Theology of the Church, Mentor's Guide, MG03

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T H E O L O G Y O F T H E C H U R C H

Take special note of this distinction and truth during your discussions with the students, especially the miraculous election of the Gentiles to be included in God’s kingdom and salvation plan. This will probably not hit your students with the force it ought to, but your emphasis here can reinforce the wondrous power of this selection on God’s part by a brief discussion with them of the then contemporaneous understanding of the Gentiles in the mind of the faithful. When one looks at the concept of the Gentiles in the Bible, it is easy to see why God’s selection of the Gentiles is a remarkable revelation of God’s lovingkindness and grace, and appears to be out of sync with the typical depiction of them in the Word. They include all the nations except the Jews (Rom. 2.9; 3.9; 9.24) and are called a number of names in the Scriptures, including (in the KJV) “heathen” (e.g., Ps. 2.1; Gal. 3.8), the “nations” (Pss. 9.20; 22.8; Isa. 9.1), the “uncircumcised” (Isa. 14.6; 52.1), and “the uncircumcision” (Rom. 2.26). The Gentiles are referred to as Greeks (Rom. 1.16; 10.12), foreigners, or strangers (Isa. 14.1; 60.10). The way in which Gentiles are characterized in Scripture would seem to indicate that they could not or would never be included in the salvific purposes of God. Not only are they chastised and punished by God (e.g., 2 Chron. 20.6; Pss. 47.8; 9.5; 94.10), but they are depicted as being ignorant of God (Rom. 1.21; 1 Thess. 4.5), gripped by a refusal to know God (Rom. 1.28), being without the covenant of Law (Rom. 2.14), and being idol worshipers full of superstitions (Rom. 1.23, 25; 1 Cor. 12.2; Deut. 18.14). Gentiles are characterized as being wicked, depraved, full of reproach, and blasphemous (Rom. 1.28-32; Eph. 4.19; Neh. 5.9), who neither know nor love the true God but show a kind of perverse fidelity to their own false gods (Jer. 2.11). Because of this evil character and idolatrous tendency, the Gentiles are portrayed as having perpetual and difficult conflicts with God’s people (Esther 9.1, 5; Pss. 44.13-14; 123.3), and God’s people are neither to follow their ways nor intermarry with them (cf. Lev. 18.3; Jer. 10.2; Deut. 7.3). In surveying this picture of those who are even portrayed in Scripture as dogs (cf. Matt. 15.26), it is amazing and glorious that the Lord of heaven’s original and yet hidden intent was to gather both Jews and Gentiles into a new humanity which would represent his kingdom people forever (Eph. 2.11-22)!

8 Page 18 Outline Point II-C