The Gospel to All Nations*

      God is the God of all, and the Gospel is for the whole world. This is especially true in these times of wickedness: "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Mt. 24:12-13). Only by Christ in us will we be able to endure this time of abundant iniquity. The Bible has been translated into every language of the world, and many people of various nationalities and religions are having visions of Jesus.

     The true Gospel of Jesus Christ, "who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this evil world," is so important to the whole world that the apostle Paul warned the church of other gospels that are false: "I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ into another gospel: Which is not another; but there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed...For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ...the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus of Jesus Christ." (Gal. 1:1-12, excerpt). Many teach a different gospel of men in order to please men. We must know the Word of God for ourselves.

     Paul, previously a zealous persecutor of the believers in Christ, had a miraculous encounter while on the road to Damascus, as Jesus appeared and spoke to him from heaven. Paul said about this moment: "But when it pleased God, who had separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." (v. 13-16). Scripture tells us that the Lord knew us before we were formed in our mother's wombs, as Paul said. Paul was called or separated out by God from the womb to know Jesus Christ and to preach Him to the Gentiles, the heathens, the nations. Man did not teach Paul about Jesus, he said, but he was taught by divine revelation.

     Jeremiah the prophet wrote of this similar kind of divine revelation while prophesying about the new covenant that the LORD would make with the house of Israel: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor...saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me...for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jer. 31:33-34). They would know the LORD not from man, but from the LORD and from His Word within them. Jeremiah then wrote of God's assurance that He would never depart from His promises to Israel, that Israel would never cease to be a nation, and that He will never cast off the seed of Israel. (v. 35-37). The new covenant and the Gospel do not exclude Israel, as Jeremiah revealed above, but has also been extended to all nations and peoples, as we saw.

     To the Ephesians, Paul wrote about our former condition as children of wrath, mired in flesh and mind, and about the deliverance from this state by the Gospel of Jesus Christ: "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Eph. 1:1-10, excerpt). Our salvation is by the gift of the grace and love of God through His Son, Jesus. We cannot earn it, nor deserve it. It is a work of God in us. "For God so loved the world..." (see Jn. 3:16-17), God's love, and the Gospel proclaiming it, is for all nations of the world.

     Paul revealed in Ephesians that Jesus, by His blood, did away with the separation that had been in place between Jew and Gentile, who had previously been without God and without hope, thereby creating one new man from the two, reconciling and making peace. Now Gentiles who accept the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. (v. 11-19). This was made possible by the One, Christ, who was the stone who had been rejected by men, but which is now the chief corner stone of the living holy temple of God, being built from us as living stones into the habitation of God. (v. 20-22).

     Continuing on concerning the Gentiles or the nations, Paul wrote: "(,,,the mystery of Christ) 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; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel...And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ...For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named...That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with the fulness of God." (Eph. 3:19, excerpt). Paul was writing to Gentiles in another nation about the depth of the Gospel that had been given to them as well as to all men, and which fills all who believe with the fulness of God. It is the Gospel of love that was the mystery hidden from the beginning, as God created all things by Jesus Christ. Genesis 1:1 states, "In the beginning ...", which is the Hebrew word B'reshiet, each letter of which has a meaning which when combined says: "The Son of man, crushed, his hand on the cross." Paul wrote that there is a power that works in us, the church (ekklesia - the called-out assembly from every nation), as a result. (v. 20-21).

     Peter also wrote of a people who were not a people: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." (1 Pet. 2:9-10). The Gospel and belief in Christ changed a strange and foreign people from being those in darkness and without mercy into those who are now part of the Kingdom of light and receivers of mercy. Peter is the same apostle that was shown a vision of a sheet coming down from heaven depicting animals, including unclean animals as the Lord told him to "eat." Peter later understood that what the Lord had shown him was that those who were considered unclean or common (the Gentiles, the nations, the heathen) become clean when cleansed by God. (see Acts 10:9-16).

     Paul wrote that the Gospel held the truth that circumcision was not an outward appearance, but as the prophets wrote, circumcision was of the heart, inwardly. Both the Jew and the Gentile are all under sin..."There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one...all the world may be become guilty before God." (Rom. 3:9-12, 19). Under the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified - neither Jew nor Gentile. However, God has made the provision of righteousness for both: "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God...the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." (v. 20-26). This is the law of faith, and He is the God of the Jews and also the Gentiles and all nations. We cannot earn this justification with any works because it is by grace, but our works which were ordained from before the beginning display the justification which we have received through faith in Christ.

     "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (meaning Gentile). For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." (Rom. 1:16-17).

     *Based upon Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson, Jr.'s 3/1/26 message to the church. If you would like to hear the complete message, you can find it on the Facebook page of Kenneth E. Stevenson Jr. Dr. Stevenson's video messages are also found on You Tube at the Kenneth Stevenson channel. To contact or support this ministry, or to request prayer, you can write to PO Box 154221, Waco, TX, 76705. To find out more about the Shroud of Turin, which is evidence of Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection, and to receive a free e-book now available in several languages, go to http://www.theshroudofturin.org/freebook. Also the book NAZAH: White Linen and the Blood of Sprinkling, written by Dr. Stevenson, is available on Amazon.