By: Curtis Baker
Here is a true statement: the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ is for everyone! Here is an equally true statement: the gospel is essentially a Jewish story. How can these two statements be true at the same time? I’m glad you asked. The answer is a very important one.
To answer this question appropriately we have to go back and catch the whole sweep of the Biblical story. To sum it up, the story of the Bible is the story of how God has pursued the task of redeeming creation. The creation, of course, had gone so horribly wrong because of human sin. Human beings decided they wanted to be their own master, rather than submit willingly to God, and therefore God cursed the earth because of their rebellion. In the book of Genesis, this rebellion ultimately leads to the world becoming a wicked and violent place, which God determines he must destroy (save one family!) if he is going to have any shot at salvaging his purposes for creation. But after God destroyed the world with a flood, he then made a promise to Noah that he intends to keep: never again will he destroy all of mankind again with a flood. Instead, God had chosen to take an alternative route–he was going to redeem the human race.
How was God going to go about this? The answer also comes in the book of Genesis. God chose one man whose descendants he was going to bless, and by choosing this one man, he promised that his descendants would be a people set apart for his purposes. This people was not going to be like the other nations of the world. They were going to be a people who were set apart for God, whom God would teach how to live, and therefore who would be a light to the nations as to God’s original purposes for the creation. The man God chose for this task was Abraham; and his descendants are those who came to be known as the people of Israel.
For anyone who knows much of the Old Testament, the story of God’s relationship with Israel is a long and winding one. While it was true that God intended this people to be a nation set apart, and a light to populations of the world, Israel often failed at their task, just as the original human beings had failed at theirs. God repeatedly reminded Israel that he had not chosen them because of any inherent goodness on their part, but simply because it suited his ultimate purposes. But they rarely understood that message. Rather than showing the world how to live in humble obedience to God, Israel, more often than not, took their cues from the nations of the world, rather than God’s divinely given law.
But despite the human race’s many failures, and Israel’s failures along with them, God is faithful to his promise. His promise to Abraham was that somehow, through his descendants, he would bring a blessing to all the people of the world. That story ultimately finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who was both an Israelite and Jew because he was from the tribe of Judah. The blessing he brought to the world was the forgiveness of sin and the light that illuminated the way of salvation. Like it or not, the story of the world’s redemption is essentially a Jewish story. It started with the call of Abraham, and it found its fulfillment in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So with this in mind, it should come as no surprise to us that Paul says the Gospel is “for the Jew first, and then the Gentile” (Rom 1:16) It would only make sense that the original people who were set apart for God’s redemptive purposes should be the first to receive an opportunity to accept its fullest blessing. But make no mistake, despite its Jewish nature, it is a message for the world. I would assume most who read this article are not Jewish. It makes no difference. We have inherited a Jewish-for-the-world story, and the story is as simple as this: “For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but instead have an eternal life” (John 3:16). Whatever the origins of that story, that is certainly “good news”!
(Don’t forget to join me for A Message from the Heart radio program Sunday evening at 8:00pm on KJAK 92.7FM, or streaming live at www.kjak.com)
(curtisbaker@hotmail.com)
Write to: P.O. Box 157, Slaton, TX 79364
