One Way of Salvation for Jews and Gentiles:
The New Testament Witness

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

The New Testament Scriptures that refute the doctrine of two different ways of salvation for Jews and Gentiles

The New Testament consistently teaches one way of salvation, in which the same Lord Jesus Christ saves both Jews and Gentiles by the grace of God through faith in Him, on the foundation of His death, burial, and resurrection.

Scripture never establishes one saving gospel for Jews and another for Gentiles. The apostles received different missionary assignments, preached to different audiences, and ministered in different historical circumstances, yet none of these differences creates a different way of salvation. The following Scriptures demonstrate this truth when we examine them in their proper context.

The Clearest Scriptures for One Salvation

These passages address the question most directly, because each one places Jew and Gentile under the same Saviour, the same grace of God, and the same faith in Jesus Christ.

• Acts 10:34-35. Peter declares that “God is no respecter of persons.”
• Acts 10:43. “Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins” through His name.
• Acts 10:44-48. The Holy Ghost fell on the Gentiles who heard the word, before they were baptized in water.
• Acts 11:15-18. The church at Jerusalem confessed that God had “granted repentance unto life” to the Gentiles.
• Acts 15:7-9. God “put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.”
• Acts 15:10-11. Peter states that Jews are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ “even as” the Gentiles.
• Romans 1:16-17. The gospel “is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”
• Romans 3:21-26. The righteousness of God comes “by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.”
• Romans 3:28-30. One God justifies the circumcision and the uncircumcision by faith in Jesus Christ.
• Romans 10:9-13. “There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.”
• Galatians 2:15-16. Even Jews by nature are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, “and not by the works of the law.”
• Galatians 3:7-9. Those who believe are “the children of Abraham,” and God would “justify the heathen through faith.”
• Galatians 3:26-29. All believers are “the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus,” and “there is neither Jew nor Greek.”
• Ephesians 2:8-10. “By grace are ye saved through faith,” and “not of works.”
• Ephesians 2:11-18. Christ “hath broken down the middle wall of partition.” He made both nigh by His blood and reconciled both unto God in one body by the cross. Through Him both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
• Ephesians 3:4-6. The Gentiles are “fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.”
• 1 Corinthians 12:12-13. Jews and Gentiles are all baptized by one Spirit into one body.
• Colossians 3:9-11. In the new man “there is neither Greek nor Jew,” for “Christ is all, and in all.”

Descriptive

The Universal Invitation and Great Commission of Jesus Christ

The Lord Jesus Christ did not wait for a later apostle to open the door of salvation to the nations, because His own teaching and His Great Commission already extended the invitation to the whole world.

• Matthew 8:5-13. Jesus praised the faith of a Gentile centurion and said that “many shall come from the east and west” to sit down in the kingdom.
• Matthew 12:18-21. Of God’s chosen Servant it is written, “in his name shall the Gentiles trust.”
• Matthew 24:14. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations.”
• Matthew 28:18-20. The risen Christ commanded His apostles to “teach all nations.” This commission sets the worldwide scope of their mission.
• Mark 13:10. “The gospel must first be published among all nations.”
• Mark 16:15-16. The Lord sends His disciples into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature. Some question the place of Mark 16:9-20 in the text, so this argument does not rest on that passage.
• Luke 2:29-32. Simeon called the child Jesus God’s salvation, “A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.”
• Luke 3:4-6. “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
• Luke 13:28-30. People “shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south” into the kingdom of God.
• Luke 24:46-47. The risen Christ commanded that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
• John 1:12-13. As many as received Him were given “power to become the sons of God.”
• John 3:14-18. “Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
• John 3:36. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”
• John 4:39-42. The Samaritans confessed that Jesus is “the Saviour of the world.”
• John 5:24. The one who hears Christ’s word and believes on the Father who sent Him “hath everlasting life.”
• John 6:35-40. Christ promises everlasting life to every one who comes to Him and believes on Him.
• John 6:47. “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”
• John 7:37-39. Believing on Christ is joined to receiving the Holy Ghost.
• John 10:14-16. Christ has other sheep, and “there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”
• John 11:25-26. Christ is “the resurrection, and the life” for every one who believes in Him.
• John 12:20-24 and 12:32. Greeks come seeking Jesus as His death draws near, and He promises to “draw all men unto me.”
• John 17:20-23. Jesus prayed for the unity of all who would believe on Him through the apostles’ word.
• John 20:30-31. These things are written “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

Jesus Taught Jewish Hearers That Believing on Him Brings Everlasting Life

Some teachers claim that Jesus Christ never taught His Jewish hearers that believing on Him brings everlasting life, and that this message waited for the apostle Paul. The Gospels record the opposite, because Jesus Christ taught a ruler of the Jews and His Jewish opponents in Jerusalem that believing on Him brings everlasting life, and He forgave a sinner at a Pharisee’s table through faith in Him.

Nicodemus, a Master of Israel (John 3:1-18)

Nicodemus was “a man of the Pharisees” and “a ruler of the Jews” (John 3:1), and Jesus Christ called him “a master of Israel” (John 3:10). Jesus Christ did not offer this Jewish teacher a separate way of life for Israel. Jesus Christ told Nicodemus that he must be born again, and Jesus Christ named believing on the Son of God as the way everlasting life is received.

Descriptive

John 3:18 adds that “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” The words “the world” and “whosoever” also reach beyond Israel, so the same promise that Jesus Christ spoke to a Jewish teacher stands open to every nation.

Jewish Opponents in Jerusalem (John 5:16-24)

Jesus Christ spoke John 5:24 to the Jews who “sought the more to kill him” because He was “making himself equal with God” (John 5:18). To these Jewish hearers Jesus Christ declared that the one who believes has everlasting life now, shall not come into condemnation, and is passed from death unto life.

Descriptive

A Forgiven Woman at a Pharisee’s Table (Luke 7:36-50)

In the house of Simon the Pharisee, Jesus Christ told a woman who was a sinner, “Thy sins are forgiven” (Luke 7:48). Unlike the healing accounts, this passage concerns the forgiveness of sins rather than the restoring of the body. Luke does not name the woman’s nationality, so I do not offer her as proof about Jewish hearers, yet the passage still shows that Jesus Christ joined forgiveness to faith in Him during His earthly ministry.

Descriptive

The Book of Acts Shows the Spread of One Saving Message

The book of Acts records the gospel advancing from Jerusalem into the Gentile world, and the saving message remains identical even as the audience changes from synagogue to marketplace.

• Acts 1:8. Christ sent His witnesses to Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and “unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
• Acts 2:21. “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
• Acts 2:38-39. Peter commanded repentance and baptism, and the promise reached “all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
• Acts 3:19-26. Repentance, the work of Christ, and the promise to Abraham are joined: “in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.”
• Acts 4:10-12. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
• Acts 8:5-17. Philip preached Christ to the Samaritans, and they received the word of God.
• Acts 8:26-39. The Ethiopian heard Jesus preached from Isaiah 53 and was baptized.
• Acts 10:34-48. Peter preached remission of sins through faith in Jesus Christ to Gentiles, who then received the Holy Ghost before water baptism.
• Acts 11:17-18. God gave the Gentiles “the like gift” and “granted repentance unto life.”
• Acts 11:19-21. The gospel spread past its first Jewish hearers, and “a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.”
• Acts 13:26-39. Paul preached remission of sins and justification through Christ in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia.
• Acts 13:46-48. Paul turned to the Gentiles, and “as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.”
• Acts 14:1-3. “A great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.”
• Acts 15:1-11. Some taught that Gentiles must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to be saved. Peter rejected that demand and affirmed salvation through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Acts 15:12-19. Barnabas, Paul, and James confirmed what God had wrought among the Gentiles.
• Acts 16:30-34. The Philippian jailer asked how to be saved, and Paul answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
• Acts 17:2-4. Paul reasoned from the Scriptures that Christ must suffer and rise again, and both Jews and devout Greeks believed.
• Acts 17:30-31. God “commandeth all men every where to repent,” because He has appointed a day of judgment by the risen Christ.
• Acts 18:4-8. Paul persuaded Jews and Greeks that Jesus was Christ, and “Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house.”
• Acts 19:8-10. “All they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.”
• Acts 20:20-21. Paul testified “both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”
• Acts 26:19-23. Paul preached to Jew and Gentile alike that they should repent, and that Christ should suffer and rise from the dead.
• Acts 28:23-28. Paul persuaded the Jews concerning Jesus from the Scriptures and declared that “the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles.”

Paul’s Teaching on One Gospel and Justification by Faith in Christ

The apostle to the Gentiles never preached a gospel that excluded Israel. His epistles consistently place Jew and Gentile under the same condemnation of sin, the same Saviour, and the same justification by faith in Jesus Christ.

• Romans 2:9-11. God judges the Jew first and also the Gentile, “For there is no respect of persons with God.”
• Romans 3:9-12. “Both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.”
• Romans 3:22-24. “All have sinned,” and believers are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
• Romans 3:29-30. God is the God of the Jews and of the Gentiles also, and He justifies both by faith in Jesus Christ.
• Romans 4:1-12. Abraham’s faith “was counted unto him for righteousness” before he was circumcised. He is the father of all who believe, both circumcised and uncircumcised.
• Romans 4:16-25. The promise is “of faith, that it might be by grace.”
• Romans 5:1-11. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
• Romans 9:22-26. God shows mercy to vessels He has called, “not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.”
• Romans 9:30-33. The Gentiles attained “the righteousness which is of faith,” while Israel sought it “as it were by the works of the law.”
• Romans 10:1-4. “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”
• Romans 10:9-13. Salvation comes to every one who believes in Christ and calls upon the Lord.
• Romans 11:5-6. God has “a remnant according to the election of grace,” and “if by grace, then is it no more of works.”
• Romans 11:17-24. One olive tree holds both the natural and the grafted branches, which stand by faith in Christ or fall by unbelief.
• Romans 11:25-32. God keeps His purposes for Israel and shows mercy to both Jews and Gentiles.
• Romans 15:7-12. Christ confirmed the promises made unto the fathers, “And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.”
• Romans 16:25-26. The gospel is “made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.”
• 1 Corinthians 1:18-24. Christ crucified is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” to them which are called, “both Jews and Greeks.”
• 1 Corinthians 1:30-31. Christ “is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”
• 1 Corinthians 2:1-5. Paul determined “not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”
• 1 Corinthians 12:13. “By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles.”
• 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. Paul defines the gospel he preached: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
• 1 Corinthians 15:9-11. Paul declares his agreement with the other apostles on that gospel. In verse 11 he states that whether he or they preached, the message was the same.
• 2 Corinthians 5:14-21. God reconciles men to Himself by Jesus Christ and commits to believers “the word of reconciliation.”
• Galatians 1:6-9. Paul warns against “another gospel,” which is not another.
• Galatians 2:7-10. Peter and Paul received different fields of labour. The gospel of the circumcision was committed unto Peter, and the gospel of the uncircumcision unto Paul. The passage describes apostolic assignments, and it does not set up two different ways of salvation.
• Galatians 2:11-16. Paul rebuked Peter’s withdrawal from Gentile believers and restated justification by faith in Jesus Christ, not by the works of the law.
• Galatians 3:2-5. The Spirit is received “by the hearing of faith,” not by the works of the law.
• Galatians 3:6-14. Abraham believed God, and “the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.”
• Galatians 3:22-29. The promise is given “by faith of Jesus Christ” to them that believe, and all are “one in Christ Jesus.”
• Galatians 5:5-6. “Neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.”
• Galatians 6:14-16. Paul glories only in the cross, and what matters is “a new creature,” not circumcision.
• Ephesians 1:7. “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
• Ephesians 1:12-14. Those who heard the gospel and believed were “sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.”
• Ephesians 2:13-18. Christ reconciled Jews and Gentiles unto God in one body by the cross, and both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
• Ephesians 3:6-8. The Gentiles are “fellowheirs, and of the same body” by the gospel.
• Ephesians 4:4-6. “One body, and one Spirit,” “one hope,” “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all.”
• Philippians 3:3-9. Righteousness is “through the faith of Christ,” not through Jewish birth, circumcision, or the law of Moses.
• Colossians 1:19-23. Christ made “peace through the blood of his cross” and reconciles us in the hope of the gospel.
• Colossians 2:11-13. The circumcision made without hands, union with Christ, rising with Him “through the faith of the operation of God,” and the forgiveness of all trespasses belong together.
• Colossians 3:11. “Christ is all, and in all,” whether Greek or Jew.
• 1 Timothy 1:15-16. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and Paul is “a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him.”
• 1 Timothy 2:3-6. “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all.”
• 1 Timothy 4:10. God “is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.”
• 2 Timothy 1:9-10. God saved us “according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus.”
• Titus 2:11-14. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.” Christ gave Himself to redeem “a peculiar people.”
• Titus 3:4-7. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.”

Descriptive

Additional New Testament Scriptures for One Salvation in Christ

• Hebrews 2:9-18. Jesus tasted death for every man, “in bringing many sons unto glory.”
• Hebrews 7:23-27. Christ “is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.”
• Hebrews 9:11-15. “By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
• Hebrews 10:10-22. “The offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” cleanses and gives “boldness to enter into the holiest.”
• Hebrews 11:6-19. “Without faith it is impossible to please him,” and Abraham stands as an example of that faith.
• 1 Peter 1:18-21. We are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ,” so that our “faith and hope might be in God.”
• 1 Peter 2:4-10. Believers are “built up a spiritual house” and are now “the people of God.”
• 1 Peter 3:18. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”
• 2 Peter 3:15-16. Peter speaks of Paul’s letters “according to the wisdom given unto him” and counts them with “the other scriptures.” The passage does not state that Peter and Paul preached the same gospel, and it does not set up separate saving gospels either.
• 1 John 2:1-2. Jesus Christ the righteous is our Advocate and “the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
• 1 John 4:9-15. “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God dwells in God.
• 1 John 5:11-13. Eternal life is in God’s Son, so “that ye may know that ye have eternal life.”
• Revelation 5:9-10. The Lamb has “redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.”
• Revelation 7:9-14. A great multitude “of all nations” stands before the throne, having “washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
• Revelation 14:6-7. An angel preaches “the everlasting gospel” to “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.”
• Revelation 21:22-27. “The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it.”
• Revelation 22:17. “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

The Five Strongest Biblical Arguments Against Two Saving Gospels

1. Acts 15:11. Peter explicitly states that Jews are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ “even as” the Gentiles. The Jerusalem council assembled to determine what is required for Gentile salvation, and Peter’s declaration establishes that the means of salvation is identical for both.

2. Romans 3:29-30. Paul declares that one God justifies both the circumcised Jew and the uncircumcised Gentile by faith in Jesus Christ, so the passage identifies one divine justification for both groups.

3. Ephesians 2:13-18. Christ broke down the middle wall of partition and made “of twain one new man.” He reconciled both unto God in one body by the cross, and both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Christ did not establish two separate bodies with two separate means of reconciliation.

4. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. Paul defines the gospel as the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and he then affirms that the other apostles preached the same message. This testimony weighs decisively against any claim that Peter and Paul proclaimed different saving gospels.

5. Galatians 1:6-9. Paul pronounces a curse on any other gospel. Although the immediate context concerns the perversion of the gospel among the Galatian churches, the passage demonstrates how seriously Paul defended the integrity of the one gospel message.

Descriptive

The Final Biblical Conclusion

There is an essential distinction between different apostolic assignments and different ways of salvation. Galatians 2:7-9 identifies Peter’s primary ministry among the circumcision and Paul’s primary ministry among the Gentiles, but it does not follow that the apostles proclaimed two different saving messages.

Matthew 28:18-20 and Luke 24:46-47 establish Christ’s worldwide commission, while Acts 10:43, Acts 15:8-11, Romans 3:29-30, Romans 10:9-13, Galatians 3:26-29, Ephesians 2:13-18, and 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 establish the unity of salvation through Jesus Christ.

The New Testament does not require us to deny God’s continuing covenant promises to Israel in order to affirm the unity of salvation. Romans 11:1-2 declares, “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew,” while Romans 11:20-23 emphasizes the necessity of faith in Christ and warns against unbelief.

Jewish identity does not remove the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ, and Gentile identity does not require a different Saviour or a different means of justification.

Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of God’s redemptive promises, and His sacrificial death and resurrection are the foundation of salvation for every one who believes in Him.

My Final Question to Those Who Teach Two Saving Gospels

Descriptive

I encourage every reader to examine these Scriptures personally, weighing their context and comparing Scripture with Scripture, as the Bereans demonstrated in Acts 17:11 and as 2 Timothy 2:15 commands.

My confidence is not in a theological label, a religious tradition, or a denominational system; my confidence is in the written Word of God.

Scripture must establish our doctrine, and we must never allow our doctrine to dictate what Scripture can say. The whole counsel of God must remain our final authority, as Paul said, “I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).

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

This study belongs with the full series gathered at One Gospel for Jew and Gentile. For a fuller answer to the two-gospel teaching, read One Saviour. One Saving Sacrifice. One Gospel. If you have questions about anything you have read here, we would be glad to hear from you.