Comparing the status of the Jew in “Time Past” & the Gentile Today, After Acts 28:28

The Jew: ³ For I [Paul] could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren [of Israel], my kinsmen according to the flesh: ⁴ Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; ⁵ Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Rom. 9:3-5

¹⁰ Let their [Israel’s] eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. ¹¹ I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. ¹² Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them [Israel] the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?  ¹⁵ For if the casting away of them [Israel] be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? ²⁵ For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery [secret], lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. Rom. 11:25

The Gentile: Paul says the Gentiles are to: ¹¹ … remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; ¹² That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: ¹³ But now (today) in Christ Jesus ye [Gentiles] who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2:11-13 (KJV)

The statement below is from an archeological slab discovered in Jerusalem, confirming the 2^nd class status of believing Gentiles among Israel at the Temple.

“No one being a foreigner [Gentile] may enter within the enclosure around the holy place. Whoever is apprehended will himself be to blame for his death which will certainly follow.”

From the time of Abraham until the end of Acts, we find “The Jew First” is the principle by which God deals with mankind. Israel was to be His priestly nation and as such was to be separate and distinct from all others. The reason God dealt with “the Jew first” was that up to the time of Abraham the nations had so dismally failed that God had to give them (see Romans 1:24, 26, 28 below).

²⁴  Wherefore God also gave them [Israel] up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Romans 1:24 (KJV) ²⁶  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: Romans 1:26 (KJV) v²⁸  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient [not fitting or suitable]; Romans 1:28 (KJV)

During the earthy ministry of our Jesus of Nazareth He called the Gentiles ‘dogs’ (cf. Matt. 15:26). This because He had come only “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:6 and 15:24). His disciples were to go out only to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” and they were not to go into the way of the Samaritans or the Gentiles. Jesus said “As I have been sent, so send I you.”

In the great sermon of Peter at Pentecost, the only people Peter was addressing was “Ye men of Judaea” “Ye men of Israel” “All the house of Israel.” Among the three thousand that were added that day there was not a single Gentile. Notice that it says ADDED, not that a new church was formed. This was “THE CHURCH OF GOD” that had its beginning with the calling of the twelve Jewish Apostles sent to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Then we have mention of the twenty, and finally five hundred who were believers before Pentecost. At Acts 10, Peter did not know anything about a church where Jew and Gentile were one in Christ (see Acts 10:28).

Peter would have called Cornelius a dog if it had not been for his vision at Joppa (Acts 10:14). The common religious tradition says that the church began at Pentecost is wrong, it must have been started after the time of Peter. Note that “They of the circumcision were astonished…that on the Gentiles…the gift of the Holy Ghost,” vs. 45. According to that record it was impossible any Gentile could have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost.

The church at Jerusalem did not recognize any church beginning at Pentecost, for they scornfully said to Peter, “Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and did eat with them.” But then finally the Messianic Pentecostal church recognizes that “to the Gentiles…granted repentance unto life,” (Acts 11:18-19), that the Gentiles could be saved unto eternal life, but only as 2^nd class citizens of Israel as we see all through the Acts period.

The preaching of Peter at the house of Cornelius was to open the door of the kingdom to the Gentiles and prepare the way for the apostle Paul and his later, Post-Acts revelation and message of the One Joint Body with both on equal basis as “the body of Christ.” There is no record that Peter ever again preached to a Gentile, or that any of the twelve ever did.

The absolute refusal of the churches of today to recognize these plain facts is the reason for so much confusion today. They will take tradition rather than God’s Word. Study all the epistles written during the Acts period and you will find the same principle all thru, … “The Jew First.” Even in Romans, the last epistle to be written before the close of Acts, we find the principle very pronounced. There we find the gospel to “the Jews first” in 1:16; judgment to “the Jew first,” 2:9; blessings to “the Jew first”, 2:10; all advantage and profit pertained to “the Jew first,” 3:1-2.

Yet, the Jews held to their old position so much that the Apostle Paul here chided them for it.

²⁹ Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Romans 3:29

Romans 9:3-5 enumerates the items which are exclusive to the Jew. Paul would call them brethren. They were Israelites, a chosen people. They had the sole right of son-ship. The glory of God shone thru them as He blessed them among the nations. To them only were given the covenants and the law. They were the only ones who had a right to do service for God. Nowhere before Acts 28:28 is there any record of a Gentile preaching, teaching, or doing any other service in the church of that day. That was for the Jew only. The great difference between Jew and Gentile was not so much race as it was God’s PROMISES. The Jew who could speak of the fathers according to the flesh, and the Messiah was of and to the Jews. What advantages!

On the other hand, look at the record against the Gentiles. First they were in the flesh. Of course that was the natural state of both Jew and Gentile, but the latter had little hope of escaping it. They were without Christ, for did not the Word say, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for He shall save His people (the Jews) from their sins.” In relation to Israel they were just aliens. As to covenants of promises, they were complete strangers. They had nothing in them. Therefore, they had no hope and since God had given them up, they were without God and worst of all, they were in the world.

That is a black picture for the Gentiles. Just remember that is the picture of the Gentiles from Abraham to Acts 28:28. Although from Acts 10 to 28 there was a chance for the Gentiles to be graffed in receive blessings thru the Jew, but the middle wall was still there. So there were two gospels, two faiths, and two sets of Apostles.

But soon after Acts 28:28 we find the great change. Ephesians was the first epistle written after the Acts 28:28 crisis and immediately we find a very different message. ¹⁴ For he [Christ] is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Ephesians 2:14 (KJV). Let’s note what we learn from Ephesians 2:14 –18;

• V14, Christ is our PEACE making both Jew and Gentile ONE in “His body” (Middle wall is down).
• V15, Israel’s distinctive ordinances, such as water baptism, holydays, or Passover, (and later the Lord’s supper) etc., are abolished. V16, He now creates of the TWAIN “ONE new man,” that is what makes the peace, so that he might reconcile the BOTH unto God in Christ’s “ONE body.”
• V17-18, The past Enmity is slain. Peace is preached. Thru Him we the BOTH have equal standing and access by ONE Spirit unto the Father.

Anybody who would try to introduce ordinances (religious laws or requirements) into the church today is only trying to rebuild a ‘wall of partition,’ establishing things that would divide believers. There will certainly be terrible judgment for anyone who works against the unity and the peace of God’s people by so doing. 

Our new position is summed up in Eph. 3:6-7; “That the Gentiles should be; 1. Joint heirs, as a, 2. Joint Body, as, 3. Joint partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel, whereof Paul was made a minister.” This is the charter of “the Church which is His Body,” during today’s ‘dispensation of the MYSTERY” which “was hid in God from ages and generations.” Read Paul’s prison epistles of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and 2 Timothy. They will furnish the details.

(Adapted from a radio class given by Oscar M. Baker in March, 1949.)