The Glad Tidings

The Gospel to the Gentiles

“The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel beforehand unto Abraham.” This verse will bear much reading. An understanding of it will guard one against many errors. And it is not difficult to understand; simply hold to what it says, and you have it. GTI 105.1

(a) For one thing, the verse shows us that the Gospel was preached at least as early as the days of Abraham. GTI 105.2

(b) It was God Himself who preached it; therefore, it was the true and only Gospel. GTI 105.3

(c) It was the same Gospel that Paul preached; so that we have no other Gospel than that which Abraham had. GTI 105.4

(d) The Gospel differs in no particular now from what it was in Abraham’s day; for his day was the day of Christ. John 8:56. GTI 106.1

God requires just the same things now that He required then, and nothing more. GTI 106.2

Moreover, the Gospel was then preached to the Gentiles, for Abraham was a Gentile, or, in other words, a heathen. He was brought up as a heathen, for “Terah, the father of Abraham,” “served other gods” (Joshua 24:2), and was a heathen till the Gospel was preached to him. So the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles was no new thing in the days of Peter and Paul. The Jewish nation was taken out from among the heathen, and it is only by the preaching of the Gospel to the heathen that Israel is built up and saved. See Acts 15:14-18; Romans 11:25, 26. The very existence of the people Israel always was and still is a standing proof that God’s purpose is to save a people from among the Gentiles. It is in fulfillment of this purpose that Israel exists. GTI 106.3

Thus we see that the apostle takes the Galatians, and us, back to the fountain-head,—to the place where God Himself preaches the Gospel to us Gentiles. No Gentile can hope to be saved in any other way or by any other gospel than that by which Abraham was saved. GTI 106.4