Thursday, April 24, 2014
Psalm 22:27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You.
FROM GRAVE TO GLORY -- JUSTIFICATION
At first glance one may think that the Old Testament only talks about the nation of Israel being God's people. However, this verse, as well as many others in the Old Testament, stands as a reminder that the promise of the Gospel is for all people, both Jews and Gentiles. This truth was not first revealed in the New Testament. It was an integral part of the Old Testament, especially in prophecy, that God desires all people to be saved.
It would be incorrect to assume that this verse is teaching that all people will be saved regardless of belief. We know very well that the just shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17) and those who do not believe in Christ will be condemned (Mark 16:16). Rather, what this verse means is that one of the signs of the Messiah's victory over sin and death would be that this message would go to the ends of the earth and individuals from many nations and ethnicities would believe. We see the realization of this today as the Gospel proclamation has gone to every continent in the world and continues to be spread both at home and abroad.
This is the same promise that God gave when He declared that "all families of the earth" would be blessed in Abraham. This was not a blessing in connection with physical descent. If that were true then Gentiles would indeed be excluded. The blessing of Abraham came through Jesus, the long-awaited descendant of Abraham who would die for sin and rise from the grave. Abraham believed this and it was credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3). Likewise, all who share this faith in the risen Savior are of Abraham's family and have the gift of Christ's righteousness as their own.
