1 Timothy 3:16
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
Preached unto the Gentiles
As we examine the fourth aspect of the mystery of godliness, we recall Christ’s words during His earthly ministry recorded in Matthew 15:24:
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
The Holy Spirit through the pen of the apostle Paul confirms this in Romans 9:4-5:
Who are the Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
The few instances that we see the Lord Jesus Christ interacting with the Gentiles during His earthly ministry, is only when they took their place as inferior compared to the Israelites. We see an example of this when the gentile woman acknowledged her position as a “dog” feeding off the crumbs of the children’s (Israel) table in Matthew 15:27. So if we look at the whole span of God’s Word we notice that after the tower of Babel, God chose Abram who would become Abraham and made a covenant with him and gave him some promises. A couple generations later we see Jacob born who would be named Israel and who begat 12 sons. The nation of Israel was born. Prior to God calling out Abraham, God dealt with the whole world on an even footing. The nation of Israel was separated from the rest of world (Gentiles) and given a place “nigh to God”. At that point God’s interactions with the Gentiles were on the basis of the their interaction with Israel. For any Gentile to come to God at that point, He had to come to Israel and be converted. So at that point the Gentiles were without God as we see in Ephesians 2:11-12:
Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made 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.
Time forbids looking at this in detail, but when we read the prophecies in the Old Testament, we see that when the Messiah would come and set up the eternal kingdom, then Israel would be a nation of priests that would bring the nations back to God (This will happen during our Lord Jesus Christ’s millenial reign when rules the earth.) But until those prophecies would be fulfilled, the Gentiles were to be viewed at unclean, inferior and to be strictly avoided especially in the sense of intermarriage because of the heathen idol worship and influences they would bring, which we see happen in the Old Testament. So as we consider this subject of “preached unto the Gentiles” we must realize this did not happen during Christ’s earthly ministry. Many people today, only want to read the red words in their Bible, which were the words that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke during His earthly ministry, but they don’t realize that those words were to the Jews. Does that mean as Gentile Christians we don’t get have any application for us in the gospels? There is plenty of application in the gospels for us, but we must realize we can’t have it applied appropriately until we understand what God provided for us in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. If we just read the gospels, we might begin to attempt to live Jesus Words according to our might or our will. It just can’t be done and neither could it be done by the Jews He spoke those words to. When we learn of all that happened by the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ concerning His death, burial and resurrection we find out that our flesh (old man, sin nature) is utterly depraved and can’t do the works of God. But when we are saved we are a new creation in Christ, and then we are empowered to do the works of God through him, not by our will or determination, but rather as we yield to the Lord through prayer and the study of His Word, He will purge our vessels, equip us and send us out. We learn to differentiate the flesh from the Spirit. Praise the Lord our strength is not in ourselves or what we will to do, but if we simply yield to Him then He will direct our path and grow us in Him.
So back to our current subject, it is not until Peter is sent to Cornelius that the Gentiles are preached to. (Many think that there were Gentiles preached to at Pentecost, but upon closer examination we find those were Jews from many different nations, we also see that only the Jews were being preached to up until Acts 11:19). Now when Peter was sent to Cornelius, the Lord was having him use a key of the kingdom that He gave to him, showing Peter that the Gentiles were no longer to be viewed as unclean. The Lord would also use this instance in Peter’s ministry to prepare him to confirm Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles. We see this recorded in Acts 15, when Paul met with the other apostles in Jerusalem and communicated the gospel of the grace of God which the Lord Jesus Christ had given him. This meeting is also recorded in Galatians 2, where we read of Peter, James, and John shaking hands with Paul and agreeing that they would go the Jews while Paul would go to the Gentiles with the gospel of the grace of God.
Now prior to this, when Israel’s rulers stoned Stephen, they nationally rejected the Holy Spirit and the offer of the “times of refreshing”. At this point all was ready for the seventieth week of Daniel also known as the tribulation to begin. Had the Israelites repented and accepted that Jesus was the Christ and admitted that they had killed Him and He rose from the dead, the Lord would have come back and set up His kingdom and ultimately Israel would be going to the Gentiles as a blessing to them. But this did not happen. On a national level Israel repeatedly rejected God the Father when they rejected the prophets, the last one being John the Baptist, then they rejected God the Son, when they crucified the Lord, and then they rejected the Holy Spirit when they stoned Stephen. But here is what is awesome and what so much of Christendom misses, God in His foreknowledge knew all this would happen and despite Israel’s failure to accept their Messiah, He would still go to the Gentiles with the good news of His grace through Christ Jesus the Lord. The order was always supposed to be Israel first as a nation of priests that went to the Gentiles who would be second, but because of Israel’s national rejection, the Lord raised up Paul to testify of His grace towards the Gentiles inspite of Israel’s failure. The prophetic time clock was stopped and has been stopped for nearly 2000 years as God in grace offers salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ to anyone who will believe whether they are Jew or Gentile. Every one is on an equal footing as God reconciled Himself to the world through the shed blood, death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone is brought near to God. So if everyone is brought near, what is the admonition? Be reconciled to God! But how? By believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and accepting God’s gracious gift of salvation by grace through faith in Christ and His finished work!
So far in our study of the mystery of godliness, we have seen the dual meaning of each aspect as we desire to exercise ourselves to godliness. When we looked at “God manifest in the flesh” we understood that the Holy Spirit conveyed both the physical manifestation of God the Son on this earth, and the spiritual manifestation of Christ in us, the hope of glory. When we look at “justified in the Spirit” we understood that Christ was raised from the dead and also that we are raised in Him to walk in newness of life. When we looked at “seen of angels” we saw Paul and his fellowlaborers were made a spectacle to the angels as they learned of the grace of God by witnessing the Lord Jesus Christ working in him, and by extension us as members of the body of Christ are also being used to show the manifold truth of God’s grace to the principalities and powers. Now as we look at “preached unto the Gentiles” we again view both the dispensation (economy or administration) that Paul was given concerning the Gentiles and our responsibility to preach the gospel of the grace of God as well. Let’s look at just a few verses where the Holy Spirit inspires Paul to testify of the apostleship given to him.
Romans 11:13
For I speak to Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles I magnify my office.
Romans 15:16
That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.
Galatians 2:7-8
But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter: (For He that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles.
Ephesians 3:7-8
Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Paul did not preach himself to the Gentiles or nations, but he preached Christ Jesus the Lord, and Paul himself a servant for those who heard him (2 Corinthians 4:5). So also we too, as we exercise ourselves to godliness, should follow the pattern he was given in Christ (1 Timothy 1:16). This pattern shows Paul who was the number one persecutor of Christians, saved by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ and then we see God’s grace working in Paul greatly. This pattern shows that no one is beyond the reach of the grace of God. No matter what you’ve done, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ He will save you for ever! Throughout Paul’s epistles the Holy Spirit inspires Paul to testify of the apostleship given to him many times. Why is this? Why is the fact of the Gentiles being preached to is so important, why if we desire to exercise ourselves to godliness is it so important to understand that God was “preached unto the Gentiles”. Because it is in Paul’s epistles where we find the “preaching of the cross” and the “preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery”. If we are going to be vessels ready for the Lord’s use, we need to eat our spiritual food, we need to read God’s Word. When we learn of the salvation that has come to everybody, Jew and Gentile, we are learning of all that Christ has done for us and accomplished for us by the cross. We learn of the earthly purpose of Israel and the heavenly purpose of the Gentile members of the body of Christ. We learn of how the law and ordinances all pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. The outward circumcision of the Jew pointed to the need for the inward circumcision of the heart, a circumcision that could not be performed by the hands of men, but by the operation of God through the Holy Spirit, based on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The various water baptisms were outward pictures of the inward need for cleansing. The law was never given to justify a man, but by it man found out that he was a sinner and needed a Savior. Flesh and blood could never keep the law, only the Lord Jesus Christ could keep every part of the law perfectly. But as we yield to the Lord through prayer and consumption of His Word, and His life and love are working out of us, we will glimpse the Lord Jesus Christ working out of us and Him performing the law. The minute we say we will keep the law or we will do this or that for the Lord and it is by our might, we will fail and we fall from grace experientially. But the minute we say we can’t, but praise the Lord He can and through His resurrection He has raised us to walk in newness of life, we will see the fruits of the Spirit being produced all according the good works He made for us to walk in according to His purpose and grace in saving us.
By prayerfully reading God’s Word and understanding what was preached unto the Gentiles and why this age of grace we live in was not prophesied about until it was revealed to Paul. By understanding the difference between Israel and Gentiles, we can also see how there is no difference between Jew and Gentile in Christ. The same Lord is rich to all those who call upon Him. When we see how we can live godly in Christ Jesus during our lifetimes, we find out how any man could ever live godly in any age. By our faithfulness? No, by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. “The volume of the book is written about Him” When you read your Bible from Genesis to Revelations, whenever you read of a man or woman performing a good work, it is because the Lord Jesus Christ was faithful to go to the cross, and shed His Holy blood and die for us, we who deserved an eternity of separation from God and punishment in the lake of fire. He voluntarily died for us, He who knew no sin, became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He was buried and He rose from the dead on third day. The firstborn from the dead providing our justification, providing our redemption, providing us to be able to eternally be with our Lord and Savior. All glory, honor, praise and thanksgiving to God the Father through Christ Jesus our Lord forever and ever!
