One Saviour.
One Saving Sacrifice.
One Gospel.

Expository Study • One Gospel for Jew and Gentile (KJV)

A Biblical response to the two-gospel teaching of Mid-Acts dispensationalism

Some Bible teachers say that Jesus and the twelve apostles preached one gospel of salvation for Israel. They say that Paul later received a different gospel of salvation for the Gentiles. This study tests that claim against the whole testimony of Scripture.

The claim confuses three real things with a fourth thing that Scripture never teaches. The real things are progressive revelation, different audiences in different seasons, and the apostles’ early lack of understanding. None of these creates a second way of salvation. From the beginning, God purposed to bless all nations through one Saviour, Jesus Christ.

My aim is to examine a teaching, not to judge any person. Many who hold this view love the Lord Jesus Christ and the Scriptures. I ask only what the Bereans asked, whether these things are so (Acts 17:11).

What the Two-Gospel Teaching Claims

Mid-Acts dispensationalism takes its name from the belief that the church of this age began in the middle of the book of Acts. Teachers place that beginning at Paul’s conversion in Acts 9 or at his first missionary journey in Acts 13. A separate view, often called Acts 28 dispensationalism, places it at the end of Acts.

Teachers in this movement do not all say the same thing. Many affirm that every person in every age is saved by the grace of God. They still draw a sharp line between two messages. The first is the gospel of the kingdom, preached by Jesus Christ and the twelve to Israel. The second is the gospel of the grace of God, revealed to Paul for the body of Christ. Some add that the kingdom gospel required water baptism for the remission of sins, citing Acts 2:38.

Their main texts are worth naming plainly. They point to Matthew 10:5-6 and 15:24, where Jesus sent the twelve to Israel. They cite Galatians 2:7, which speaks of the gospel of the uncircumcision and the gospel of the circumcision. They also cite Romans 16:25 and Ephesians 3:1-9, where Paul speaks of the mystery revealed to him. A fair response must answer those texts and not only list the verses that support one gospel.

Step 1: Textual (What the Text Actually Says)

The King James Bible follows the Received Text throughout the passages in this study. A few manuscript differences touch these verses, and none of them changes the argument.

Luke 24:47 reads repentance and remission of sins in the Received Text. Some other manuscripts read repentance for remission of sins. Either reading joins repentance and remission to the name of Jesus Christ among all nations.

John 6:47 reads he that believeth on me in the Received Text, while some manuscripts omit on me. Acts 15:11 reads the Lord Jesus Christ in the Received Text, while some manuscripts read the Lord Jesus. In every case, the reading the King James Bible follows makes the person of Jesus Christ more explicit.

Acts 2:38 is a legitimately contested verse, because the meaning of the Greek word eis is debated. This study does not build any point on Acts 2:38. The case for one gospel stands on texts whose meaning is plain.

Step 2: Contextual-Literary (Setting and Genre)

The Gospels and Acts are narrative. They record a real change in the order of God’s dealings, from a ministry centred on Israel to a mission reaching every nation. That change is real, and it must be read carefully.

During His earthly ministry, Jesus sent the twelve only to Israel. Jesus said, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:5-6). Jesus also told the woman of Canaan, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15:24).

These verses describe the order in which the mission went out. Paul himself kept that order, for the gospel is to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (Romans 1:16). Paul also wrote that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision to confirm the promises made unto the fathers, that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy (Romans 15:8-9). The priority of Israel was the road by which the blessing came to the nations.

So the question is not whether God dealt with Israel first. Scripture says plainly that He did. The question is whether Israel and the nations were ever given two different saviours, two different sacrifices, or two different ways to be justified. The rest of this study answers that question.

Step 3: Grammatical-Lexical (Grammar and Word Meaning)

Panta ta ethnē (πάντα τὰ ἔθνη): This phrase means all the nations. Matthew 28:19 uses it in the commission to the twelve, and Luke 24:47 uses the same noun. The word ethnos is also the ordinary New Testament word for the Gentiles. When the risen Jesus Christ sent the twelve to all the ethnē, He sent them to the Gentiles.

Mathēteusate (μαθητεύσατε): The King James Bible translates this command in Matthew 28:19 as teach all nations. The word means to make disciples, so the twelve were sent to bring the nations to Jesus Christ as His disciples.

The genitives of Galatians 2:7: Paul speaks of the gospel of the uncircumcision and the gospel of the circumcision. The Greek genitive here tells us to whom the gospel was carried, not what the gospel contained. The next verse makes this clear, because it speaks of Peter’s apostleship of the circumcision and Paul’s mission to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:8). The genitive points to two mission fields served by one message.

Heteros and allos (ἕτερος, ἄλλος): In Galatians 1:6-7, Paul warns of another gospel, which is not another. The first word, heteros, means a gospel of a different kind. The second word, allos, means another of the same kind. Scholars debate how sharply these two words differ, yet Paul’s point is plain either way. The rival message is not a gospel at all.

Makran (μακράν): This word means far off. Peter used it at Pentecost when he said the promise was to all that are afar off (Acts 2:39). Paul used the same word for the Gentiles, who sometimes were far off and are made nigh by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13, 17). Peter and Paul described the same people with the same word. Both brought them near through the same Saviour.

Aphesis (ἄφεσις): This is the word for remission, or forgiveness. Jesus Christ said that remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations (Luke 24:47). Peter promised the same remission to the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:43). Paul wrote that we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7). One word carries one gift to both groups.

Ephapax (ἐφάπαξ): This word means once for all. Hebrews uses it for the offering of Jesus Christ, who entered in once into the holy place by His own blood (Hebrews 9:12). We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10:10). A sacrifice offered once for all leaves no room for a second sacrifice for a second people.

Mesitēs (μεσίτης): This word means a mediator, one who stands between two parties to bring them together. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). Paul named one mediator for all men, with no separate mediator for Israel or for the nations.

Step 4: Historical-Cultural (Background and Original Audience)

The people Jesus met beyond Israel came from different groups. A centurion commanded about a hundred soldiers, and Jesus said of this one that He had not found so great faith, no, not in Israel (Matthew 8:10). The Samaritans were a mixed people with their own place of worship, and the Jews had no dealings with them (John 4:9). The Greeks of John 12:20 had come up to worship at the feast, so they were Gentiles drawn to the God of Israel.

The Ethiopian official was a man of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, and he had come to Jerusalem for to worship (Acts 8:27). He was reading Isaiah 53 when Philip met him on the road. Philip began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus (Acts 8:35). This happened before Saul of Tarsus was converted in Acts 9. The same Jesus was preached to this foreign official that Peter preached at Pentecost.

The Jerusalem council of Acts 15 met over one question. Certain men taught that Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to be saved (Acts 15:1, 5). The council answered that question in front of the apostles and elders, with Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and James all present. A two-gospel system needs these leaders to disagree about the way of salvation. Acts 15 records them agreeing.

Step 5: Exegetical (Drawing Out the Author’s Meaning)

1. The apostles’ early lack of understanding was corrected by the risen Jesus Christ. Before the cross, Jesus told the twelve that He would suffer, die, and rise again (Luke 18:31-33). The twelve understood none of these things, for the saying was hid from them (Luke 18:34). After His resurrection, Jesus opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). Jesus then told them what must be preached in His name among all nations. The message they preached afterward came from the risen Jesus Christ Himself.

Prescriptive

2. The risen Jesus Christ sent the twelve to all nations. After His resurrection, Jesus said, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28:18). Jesus then sent the eleven to teach all nations and to teach them to observe all things He had commanded. Jesus also told them they would be witnesses unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). The commission given to the twelve was never limited to Israel.

Prescriptive

Jesus Christ commanded water baptism as part of making disciples, and I teach it as an act of obedience. Yet Matthew 28 never names water as the sacrifice for sins. Jesus named that sacrifice the night before the cross, when He said, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:28).

3. Jesus Christ offered everlasting life to whosoever believeth, long before Paul was saved. Jesus said that God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in the Son should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Jesus also said, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life (John 6:47). Jesus said that he that heareth His word, and believeth on Him that sent Him, hath everlasting life and is passed from death unto life (John 5:24). Jesus called, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink (John 7:37). Jesus promised, By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved (John 10:9). These words offer life to whosoever believeth. They do not teach that every person will be saved.

4. Jesus showed mercy beyond Israel during His earthly ministry. Jesus praised the faith of the centurion and said that many shall come from the east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 8:11). Jesus granted the request of the woman of Canaan and said, O woman, great is thy faith (Matthew 15:28). Many Samaritans believed and confessed that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world (John 4:42). Of ten cleansed lepers, only the Samaritan returned to give thanks, and Jesus said, thy faith hath made thee whole (Luke 17:19). A healing alone does not prove that a person received everlasting life. These accounts do show that the mercy of Jesus Christ was never fenced by nationality.

5. Peter preached remission of sins to Gentiles through believing on Jesus Christ. In the house of Cornelius, Peter said that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). Peter then preached that whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word (Acts 10:44). Only after that did Peter command them to be baptized (Acts 10:47-48). The order is plain: they heard, they believed, they received the Holy Ghost, and then they were baptized in water.

Descriptive

The church in Jerusalem heard this report and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life (Acts 11:18). Peter later told the council that God gave the Gentiles the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith (Acts 15:8-9).

6. Peter declared that Jews and Gentiles are saved by the same grace. At the council, Peter spoke as a Jew about Jewish believers. Peter said that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, even as they. Peter reasoned from the Gentiles to the Jews. Jewish believers are saved the same way the Gentiles were saved, through grace alone.

Descriptive

Peter’s message to the Jewish rulers was the same. Peter told them that there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Peter never preached a second name for Israel.

7. Galatians 2:7 describes one gospel carried to two mission fields. This is the main text for the two-gospel teaching, so it deserves a careful reading. Paul went to Jerusalem and communicated unto them that gospel which he preached among the Gentiles (Galatians 2:2). The apostles in conference added nothing to Paul (Galatians 2:6). James, Cephas, and John then gave Paul and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that Paul should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision (Galatians 2:9). Leaders who preached rival gospels could not have given each other the right hands of fellowship over the content of the gospel.

Descriptive

8. Paul pronounced a curse on any other gospel. In the same letter, Paul warned the Galatians against another gospel, which is not another (Galatians 1:6-7). Paul then wrote some of the strongest words in all his letters. If Peter had been preaching a different gospel of salvation to Israel, this curse would have fallen on Peter. Paul never pronounced it on Peter. When Paul rebuked Peter at Antioch, the charge was that Peter walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel (Galatians 2:14). That rebuke assumes that Paul and Peter shared one gospel.

Prescriptive

9. Paul preached both the grace of God and the kingdom of God. The two-gospel teaching sets the gospel of the grace of God against the gospel of the kingdom. Paul did not. Paul said that he received his ministry to testify the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24). In the very next verse, Paul described his ministry as preaching the kingdom of God (Acts 20:25). At Rome, Paul was still preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 28:31). One preacher, in one ministry, used both names for one message.

10. Paul declared that he and the other apostles preached the same message. Paul delivered the gospel by which the Corinthians were saved: how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Paul then listed the witnesses of the risen Christ, from Cephas and the twelve to himself (1 Corinthians 15:5-8). Paul ended the list with a plain statement of agreement.

Descriptive

Paul also preached to Jews in the synagogue the same message he preached to Gentiles. At Antioch in Pisidia, Paul told the men of Israel that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins (Acts 13:38). Paul added that by Jesus Christ all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses (Acts 13:39).

11. Paul taught that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile in salvation. The righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference (Romans 3:22). God shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith (Romans 3:30). In Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, for all are one (Galatians 3:28). Jesus Christ made both one and reconciled both unto God in one body by the cross (Ephesians 2:14-16).

Descriptive

12. The mystery of Ephesians 3 is one body of Jewish and Gentile believers. Paul calls it the mystery that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of the promise of God in Christ by the gospel (Ephesians 3:6). The Old Testament had already promised that the Gentiles would be saved. What was hidden was that saved Gentiles would share one body with saved Jews, on equal footing. Paul also says that this mystery is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit (Ephesians 3:5). The mystery was revealed to the apostles together.

13. One gospel does not cancel God’s promises to Israel. God has not cast away His people (Romans 11:1-2). Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved (Romans 11:25-26). For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Romans 11:29). Israel has a real future in the plan of God, and the Gentiles have not replaced Israel. Israel’s future salvation will come through the same Deliverer and the same grace (Romans 11:26-27).

Inductive conclusion: When the testimony of Jesus Christ, Peter, Paul, and the Old Testament is gathered, every witness gives the same answer. Salvation comes through one Saviour, by one sacrifice, through grace, to whosoever believeth. No passage gives Israel or the nations a second Saviour, a second sacrifice, or a second way to be justified.

Deductive conclusion: Paul pronounced a curse on any other gospel (Galatians 1:8). The apostles to the circumcision gave Paul the right hands of fellowship and added nothing to his gospel (Galatians 2:6-9). Therefore the gospel Peter carried to Israel and the gospel Paul carried to the Gentiles were one gospel, sent to two mission fields.

Summary: The Two-Gospel Claim Tested by Scripture

Step 6: Canonical-Theological (Coherence With the Whole of Scripture)

The promise of blessing for the nations runs through the Old Testament. God told Abraham, In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed (Genesis 12:3), and later, In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed (Genesis 22:18). David foresaw that all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD (Psalm 22:27).

Jesus Christ stated His own mission in words that fit every sinner. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). He spoke those words in the house of Zacchaeus, a son of Abraham. Yet the lost He came to save are found in every nation, as His commission to all nations shows.

Isaiah calls the Servant of the LORD a light of the Gentiles (Isaiah 42:6). The LORD says that His Servant shall be His salvation unto the end of the earth (Isaiah 49:6). All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God (Isaiah 52:10). Joel promises that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered (Joel 2:32), and both Peter and Paul quote that promise (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13).

Paul ties these promises to the gospel itself. The Scripture preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed (Galatians 3:8). Abraham was counted righteous by believing God before he was circumcised, so that he might be the father of all them that believe (Romans 4:9-11). The way of salvation was settled before Moses, before Peter, and before Paul.

Hebrews shows why one sacrifice serves both Jew and Gentile. Every priest of Israel stood daily, offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins (Hebrews 10:11). Jesus Christ entered in once by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:12). One perfect sacrifice fulfilled every shadow, and no second sacrifice waits for anyone. I walk through this in full in my study of the Book of Hebrews and the blood of Jesus Christ.

The New Testament closes the matter with one confession. There is one body, and one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all (Ephesians 4:4-6). That confession leaves no room for a second gospel.

Step 7: Application (From Meaning to Faithful Response)

The two-gospel teaching does real harm when it is pressed to its conclusion. It teaches believers to set aside the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospels as a message for someone else. It also sets Peter against Paul, though the Holy Ghost recorded them in full agreement.

I urge every child of God to read the words of Jesus Christ as words for you. The Gospel of John was written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through His name (John 20:31). That promise has never been withdrawn from anyone.

Different audiences never meant different gospels.

Glory to God, the Saviour of Israel is the Saviour of the world!

Scripture Index

Every passage cited in this study, listed in the order of the books of the Bible.

Preaching Notes

• Begin by stating the two-gospel teaching fairly, in the words its teachers use, so that no hearer can say it was misrepresented.
• Make Galatians 1:6-9 and Galatians 2:1-10 the centre of the message, because Galatians 2:7 is the main text the teaching relies on.
• Use Acts 15:11 as the turning point, because Peter there answers the question in his own words.
• Show that Paul preached the kingdom of God (Acts 20:25; 28:31), because this removes the claimed contrast between the kingdom and grace.
• Affirm Israel’s future from Romans 11, so that hearers do not mistake one gospel for replacement theology.
• If this study becomes a series, these parts divide naturally: the risen Christ’s commission, the words of Jesus to whosoever believeth, Peter’s witness in Acts 10 and 15, Galatians 1 and 2, the mystery of Ephesians 3, and Israel’s future in Romans 11.

Closing Statement

Scripture reveals one Saviour, Jesus Christ, whose death, burial, and resurrection are the saving foundation for Jews and Gentiles alike. Those who hold the two-gospel teaching must answer several plain questions from the text itself.

Why did the risen Jesus Christ send the twelve to teach all nations, if their gospel was for Israel alone (Matthew 28:19)?

Why did Peter say that Jews are saved through grace even as the Gentiles, if the two were saved in different ways (Acts 15:11)?

Why did the apostles to the circumcision add nothing to Paul’s gospel and give him the right hands of fellowship, if they preached another gospel (Galatians 2:6-9)?

Why did Paul write, so we preach, and so ye believed, if he and the other apostles preached different messages (1 Corinthians 15:11)?

These questions concern the identity of the Saviour, the sufficiency of His sacrifice, and the unity of the apostolic witness. My aim is to test this teaching by the Scriptures, as the Bereans did, and never to judge the salvation of any person.

Descriptive (verses 18, 19, and 21) and Prescriptive (verse 20)

The whole series is gathered in reading order at One Gospel for Jew and Gentile. This study goes with the three-part series on the same question: One Gospel for Jews and Gentiles, Part 1: The Scriptures, Part 2: The Argument, and Part 3: The Objections Answered. For the blood of Jesus Christ as the ground of the remission of sins, see The Book of Hebrews: Salvation Through Faith in Jesus Christ, His Shed Blood, and the Forgiveness of Sins. If you have questions about anything you have read here, we would be glad to hear from you.