Question
What is the saving message to the remnant during the time of Lord’s earthly ministry? Was it just by believing in Christ as their Messiah? Or by believing in the gospel of the kingdom? Or both?
And why did the Lord not want the apostles or evil spirits to let people know who He was?
Response
Regarding your second question “what was the message that got the remnant saved during the Lord’s earthly ministry? Was it just by believing in Christ as their Messiah? Or by believing in the gospel of the kingdom? Or both?”
I think the best way for me to answer this is to more or less quickly survey the overall doctrine regarding justification unto eternal life in God’s program with Israel. And then having done so, look at the issue particularly during the climactic stage in Israel’s program which was in effect when the Lord was in Israel.
First of all let me point out something that we need to keep in mind, especially when we are talking about things in Israel’s program. And this is that the terms “saved,” “salvation,” etc., often have much more involved in them than just the fundamental issue of justification unto eternal life, or salvation from the debt and penalty of one’s sins. (This is very important to understand and appreciate, for example, in the Gospel accounts and early Acts with the “gospel of the kingdom” being preached to Israel. The “gospel of the kingdom” proclaimed what I call a salvation package to Israel that involved much more than justification in God’s sight, or more than salvation from their sins. It included issues of physical salvation or deliverance as well, which were naturally necessary issues at that time with the prophesied Lord’s day of wrath being “at hand” along with the kingdom.) With this necessary distinction between justification unto eternal life (or salvation from the penalty of sin) and other kinds of salvation in mind, let me briefly go over the issue of how people were justified unto eternal life (or saved from the debt and penalty of their sins) in time past in God’s program with Israel.
Paul makes it clear in his doctrine to us that justification unto eternal life has always been, and can only be, by grace; and that faith has always been the only thing that God’s Justice could ever respond to for justification unto eternal life. This Paul sets forth, for example, in Romans 3:27-31 where, in connection with this he teaches us first the fact that because of the boasting nature of works they by necessity are judicially excluded when it comes to justification in God’s sight. God’s perfect Justice cannot accept them whatsoever. But then Paul continues on in Romans 4 citing both Abraham and David, and in so doing verifies from the Scriptures the fact that both before the Law and under it justification unto eternal life has been by grace through faith without works. From this, therefore, we know that people under the Law were justified unto eternal life by faith, just as Habakkuk 2:4 pronounced. As Paul declares, God can only count faith for righteousness; faith is the only thing God’s Justice can accept; hence, under the Law they were justified unto eternal life by faith too.
In Galatians 3:23–25, as Paul amplifies upon the doctrine of justification by grace through faith, he describes just how justification worked before “the faith of Jesus Christ” was revealed as it is for us in this present dispensation. And as Paul states in verse 24, those under the Law were still “justified by faith.” However, their faith was in what the “schoolmaster” of the Law declared. Yet it was still faith, and faith only, that God responded to for their justification in His sight. The Law did NOT school them in “the faith of Jesus Christ.” It did NOT, therefore, school them in the good news about Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection for their sins. For Christ not only had not come and died, but in accordance with the Law “shutting them up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed,” the clear issue about the cross work of Christ was not declared/preached to them. (This is also why even the 12 apostles did not understand the meaning of the Lord’s death when He told them about it, as recorded for example in Luke 18:31–34.) Instead the issue is that with the Law functioning as a “schoolmaster,” it schooled them in the very elementary issues of their sinner status, and in view of it their need for redemption because they could not justify themselves in God’s sight. It is this elementary or rudimentary truth that they were expected to believe from the Law’s function as a “schoolmaster.” And when they believed it. God counted their faith for righteousness. He justified them unto eternal life by faith.
Justification in God’s sight when the Lord was in Israel still occurred as it did prior to His arrival in the land. Justification took place when a Jew believed the counsel of God against him that declared his sinner status, that he could not justify himself, and that his only hope was in a Redeemer. (Which, by the way, is what the first mandate of the Davidic Covenant is all about regarding the doctrine of The Christ.) The Law schooled them in this as it functioned as the “schoolmaster” Paul says that it was, as has already been noted. It still did this when the Lord was here, but so also did “the gospel of the kingdom.” In fact “the gospel of the kingdom” first and foremost attacked the Pharisee doctrine of natural righteousness, declaring to the people of Israel the reality of the fact that they were a “generation of vipers.” And the “gospel of the kingdom” took that description of condemnation right from the Law and the Prophets; vipers being accursed and unclean creatures according to the Law. Therefore the “gospel of the kingdom” started off with the plain declaration of the counsel of God against Israel, declaring the Law’s condemnation of them. Hence, the “gospel of the kingdom” contained the Law’s “schoolmaster” function, and it contained it in a very blunt and ‘right-between-the-eyes’ type manner because of the urgency involved with the kingdom being “at hand.” So justification unto eternal life (or salvation from the debt and penalty of sin) proceeded on as normal under the Law, even when the Lord was in Israel.
The issue of a Jew at this time believing that Jesus was The Christ/Messiah needs to be understood and appreciated in connection with this, and for what that meant in view of what the Law, the Prophets, and the “gospel of the kingdom” was saying. To put it briefly: as Paul himself explained in Acts 19:4, when John the Baptist preached the “gospel of the kingdom” and preached the baptism of repentance to the people of Israel, he said “unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Therefore, believing “on Christ Jesus” was actually part of responding positively to what the “gospel of the kingdom” was saying. With Christ at that time being in the land, the “gospel of the kingdom” was able to also declare to the people that the Christ-Redeemer they needed was now there. So, naturally they believed on Him as such as part of believing the counsel of God against themselves. For this reason the Lord says what He does, for example, in John 6:47, when He declared; “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” In view of what the “gospel of the kingdom” was saying, believing on Him meant that an Israelite accepted the counsel of God against himself. He changed his mind about himself, believing God’s counsel, and God responded to his faith with justification unto everlasting life.
Keith Blades