Scope of the Gospel (Listen or Read)
Scope of the Gospel
Scripture, foreseeing God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying,
‘In you all the nations shall be blessed’.
(Ga. 3:8)
The Gospel is defined in eight simple words! “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” These words are the very Gospel Paul preached—justification by faith. This Gospel was first revealed to Abraham and is repeated five times in Genesis! (Ge. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14). God did not want us to miss it. Notice it does not say “some” nations, but “all.” The important question in all this is: Does the term “nations” include every person? Peter makes it clear:
In your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities. (Ac.3:25-26)
According to Peter, the blessing of all nations includes all the “families” of the earth. But he does not stop there. He goes on specifying that the blessing includes every member of the family. Notice his words, “every one of you.” For years as a missionary, I have heard and read that God was merely interested in a token representative from every nation, tribe, and tongue. That has always troubled and perplexed me. As I look at Scripture more closely, I see a totally different picture of God. Let’s look at this passage again:
In your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities. (Ac. 3:25-26).
Acts 3:25-26 establishes four critical points.
¨ The Gospel comes to the elect first (not exclusively), and in “due time” it will bless every one of your family members, regardless of what you think their present spiritual state is.
¨ What is the blessing? It is turning away from sin.
¨ It is the same gospel Paul preached—justification by faith. This is established in Galatians 3:8 via God’s promise to Abraham (Ge. 12:3) and repeated here (Ac. 3:25).
¨ It confirms that justification by faith, as marvelous as it is, is not an end in itself; it is the prerequisite to turning from sin, the “working out” of our salvation.
Think about the term “family.” What does it mean to be a member of a family? It means one is part of a cohesive whole. If one is hurting, all are hurting. It can be accurately compared to the Body of Christ. We are “members individually,” and the members should have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with him or her (see 1Co. 12:25-27). Now ponder this: How can these “blessed ones” spoken of by Peter in the above passage—all individual members of families—experience the “great joy” of the Gospel (Lu. 2:10; Ro. 10:15) if they are vexed and tormented over the destiny of any of their lost family members? Could you “greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible” (1Pe. 1:8 NAS), knowing that your son, daughter, dad, mom, wife, or husband are suffering in an eternal hell?
If we do not provide, love, and care for our own household, we have denied the faith and are worse than unbelievers (1Ti. 5:8). We must love our family members and neighbors “as” ourselves (Ro. 13:8-9). If we so loved in truth, we could not have peace and joy unless we knew all our loved ones were eternally safe. This simple truth alone confirms the unlimited scope of the Good News.
References: See Bibliography page.
