First the Question: There is a great difference between Matthew 15:21-27 and Romans 10:12-16. True or False?
Look the verses up, and then please take a moment to respond at the LLM Question of the Day
And now the answer to the LLM Question of 7-29-2011
Question: The RISEN Christ never instructed the Apostle Paul to preach to Gentiles what He instructed the Apostle Peter to preach to Israel on the day of Pentecost. True or False?
Answer: TRUE! Out of the 668 responses we received 75% of you got it right! Therefore,
Today let us consider, THE GOSPEL OF JOHN....THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, pt. 2 of 12
WHAT GOSPEL IS IN JOHN’S RECORD?
In the first verses of the third chapter of John’s Record we learn of the ‘good news’ by which a BELIEVER, (not repenter or baptized one), enters into the Kingdom of God. In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 we learn how BELIEVING sinners inherit the Kingdom of God. So we MIGHT conclude that the Gospel by which a BELIEVER enters or inherits the Kingdom of God is the Gospel of the Kingdom.
HOWEVER, surely we have learned by comparing Matthew and John that different phases of the ‘Kingdom’ are presented in these two Records. As we analyze John’s Record, which is a very difficult task, we may think of the Apostle Paul’s words in Acts 20:24-25, “that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the LORD Jesus, to testify ‘the Gospel of the Grace of God. I have gone preaching ‘the Kingdom of God’.” The Apostle Paul had preached Jews and Gentiles into the Kingdom of God, into the Body of Christ, with “the Gospel of the Grace of God.” (Galatians 1:11-12). The RISEN LORD never instructed Paul to preach to Gentiles what He instructed Peter to preach to Israel on the day of Pentecost. When the Apostle Peter preached to Israel Acts 2:38 and Acts 3:17-21 there was ‘Grace’ in the propositions, but “the Gospel of Grace” is different from Acts 2:38 and Acts 3:17-21.
In Luke 2:40 we read that the Grace of God was upon the Child Jesus. In Luke 4:22 we read of the ‘gracious’ words which proceeded out of the mouth of Jesus. As we think of these two statements concerning the LORD Jesus Christ we should think of the wonderful truth of 2 Cor. 8:9, “ye know the Grace of our LORD Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye, through His poverty might be rich.”
Christians, who know that they are saved by Grace, without religious deeds or good works, delight to join with the Apostle Paul in the wonderful ‘Grace’ truth of Ephesians 1:6-7, “to the praise of the glory of God’s ‘Grace’, wherein He hath ‘Graced’ us in the Beloved, In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His Grace.”
In this Epistle to the Ephesians we find the word ‘Grace’ 13 times. In the Epistle to the Romans we find the word ‘Grace’ 22 times. Unto the Apostle Paul was given ‘Grace’ to preach to Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. (Ephesians 3:8). Paul declared that he was what he was by the Grace of God; and that that Grace was not bestowed upon him in vain; for he labored more abundantly than all others. The Apostle Paul said, in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “not I but the Grace of God that was with me.”
After we have read Paul’s Epistles and permitted the Holy Spirit to teach us the meaning of Ephesians 3:1-3, that the Apostle Paul was the prisoner of Jesus Christ for Gentiles and was given the responsibility of making known “the Dispensation of the Grace of God,” we certainly should know that Paul was the LORD’s ‘Grace’ messenger. Paul used the word ‘Grace’ about 100 times in the Book of Acts and in his 14 Epistles. Through the Apostle Paul, the RISEN, glorified Christ revealed to the human race His all sufficient, over abounding Grace for sinner and for saint. (Romans 5:20 and 2 Cor. 9:8).
Wonderful truth is revealed in Romans 3:24-28, that any kind of a sinner, who receives Christ as Savior, is justified freely, by God’s Grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; WITHOUT the deeds of the law. In Romans 4:4-5 we learn that by God’s Grace, “to him that worketh NOT, but BELIEVETH in Him that justifieth the ungodly, his Faith is counted for righteousness.” This we learn also in 2 Cor. 5:21 and in Romans 10:9-10.
The Apostle Paul, who used the word ‘Grace’ about 100 times, used the words “righteousness,” “reconciliation,” “redemption,” “forgiveness,” “salvation,” “justification,” “hope,” about 200 times. Five of these words are NOT found in John’s Gospel, and then ”salvation” only once, and ”righteousness” once.
SIN AND GRACE IN JOHN’S RECORD
In John 5:24-25, and in John 8:24, and in John 11:25-26, we learn that the unBELIEVEr is DEAD in sin. However in these same verses, and in many others in John, we learn that where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound. In John’s Message we learn the truth of Romans 5:21, “that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might Grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our LORD.”
In Romans 4:15 we learn that “the law worketh wrath.” In 2 Cor. 3:7 we learn that the law is “the ministration of death.” In John 1:17 we read, “the law was given by Moses; but Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Then in John 20:31 we read WHY the Holy Spirit directed John to write the Record of the life and ministry, the death and resurrection of the LORD Jesus Christ: “that ye might BELIEVE (not repent and be baptized), that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and BELIEVING, ye might have life through His Name.”
In John 1 we begin with the LORD Jesus Christ as eternal God, the Creator of all things. In John 1:11 Christ is the Stone rejected by the Builders (Israel). (Psalm 118:21-25; Matthew 21:42). In John 1:29 Christ is the Lamb of God Who beareth away the sin of the world. In John 1:14 we read that the ‘Incarnate Word’ was full of Grace and Truth. In John 1:16 we read, “of His fullness have all we received and Grace upon Grace.” Hear Christ’s testimony in John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Now we want to explain why we call “The Gospel of John”: “The Book of Life.” In John’s Message we have abounding Grace and life more abundant for BELIEVERS; Divine son-ship for as many as receive Christ, to them that BELIEVE on His Name. (John 1:12-13).
GRACE IN MATTHEW, MARK, AND LUKE
We quoted Luke 2:40 and Luke 4:22 describing the Grace of our LORD Jesus. But with the exception of these two statements, in all of the 2902 verses in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we do not find the word ‘Grace’ ONE time. Most assuredly we find the manifestations of Grace in those three Books. But God’s people should know the DIFFERENCE between ‘Grace’ in “the Gospel of the Kingdom” and under the reign of law; that is, Grace in former dispensations, AND, the present “Dispensation of the Grace of God for Gentiles” in which we have presented to us the wonderful Grace message of 2 Timothy 1:9.
Shortly before the Apostle Paul departed to be with Christ, at the time he testified that he had finished his course, kept the Faith and fought a good fight (2 Timothy 4:3-7), he wrote 2 Timothy 1:9-11, “God, Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and Grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began: But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, Who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and incorruptibility to light through the Gospel. Whereunto I (Paul) am appointed a preacher, and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles.” When the Apostle Paul said that the Man Christ Jesus, the one Mediator, gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in ‘due time’, he also added, “whereunto I (Paul) am ordained a preacher, an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles.”
Now, pay attention: the ‘due time’ for the Gentiles was NOT at the time the LORD Jesus said, in Matthew 15:24, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, when He said to His twelve apostles, in Matthew 10:3-8, “go not into the way of the Gentiles.” Here, let us compare Romans 15:8-16, in which verses we read that Jesus Christ was a Minister to the Jews and the Apostle Paul was the minister to the Gentiles. There was a real difference between the Gospel Christ on earth preached and the ‘Grace’ Gospel that He, the RISEN Christ gave by direct revelation to the Apostle Paul. (Galatians 1:11-12).
We are told that Matthew was written within a few years after the death and resurrection of Christ, perhaps before Peter preached to Cornelius, the Gentile (Acts 10:34). We are told that Paul died about 68 A.D., about 2 years before the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem and killed many Jews, in fulfillment of Matthew 22:7. We are told that John did not write his ‘GOSPEL’ until at least 20 years after Jerusalem was destroyed.
It will prove most interesting and informative to compare the messages of Christ and His apostles in Matthew with the message of unmixed Grace in the Apostle Paul’s last Epistle, 2 Timothy.
Surely the careful, spiritual, intelligent student of the Scriptures has learned that, in Matthew, Jesus of Nazareth was in the midst of Israel, under The Law, presenting some of the principles and benefits of the New Covenant, preaching a mixture of law and Grace to “the children of the Kingdom.” (Matthew 8:12; Matthew 5:17-18; Matthew 23:1-3; Galatians 4:4; Acts 13:23).
Near the close of the Book of Matthew the LORD Jesus refers to Himself as “The STONE”; to Israel, as “the builders,” reminding them of Psalm 118:21-25. The builders were rejecting the “STONE” (Matthew 21:42), but that rejection was the LORD’s doing. Inasmuch as we learn by studying Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that Israel’s Messiah was repeatedly reminding the ‘builders’ of their obligation to the Law, AND, we know that, had any disciple of Christ taught “the children of the Kingdom,” during the days that Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good in the land of the Jews (Acts 10:38-39), that “ye are not under the law, but under Grace” (Romans 6:14) (Colossians 2:16), THAT disciple would have been out of the will of God! Consider that.
“BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” Acts 16:31, while there is still time!
So There You Have it!
Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide. The time is short
Grace be to you and peace, from God: our Father, and The LORD Jesus Christ.
In The LORD Jesus Christ,
The Lion and Lamb Ministry
Pastor David Picos, D.D.
Minister and Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
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