James, who preached the same gospel as Peter, stated that it is by works that a man is justified, which is the same gospel preached by Christ to the Jews. Paul preached no such gospel to the Gentiles. Many have said to me that it's the same gospel throughout...
Of them I ask, "Really?" Well, let's put that to the acid test:
Matthew 15:22-28
22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, [thou] Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast [it] to dogs.
27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great [is] thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
Gentiles were dogs under the Kingdom Gospel. Attempts to escape that fact is futile. This clearly shows that the ONLY salvation available to Gentiles was to become Jews.
Ephesians 3:1-3, 5-7
1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, ...
5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
The belief that some harbor that there was only one gospel...well, the expense to truth is enormous in the belief systems that ride upon that bandwagon.
MM
John the Baptist"s and Jesus' ministries were fulfilling the last week of Daniel's 70 weeks of years determined on Daniel's people as the custodians of the Word of God. Seven years after John the Baptist came preaching to the Jews, during the persecution that followed Stephen's stoning, the interpretation of the word of God through the Holy Spirit was given to Gentiles, beginning with those living in Samaria. During Jesus' first 2.5 years of teaching ministry among the Jews, before His death and resurrection, the Gentiles were outside of the mandate given Him by the Father, even though some Gentiles did eavesdrop on Jesus' preaching to the Jews and did believe He was a prophet with miracle-working authority from God. Jesus was speaking the truth to the Syro-Phoenician woman. she was unclean by Torah standards, but the Father commanded Jesus to breach his official mandate in her case, because God appreciated her humble faith. Clearly, it is not true that the ONLY salvation available to Gentiles was to become Jews, because this woman, though according to Torah a dog, was heard by God and her Gentile daughter was saved/made whole, i.e. the Gr.eek word sOzO.
Ephesians 3:5 makes it clear that Paul's gospel was also understood and being preached by Peter and the other apostles, not just Paul.
3 ...the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, ...
5
Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men,
as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
6 That the
Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
"His holy apostles and prophets" includes the twelve. Philip and Peter had already learned the mystery of this new phase of the Gospel, soon after the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7, through God's dealings with the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 and the Roman Cornelius in Acts 10. Paul learned and began to teach to Jews in the synagogues that Jesus is the Messiah in Acts 9, but he did not reach out to Gentiles until He had learned to see the mystery "that the
Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel" in the Old Testament when He spent time alone learning it from Jesus in Arabia. This eventual extension of the offer of family membership to the Gentiles was part of Jesus' message during His ministry. It was not a Gospel given to Paul that competed with a different Gospel given to the Twelve.
It is argued by some that James was not claiming that Abraham and others are justified before God by their works, but that James is saying that the man who claims to have faith in God justifies himself and his claim by what he does. If he behaves like a man who loves and seeks to please God, he will be judged by men as speaking the truth when he claims to believe God. If he lives like the devil, but claims to trust God, men will assess him as a deceiver and self-deceived regarding his claims to trust God.
Do you not think that interpretation of James makes sense and meshes with Pau, who said that if Abraham is justified by works, he has something to boast about [
before men] but not before God. Our works don't earn us good standing with God. It is our faith occurring, before the obedience which flows out of our genuine faith, that God recognises and reckons to us as righteousness.
I don't see any difference between the gospel taught by Jesus, by the Twelve and by Paul. I do see the Twelve's and Paul's and our own understanding of that same gospel growing over time as we study God's word and practise it.
