Faith - To All.

 EJ Waggoner-

Saved by Faith. 

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes. 

"By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." Eph. 2:8. 

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Mark 16:16. 

"As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." John 1:12. 

"With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Rom. 10:10.  

"This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." John 6:29. 

*

Faith works.

Time would fail to tell of those "who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, . . . out of weakness were made strong," etc. Heb. 11:33, 34. 

Men may say, "I can not see how it is possible for one to be made righteous simply by believing." It makes no difference what you can see; you are not saved by sight, but by faith. You do not need to see how it is done, because it is the Lord who does the work of saving. Christ dwells in the heart by faith (Eph. 3:17), and because he is our righteousness, "he also is become my salvation" (Isa. 12:2). We shall have salvation by faith illustrated more fully as we proceed in our study,  because the book of Romans is devoted wholly to this one thing.

*

"To the Jew First."

When Peter, at the request of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and the command of the Lord,  went to Caesarea to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, his first words when he heard the story of Cornelius were,  "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." Acts 10:34, 35.

This was the first time that Peter had ever perceived that truth, but it was not the first time that that thing was true. It had been a truth as long as God had existed. God never chose anybody to the exclusion of anybody else.  The wisdom that comes from above is "without partiality." James 3:17.

 It is true that the Jews as a nation were wonderfully favored by the Lord: but they lost all their privileges simply because they assumed that God loved them better than he did anybody else, and were exclusive. All through their history God was trying to make them see that what he offered them was for the whole world, and that they were to pass on to others the light and privileges which they shared.

The cases of Naaman, the Syrian, and of the Ninevites to whom Jonah was sent, are among the many instances by which God sought to show the Jews that he was no respecter of persons.

Then why was the gospel preached "to the Jew first"? Simply because the Jews were nearest. Christ was crucified at Jerusalem. It was from there that he commissioned his disciples to preach the gospel. At his ascension he said, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts 1:8. It was most natural that they should begin to preach the gospel in the place and to the people nearest them. This is the secret of all missionary work. He who does not labor in the gospel in his home, will not do any gospel work although he goes to a foreign country.