DID PETER AND PAUL
PREACH DIFFERENT GOSPELS?
HOW MANY GOSPELS IN THE BIBLE?
DID PETER AND PAUL PREACH DIFFERENT GOSPELS?
In I Corinthians 4:1 to 3 we learn that the servants of Christ are instructed to be faithful stewards of the mysteries of God. In I Corinthians 1:10 these servants are told to speak the same thing, to be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment; not to be divided.
The Lord's stewards are not perfectly joined together in the same mind concerning the meaning of Paul's statement in Galatians 2:7; and they certainly do not speak the same thing in explaining the meaning of this verse. On the contrary, some of the Lord's servants not only differ with other stewards of the mysteries of God concerning the meaning of Paul's statement in Galatians 2:7, but they are very ungracious in their attitude toward those who disagree with them. They permit themselves to be stirred to indignation and disgust, if not contempt and hatred, against those who do not accept their exegesis.
If any intelligent Christian should read Galatians 2:7, and some theologian should not interfere with his thinking, what would that Christian decide after reading,—“ut contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me (Paul), as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter?” That Christian would surely decide Paul wrote to the Galatians that the Lord had committed unto him (Paul) “the gospel of the uncircumcision,” and unto Peter, “the gospel of the circumcision.” If there is any meaning to language, that Christian would decide that “the gospel of the uncircumcision” and “the gospel of the circumcision” are not one and the same gospel. In the Greek the genitive is used. The word is “of” and not “to”. The gospel “of” the uncircumcision. The gospel “of” the circumcision.
The servants of the Lord, who insist that Paul meant to say that the same gospel that the risen Christ authorized him to preach to the Gentiles He gave to Peter for the Jews, are the very same men who insist that Peter and his associates, who were Christ's apostles before Paul was converted, went all over Asia and Europe preaching to Gentiles, after Paul was converted. In Galatians 2:9 they agreed to go to the Jews. If they agreed to go to the Jews and went to the Gentiles, they did not do what they agreed to do. These Christians acknowledge that they get their ideas as to the evangelization of Gentiles by the twelve apostles from church history, and not from the Bible.
Moreover, it is a fact that the same Bible teachers, who teach that Paul and the twelve apostles preached the same gospel, (Paul to the Gentiles and the other apostles to the Jews), teach that Peter and James set forth God's program for this age when they uttered the truth of Acts 15:14: “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name.” Is this God's program for this age? This program was publicly stated by Peter and James in the city of Jerusalem about the very same time these two men and Paul agreed on their different ministries, as recorded in Galatians 2:9—”And when James, Peter and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.”
Now let God's people permit the Holy Spirit to lead them and to help them use a little common sense in answering this question: “If God's program, as described by Peter and James, was to visit the Gentiles and take out of them a people for His name, did Peter and James have a part in God's program when they agreed to go to the Jews?” Remember, it was Peter and James who agreed to go to the Jews at the time they declared that God's program was to visit the Gentiles and take out of them a people for His name. Peter and James, by going to Jews, could not help God to take out from the Gentiles a people for His name. Compare Acts 15:14 and Galatians 2:9. Also Acts 15:14 with Ephesians 2:15 to 18.
Now keep in mind that the very same Bible teachers, who teach that there are not two gospels in Galatians 2:7, but the same gospel to be taken by different apostles to different groups, also teach that God's program for this age was declared by Peter and James, in Acts 15:14. They also agree that the decision of Galatians 2:9 had the sanction of the Lord. Surely we must all be agreed that the Lord could not use Peter and James to visit the Gentiles, if He sent them to preach to the Jews. Did they go to the Jews, as they agreed in Galatians 2:9, or did they go to the Gentiles? In answering this question read Galatians 2:11 to 14. In these verses we learn that because of James and other Israelites Peter would not have fellowship with saved Gentiles. Do you believe that the Lord would send to the unsaved Gentiles James and Peter, when James would not permit Peter to eat with saved Gentiles?
Now strange as it may seem, the very same Bible teachers, who teach that God's program is Acts 15:14 and that Peter and Paul preached the same gospel, teach that at the time James and Peter declared that God was visiting the Gentiles to take out a people for His name, God's order was, “to the Jews first and also to the Gentiles,” in harmony with Romans 1:16. They say that this explains why Paul, before and after the declaration of Acts 15:14, went to the Jews before he went to the Gentiles. But this explanation certainly clashes with their explanation of Galatians 2:7 and 2:9. If God's program was to visit the Gentiles and Paul was to go to the Gentiles, why did Paul go to the Jews first? Why did Paul go to the Jews at all, if Galatians 2:7 means that Peter was to go to the Jews with the same gospel that Paul was to preach to the Gentiles? Why do Bible teachers, who are bitterly opposed to other servants of the Lord who insist that Paul was given a distinctive ministry and message for the Gentiles, diligently search church history to prove that Peter and his fellowapostles went to many different countries to preach to the Gentiles when they explain Galatians 2:7 and 9 to mean that Peter was to go to the circumcision and Paul to the uncircumcision?
There is something radically wrong with such thinking if it can be called “thinking.”
QUOTATIONS FROM PETER'S AND PAUL'S EPISTLES
Now let us compare Paul's statement in I Corinthians 15:1 to 4 with Peter's statement in I Peter 3:18:
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.”
Believers are saved by the gospel set forth by Paul in I Corinthians 15:1 to 4. But in my judgment there is no more definite, true statement of the gospel, in any of Paul's messages, than we have in I Peter 3:18. This is one of my favorite verses in preaching to sinners. Then think of I Peter 2:24 and I Peter 1:18 to 20. In these verses we learn that we are redeemed by the precious shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, because the Lord Jesus bare our sins in His own body on the tree. Then in I Peter 5:10 we learn that it is Peter who calls God, “the God of all grace.”
It is true that there seems to be quite a difference between Peter's message to the Gentiles in Acts 10:34 and 35, and Paul's message to the Gentiles, in Romans 4:4 and 5. Note the difference.
“Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him.”
“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
And yet Peter continued in his message to Gentiles to say that Christ died and was raised from the dead and whosoever believeth on Him shall receive remission of sins. (Acts 10:39 to 43)
Every Spirittaught Christian knows that without the shedding of blood there is no remission; that Christ's blood was shed for the remission of sins and that there is no remission of sins, or redemption, for one single person apart from faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sinners are reconciled to God by the death of God's Son. (Romans 5:10; Matthew 26:28; Colossians 1:14; Colossians 1:20 and 21; Ephesians 1:6 and 7.)
But because we know that faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is the one and only way for the sinner to be saved, are we to say there is only one gospel in the Bible, and that the meaning of Galatians 2:7 is that Paul and Peter preached the same gospel to different groups? Those, who do say this, think they have proved their assertion by Galatians 1:9—”If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”
In the verses immediately preceding this ninth verse the Holy Spirit led Paul to write that the perverted gospel, a mixture of law and grace, was not another gospel. So from these verses there are sincere faithful servants of the Lord who teach that there is no gospel in the Bible other than I Corinthians 15:1 to 4, the fact that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and raised again; all in fulfillment of prophecy. (Acts 13:29 and 30) (Luke 18:31 to 35).
These sincere brethren seem to think they must dogmatically and uncompromisingly contend for one and only one gospel in contending earnestly for the faith onceforall delivered unto the saints.
There is such a thing as being sincerely wrong, having zeal without knowledge. If these brethren are wrong, it is because they have very much limited the word “gospel.”
Let us note the “gospel” in several verses of Scripture:
“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.” Matthew 24:14.
“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:24.
“For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth.” Colossians 1:5 and 6.
“If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.” Colossians 1:23.
In these Scriptures we read of “the gospel of the kingdom” and “the gospel of the grace of God.” Are these two gospels identical? The Lord Jesus, about 33 A.D., declared that the end would come when “the gospel of the kingdom” had been preached as a witness among all nations. About 25 years later Paul left Ephesus to end his course in preaching “the gospel of the grace of God.” About 67 A.D. Paul declared that he had finished his course. (II Timothy 4:7.) A little later his earthly career ended. About the time Paul declared that he had ended his course he wrote that the gospel had come into all the world and was preached to every creature which is under heaven. When Christ said, in Matthew 24:14, the end would come, He was not referring to the end of Paul's earthly ministry. But the end, to which Christ referred in Matthew 24:14, did not come when Paul's gospel had been preached in all the world. Israel's tribulation is the chief subject of Matthew 21. And the end of the age, in that chapter, must be the end of an age different from this present age of grace.
THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM
Note these references to the gospel of the kingdom:
“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17.
“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” Matthew 4:23.
“Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe the gospel.” Mark 1:14 and 15.
“And He sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.” “And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing everywhere.” Luke 9:2 and 6.
“But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely ye have received, freely give.” Matthew 10:6 to 8.
“Then He took unto Him the Twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: And they shall scourge Him, and put Him to death; and the third day He shall rise again. And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.” Luke 18:31 to 34.
“For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Matthew 23:39.
“And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” “So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” Luke 21:27 and 31.
“When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory.” Matthew 25:31.
“He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David; And He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” Luke 1:32 and 33.
The word translated “gospel” means “good news.” When the Lord Jesus and His apostles were preaching “the gospel of the kingdom” they were healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, cleansing the lepers, giving limbs to the limbless, raising the dead. This is what Christ told His apostles to do, and what they did while He was on earth. “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; Whom they slew and hanged on a tree.” Acts 10:38 and 39. They healed in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. (Acts 3:6). Note Acts 2:22 and Hebrews 2:4: “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know.” “God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will.”
Certainly it was good news when a blind man heard that he could receive his sight in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. It was good news when a brokenhearted mother or father learned that their dead child could be brought back to life in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
And here is the record of the ministry of the twelve apostles—“they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.” Luke 9:6.
This is what Christ, in Matthew 10:6 to 8, told the Twelve to do. He did not command them to go to Gentiles and preach that they could be saved through faith in the crucified and resurrected Christ. This surely is “our gospel” in this present economy and age of grace. (II Corinthians 4:3 to 6).