When the Body of Christ Began

Hi, I am a Christian. That seems like a simple statement, but there is much confusion in Christianity today about what it means to be a Christian. To be called a Christian, one must only believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried, and rose again the third day to save us from our sins. As Christians, we ought to obey God’s commandments, all of which are found in His written words, which we call the bible. On the surface, it all seems pretty simple, but there is still a problem. That problem is what I would like to address here for the purpose of edifying the Body of Christ. This is something that could very well turn your world upside down.

Even if people stand on the Word of God as absolute authority, there is still confusion and blindness to what God is doing and what exactly are His commandments to us today. I’ve blogged about these Christian controversies because they cause division in the Body of Christ when we are called to unity, and I backed up my statements by scripture to show what we ought to be doing and believing. It is my hope that you, the reader, would be like the Bereans and search the scriptures to see if what I’m about to say makes sense, trusting that God’s Word is the authority and not just mine. I have spent years in deep study of the bible, and I believe this to be the key to understanding what it means to be a Christian and ultimately will build up the Body of Christ in further establishing the foundation of Christ in us.

What is the gospel? That seems almost silly that I should even ask, doesn't it? Most Christians would answer correctly that it is that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again the third day to save the world from sins (1 Cor 15:1-4, Eph 2:8-9, Acts 13:38-39, Acts 16:31, Rom 4:5, etc.). A question that rarely gets asked is, when did that start being the good news? When did God say it was acceptable to simply believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary for the forgiveness of sins and that we can partake in that great exchange in 2 Corinthians 5:21? In other words, when did the “Body of Christ” actually start? It is that question that I will address here and answering that question will show exactly what commandments in God’s Word we are to obey today.

First, I challenge anyone to search the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and see if the gospel of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection for the atonement of sins is there. It’s not. There is another gospel spoken of many times, but it is clearly labeled the “gospel of the kingdom.” Take a look at Mark 1:1 where it says “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” In that statement alone it says what the gospel is: that Jesus is the Son of God. This good news is fulfillment of Genesis 3:15, yet God’s Word still doesn’t talk of the death, burial, and resurrection as the good news. Look down at verse 14 in the same chapter:

14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God

15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

Again, ask the question, what is the gospel to be believed? Jesus hasn’t even died yet, so it doesn’t make sense for Him to be preaching the gospel of His death, burial, and resurrection. It is clear that the gospel is “of the kingdom of God” and that that kingdom was about to be established. The next logical question should be, what is this kingdom of God that is about to be established? To understand that, first answer the question, who was Jesus speaking to? He was speaking to the nation of Israel, His chosen nation in which He revealed Himself to the world. His chosen nation that, up until this point, all who wanted to be saved must come to believe in God’s Word and keep the Law of Moses. Gentiles could proselytize to Judaism to be saved, but then they were considered part of Israel. Bear in mind Matthew 15:24. It is evident that Jesus wanted Israel to believe that their promised kingdom was coming.

What was this kingdom then? It started back in Genesis 15:18 (cf Ex 33:1), but it is clearer in Exodus 19:6. God says that Israel “shall be unto [God] a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” in Exodus 19:6. The kingdom is a kingdom of priests, ministering the Word of God to the world. Israel was to be set apart for that purpose. It is further expounded in 2 Sam 7:4-17 in what is known as the Davidic Covenant. The words God uses are so important here. God says in that passage that He will establish a place for who in verse 10? For Israel, to the point that they will “move no more.” This is the kingdom that Jesus was saying was at hand in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Also from the passage in 2 Sam 7, note in verse 16 that the house, kingdom, and throne of David shall be forever. That clearly can’t be just about Solomon, since Solomon didn’t live forever, nor did he follow God for a time in his life. Solomon was chastened by God as God said He would do, but the main point of this passage I want to look at is the establishment of this “forever” kingdom.

How was one saved from sin in the gospel of the kingdom? Quite honestly, this gospel starts back in Genesis 15 and becomes clearer and clearer through the Law and Prophets. Faith was needed, but faith in what? Faith that God would do what He said He would in providing a Messiah (Gen 3:15) and establishing this kingdom, and that God is who He says He is, but works on mankind’s part were also required. Salvation was not guaranteed. To back that up with scripture, we need only to look at Exodus 19:5. Note the condition. IF they would all obey God and keep His covenant, THEN they shall be that kingdom of priests. They had to observe the Law that God then gave on Mount Sinai in Exodus 20 – 23 and they promised that “all the words which the LORD hath said will we do” in Exodus 24:3. They of course transgressed immediately with the golden calf, but God showed His mercy to them and gave them the Law again. God then tells Israel what to do to consecrate priests. This is important because the promised kingdom was to be of priests. That is found in Exodus 29. All throughout the Old Testament, we have the pattern of salvation by faith in God and keeping the Law of Moses. Faith plus works. If someone sinned, then a work was required to atone for it, whether it was paying extra money back or a blood sacrifice as God said in His Law.

Was Jesus’ message of the gospel of the kingdom any different? Careful examination of scripture says that it is not. What does Jesus say in His earthly ministry? Look at the people who asked Him about eternal life, which could also be described as salvation from sin and death. Luke 18:18-25 is the example of the rich young ruler and he asked how to obtain this salvation. Jesus responds with this:

20 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.

Is there anything in there about believing in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah? No, it is all works based. Look at the rest of the dialogue.

21 And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.

22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

See how this all has to do with the works of keeping the Law? Doesn’t this agree with Exodus 19:5-6? Please search the scriptures for other examples, because there are several. All throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, He was preaching the good news that this kingdom was coming and the nation of Israel needed to get ready to be consecrated as priests. That was the whole point of water baptism and John the Baptist’s ministry, which is a whole other discussion. Again, they had to keep their end of the Law.

Now take a look at the end of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each one of these books has dialogue about what people commonly call the Great Commission. What I’m going to show is that this is not exactly what God wants for us today. That may seem like a shock, but hear me out on this. First, who was Jesus talking to? It was the eleven disciples (Judas having hanged himself and not yet replaced with Matthias in Acts 1:26) and the “little flock” of true believers (Luke 12:32). They are to go out and “teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20). What did He command them? To believe that He is the Son of God and keep the Law of Moses. Up until this point, there is no mention of good news in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus being the once-for-all atonement of sin. In fact, look at Acts 1:6. After Jesus showed Himself alive “by many infallible truths” in Acts 1:3, the eleven and the little flock ask the question “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” They were asking if it was time for that promised kingdom! But Jesus answered them in saying it is not for them to know, but reminded them they had a job to do, which was to be witnesses to the uttermost part of the earth.

Did the message change with the apostle Peter in Acts 2? No, it did not. He paints the picture of the cross in a negative light, indicting the leaders of Israel in their unbelief. Note that the day of Pentecost is a Jewish feast day. This was one of 3 feasts that all men of Judaism must appear in Jerusalem to celebrate. Acts 2 starts off very clearly saying that this message Peter preached was to Jews who were devout, or religious, out of every nation under heaven (Acts 2:5). This message was not preached to Gentiles. After Peter accuses them of their wrongdoing, they are “pricked in the heart” and wanted to change, so they ask “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” in Acts 2:37. What is Peter’s response? Repent, which is to change their mind about who Jesus is, that He is the Son of God who He claimed to be and not some blasphemer, and be baptized, which is to keep that part of the Law of Moses to be a priest in the coming kingdom. Faith plus works. It’s the same message as Jesus gave them to preach, but again, it is not the gospel for today.

Let’s fast forward a bit to Acts 8 to the account of Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch. This eunuch was at Pentecost and on his way home and reading the scriptures. Philip approached him to ask if he knew what he was reading, to which the eunuch responded that he needed a guide. Philip preached Jesus to him from that scripture, which was Isaiah 53, and what was the response? The eunuch wanted to be baptized in water. Why? To be a part of that coming kingdom of priests. Note very carefully what Philip and the eunuch say in Acts 8:37. Philip says that if he truly believes, then he may be baptized. No superficial belief ever suffices with God and He is no respecter of persons. But observe the response of the eunuch:

“I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God”

That’s what he believes in, and does the work of being baptized with water. Faith plus works. He is obeying the gospel of the kingdom at this time. He didn’t say that he believed in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, but rather that Jesus is the Son of God. So again, when did this gospel of God’s grace through the finished work of Jesus on the cross start?

I could take several more pages to explain that Saul of Tarsus was saved under the gospel of the kingdom as well, but suffice it to say that he was changed from an unbelieving Jew to a believing Jew who was obedient in water baptism. However, he was given a twofold commission during his conversion. Here’s what the account of Saul’s conversion in Acts 26:16 says. The risen and glorified Jesus is speaking to Saul and He says:

16 But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness BOTH of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee (emphasis mine).

That word “both” is very significant. What had he seen? That Jesus was the Son of God. Saul of Tarsus was “not disobedient unto the heavenly vision” as he says in Acts 26:19. He did preach that Jesus is the Christ immediately (Acts 9:20). But note that other side of the “both.” Jesus was going to reveal to him something else to preach about. And that something is the very big change that begins in Acts 13. In verse 1 we have this:

1 Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

Here we are introduced to a Jewish assembly, or we could call it a church, but I’m trying to avoid that term so we don’t get it confused with the church, the Body of Christ. These men were prophets and teachers there as it says. Now note that Barnabas and Saul are mentioned and the extremely emphatic instruction in the next verse.

2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.

Here the English translation does not do enough service to the original language. First, it excludes the word “now” which is the word “de” in the Greek. The Holy Ghost says “Separate me now…” making an emphatic point. To overly express the emphasis, the definite article is also present, so the Holy Ghost says, “Separate me now the Barnabas and Saul…” One last thing to note is the word separate in the English comes from the Greek aphorizo. That’s a compound word that means to “rail off” or “separate from a boundary.” God is railing off the kingdom gospel and replacing it with the grace gospel. How can I say that? Look what happens in Acts 13. This is a chapter about the transition of setting Israel and the gospel of the kingdom aside in unbelief and bringing mercy upon all in the gospel of grace through the finished work of Christ on the cross (Rom 11:25,32).

Look at the significant encounter in Acts 13 with this sorcerer whose name was Bar-Jesus. That’s a Jewish man whose name means “son of God who saves.” A Gentile who was described as wise wanted to hear about God from Barnabas and Saul, but this Jewish sorcerer, called Elymas, an Arabic name meaning "wise," tried to turn the Gentile away from the faith. Note the two name changes that take place right here. Saul, a name that means "asked for" has his name changed to Paul, a name that means "little." Paul calls this Jewish man “thou child of the devil” instead of the “wise son of God who saves.” Look what happens to Elymas. He is blinded for a season. Doesn’t that look like what we read in Romans 11? After this takes place we have the first recorded message of the apostle Paul. What is his message? What is his gospel? Look at verses 37-39

37 But [Jesus], whom God raised again, saw no corruption.

38 Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:

39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Wow! What a difference! You could not be justified by the Law of Moses, but it is only faith in Jesus that one can be saved. Paul is the only apostle that preached this (Rom 11:13). He is not, nor could be part of the Twelve, especially based on their rules (Acts 1:21-22). This is Paul again being “not disobedient unto the heavenly vision” when Jesus revealed to him what he would preach to the world. It is Paul that preaches that salvation is in faith alone apart from works (1 Cor 15:1-4, Eph 2:8-9, etc.). This message was given to him by Jesus Christ Himself (Gal 1:11-12) and was revealed through several progressive “visions and revelations of the Lord” (2 Cor 12:1). The “railing off” of the kingdom gospel in Acts 13:2 gave way to the gospel of God’s grace through Christ through the apostle Paul.

On that note, we are not building a kingdom in the physical sense today, but rather we are ambassadors for Christ sharing this message of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:11-21) because this gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Rom 1:16). You can’t find the doctrine of Paul in the Old Testament because it is unsearchable (Eph 3:1-9), but it is this message we are to obey today. The apostle Peter even agrees in 2 Peter 3:15-16. There are two gospels mentioned in Galatians 2:7-9, but note what is said there in that Paul was to go forth to the world and the gospel of the kingdom was to be restrained to the circumcision, which could be none other than those saved under the kingdom gospel, those under the covenant of the circumcision that began with Abraham (Gen 17:9-14).

Please, it burdens my heart that all Christians would know to obey the doctrine given us by the apostle Paul in the books of Romans through Philemon for today. There is no prophecy being fulfilled today because that belonged to the gospel of the kingdom. Today we are to look forward to that blessed hope of Jesus appearing for us in the clouds to call us home with Him forever (1 Thess 4:16-17, Titus 2:13, etc.). This is only found in the epistles of Paul. The “rapture” event is not found anywhere else, though some may argue about Matthew 24 and Luke 21. Examining those scriptures show that what Jesus is speaking of in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 compared to what God says through Paul in 1 Thess 4:16-17 are quite different. We are not to be looking for the earthly kingdom because we are given this heavenly hope, or expectation, instead. Knowing what commands are TO us today and which ones are FOR us, that is, which are for our benefit, makes so much difference. That’s why we are commanded to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” in 2 Timothy 2:15. Since “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16), we can always learn and benefit from any scripture. However, we only obey the commands given by God that are relevant for us today.

So what I’ve done here is only given a brief synopsis of why we should obey the gospel of grace through Jesus Christ and that that gospel was revealed to the apostle Paul. Today, we should be obeying our commission, which is that we are ambassadors relaying the message of reconciliation through the finished work of Christ on the cross. Our good news includes that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption (guaranteed salvation), and that we will have a glorified body just like Jesus’ body (Eph 1:3, 13-14, Phil 3:20-21). All of that happens in the very moment we believe that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again the third day. We are saved by grace through faith first, and THEN created unto good works (Eph 2:8-10). It is no longer the idea that we have to work, but we have the privilege to do these works because we are saved by His grace.

I value any feedback anyone may have, but the more I study scripture, I cannot help but see that this is how God is dealing with mankind today. I would like all Christians to be assured of their salvation, to know the truth (1 Tim 2:4, Eph 1:13-19, Col 1:9-12, Rom 8:37-39), and to be set free by it.