The Gospel for All Nations
Some of you recently returned from the 51st General Assembly of the PCA. You may be interested in this address given to the General Assembly 20 years ago.
“This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” - Matthew 24:14
Dorothy Sayers says, Once you create the characters of a mystery, you lose all control of the plot. You cannot violate the integrity of the characters once they have been created. You must be true to who they are, and let the plot go where it will.
Even more so in the real-life drama of redemption, God as Redeemer is the principal player whose person determines the course of events by reason of who he is as Almighty God. Jews and Gentiles are the other major players in this mysterious drama of redemption. Step back for a moment and place yourself as witnesses to this undulation, this mysterious movement back and forth from the glorious triune God to Jews to Gentiles and back to Jews again, all giving praise and glory to Him. Jesus speaks in Matthew 24 of the mysterious wonder of the worldwide spread of this gospel, which encourages a few probing questions concerning this mystery.
First of all, what is the mystery of the gospel?
You all know very well the essence of the gospel. It is not something difficult to understand. Jesus is the promised Christ who redeems in himself Jews and Gentiles who repent of their sin and trust in him by his death and resurrection. That is the gospel. It is very simple, very straightforward. You may believe it or not believe it, but that is the gospel. Yet there is something of a mystery in the gospel. One focal point of that mystery is its growth. How does a Jewish gospel rooted in the Old Testament become a worldwide gospel embracing all the nations of the world. That is the mystery.
In several parables, Jesus underscores this mystery of the growth of the gospel. A man plants a seed in his garden. But he is mystified. How does this tiny brown seed grow? In his curiosity he rises day and night to see what happens. He tries to understand how this little seed becomes a large shrub. The man is amazed. He knows not how it grows, because the seed grows “automatically.” Jesus uses the Greek word, automatay: “automatically,” altogether of itself (Mark 4:28).
Do you know how it grows? Do you know how the gospel grows? Is it not a mystery?
My first preaching-post was in the metropolis of Smyrna, Mississippi. You know the place. Right down the gravel road from Kosciusko, Mississippi, not far from Hesterville. In the winter it was my responsibility to arrive early enough to start a fire in the old potbellied stove in the center of the church. Everybody would start with their benches a good distance from the red-hot iron belly of the stove. As the service progressed and the fire cooled down, people would creep their benches up closer and closer.
After the service someone would invite the preacher for a good country dinner. In the summertime, everyone would go out on the wooden porch that wrapped around the unpainted house. A cooling draft always flowed through the breezeway. After a big dinner people weren't interested in conversation. They just liked to sit rocking, and listening to the corn grow. Pop, pop, pop. Can you hear it? There goes another one. Some of you city slickers aren't sure whether you can really hear corn grow or not. But that's what we used to do. Rock and listen to the corn grow.
Isn’t there is something mysterious about how things grow? As Jesus says, it grows “automatay.”
In another parable, Jesus says a sower casts good seed in the field. The seed represents the sons of the kingdom, and the field is the world. But Jesus is a Jew, speaking to Jews in Palestine. How is it that the sons of the kingdom are being sown all over the world? The land of Israel had clear demarcations. Its length extends from Dan to Beersheba, about 160 miles. But Jesus says the sons of the kingdom are scattered all over the world. Isn’t that a mystery? But by your own experience, you know it is true.
Then Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, the smallest of all the seeds. This tiny seed is buried in the ground. It corrodes. It rots. It's buried out of sight. Yet it grows to be the largest of shrubs so that the birds of the air come and make their nests in its branches. All kinds of birds.
What are these birds? In Jesus’ parable, the different kinds of birds represent different peoples from all the nations of the world who have come to find their refuge in the branches of the kingdom of God.
All these parables of Jesus demonstrate the mystery of the universal growth of the gospel of God's kingdom. Sinful people from all the nations of the world find their shelter in the ever-expanding boundaries of the universal rule of Messiah. That's the mystery of the gospel's growth.
Are you aware of how this mystery of the gospel’s growth is still being played out? Do you realize that at the beginning of the 20th century, 0.2% of the people confessed Christ in the African country of Kenya, and at the end of the 20th century 79% of the population were confessing Jesus as Lord? In the Congo at the beginning of the 20th century 2.5% of the people confessed Jesus as Lord. But at the end of the 20th century, 95% of Congolese people were confessing Jesus as Lord. How did it happen? It’s a mystery. In the little southern African country of Malawi, there are 800,000 Presbyterians. Not Baptists, not Pentecostals, but Presbyterians. 800,000 confessing Presbyterians in the one southern African country of Malawi. How did it happen?
There is a mystery about this growth. This growth is a wonder! Yet the Church of Jesus Christ should not be so amazed at this wonderful spread of the gospel. For many prophets spoke of the inclusion of the nations of the world. A reluctant missionary named Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because he knew his God was a God of mercy. He witnessed the metropolitan city of Ninevah convert en masse to faith in the one true living God. Daniel envisions a stone made without hands that crushes the great idolatrous image symbolizing consecutive kingdoms spanning 500 years of history. Then the stone grows to fill the whole earth, representing the irrepressible spread of the gospel of Christ. The bold prophet named Isaiah looks squarely into the face of Assyria and Egypt, Israel’s two greatest enemies. He declares, there will be an altar dedicated to Israel’s Covenant Lord in the heart of Egypt. Then he turns to Assyria. He had witnessed the invasion of the ten northern tribes by the Assyrian army. He had seen them surround Samaria and starve the people to submission to the point that they literally ate their infant children. Yet he says of Assyria that there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria so that Israel’s enemies may conveniently travel back and forth to worship Yahweh the God of Israel. As a consequence, Israel will be third along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. Yahweh will bless them saying, “Blessed be Egypt, that is Africa, my people, and blessed be Assyria, that is Asia, my handiwork, and also, blessed be Israel, my inheritance (Isaiah 19:19-25). Try to take in this amazing moving of the gospel from Jew to Gentile, then from Gentile to Jew, as the sovereign Lord of all history pours his blessing out, first on Jew and then on Gentile, and then back again on Jew, so that they all praise God.
It’s a mystery, a great mystery. How the gospel has grown across the centuries to include all nations and continents of this world is indeed a mystery. But it can hardly be denied.
So the next question is, But what is so mysterious about the mystery?
If the prophets of old anticipated the flowing of masses of Gentile peoples from all the nations of the world into the kingdom of God at least 800 years before it began to happen, what's so mysterious about the growth of God's kingdom? If the prophets anticipated it, why should it have surprised anyone?
The most surprising aspect of the mystery of universal gospel growth became the specialty of the Apostle Paul. He alone was called by God as “the” Apostle of the Gentiles. In his letter to the Ephesians of Asia, he explains the most mysterious aspect of this mystery. Paul says,
You surely have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me on your behalf. By revelation the mystery was made known to me, just as I previously wrote briefly to you. In reading this [letter], you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of the Christ, which in previous generations was not made known to men as it has now been revealed to God's holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit (Eph. 3:2-5).
But exactly what is the mystery? The mystery could not be simply the inclusion of the Gentiles. As already indicated, the prophets had anticipated the inclusion of all the nations of the world. They fully knew that mystery. The prophets were not in the dark about the present church age of the worldwide expansion of the gospel. They knew all about this present form of the kingdom in which the Gentiles were included.
What then is the “mystery”? This mystery is, “that the Gentiles are heirs together, members together of one body, and participants together of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph. 3:6 NIV). To make his point as clear as possible, Paul repeats one particular word three times over. Together, together, together. In the original language, it comes across even more emphatically, with essentially the same prefix attached to three different words: sug-, sus-, sum-. The point is that every believer from all the various nations of the world is an equal heir together with every Israelite believer. God richly blesses the Jews as they believe. But he also blesses Gentile believers equally.
How is Paul clarifying the mystery, the mystery that even the prophets of old did not understand? He is explaining that believers from this vast Gentile world, soon to be greatly outnumbering believing Jews, are equal in every way with believing Israelites. We can see God’s faithfulness to his promise to Abraham in that in 1989, almost 2,000 years after Christ, it is estimated that approximately 2,000 Messianic Jews were living in the land of the Bible. Across all those generations, with all their trials, God has been faithful to Israel. At the same time, it is estimated that there were approximately 150,000 confessing Christian Palestinians in the land of the Bible. God has been faithful to the Gentile nations as well. Paul is making the point that the “mystery” is that every Gentile believer is also an equal heir of all the promises given to Abraham. In the limitless grace of God, every promise of scripture belongs equally to both believers from Israel as well as to believers from all the nations.
That is the “mystery” the church through the ages has had the greatest trouble understanding. You remember the trouble the Apostle Peter had understanding this mystery? Three times the sheet was let down containing unclean animals. “Kill and eat, Peter,” the Lord commanded (Acts 10:13). At that precise moment, “unclean” Gentiles knock at Peter’s door. At the Lord’s instructions, Peter travels with them to the house of Cornelius the Roman centurion. Peter declares them “clean” by the Lord’s command, preaches to them the gospel, and witnesses the Spirit descending on them from heaven. He later testifies at the Acts 15 Jerusalem counsel. “The Holy Spirit came on the Gentiles exactly as he had come on us on the day of Pentecost.” Even though they had not become Jews by the rite of circumcision, these Gentiles believers received the ultimate blessing of redemption by having the Holy Spirit come on them. In this mystery you can see the clearest manifestation of the grace of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Two perspectives underscore this principle of God’s grace to all nations. First of all, consider me, a descendant of Scots from the Highlands of Scotland. A friend from the Board of the Banner of Truth says, “The British in warfare follow a very precise strategy. If you want to hold a position, you send in an English regiment. They're like Bulldogs. They will hold a position and never let it go. But if you want to take a position, you send in a Scottish regiment. As my English friend says, “They are wild men!” When a Scot puts on his tartan kilt and the bagpipes begin playing, his eyes start spinning and off he goes.
But can the Holy Spirit be poured out on those wild Scots from the Highlands just as he was poured out on the 12 apostles on the day of Pentecost? Why, of course he can! How amazing! If the Holy Spirit could be poured out on Cornelius the Roman Centurion just as he was poured out on the original apostles, he could also be poured out equally on Scottish Highlanders like John Knox and Sinclair Ferguson. Could it be that the Spirit is poured out because of some special merits of the Scottish race? Oh no, nothing could be clearer. It's altogether by grace. Could it be because of some special devotion of the person’s heart? Oh no, it’s altogether by faith alone.
The second clear evidence that the Abrahamic promises come by grace and not by race is Paul's evaluation of the worth of his own Jewishness as a basis for possessing the promises of God. The Apostle says being a Jew means absolutely nothing in terms of the possession of God's promises. Opportunity for the possession of the promises indeed. The gospel is “for the Jew first.” They are loved by God because of his promise to the fathers. But actual possession of covenantal blessings on the basis of faithfulness to Jewish laws and traditions--by no means! Paul declares, “I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, trained under Gamaliel, of the tribe of Benjamin. With respect to the righteousness of the law, blameless. But all this,” he says, “I count but dung. Not merely nothingness, but on the negative side, I regard my Jewishness as pure refuse” (Phil 3: 2-9; Acts 22:3).
As Paul says elsewhere, “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Gal. 5:6). Grace alone, faith alone in Christ alone. For the Jew first and equally for the Greek.
You can see the importance of this fact in God's choice of Paul as the apostolic missionary to the Gentiles. Why did God choose Paul of all people to be a missionary to the Gentiles? Why not Peter? Wouldn't a fisherman do better in communicating the gospel to the Gentiles who have such a limited knowledge of the old covenant scriptures? Why Paul, the most educated Jew of his day? Why? Because God wanted the man who understood all the redemptive promises better than anyone else. Paul would be the one man best able to explain to the Gentiles all they would inherit in Christ. That, as a matter of fact, is what drove the Apostle Paul literally to the ends of the earth. He tips his hat to Rome as he passes through on his way to Spain, to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, to the dropping-off place of the earth. He is confident that some Gentiles will receive all the blessings of redemption promised to the patriarchs. At the same time, Paul was the best person possible to explain to the Jews that it was not their race, it was not their religion that would guarantee the blessings of the Lord. Paul himself could testify to that truth first-hand. Instead, it was faith, trusting God in the gift of his only Son, Jesus the Christ, that would assure eternal blessings for them.
Now finally, what are the practical implications of this mystery?
The mystery of the gospel that Gentiles are equal heirs with the Jews of all the promises of God has some dramatic implications. What are the implications? To be practical, think of the three original promises given to Abraham our father. As you learned in Sunday school, think about the three principal promises to the patriarchs: land, seed, and blessing. What is the practical significance that Gentile believers are equal heirs with Jewish believers of these three great blessings promised to Abraham?
Begin with the last of these three promises, the blessing. God said to Abraham, “In you, all the nations of the world will be blessed.” A major blessing for Abraham was justification. Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness (Gen. 15:6). People from all the nations of the world will become sharers with Abraham in this prime blessing. Would you think the Gentiles who believed were a little less “justified” than Abraham? Of course not! If God finds you to be righteous by faith despite your sin, you have received the blessing that assures all other blessings. Because you have been declared righteous by faith, you must have a new nature that enables you to believe. As a consequence, you also have the joy of doing righteous things by means of God’s Spirit living by faith in you.
Through Jesus Christ, who was a descendant of Abraham, this blessing of righteousness by faith extends to all peoples and nations. Wherever the gospel of Jesus the Christ is received by faith, every recipient is declared to be the righteous son of God.
When you go on a short-term or a long-term mission trip, don't go thinking about all the good you will do for these people. Instead, be prepared for the many blessings you will receive from the people to whom God sends you. God has promised them, just as he promised Abraham, “In you all the nations of the world will be blessed.” They are the ones who will bless you.
Who was it that recently testified so clearly for the truth in the Anglican Church with regard to the error of ordaining homosexuals to the gospel ministry? It was the African bishops. They are the ones who are consistently blessing the international church.
Secondly, consider the promise given to Abraham regarding the seed. God promises the patriarch, “Your seed shall be as numerous as the dust of the earth, the stars of the heaven and the sand on the seashore” (Gen. 13:16; 22:17). How does this promise of the “seed” work out in the context of the new covenant? According to Paul, Abraham had two “seeds.” On the one hand, he had as his seed circumcised people who believed, who would be believing Jews (Rom. 4:12). But Paul said Abraham had a second “seed.” This second “seed” would be Gentiles, uncircumcised people who believed (Rom. 4:11b). Believing circumcised Jews along with believing uncircumcised Gentiles are the legitimate seed of Abraham, and heirs to all his blessings.
You as a Gentile believer inherit exactly the same promise as Abraham. You have the promise of the same two seeds. You have, as the seed of God, your natural descendants who believe. But you also possess a “seed” from all the nations of the world in the form of brothers and sisters from other nationalities who believe. You may not have been the one to preach the gospel to them. But you lived before them, and in many cases you prayed for them. They are your “seed.”
Paul was a bachelor, an unmarried man who had no natural seed. But he had an ethnic community of believers, believing brothers from among the Jews. At the same time, he also had believing Gentiles as his “seed” among his brothers and sisters in Christ. Believers from the Middle East, from Asia and from Europe were all the “seed” of the Apostle Paul, the Apostle to the Nations.
This Abrahamic promise of the “seed” applies to Gentile as well as to Jewish believers. Everyone born of God’s Spirit is the “seed” of God, a brother and a sister in Christ. Claim for yourself this great blessing of the Lord. By the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, preached across the nations, you are blessed with an international “seed” of believers.
The third great promise given to Abraham had to do with the land. Now comes the greatest challenge to faith and understanding. But take a closer look at Paul’s explanation of the land-promise as it speaks to today. You may discover an even greater promise of the “land” than you have imagined. Rather than retaining the original borders of the “promised land,” the Apostle enlarges the scope of the land far beyond the original borders of Palestine.
How far? The original land of Canaan measures 70 miles across from the Mediterranean to Transjordan, and 160 miles in length from Dan to Beersheba. But according to Paul, God does not allow the “land-promise” to remain restricted to those sparse dimensions. Instead, he states that Abraham’s promise meant that he would be heir of the cosmos, the universe, the whole world (Rom. 4:13). He echoes the promise of Jesus and the Apostle Peter concerning the “restoration of all things” through Christ’s redemptive work (Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:21).
The land-promise of the old covenant was only a microcosm of the macrocosm, a shadowy picture of the great eternal purpose of God in restoring the entirety of the earth in its redemption. You may have heard Palestine described as a land “flowing with milk and honey?” An old Jewish fable paints a much more realistic picture. This story says that when God was creating the world, he commissioned that all the stones of the world be spread across the face of the earth by two large storks. God put the world’s stones into two bags for the two birds. But as the storks were distributing all these stones across the world, one of the bags broke over Palestine. As a consequence, half the stones of the world are found in Palestine. If you ever visit the land of the Bible, you will find that the country is better described as a land of rocks and boulders rather than a land flowing with milk and honey.
The actual land of Palestine may hardly be equated with paradise. But it serves in the Bible as a picture—a picture of paradise restored, of a renewed cosmos, of the world as it eventually will be re-framed at the consummation of the ages. Who then is the heir of this great promise of the “cosmos” given to the patriarch? It is you, whoever you are, whether Jew or Gentile, who is numbered among the “seed” of Abraham by faith in Jesus as the Christ.
Conclusion
Today the gospel is for all nations. The people of God now include equally Jewish believers, African believers, Arab believers, European and Asian believers who trust in Jesus as the Christ. All who believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of sinners are equal heirs of the redemptive blessings of God.
The Lord has been extremely gracious to the PCA in giving it a missionary vision from its first General Assembly. “Obedient to the Great Commission” has been one of our major hallmarks. To this point, we have had a clear understanding that all nations are included, that they all have the privilege of being participants in the kingdom of God. But if we fully grasp that in the purpose of God, all nations of the world are equal inheritors, equal possessors, equal participants with believing Israelites in all the promises of the patriarchs, then we might see an even greater expansion of the kingdom of Christ throughout the world. May God give us a passionate love for this gospel that shall be preached to all the inhabited earth, among all the nations of the world. For then the kingdom of our Christ will come in all its fullness.
An address given by O. Palmer Robertson to the 32nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America on June 17, 2004 in Pittsburgh, PA.
Amended for written form on June 17, 2024