Albert N. Martin

All of the major categories of concern in the biblical gospel are predicated upon some fundamental realities pertaining to God Himself. Where those realities are unknown or disbelieved, the gospel cannot be understood or savingly embraced.

For example, if you’ll turn with me to the 17th chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles you will notice that in this chapter we have a summary of Paul’s ordinary evangelistic endeavors in the opening verses of Acts 17. “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews; and Paul, as his custom was.” Here’s the key phrase. This was his ordinary pattern of evangelistic endeavor. “Went in unto them, [that is, those who gathered in the Jewish synagogues], and for three sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures, opening and alleging that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom, said he, ‘I proclaim unto you, is the Christ.’”

Now here, in these settings, Paul would go into the synagogue and move immediately to what we would call “the front and center issues of the gospel.” Namely demonstrating that: Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ of God, and that the Christ of God had to suffer and be raised from the dead to procure the salvation of men, and that this Jesus—who did indeed suffer and die and was raised from the dead—was God’s anointed Messiah, in whom alone salvation was to be found.

You see, in the synagogue he could assume a faith in the revelation of the Old Testament Scriptures. The Scriptures that begin with the statement, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” An Old Testament body of revelation. That is, it’s a fuse that oozes with the supernaturalism of the God who is; the God who could speak worlds into being; the God who holds man, the creature, accountable to Him for his actions. That God says to Adam, “Of all the trees you may freely eat, but of the tree that is in the midst of the garden you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it thereof ye shall surely die.” He is the God who brings judgement upon man as a sinner; the God who hates sin and who sends hell out of heaven upon the cities of the Plain for their crass and shameful abandonment to sensuality, bestiality, and homosexuality.

A Jew understood this from the revelation of God’s sacrificial system given to Moses and the establishment of the priesthood. They understood that God was holy and God could only be approached in terms of an innocent victim having its life drained from it, its blood shed and offered up before God. So, in the synagogue setting Paul could assume the fundamental tenets of what we call ‘biblical theism.’ That is: the Bible’s teaching that Almighty God is our Creator, Almighty God is our Lawgiver, and Almighty God is our Judge.

In this very chapter of Acts we note further on in the chapter that some of the pagan philosophers overhear the Apostles speaking of these central issues of the gospel. Verse 5, “But the Jews, being moved with jealousy, took unto them certain vile fellows of the rabble, gathering a crowd, set the city on an uproar.” Then we read in verse 10, “ And the brethren sent Paul and Silas unto Berea; who when they were come thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.” Result? Verse 12, “Many of them therefore believed; also of the Greek women of honorable estate, and of men, not a few.” You see his pattern? They went into the synagogue, and here are devout people, people who have embraced the Old Testament revelation concerning God.

We read in verse 16, “While Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he beheld the city full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with them that met him. And certain also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, ‘What would this babbler say?’ Others, ‘He seems to be a setter forth of strange gods.’” Why? “Because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.”

When they heard this they said, “He’s setting forth a strange God: a God who dies and is raised from the dead. We’ve not heard of any such gods amongst all our gods! We have not heard of such a strange God who dies and rises from the dead.” So, what do they do? “They took hold of him, and brought him unto the Areopagus, saying, ‘May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by you?’” “We’ve heard you speak about Jesus and the resurrection. You seem to be a setter forth of strange gods. Tell us more about Jesus and the resurrection!”

Verse 20, “For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (Now all the Athenians and the strangers sojourning there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.) And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, and said—.” Now, this is very crucial. I’ve read the whole passage so you get the flow of thought. They hear him speaking of Jesus and the resurrection, they say, “He seems to be the setter forth of strange gods. Tell us more about these things: Jesus and the resurrection.” Here are people who want to hear some preaching about salvation and a crucified, risen Christ!

What did Paul give them? “‘Ye men of Athens, in all things, I perceive that ye are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed your objects of worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’” Here they had an altar to this god and to that god and to the other, and just in case they missed one they had an altar to an unknown god. “What therefore ye worship in ignorance, this I set forth unto you.”

“God loves you, and Jesus died for you, and He rose from the dead. Believe and you will be saved!” No. He didn’t start with, “God loves you. Christ died for you.” Where did he start? He said, “What therefore ye worship in ignorance, this I set forth unto you.” “You’ve asked me to tell you about Jesus and the resurrection, but you will not have the stuff to make sense of Jesus and the resurrection until you have the stuff of who God is!”

So, he starts out, “The God that made the world and all things therein.” He starts with creation. He doesn’t prove the existence of God. He affirms it. He asserts it, and says, “The God who is is the creator of heaven and earth. Furthermore, He rules what He made, being Lord of heaven and earth.” God is Creator. God is sovereign over His Creation. Dwells not in temples made with hands. He is spiritual in His being. He is immense. He fills heaven and earth. There is no temple or earthly sanctuary that can contain Him.

Verse 25, “Neither is he served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything.” This is what the old theologians call ‘the aseity of God.’ God needs nothing that His creatures can give to Him. The notion that God is lonely and brokenhearted, so that’s why He made man, and now He is doubly lonely and brokenhearted, because man has turned away from Him is nonsense! That’s blasphemy! God was perfectly self-contained in the glory of His inner trinitarian being from all eternity, delighted with Himself, totally fulfilled in Himself. He needs nothing from man the creature!

He says, “Seeing he himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” He’s not a deity who started the world and then left it! He continues, by His imminent, providential care, to give to all life and breath and all things. Paul goes on to speak of this God as the Lord of the nations who has sovereignly disposed and determined the very boundaries of the nations, who has made Himself accessible to men.

He concludes in verse 30 by saying that this God, “Commands that all men everywhere should repent; inasmuch as he’s appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness.” Now, here is his first mention of Christ: “By the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”

You see what he’s saying? “Until you Athenians come to grips with the basic, fundamental doctrine of God, who He is, and what you as creatures are in relationship to Him as Creator, Governor, and Judge before whom you will stand in the last day, anything I tell you about Jesus and the resurrection at best will be a fascinating philosophy, and at worst you will reject it as downright foolishness.”

Until we take seriously the message of the Bible about God as our Creator, as the sovereign Ruler of His world, as the Lawgiver who has bound us by His holy Law saying, “Thou shalt and thou shalt not,” and who will in the last day bring us into judgement, judging us by the man who He has ordained, even the God-man Christ Jesus, whose resurrection is a witness in validation that he will judge the world—until those issues have become established in the heart and mind of a man or woman, boy or girl, they will make no sense of Jesus and the resurrection.

Bible Reference: Acts 17

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