Most readers on this website, if not all, relate to the Gentiles of the Bible rather than the Jews. The Gentiles are non-Jewish people. In the Bible, the Jews were considered to be of the nation of Israel, also known as the nation of God, while the Gentiles were considered other nations outside of God’s governmental authority. Most of us relate to the Gentiles because we were not raised in a Jewish culture under the law of Moses. Therefore we were not raised with a requirement of keeping the law of Moses as Israel was required in the Old Testament Bible. Be aware that a limited perception of the Bible and the timeframe in which it was written can hinder you from learning what it is that God intended for you to learn.
Today if any religion is involved, people in America were most likely raised with a Christian background or some other teaching besides Judaism, which is the teachings of the Jews. Many people in Israel keep their fathers’ traditions according to the law of Moses because they don’t believe that Jesus is the Messiah that was prophesied to come. (They’re still waiting.) This belief makes Jesus a prophet who testified of God but denied His authority as the true Son of God who came down from heaven.
The big obstacle we face today is that we have pastors who teach Jesus as the Son of God but still try to live according to the traditions of the law. This way of teaching creates a mixture of beliefs that form what Jesus called the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:6-9). When this happens, these perverted teachings are used as doctrines to lead the church, but they have been filled with works of the flesh to satisfy both old and new covenants. This teaching style is what many of us experienced growing up in church. We call it the law of God, but we have mixed the teaching of Jesus with the Old Testament commandments and formed our own doctrines to live by. You see this a lot in traditional churches today.
If the Jews in the New Testament, who knew the law of Moses, were doing it, you can bet it has gotten more extreme today in us who have not been taught the Law of Moses.
The law of Moses covers many issues, like dietary laws, dress codes, sacrifice and offering laws, social laws, priestly laws, and so on. Laws in which God never required us to live by in the flesh when He called us to follow Jesus. If you have ever lived under these laws, it was probably because you attended a church that taught you Jesus yet also tried to incorporate the works of the flesh by inserting different laws of Moses that fit the church’s agenda. These teachings usually focus on outward appearances and actions rather than the heart. This form of teaching is what we want to avoid.
I would venture to say that most Christians are uneducated on the actual law of Moses and will only use certain parts to strengthen their cause in the fight to be righteous. But if we are going to have a gospel of Jesus in our heart that reveals eternal life, we need to understand how to perceive the law of God once we apply the teachings of Jesus to our life.
The new covenant gospel.
The good news is that Jesus sorted out all of these things with two simple commandments.
1 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
2 Love your neighbor as yourself.
Keeping these two commandments will allow you to live for Jesus and, at the same time, fulfill all of the laws of God without any interference from the traditions of man. If you want easy, you just got the answer you were looking for. This doesn’t mean that there will not be works of God on the earth; it just means you will be doing them by love instead obedience like in the Old Testament. Commandments still exist under the new covenant, and obedience is still necessary, but there is a better way to keep them: by love.
When Jesus came to the earth and began to teach a gospel of love and grace, instead of emphasizing the law of Moses through works, He taught that it’s a work of the heart. (You can read more on this in the last teaching, number 34, How Jesus Taught the Law.) When Jesus taught, you can see how the religious leaders reacted. It will be no different today when a spiritual gospel is taught, and the traditions of men are challenged. The word of God will be hated and killed at every turn. A big reason for this is that customs and works of the flesh allow people to justify themselves before God because of the things they have accomplished through works. But that erases the work that Jesus did and makes salvation void.
The hope we have today is that there are always men and women who love God. Those who will live for God and love God without the traditions of men defiling their beliefs. Jesus brought eternal life to us and taught us a better way to live over the commandments He gave Israel. That means there is far more to the Bible than what Israel was originally taught. With this in mind, I want to consider the apostle Paul’s teachings and look at how he led the Gentiles without using the law of God as his primary guide.
Paul’s experience with Jesus.
Paul was a man who was fervent in keeping the law of Israel. He described himself as a Hebrew of Hebrews and a Pharisee in upholding the law. One who was blameless under the law, which meant he lived a very strict life in the flesh. He also said that his zeal for his father’s traditions was very great and caused him to violently persecute the church of God, trying to destroy it. Like the other Jews, he did not like Jesus and daily undermined His teachings to the newly established church. Because of his strict religious traditions, he had high self-confidence in the flesh to be made righteous before God. No one was more perfect as a vessel of God to break the traditions of the law than Paul. He was a bigger-than-life witness of what happens to someone once they encounter Jesus by the Spirit. He put every tradition of the flesh on trial as he went forth and taught the revelation of Jesus.
I will assume most of my readers are familiar with Paul’s experience with Jesus in Acts 9, Philippians 3:3–7, and Galatians 1:11–17. If not, you can catch up by reading these references before you continue. This visitation changed the entire future of the gospel and the church of Jesus Christ.
When Paul was converted from Judaism to following Jesus Christ and His resurrection, his teachings changed according to his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Paul was chosen to bring the gospel teachings of Jesus to the Gentiles who had never been raised under the law of God or the teachings of Judaism. So with no law to build on, He taught a New Testament gospel to them that focused on love, faith, and grace, through the Son of God, Jesus Christ. The resurrection gospel of Paul was built on the fact that Jesus was the Messiah that the prophets of the Old Testament said would come. This went against his former belief, but after his experience with Jesus, he became a chief apostle and witness for Jesus and was relentless at teaching the law of God the same way Jesus did. He didn’t cast aside the law of God; he made it better.
His teachings are so good because they are filled with the freedom to live for God through the gift of Jesus. We no longer have to focus on doing the works to please God. It’s what Jesus did for us that is now the focus. We will still do works in the flesh, but they will be by the love of God that is gifted to us by Jesus. This means they won’t be works (of) the flesh, which is the carnal or earthly mind, but we will do them (in) the flesh, by a spiritual, heavenly mind. Paul knew if God could cleanse a person’s heart and regenerate their mind, they could live in the flesh, in an earthly body, and never struggle with sin.
Ephesians 2:8–10 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
The difference between being in sin and not being in sin is that the mind and heart is changed. We see that clearly in Romans 8:3–8. If you walk in faith, sin has no place. Paul is very interested in not following the traditions of the flesh. His ministry was focused on the inward more than the outward.
He also taught the gospel at a time when the outward works were the focus. He suffered greatly, being persecuted continually, to teach a gospel that liberated the people of God rather than condemned them in the flesh. Judaism may not surround us in our churches, but we are adapted to being taught to judge ourselves by the works of the flesh. That’s why the situation has changed thousands of years later, but man’s spirit has not.
Paul knew that the people he was teaching lived in earthly bodies that were weak and bound by death and corruption. That’s why he taught in such a way that changed the heart and mind and freed people from the captivity of living in the prison of flesh and blood.
2 Corinthians 10:3–4 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
How did Paul teach the Gentiles?
The simple answer is that he taught them to live by love, faith, and grace in the ability that the resurrection of Jesus Christ gifted them. He didn’t require them to follow the whole law of Moses but instead gave them Jesus Christ, who is the law of the Spirit, to fulfill the commandments that God requires. Did they still need to manifest good works? Absolutely. A tree is known for its fruit. But realizing that the works of the law are not what saves you will be a revelation that changes the future of your church.