A Gentile Speaks by Uriah Smith

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 26, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 25.

A Gentile Speaks.

By Uriah Smith

A LETTER has recently been received, in which the writer said, “Show me where a Gentile is commanded to keep the Sabbath, and I will keep it.” Our friend thus puts himself down as a Gentile; he claims the title, and he wants a command addressed to that class as such, as he evidently intends to remain a Gentile.

We have to inform him that if he persists in remaining a Gentile, it will make very little difference with him whether he keeps the Sabbath or not. Paul describes his condition in Eph. 2:11, 12: “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel; and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”

If you are a Gentile, such is your condition; and without Christ, without God in the world, and having no hope, what matters it whether you keep the Sabbath or not? The first thing for you to do is to get out of this condition, and that speedily. Leave your Gentile citizenship, and join yourself to the “commonwealth of Israel;” become an “Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile,” John 1:47, a “Jew inwardly,” Rom. 2:29, a child “of promise” “counted for the seed,” Rom. 9:7, 8, a member of the body of Christ, and so “Abraham's seed” and an “heir according to the promise,” Gal. 3:29, an ingrafted branch into the stock of the tame olive, Rom. 11:17-24. Then you will be no longer a Gentile, but a member of the commonwealth of Israel.

Coming to this position, you will be no longer at a loss for a commandment for the Sabbath; and more than that, you will be at no loss for a disposition to keep it; for the carnal mind, which is not subject to the law, will have given place to the spiritual mind, which delights in it, and you will esteem the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord and honorable.

But to return, the quotation given above reveals the radical misapprehension that exists in many minds. Why should any one take so superficial a view of this subject as to suppose that because God, for the time being, made the descendants of Abraham the depositaries of his law, it thereby became the property of that people alone, binding upon no one else? We might with more propriety say that God was their God alone; for he styles himself “the God of Israel,” and says that he brought them out of Egypt “to be their God;” but he never says that he gave them the law to be their law.

With just as much consistency one might say, “Show me where a Gentile is commanded not to steal, and I will not steal.” The command for this and for the Sabbath also, is found in the decalogue, binding on all the world, whatever their name or nation. See also the promise to the sons of the stranger, in the last days, who will keep the Sabbath, Isa. 56:6. But they must “join themselves unto the Lord,” to become partakers of the promises. This is the testimony of the Scriptures everywhere. If a man would have Christ and God, and a good hope, and a share in the promises, he must cease to be a Gentile, and join himself to Israel. U. S.