One Gospel for Jews and Gentiles, Part 3:
The Objections Answered

This teaching comes from the King James Bible, and every verse I quote is from the KJV.

These are my own convictions from the Word of God, shared through The Prevailing Word of God ministry, and they do not speak for any local church.

Part 1 of this series listed the Scriptures. Part 2 walked through them as one argument. This part takes up the objections that the two-gospels teaching actually makes, one at a time, and lets the text answer each one. I have tried to state every objection the way its defenders would state it.

Objection 1. Peter said “repent and be baptized,” but Paul said “believe”

This is the claim on the graphic that heads Parts 1 and 2 of this series. Acts 2:38 is set against Romans 3:28 as if the two apostles gave two different answers to the same question.

Descriptive.

“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38).

Descriptive.

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28).

The best interpreter of Peter is Peter. In his next recorded sermon he gave the same call with no baptism in it at all.

Descriptive.

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

In the house of Cornelius he told a Gentile audience exactly what brings remission of sins, and he named faith, not water.

Descriptive.

“To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43).

Then the Holy Spirit fell on them while Peter was still speaking, and only afterward did Peter command water baptism (Acts 10:44-48). Those people were saved before they were baptized, and it was Peter who baptized them.

At the Jerusalem council Peter summed up his own gospel in one sentence, and it is Paul’s gospel word for word.

Descriptive.

“But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they” (Acts 15:11).

“We” is the Jewish believers. “They” is the Gentiles. Same grace, same faith, same salvation. Acts 2:38 does include baptism, because baptism was the public confession Jesus Christ commanded, and the crowd in Acts 2 had just been convicted of crucifying their Messiah (Acts 2:36-37). But Peter never taught that water, rather than faith, brings remission, and the phrase “for the remission of sins” is the same phrase used of John’s baptism in Mark 1:4, a baptism that pointed forward to Christ and did not save by itself. I have written on this at length in Ten Bible Passages Wrongly Used to Say Water Baptism Is Necessary for Salvation.

One honest note. The Greek preposition behind “for” in Acts 2:38 is debated, and I do not rest anything on the grammar. I rest on Peter’s own explanation of his own preaching in Acts 3:19, 10:43, and 15:9-11.

Objection 2. Paul called it “my gospel,” so it was a different gospel

Descriptive.

“In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel” (Romans 2:16).

Paul says “my gospel” three times (Romans 2:16; Romans 16:25; 2 Timothy 2:8). The question is whether “my” means “mine alone” or “the one I preach.” Paul answers that question himself when he defines the gospel he preached.

Descriptive.

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

Then, after naming Peter, the twelve, and James as witnesses of the risen Christ, Paul says this.

Descriptive.

“Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed” (1 Corinthians 15:11).

“I or they.” Paul or the twelve. “So we preach.” One message. Paul says in one sentence that he and Peter preached the same gospel, and that the Corinthians were saved by believing it. Paul also says the gospel of God was “promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures” (Romans 1:1-2). A gospel promised in the Old Testament is not a gospel invented for Paul.

“My gospel” means the gospel entrusted to me, in the same way a preacher today says “my church” without claiming to own it. If “my gospel” meant a second gospel, Paul would be cursing himself in Galatians 1:8-9, where he says anyone who preaches another gospel is accursed.

Objection 3. The “mystery” revealed to Paul was a new gospel

Descriptive.

“How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (Ephesians 3:3-6).

Read what the mystery is. Verse 6 defines it: the Gentiles are fellowheirs, of the same body, and partakers of the promise by the gospel. The mystery is one body, not a second gospel. It is the opposite of the two-gospels claim.

Read also to whom it was revealed. Verse 5 says “unto his holy apostles and prophets.” Plural. Paul was not the only one who knew it. Peter received the same truth in the vision at Joppa (Acts 10:9-16), confessed it at Caesarea (Acts 10:28, 34-35), and the whole council confirmed it in Acts 15.

Objection 4. There was a gospel of the kingdom for Israel and a gospel of grace for the nations

This objection points out that Jesus preached “the gospel of the kingdom” (Matthew 4:23) while Paul preached “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). Two names, so two gospels. But Paul uses both names of his own preaching, in consecutive verses.

Descriptive.

“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more” (Acts 20:24-25).

Paul testified the gospel of grace by preaching the kingdom of God. The book of Acts ends with Paul in Rome “preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 28:31). If the kingdom message belonged to a program that had been set aside, Paul did not know it. The kingdom is entered by the new birth (John 3:3-5), and the new birth comes by faith in Jesus Christ (John 1:12-13). The kingdom and grace are one message with two names.

Objection 5. Jesus sent the twelve to Israel only, so their gospel was for Israel only

Descriptive.

“These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:5-6).

That was the order for one mission during the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. The same Jesus gave the same twelve a different order after His resurrection.

Descriptive.

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19).

Descriptive.

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Matthew 10 restricted the field for a season. Matthew 28 and Acts 1 opened it to every nation, including Samaria by name. The restriction was about where the twelve went, never about what saved the people they went to.

Objection 6. Galatians 2:7 names two gospels

I answered this in Part 1, so I will only summarize it here. Galatians 2:7 speaks of the gospel “of the uncircumcision” and “of the circumcision.” Verse 9 explains the phrase. Paul went to the heathen, and the others went to the circumcision. It is a division of fields, not of messages, and Paul says so in the same chapter.

Descriptive.

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Galatians 2:16).

“Even we have believed.” Paul is speaking to Peter, and “we” means Jews by birth (Galatians 2:15). Paul says that he and Peter, as Jews, were justified exactly the way the Gentiles were, by faith in Jesus Christ. That is the whole series in one verse.

The biblical conclusion

Every objection, read in its own context, turns into a witness for one gospel. Peter explained his own preaching as remission through faith. Paul called the gospel “mine” and then said the twelve preached the same one. The mystery is one body. The kingdom and grace are one message. The twelve were sent to Israel first and then to every nation. Galatians 2 divides the fields, not the faith.

There is one Savior, one gospel of salvation, one faith in Jesus Christ, one body, and one new man. Let Scripture speak for itself.

Read the whole series: Part 1, The Scriptures and Part 2, The Argument.

Related study: For a full expository answer to the Mid-Acts dispensational teaching of two gospels, read One Saviour. One Saving Sacrifice. One Gospel.

Series guide: Read all four studies in order at One Gospel for Jew and Gentile.

2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (KJV)

18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.