Scripture Engagement

'The book of Romans wasn't written by Luther. The book of Romans wasn't even written by Calvin. The book of Romans was written by Paul, and Paul was a Jew, and we Jews, don't like Gentiles!' Martin Goldsmith, All Nations Christian College, 1991-92. We are so used to reading Romans through the eyes of Luther and Calvin that we forget that the reason it was written was quite different from the issues those venerable theologians faced. The problem, from a Jewish perspective, is that the Gentiles were considered to be so impure as to be beyond the bounds of God's saving grace. They were the uncircumcised, sexually immoral, idolatrous, unclean people who couldn't possibly by part of God's saving plan. But God's plan did include them (Gen 12:1-3), and Isaiah, amongst others, prophesied that 'all nations' would be included in temple worship (Isa 56:6-8). In this he was correct. Jesus' resurrection and ascension changed everything. No longer was ...

One thing that sermons about the early believers at the end of Acts 2 frequently miss is that they were mostly Jews! Albeit many of them living outside Judea. The god-fearers among them (if there were any) were essentially converts to Judaism from the nations. Most of them were Jews who had lived outside Judea so long their mother tongue was Parthian or Arabic or Median (Persian) or whatever. One proof of the fact they were Jews is that they met daily in the temple courtyard, or colonnades, as well as in their homes: 'And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts' 2:46 The book of Acts shows the fulfilment of Jesus' own post-resurrection prophecy that the good news would be preached to the nations, starting in Jerusalem, then spreading out to all Judea, Samaria, and then to the non Semitic nations in the 'ends of the earth' (Acts 1.8). So when the Samaritans receive the Holy Sp...