“All authority is given me in heaven and earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” (Mt 28:18-19)
Lord, I praise You that You love the nations and that I am a beneficiary of Your great love for the nations. If You had not taken the initiative to save the entire world, I would be lost today. Hallelujah!
Jesus is for the world. Sometimes we get so focused on what God is doing in our local circumstances that we forget that God is for the nations and not just for us. Jonah forgot this, and God had to correct him. Peter forgot this, and God had to instruct him through a dream and a visit from three Gentiles. Paul forgot this, and God had to convert him and make him an apostle to the Gentiles. It is easy to get so focused on our people that we neglect the nations.
But the Bible doesn’t neglect the nations. God has a heart for the world right from the beginning. He created one man through whom all nations have come (Acts 17:26). In the flood, He judged all nations. At the Tower of Babel, he scattered all nations. He chose Abraham and his descendants to be a people through whom He would bless all the families of the earth (Gen 12:13).
He commands all the nations to be glad (Ps 67:3-4). He says that Messiah would be a light for the nations (Is 42:6) and that all nations will come to the mountain of the Lord to learn from God and walk in His ways (Mic 4:1-2). He sends Jonah to preach to a pagan nation. He says that Egypt, Assyria and Israel will all be one in worshiping the Lord (Is 19:23-5). He reveals Himself to Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 4:34-7) a pagan king who praises Him. He does all this and more in the Old Testament.
Then Jesus comes. At His birth the angels sing, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace . . .” (Lk 2:14) and Gentile magi pay a visit to worship Him (Mt 2:1-12). Jesus, the Jew, then ministers beyond His immediate Jewish context. He heals the Roman centurion’s servant (Mt 8:5-13). He proclaims salvation to the Samaritan woman and stays in her town teaching for two days (Jn 4:1-45). He casts Legion out of the man of the tombs in the region of the Gerasenes (Mk 5:1-20). He says that He has sheep not of this fold (Jn 10:16) and that His disciples must take His message to the entire world (Mt 28:18-19; Mk 16:15; Lk 24:46-8; Acts 1:8). He calls Himself the light of the world and says that whoever follows Him will have light (Jn 8:12). He then calls His followers the light of the world (Mt 5:14), for they have His light and must take it to the world. He calls Himself the bread of life and says whoever comes to Him shall not hunger (Jn 6:35).
In Acts, the church then takes the message of Jesus to the world. The story begins in Jerusalem, goes to Judea, then to Samaria, then all over the Roman Empire. It goes to Gentile peoples in places like Macedonia, Achaia, Rome, Crete, Cyprus, Bithynia, Galatia, Asia, Lycia, Cilicia, and more. Peter and Paul personally bring the good news of Jesus to Gentiles, and Paul writes multiple New Testament letters to churches with significant Gentile populations.
Scripture says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (Jn 3:16), that Jesus was a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (I Jn 2:2), that in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself (II Cor 5:19), and that Christ came into the world to save sinners (I Tim 1:15).
Then in the Revelation, we see people from every nation and tribe and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to the Lamb.” (Rev 7:9-10). We then see the judgment of all the earth and the establishment of a new heaven and a new earth. And God’s people from every nation and tribe and language shall be with Him forever.
In this grand scope – from Genesis to Revelation – God’s end game has always been the nations. He wants all peoples, not just your people. And He wants you and me to be a part of reaching all peoples. God’s method is to reach all peoples through people. In order to do this, however, He must begin with some people. That is where Abraham and Israel fit into the plan.
Israel is not and never was God’s end game. But she was always central to God’s means. He made a covenant with Abraham that got passed down to Isaac, to Jacob, and to the people of Israel. They were to be His people by grace, and He would reveal through them to the world His plan and means of salvation by grace. For salvation is of the Jews (Jn 4:22).
This is why the Bible is so Jewish. When God speaks and moves in specific circumstances and cultures, you can’t help but see the circumstances and cultures. When God saved you, the details of your story are very – well – you. God entered your world and met you where you are. When He chose to begin reaching the world through the Jews, He entered their world and met them there. He said that the Messiah who would reign over kings (Ps 2 and 110) would come through the Jews.
Jesus was that Messiah, but when He came, in keeping with God’s plan, He emphasized that His first target was to the Jews, even if His ultimate target was the world (Mt 15:24-6; Mk 7:26-7; Mt 10:5ff; Lk 24:46-7; Acts 1:8). You and I do this. Our first responsibility is to those around us even if we may desire to reach the ends of the earth. Paul did the same thing (Rm 1:16), for though he called himself an apostle to the Gentiles, when he entered a city to preach the gospel, he always began at the synagogue. The Jew first was a method, not an ultimate goal. Paul was Jewish. It would be only natural for him to begin with his people. Jesus was the promised Messiah through the Jewish people. It would be essential for Him to begin with the Jews. Messiah is supposed to come through the Jews, which means He comes to them first.
Thus, Jesus is for the world, and Jesus is for the Jews. Both statements are true to the fullest extent, and neither statement removes the other. Some people so focus on the universal aspect of Scripture that they miss its Jewishness, and others so focus on the Jewishness that they are blind to the universal. Jesus is for the world. Period. Jesus is through the Jews. Period.
Praise His name that He came through the Jews for you and me. Had He not come, you would remain lost. And so would I.
