Did Jesus die only for Israel?

There are certain scriptures in the Bible that seem to indicate that Jesus Christ only died for the sins of Israel. Let us see if that is indeed true or false.


This verse indicates that Jesus only died for Israel and only for those who committed sins under the old covenant.


The Psalmist says that God only revealed His laws to Israel.


We know that the Laws of Israel told them not to murder or commit adultery. But let’s ask this question: virtually every country in the world knows that such things are wrong. How did they know that? Didn’t God only command those laws to Israel? But it seems that these laws are in the hearts of people from all nations.

If God did not give any laws to other nations, then why on earth did God judge other nations on many occasions?

He judged Sodom because of their sins as described here:


How could they sin against the Lord when He never gave them any laws? Their sins were great before Lot the righteous man lived there!


God also judged the world of Noah before Abraham even existed! It was because of their sins and great violence. If people were killing each other, why did God judge their sins if there was no commandment to not murder? Note that this was before any Law was given to Israel!

Genesis 6 “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.”….11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.”


Note how Peter calls the people who were flooded as “ungodly” and the people of Sodom as “lawless”. If God never gave laws to the nations, then He would be unjust in judging them! But He did judge them and called them depraved, ungodly and lawless! This is clear evidence that they knew what they were doing was wrong.

Look at more evidence of God’s judgment on Gentiles before the Law came.



So clearly God did judge the pagans for their sins even before any Law was given to Israel.

What about after the Law was given to Israel? Ezekiel the prophet said that Israel sinned more than other nations. This means that other nations did sin against God but less compared to Israel. Therefore God did judge the other nations outside the Law of Israel.


What standard did God use to judge other nations if He did not explicitly give them laws. Paul clearly said that the Gentiles who are NOT UNDER the LAW of MOSES will also be judged according to the law in their hearts.


Every nation has moral laws that they follow. Where did they get it from? God did not send them written laws but it was found in their conscience after Adam ate from the tree of knowledge of good & evil. Adam’s sin resulted in him knowing his own nakedness. In every society and nation, we have moral laws that convict us of guilt if we do wrong.

Some teachings say that Law was only given to Israel but not the Gentiles. But the same people say that the Gentiles in Romans 2 who are not under the law are also guilty but not the nations of the world! That is hugely contradictory and inconsistent.

The logic of such a teaching is this: they say that all nations outside Israel are innocent because they didn’t have the law. Now let’s assume a scenario: A person got circumcised and was under the Law. Let’s say that this person became uncircumcised. Now according to the teaching, this person is not under the Law anymore! Therefore shouldn’t that person now be innocent and equivalent to a person who was never circumcised? It’s because both people are not under the Law and its judgment. But the same teaching says that the person who became uncircumcised is now guilty but the person who was always uncircumcised is innocent! But Paul never makes any such distinction between uncircumcised people: There is not a single scripture anywhere that says that people outside the law are innocent! In Ephesians 2, Paul said that those who are uncircumcised/Gentiles at birth are also guilty – this is talking about people who were never under the Law at all. (Ephesians 2 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,…..Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised”)

Paul said in Romans 2 that “ALL who sin apart from the law” are guilty because the law is written in their heart and their conscience accuses them. They don’t need the Law of Israel written on stones to condemn them but their own consciences condemn them. This is true for all nations in the world.

If we say that the Law was only given to Israel and not the Gentiles, then we cannot turn around and say that the Gentiles who know about murder and adultery in their hearts are only the lost tribes of Israel, when every pagan culture in the world knows that such things are wrong! The fact that every culture in the world condemns murder is clear evidence that the law of God is written in our hearts and therefore Jesus had to die for the entire world to offer forgiveness to ALL nations!

Here is the clinching proof, when Paul said that the pagans in the world were going to be judged for their sins:


He said that the wrath was coming upon the Gentile pagans who lived in sin without knowing God


People will say that Adam was only the father of Israel but they ignore the fact that all nations came from Adam’s descendant – Noah


Israel came out from these Gentile nations! Therefore Adam was not only the father of Israel but the entire human race.

Now the book of Hebrews indicates that the new covenant was only made with the house of Israel and Judah:


But if you read the context, we see that the writer was referring to the prophet Jeremiah.

What was Jeremiah talking about? He was talking about the restoration of the 12 tribes of Israel that happened after their exile to Babylon.


This was talking about the “new” covenant made with the Israelites who returned after the Babylonian exile to re-populate Jerusalem and build the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem. This covenant replaced the covenant made on Sinai with Moses.
This “new covenant” spoken by Jeremiah DID NOT include any Gentiles or pagans.
It was only a covenant with the Jews (house of Judah) and lost tribes (house of Israel).
The writer of Hebrews was referring to the return from Babylon where God forgave the Israelites and returned them back to the land – as a reminder that God would forgive the Israelites if they believed in Jesus. The main focus of the letter of the Hebrews was to show them that Christ’s death offered them permanent forgiveness as opposed to the Law of Moses which could never take away their sins. He was not telling them that the covenant was only with the 12 tribes of Israel. That was just a reference to the covenant of Jeremiah that was for the LOST TRIBES of Israel and NOT with the pagans of the world.
But after the cross, we see that Gentiles who were previously cut off from the covenant were included. Ephesians 2.
Paul says that the Gentiles who were included now in Christ were NOT part of any of the covenants of Israel. They were NOT part of Abraham’s covenant. They were not part of the Mosaic covenant. This clearly means that the Gentiles of Ephesians were NOT part of the covenant of Jeremiah 31. 
This proves that the Gentiles are NOT part of the House of Israel or Judah!
Therefore the Gentiles here are NOT the lost tribes of Israel but they include ALL nations in the world!
Before the cross, the ministry of Jesus was ONLY for Israel and her 12 tribes. But now after the cross, salvation is for the entire world.
This is why John said that the God gave Christ to die for the entire world!
The “world” here does not mean “Israel” because John clearly makes a distinction here between Israel and the rest of the world in his own writings:
John says that Jesus made the world. Obviously, the world here is not just Israel. God did not only create Israel because He owns the entire earth! He came to make children of God NOT by natural descent (of Abraham or the flesh) but born by the Spirit – choosing people outside the covenant of Israel!
Israel-only says that only those born of the “flesh” by circumcision or belonging to Abraham’s seed (flesh) can be part of the kingdom. But Jesus clearly refutes such ideas by saying the qualification for the kingdom is not based on man’s flesh or decision-making or the husband (Abraham)’s will BUT BY THE WILL OF GOD who chose all nations and not just Israel!
The entire world and all the nations belong to God but He chose only Israel under the old covenant. Jesus was rejected by His own people – the 12 tribes of Israel. But He was received by other people – those outside the covenant. Therefore the world includes both “his own people” and those not His own! Those who were not His own people, received Him!
Jesus Christ created ALL things in heaven and earth – both visible and invisible – this includes all of creation – the entire planet and the universe and galaxies. He died to reconcile all nations that He created!
John clearly says here that Christ did not only die for Israel but for the entire world.
The “our sins” in context is the people of the old covenant of Israel. Therefore the “whole world” is all of humanity.
In Matthew 10, the Gospel is only limited to the lost sheep of Israel before the cross.
But at the end of Luke 24 AFTER the cross, we see that the gospel goes out to all nations:
It is pretty clear that the Gospel is being preached to the entire world because Jesus Christ died for the sins of all humanity.
This is the Gospel preached to the Gentiles of ALL nations:

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