…and saying, "Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." Acts 14:15-17

From the time God created Adam and Eve until His giving of His law, people in general were allowed to “walk in their own ways.” This doesn’t mean that God was not in sovereign control of all things. It means that He sovereignly allowed people the freedom to continue in sin with only a limited understanding of Him and of His ways. God then gave His law, which provided great detail about what God expected. God gave His Law to Israel. Israel was to be a light to the Gentile “nations,” which in general Israel did not do.

From that time until the coming of Christ, God continued to allow the Gentile “nations” to “walk in their own ways.” But through all of time, God, through nature, gave all people enough light to know there is a God and that they are accountable to Him (Romans 1:20). Virtually all of Gentile humanity rejected the light by which God revealed Himself, and continued in rebellion, “suppressing [rejecting] the truth in unrighteousness.”

The good news is that when Christ came, the message of the gospel has been to all people, both Jews who had the Law and Gentiles who only had the limited revelation of God in nature (Romans 1-2).

All people (Jew and Gentile ) stand condemned by their sin. The only hope of any people (Jew or Gentile) is forgiveness, which is only in Christ Jesus.

Why Jesus? How does one receive forgiveness? What is the responsibility of those who are saved? Stay tuned.