God Gave The Same Gift To Them

“If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way? When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, ‘Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.’”

The salvation of the Gentiles is a remarkable exercise of grace. There was nothing new in Gentile converts to Judaism. The Pharisees worked hard at winning converts (Matt. 23:15). There were God fearing Gentiles in the New Testament, so the concept of Gentiles believing was not something new. Of course, it was a conversion to Judaism; and full-orbed Judaism meant being circumcised.

But the concept of Gentile believers in the Church (apart from becoming Jewish) was something the apostles hadn’t really considered. Up to the conversion of Cornelius (Acts 10), the disciples would have regarded Gentile conversion along Jewish lines with an emphasis on Jesus as Messiah. Jesus had commanded them to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:20). Acts 10 conveys Peter’s reluctance to make the connection with the Gentiles. It took a vision from the Lord to open his eyes to the fact that God was calling Gentiles to himself. Acts 11:18 conveys this succinctly. Here conversion is called “repentance that leads to life.” It was the gift of the Holy Spirit that convinced the Jewish believers that God was also saving the Gentiles. There is nothing really substantial in the instructions of our Lord to point to the Gentiles as a focus of his ministry. He delays responding to the Syrophoenician woman who came to him pointing out to her that the Gentiles were really like dogs under the table. It was her remarkable and insightful response that caused the Lord to exclaim that she had great faith (Matt. 15:27; Mark 7:25–30). The Roman centurion in Capernaum also received the praise of our Lord because he believed that his servant would be healed if Jesus but spoke the word (Matt. 8:5–13). Jesus said that he had not found such faith in all Israel. This was high praise for a Gentile, let alone for any Jew, to receive.

The entire Gentile enterprise, it would appear, rests in the hands of the Apostle Paul. Paul said of himself that the Lord had called him with these words: “Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (Acts 22:21). As we know, Paul’s ministry did not exclude Jews. He made it a practice to go into the synagogues and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah (Acts 13:14; 14:1; 17:1, 10, 17; 18:4, 19; 19:8). He certainly felt bound to preach Christ to the Jews, especially in the light of his previous behavior toward the Church. But Paul also had a burning conviction of the soul to reach the Jews. They were his people. He expresses this desire in Romans 9:1–3: “I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” In Romans 10:1, he puts it this way: “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.”

Gentile freedom was not disclosed at all by the Lord during his ministry. He gave no instructions for the Gentiles in the Church after his resurrection. It was left to Paul to articulate and defend Gentile freedom. Gentile freedom meant the abolition of Jewish privileges. The disciples continued to observe feasts and fasts after the resurrection, and it would appear that even in the Jerusalem church, many years later, their loyalty to certain things Jewish predominated, which Paul even submitted himself to for the sake of peace (Acts 21:17–26). Gentile freedom as not easily established due to the prevailing idea that Gentile converts would become Jewish. Paul would devote his entire life to defending those freedoms. We see this in Acts 15 at the Jerusalem Council. The result of that council was that the Gentiles did not have to become Jews (be circumcised) in order to be saved. This was major victory for Paul, Barnabas and the Gentiles. Paul would later write the Epistle to the Galatians defending the freedom that they had as Gentiles in Christ.

It is quite interesting to note that apart from the Jerusalem church which was Jewish, there were three other major cities that had Gentile churches that were not established by Paul. We know that Alexandria had a large flourishing work (unmentioned in the New Testament; i.e., Apollos was from Alexandria–see Acts 18:24–28). The church at Rome appears completely formed when Paul writes to it. The church at Antioch was established by Jews from Cyrene and Cyprus and contained a large Gentile body.

Paul’s influence does not lie in the geographical outreach (which he did incredibly), but rather, his influence is in the realm of thinking. Paul is interested in doctrine and only doctrine that is of the truth. Gentile expansion and growth were not thwarted by geographical difficulties. The difficulty was the principle of religion with all of its obligations. We must never think for one moment that Paul was against God’s Law. He was only against the Law, if it was said to be necessary for salvation. Paul’s view of the Law was that it was authoritative and from God. He saw it as only temporary; a school teacher to bring Jews to Jesus. Paul’s message is the Cross. He finds Jesus all throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, and he applies those Scriptures to the Gentiles as proof of the truth he was proclaiming. Paul’s gospel was not lacking in authority. No, it was grounded in God’s revealed Word. Paul states that the Law does not and cannot justify and it merits nothing savingly before God (Rom. 3:20, 21, 28; 4:15; 8:3). What you do does not save you, otherwise salvation is based on works (Eph. 2:8–10).

The Jewish mindset was particular. We alone are God’s people, and if you want to belong to God, you have to become like us and believe like us. Paul was not prepared to lessen any principles that he had to make others feel good. He always answered principle with principle. Paul does not regard life as superior to doctrine. He knows that doctrine is life and all practice must flow from what is believed (as it does). Gresham Machen said that “it was not Paul the practical missionary, but Paul the theologian, who was the real apostle to the Gentiles.” He’s right.

We should not think that the church in Jerusalem was not free from the Law. They were trusting Jesus for salvation and not their observance of the Law. They might not have grasped fully and clearly what that all meant. It was Paul who taught constantly the thrilling news that Christ makes a person free. Civilization has foundations in Greek philosophy and Roman law which we appreciate, but the Bible has invaded those civilizations and made a remarkable contribution to the change of societies across the globe. It is an inner change. All outward changes (political, economic, etc.) will fail. Salvation is not merely outward profession with the mouth, but a regeneration of the nature of man, or, as those Jewish believers put it long ago: “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” It is God who grants repentance. It should easily be seen that if repentance is God–given, then faith also is God–given. This is what happened in Acts 13:48: “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” Their faith was the result God’s election. God uses Paul to bring this about. He proclaims the message of the Cross, and so must we. Faith always comes by hearing the Word of Christ.