope.’

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:8-13.

It’s all very well, Paul, for you to explain the intricacies of God’s righteousness but on what grounds do we Gentiles have the right to think that we also have a share in the mercy of God? After all, God is the God of the Jews. He chose them to be His people and we were not included in His covenant with Abraham.

Oh, really! Was that God’s intention? To have a little group of people whom He could mollycoddle and leave the rest to rot in hell? Never! The whole purpose of His choice of Israel was for them to be a model for the Gentiles, so that they would see, mirrored in His people, the nature of God and believe in Him as well. Once He had sent His Messiah to earth through His people, He would throw the door open for the whole world to believe in Him.

Paul’s triumphant declaration of hope for the Gentiles was based squarely on God’s eternal plan, begun with Abraham and fulfilled in Christ, so that the people of the world, not only the Jews, would be members of His family and citizens in His kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy.

Embedded in His covenant with Abraham was the promise that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. The promises of God extended far beyond him and his descendants.

“I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:3.

Has God ever withdrawn His promise? On the contrary, Paul reassured his Romans readers:

“…For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.” Romans 11:29.

There is a warning for the nations today in God’s irrevocable promise to Abraham. The world is being polarised over the conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians in Israel. Most of the nations side with the Palestinians because they regard Israel as intruders with no right to be in the land of Israel. On the surface, without taking into consideration the promise of God, it may seem so, but from God’s perspective the land of Israel belongs to the Jews because He gave it to them forever.

“I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” Genesis 17:7, 8.

There is an extended prophecy in Zechariah 12:1-14; 13:1 that is yet to be fulfilled and seems on the brink of fulfilment even as I write. As the nations gather against Jerusalem, God will intervene to protect His people and destroy those who are trying to destroy them. The wars of the 1960’s bear witness to God’s protection and victory in the face of overwhelming odds.

Just as God promised His protection of His people, so He promised that the Gentiles would also have a place in His kingdom. And so, Paul could reassure all his Gentile readers, not only the Roman church then, but also every Gentile down the centuries, that our hope is based on the solid truth of God’s promise and Paul’s prayer:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.