What
Must "We" Do vs What Must "I" Do
As members of the Body of Christ, Jewish believers
and Gentile believers under the Gospel of Grace have been joined in service to
the Lord Jesus. That term “Body of Christ” was first used in the Scripture by
the Apostle Paul. (1 Corinthians 10: 16-17; Chapter 12) He used it to show that regardless of our
“religious background”, the Holy Spirit has united those who have received
their salvation to eternal life through their belief in the Gospel of God’s
Grace. That Gospel shows that our righteousness is based on what was
accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ to pay for our sins through His death, burial and resurrection. (1
Corinthians Chapter 12; 15: 1-4, Romans 10: 9-13; https://www.gotquestions.org/body-of-Christ.html ) The
Body of Christ is the spiritual network that is available to those who have
been, and those who are currently eligible to become believers in the Gospel of
Grace.
As we study the Bible, I chose the title of this post to
help readers distinguish between two groups. One is the virtually all Jewish
believers who received their eternal salvation by believing in the name of
Jesus, and the Gospel of the Kingdom. That group is those represented
under the pronoun “We”, that covered their collective role in benefiting
from and implementing the Kingdom Gospel. The second group is the mixed believers
/ members of the Body of Christ. The
pronoun “I” was used to stress that salvation under the Gospel of Grace
had to , and still has to be sought and accomplished on an “Individual basis”.
When our Lord
Jesus preached during His Earthly Ministry, the Gospel of the Kingdom was the
“good news” He brought to the Nation of Israel as fulfillment of God’s promises
to them through Old Testament prophecy. (Genesis 12: 1-3; Exodus 19: 1-6; Romans
15: 8; Matthew 4: 17, 23; https://doctrine.org/the-gospel-of-the-kingdom ) As He brought this message to the Nation of
Israel, He commanded His Disciples to exclude the Gentiles from their ministry.
(Matthew 10: 5-7) It was not yet time
for implementation of God’s Plan of “salvation through Grace” to be taught to
all mankind. As noted above, that Plan could only be implemented after
the Lord’s death, burial and resurrection.
“What Must We Do”:
I chose this part of the title from the Book of Acts, Chapter
Two, Verse 37. (Acts 2: 36-47) The Apostle Peter had been making an extraordinary
speech to a group of Jews who had assembled in Jerusalem on Pentecost. They had
witnessed how the Holy Spirit had come upon the Ascended Lord Jesus’ followers,
enabling them to speak in tongues. Peter had eloquently cited Israel’s
historical and prophetic background leading up to the Lord’s crucifixion, burial
and resurrection. He sought to convince the audience that they also could
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Further, the Lord Jesus could still return
as their Messiah to fulfill the Gospel of the Kingdom as their Messiah and King.
The Scripture then recorded: “Now
when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and
to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? “ [Take
special note of the pronoun “we”.] “Then
Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost.”
I need to emphasize that the
role of the Nation of Israel was to serve collectively as a “holy Nation of
Priests” (Exodus 19: 5-6)…not just a collection of believers. They were to act
as a “royal priesthood” under the leadership of their King and Messiah. (1
Peter 2:9) Thus the essential pronoun “we”. Their righteousness was and would
be linked to His Righteousness. (https://www.gotquestions.org/royal-priesthood.html )
The Lord Jesus addressed this
very point when He was approached by a young ruler in Israel, seeking to
establish “his own righteousness.” The young man asked the Lord: “What
must I do, that I may have eternal life?” (Matthew 19: 16-22; Mark 10:
17-22; Luke 18: 18-25) To keep him in line with Israel’s history and mission, the
Lord told him: “If thou will enter into
life, keep the commandments.” (At your
convenience, please read the rest of their conversation at the scriptures
noted.)
“What Must I Do”:
On the other hand, Gentiles
being outside of the Covenant relationship that Israel had with God, were and
are to establish their righteousness on an individual basis. (Romans 2: 14-16) The
Scripture later addressed that circumstance related to Gentiles when the
Apostle Paul and his colleague Silas were unjustly beaten and imprisoned in
Philippi. Even so, they loudly prayed and sang praises to the Lord. When the
Lord intervened and freed them and the other prisoners from their shackles, the
distraught Gentile jailer feared for his own life, assuming they had escaped.
He would have had to forfeit his own life for failing to prevent their escape. When
Paul interrupted his attempt at suicide, the jailer brought them out from the darkness
of the lower dungeon and said: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Then Paul and Silas led him and his
family to salvation. (Acts 16: 16-34)
Now please note, this was
not the first time that Gentiles had been saved by a Jew. Remember from earlier
study the encounter that the Apostle Peter had with the Italian Centurion
Cornelius and his household, as arranged by the Lord. (Acts Chapter Ten) The
important difference is that during that encounter, those who were
influenced by Peter’s speaking did not ask to be saved. They received the
Holy Spirit, and began to speak in tongues and magnify God, as they had been
moved by simply hearing the same gospel of Jesus Christ that Peter had taught
to other Jews…that “through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive
remission of sins.” (Acts 10: 34-48)
There will remain questions by
some, as to the instances noted in Acts Chapter Eight, in which the Ascended
Lord’s Disciples (Philip, Peter and John) brought salvation to people from
Samaria, and the Ethiopian eunuch. They were not to be regarded as “Gentiles”. The
Scripture notes that the Eunuch had come to Jerusalem to worship during the
Feast of Pentecost. (Verse 27) That would describe him as a member of the
Nation of Israel. That is also how he came to be reading the Torah / Old
Testament Scripture when Philip preached Jesus to him, and then baptized him.
The people of Samaria had
their roots in their heritage as descendants from Israel’s Tribes of Ephraim
and Manasseh. However, they had become estranged and even ostracized by the
other members of the Nation of Israel after they embraced idolatry. Their king of the divided Northern Kingdom had
erected a temple to worship Baal, and the people followed him. (See: https://www.gotquestions.org/Samaria-in-the-Bible.html )
[As an aside, note that when
the Lord Jesus commanded His Disciples to restrict their ministry of the Gospel
of the Kingdom to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, He specifically
excluded Gentiles, and “any city of the Samaritans”. (Matthew 10: 5-7)] The Disciples’ mission was not to be
compromised by their potentially dealing with those who were outside of God’s Covenant.
As noted above, today God has given man a
choice. We are to ask ourselves, “What must I do?” We are without the influence of the Nation of
Israel who were to be a royal priesthood to guide us to the Lord. But God has freely
given man His Word, through the Scripture of the Holy Bible. He has given man
the roadmap to salvation and eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ. I
believe He expects man as an individual to acknowledge what He has given us and
then choose to answer the question “What
must I do?”, by saying: “I know what I must do…I must believe.”
For any who should ask: “What must I
believe to receive eternal life? The
Bible clearly answers that question in two parts of the Scripture. Please read:
1 Corinthians 15: 1-4; and Romans 10: 9-13.
Dr. W. A. (Bill) Robinson
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