Redemptive Kingdom Diversity by Jarvis J. Williams

Author:Jarvis J. Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biblical Theology;Ethnicity in the Bible;Ethnicity—Biblical teaching;Ethnicity—Religious aspects—Christianity;Cultural pluralism—Biblical teaching;Cultural pluralism—Religious aspects—Christianity;REL006080;REL006000
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2021-08-24T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

The four Gospels present Jesus as the promised Messiah, in whom all God’s redemptive promises to Adam, Abraham, Moses, the Jews, the gentiles, and the cosmos are fulfilled. Each Gospel has its own distinct message about Jesus and the formation of his people, but each Gospel likewise demonstrates that Jesus, an ethnic Jew, entered into this world as a Jew with a heritage that included gentiles in order to form a diverse ethnic community of Jews and gentiles into a transformed community living in faithful obedience to him and his teachings. I discussed selected aspects of Jesus’s mission in the four Gospels in order to highlight that the people of God are a people who must now place faith in Christ, the Jewish Messiah, who must live in obedience to Jesus, and who must take his messianic message to diverse Jews and to diverse gentiles in order to include them within this new messianic community. I also discussed texts that demonstrate that gentiles are the people of God the same way as Jews: by faith in and faithfulness to Jesus.

One of Matthew’s primary messages is that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah who has come to save both Jews and gentiles from their sins (1:21; 28:16–20). Matthew teaches that this Jewish Messiah forms a new community no longer distinguished by Torah observance, but rather by faithful obedience to Jesus, who is the personification of Torah and who fulfills Torah (5:17–20). The people of God are not the self-righteous, hypocritical Jewish experts in the law, who are from the physical seed of Abraham and who perform the external deeds of the law, but who do not honor God with their hearts, because they reject Jesus. Rather, the people of God are humble citizens within Jesus’s new community who follow him from all walks of life with a childlike faith.

The Gospel of Mark overlaps with the Gospel of Matthew in that both emphasize that Jesus is the Christ and fulfills the Old Testament Scriptures. Mark places a particular emphasis on Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God (1:1), and the Son of Man, who came to save his people by dying for their sins (10:45). Mark also emphasizes urgent discipleship, the need for all to take up their cross and follow Jesus (8:34–38). In this section, I focused on Mark’s presentation that the people of God are those who, as a matter of discipleship, have faith in and show loyalty to Jesus as God’s authoritative Son, who is the Christ and the Son of Man.

The Gospel of Luke emphasizes that Jesus is the savior of the world. Luke writes his account of Jesus’s life to Theophilus to prove to him that everything he had been taught about Jesus is true (1:1–4). Luke demonstrates this truth by showing how Jesus came to save all people, honorable Jews and gentiles and marginalized Jews and gentiles: the rich, the poor, the sick, the healthy, the religious, men, women, and the spiritually sick. There are many

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