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SALVATION REACHES THE GENTILES

LESSONS III. & IV., OCT. 16 AND 23, ACTS 10

Golden Text—”Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.”—Acts 10:34

In this lesson we have an account of the first presentation of the gospel to the Gentiles. It will be remembered that all the teaching of the Lord and of the apostles had been, up to this time, confined to Israel; that when Jesus sent out his twelve disciples to preach the gospel of the kingdom, he strictly charged them, saying, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:5,6); that when a Gentile woman besought the Lord to heal her daughter he replied, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. … It is not meet to take the children’s [Israel’s] bread [favor] and to cast it to dogs” [Gentiles—for such the Jews termed their Gentile neighbors], though when the poor woman was willing to accept a morsel of favor merely as a crumb from the children’s table, she received her request.—Matt. 15:24-28.

This was because the appointed time had not yet come, according to God’s plan, for favor to be shown to any people but Israel. God had abundant favor in store for “all the families of the earth,” but his plan of salvation and blessing is a systematic, orderly arrangement, all the times and seasons and circumstances and details of which were planned and fixed by unerring wisdom for the accomplishment of a glorious purpose. According to that plan, seventy weeks of years (490 years) from a certain definite period were marked off as a special divine favor to Israel (Dan. 9:24); and those seventy weeks ended three and a half years after the death of Christ, from which time the gospel message was no longer to be confined to Israel, but might go to the Gentiles also, as it did, beginning with Cornelius, who was the first Gentile who received divine favor as a Gentile, without becoming a Jewish proselyte. Previous to this time even the Lord Jesus, whose work was strictly in accordance with Jehovah’s plan with reference to both time and method, could not show favor to the Gentiles, and would not therefore have granted the Gentile woman’s request for the healing of her daughter had she not been willing to receive it humbly as a crumb from the children’s table, thus acknowledging that she was not a recognized child of God or heir of his favor, but willing, as an alien and an outcast from the commonwealth of Israel, to accept her portion as an unworthy “dog.”

But, thank God, though both Jews and Gentiles have been unworthy of his favor, his love and grace abounds through Christ toward us all. And in the clearer light of a fuller development of his plan we now see that even the exclusiveness of his favor to unworthy Israel for an appointed time was a measure of his wisdom—a necessary feature in the glorious plan for the blessing of all the families of the earth in due time.—See Millennial Dawn, Vol. II., Chapter III.

God chose a very striking method of calling the attention of the Apostle, as well as of Cornelius, to the fact that God’s due time for extending his favor beyond the Jews to the Gentiles had come.

It will be observed from this lesson that God puts a very different value to the words “saved man” from that generally given to those words by Christians to-day, who by reason of an erroneous view of the divine plan misuse the words. Cornelius was a good, devout man, one who believed in God and prayed to him, and who gave much alms to the poor, and who had built a synagogue or chapel for some poor Jews. Many to-day would say to Peter, Why go to that man? He is a saved man already. Go, spend your time more profitably laboring with publicans, harlots, vagabonds and prodigals; for this man already is good and devout and a believer. So, too, they often say to us to-day—marvelling that we teach the way of the Lord more perfectly to some who already have some knowledge of God.

From God’s standpoint, which must be the true one, Cornelius was not a saved man, although a well-meaning, benevolent and praying man. God puts great stress upon faith—not only upon a faith, but upon the faith. He sent word by an angel to Cornelius, saying, Send for Peter and he shall “speak unto thee” and “tell thee words WHEREBY thou and all thy house shall be saved.”—Acts 10:32; 11:14.

A false idea of “lost” has gotten possession of men’s minds since the great falling away from the simplicity of the primitive Church; and hence “saved” also has a distorted meaning. Under the false but common view, “lost” means condemned to eternal torment, and “saved” means released from such an awful calamity. No wonder, then, that with such wrong ideas people in general should to-day conclude that “a devout man, who prayed to God and gave much alms to the poor” ought to be a “saved” man. Such a man certainly ought to be saved from eternal torment, according to every one’s concept of fair-dealing.

The fact is that “lost” does not mean sentenced to eternal torment; and hence “saved” cannot mean recovered from such a fate. The

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loss or penalty of sin is to be “lost” or cut off from divine favor and blessings, as strangers and aliens; and hence to be under the penalty of death—loss of life. And “saved” means to be removed from that alienated condition—to be brought nigh to God and recognized no longer as sinners but as sons; and as such to have his blessing, which includes the favor of lasting life.

All Gentiles were in this “lost” or alien and condemned to death state from the time of Adam’s sin. Only the one nation, Israel, had been restored to divine favor and fellowship (and that as a type), accepted through a typical covenant, based upon a typical cleansing, by typical sacrifices. When the true sacrifice had been offered, three years and a half of exclusive favor remained to Israel under God’s promise, although the great Sin-offering or ransom price given was not for Jews only, but for “all“—”every man.” Cornelius was the first Gentile received back into the divine favor as a son: the first “saved” or delivered from separation from God and the sentence of death, to fellowship, and heirship in the promises of God of eternal life through Christ.

Next notice what were those important “words,” the believing of which “saved” or delivered Cornelius from condemnation and alienation. They were the simple statement (briefly recounted in Acts 10:34-43) of the facts: How God had anointed Jesus with the holy Spirit and power at his baptism; how after using this power for the good of others he had been crucified; how God raised him from the dead and appointed him to be the Judge of the living and the dead (—which implies a new trial for all who had been sentenced when judged and tried as a race in the loins of Adam). Peter explained these facts in harmony with what the prophets had witnessed to on the subject (See Isaiah 55), no doubt quoting: “He poured out his soul [being] into death.” “For the iniquity of my people was he smitten.” “He made his soul an offering for sin.” “The Lord let fall upon him the iniquity of us all.”

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“He was bruised for our iniquities, and by his stripes we are healed.” Then, applying all this (verses 36 and 43), Peter showed that this is a preaching of “peace” and “remission of sins” to all who believe these facts and accept by faith this grace of God in Christ.

A simple message, truly; yet very necessary to be told to and to be believed by Cornelius and his household before they could be Christians or brethren, or “saved” in God’s sense of that word.

So, too, it must be with all, whether in this age or in the next age: in order to be “saved” they must believe; and in order to believe they must hear, in some way, this same gospel declared to Cornelius. And it must “be testified to ALL in due time,” that “there is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all.”—1 Tim. 2:5,6.

What a rebuttal this lesson is to the theory of some, that the heathen may be “saved” without having heard of Christ. Let us hold close to the Lord’s way and the Lord’s time for giving to all this gracious testimony of the peace and forgiveness effected by the blood of the cross for every one that believeth. To the Jew first it was given, and since to many Gentiles; but ultimately, “in due time,” it is to be made known fully and clearly to every man.

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— September 15, 1892 —