God Calls All People

One of the major themes that runs through the Bible is the matter of Jew versus Gentile. This was a key problem in the time of Christ. Looking back quickly into the history, the Lord gave a special law to the Jews (also called Hebrews or Israelites), the Law of Moses. His purpose in doing this would seem to be the development of a blood line leading to the birth of His Son, Jesus. Genesis 12 shows the promise being made to Abraham that a savior would eventually come from his family. This special privilege/position of the Jews caused them to feel superiority over other peoples, especially noted in the New Testament.

Jesus, of course, was a Jew, and He loved His own people. But Jesus was very critical of the Jewish leaders who had become hypocritical, following their traditions but not the Law itself. Matthew 15 is a good place to read of the criticism of Jesus for these leaders: :"Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your traditions....Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."

But all through the Old Testament and the New Testament, there is a central theme of, yes, the Jews are special to God, but there is a Kingdom coming that will last forever and it will be for all people. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus said to His disciples: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." In the book of Acts, we read that Jesus leaves the earth, ascending into heaven, and it is left to the apostles to carry on. The gospel is given to the Jews first, Acts 2-7. But beginning in Acts 8, and especially chapters 10 and 11, we see the gospel is taken to all.

In Galatians 3, for example, vs 27 starts, "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." God wants every one of us to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

Well, enough for now. I received a question regarding gifts; How do we know what our gifts are? We'll deal with that in the next entry, Lord willing. See you then!