Are you aware that the term “conversion” is rare in the Bible. Luke uses it only one time, and it’s not about the salvation of Paul – nee Saul. After their return to Antioch following their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas were confronted with a very pernicious and dangerous heresy. Acts 15:1 says, “And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the CONVERSION of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.” Obviously, the Holy Spirit was referring to the fact that the Gentiles in question had been saved by the grace of God. They were new creatures in Christ, old things were passed away, and their spiritual life was something absolutely new to them. They had “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered (them) from the wrath to come.” The change in those people’s lives was astounding – No one would have believed it if they had been told about it a year earlier. The heathen parents of those new believers might have drowned their children in infancy if they had known that in their adulthood they would have become followers of Jesus of Nazareth. But children of God they had become, and they were different people – converted from heathenism.
Actually, the conversion of the Pharisaic Jew, Saul of Tarsus was just as radical and just as thorough. Those Gentiles were no more heathen than he was in many ways. He had hated the name Jesus, just as they did, and he had wanted to wipe it from the face of the earth. He didn’t deny Christ, he just denied that Jesus was that Christ. He had hated the disciples of Jesus and had been actively participating in their destruction. He had been directly involved in the murder of God’s saint, Stephen. He was as proud a Jew as there ever had been born and just as bigoted, hateful, conceited and chauvinistic. But then the Lord saved his soul and made a new creature out of him – Saul was truly converted.
When Paul wrote to the people in Rome that Jehovah is the God of the Gentiles as much as the Jews, it was as heretical a statement as anything the rest of his nation could even think. If he had heard Stephen make the same statement that young man might not have made it out of the city before he was killed. To them Jehovah was the God of Israel only, & the rest of the world were little more than spiritual beasts. The Jews were convinced that to enter a Gentile’s home would render them temporarily unfit for worship. Ordinarily, they were not supposed to speak to anyone who was not of their nation. They treated Gentiles as beasts, and they called them “dogs.” They had their gods, and ISRAEL possessed the one true and living God. God had chosen their nation above all the nations of the earth. Jehovah had chosen to reveal His name unto their fathers, and not to the rest of the world – so they said.
But Saul had been CONVERTED, and now as “Paul the Apostle” he declared to all who would hear – “Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.” Heresy, heresy shout the Jews! No; this is the absolute truth.
And “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” That means that both the Jews and the Gentiles are brethren as far as sin is concerned. “We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.” “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Both Paul’s people and Nero’s people were of their father the Devil, and that explains why they both obeyed the lusts of their Satanic father.
The Jews and the Gentiles are brethren in that they will stand shoulder to shoulder before the Divine Judge. In Revelation 19 we read these words: “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” In these words I can’t find any hint of race, nation or language. This is not the judgment of one group of people and not another. For example, it’s not about the judgment of the rich with the poor being somehow pardoned. In fact there is a hint of absolute universality in this great judgment. “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.” It speaks about all the dead, and it doesn’t matter whether they were important dead or unimportant. There will be no “affirmative action” at the Great White Throne Judgment. There will be no special treatment of one race over another race. There won’t be a white section, a black division and a red section. Those who can speak Hebrew will not be exonerated, while the Heathen Anglos are condemned. “And WHOSOEVER was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
When it comes to our origin, our sinfulness and our judgment – all men are equals.
But even though the Philistines, Egyptians, Babylonians, modern Iranians and Pakistanis worship false gods, that doesn’t rob Elohim of His deity. As I’ve already suggested the Lord is the Creator of all men, whether today they are Heathen, Jews or Christians. Initially, there was only one kind of man, just as there was only one kind of horse and cat. The first man was created in innocence, and then through his sin all his descendants became sinners. Cain’s lineage may have gone in one direction, while the children of Seth went in another. But the line of Seth started over again in Noah and his sons, but those sons sent humanity off in three directions once again. It is impossible to say that God is not the creator of all mankind.
Some might argue that the Lord is not the Governor of all mankind, but those arguments are all doomed. Is Paul talking about creation only, or is he also describing the Lord’s universal rule and nourishment in First Corinthians 8? “As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” There is “one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” says Ephesians 4:6. And in Colossians Paul says, Christ is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” The word “consist” refers to the way that the Son of God, holds all things together. Creation, including the people of that Creation, continue to exist – they subsist – by the grace and power of God. And in Hebrews we read of Christ that He is “the brightness of God’s glory, and the express image of his person, upholding all things by the word of his power.” The Jews who hate the idea that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, are alive only because the one Whom they deny and hate sustains and maintains them. And this might be said equally of the Hindus, the atheists and the Muslims – everyone. “For the kingdom is the LORD’S: and he is the governor among (ALL) the nations” – Psalm 22:28. “Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.”
As such this God, and this Saviour, have the right to the reverence and worship of all mankind. Just because they don’t render to God that which is due, doesn’t change the fact that it is our debt. Neither does it change the fact that some day they shall render due worship. “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.” “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” “God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Looking into the future, the Prophet John “saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.” It is not the covenant of Sinai which ties together all the peoples of the earth. It is the fact that God is God, and the Creator of them all.
But as important as each of my points have been thus far, the most practical and important is this: Jehovah is the only Saviour and the only means of deliverance from the penalties of sin. There isn’t one Saviour for the Catholic, another for the Muslim and a third for the Baptist. There isn’t one Saviour for the Jew, but none for anyone else. There is “one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith,” verse 30.
So Jehovah is not the God of the Jews; He is God – period. Yes, he revealed himself to Moses as the great “I am” – JEHOVAH. But he was also known to the non-Jews, Noah and Enoch, by that same name. Furthermore Enoch and Noah also knew him as their Saviour, as well as their Lord. Both those men are to be found and studied in Hebrews 11, the great chapter on faith. They were justified by faith, just as Abraham, the heathen idolater, and David, the Jew, were saved.
Is Jehovah-Elohim the God of Jews? Absolutely. But He is also the God of everyone else. Yet more practically, He is also my God – by faith in Christ Jesus. Is He yours as well?