The Offering of the Gentiles

Scandal recently touched the priests of the Roman Catholic Church. Some were accused of molesting boys. The news media, learning that Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston had transferred some offenders to other dioceses, brought the charge of cover-up. Round-table discussions were televised with Richard McBrien of Notre Dame; Gustav Niebuhr, who spoke of the bishops’ meeting in June; Ray Flynn, U.S. ambassador to the Vatican; and others. Letters to the editor demanded that offending priests be deposed or suspended until counseling had proved effective. Only the resignation of the cardinal could satisfy many of the Catholic laity.

American Catholicism has long raised the question of celibacy, but fundamentalists seem to have taken the lead in answering the deeper question. What does the New Testament say about priesthood under the new covenant?

Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Knox taught the priesthood of all believers. The church is neither a priestly institute nor a democracy. It is a kingdom: a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. Authority in matters of faith does not rest with the will of the people or with a priestly hierarchy, but with Jesus Christ, the true High Priest, who rules His church by His Word and Spirit. However, Jesus did choose apostles to bear witness to His words and deeds, and particularly to His resurrection and ascension. Jesus spoke His Great Commission to the eleven apostles. They were given a double task: to be foundation stones for the church Christ would build, and to be missionaries, carrying the Gospel to the world.

The Roman Catholic Church claims that the apostleship of Peter was continued by his successors, and is now the authority of the pope in Rome. Yet the figure of foundation does not describe an ongoing roadway, but an edifice, the spiritual temple built by Christ on the apostolic witness. Jesus revealed His Word to His apostles, and to other inspired men who also were chosen to receive it.

Paul was an apostle born out of due time. Jesus, well after His resurrection and His ascension to the throne of His Father, appeared in a vision to Saul of Tarsus, the arch-persecutor, to claim him as apostle to the Gentiles. Paul always knew that he had not chosen Christ. Christ had chosen His furious enemy to make him His servant. On the one hand, Paul confessed that he was the least of all the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle because he had persecuted the church of God. On the other hand, Paul could say, “I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Cor. 15:10b).

Paul well understood that Christ’s salvation was for the nations. He writes that “Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: ‘For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles, and sing to Your name’ ” (Rom. 15:8–9).

The sense of this passage is not that Jesus became a servant of the Jews, as some have taken it, but that Jesus fulfilled the calling of the true Israel. His ministry fulfilled the prophetic promise that through the seed of Abraham the nations would be blessed.

Paul uses an arresting figure to describe his calling as the apostle to the Gentiles. God gave him grace to be a minister of Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of God, “that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:16b).

Paul speaks of himself in a priestly role, as though he were offering a sacrifice. The offering he brings, however, is made up of Gentiles whom he has brought to Christ through the preaching of the Gospel. He has worked miracles as the sign of his calling, and in the power of the Spirit he has preached the Gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum—almost to Italy. He writes to the Romans, expecting to see those to whom his letter is addressed.

Pharisees like Paul would not have spoken about offering up Gentiles to God. These Gentiles, however, have obeyed God, and Paul knows that they are now an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. We take for granted the conversion of the Gentiles, and miss the shock of Paul’s words, spoken by a Pharisee who had lived in strict separation from the unclean Gentiles.

In his doxology at the end of his letter to Rome, Paul worships God for the marvel of His eternal plan. Paul constantly studied the Old Testament Scriptures that promised what God would do in the “latter days.” That mystery, kept secret ever since the world began, had finally been revealed. God promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would share in his blessing. That blessing came to the nations through the descendent of Abraham, none other than Jesus, the Son of God. Paul preaches the Gospel to the nations, for God has revealed that His promise is for them.

Paul worships as he realizes the place the Lord gave him to be the apostle to the Gentiles. By grace alone, Paul has been given the calling to unfold God’s mystery. Paul, who was once caught up to the third heaven, is Christ’s apostle to the nations. He yearns to reach Rome, and to carry the Gospel to Spain, the western limit of the then known world.

To understand the apostle’s vision, we need to rejoice in the mystery that thrilled Paul’s heart and drove his mission. The Spirit of Jesus opens our eyes and leads our feet—to the manger of the Lord.