When did the gospel Paul preached to the Gentiles become God's plan of salvation?
The gospel Paul preached to the Gentiles became God's plan of salvation after Christ finished the work of the cross and revealed that plan to Paul by revelation of the ascended Lord Jesus. Paul did not receive it from man or by human teaching; it came from the glorified Christ.
Les explains that during Paul's revelations Jesus Christ was in glory, and everything Paul writes concerning our doctrine today comes from the Ascended Lord after His death, burial, and resurrection. Until Christ went to the cross and died, He was not the object of faith to the main run of Gentiles. But once He had finished the work of the cross and revealed His plan of salvation to this apostle, it then became that gospel which Paul preached to the Gentiles. Paul says he was not taught it by man but received it by the revelation of Jesus Christ. God separated Paul from his mother's womb, called him by His grace, and revealed His Son in him so he might preach Him among the Gentiles.
To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.
More Questions
Why did Paul go primarily to the Gentiles instead of to the Jews?
Paul, like God's Old Testament dealings with Israel, was sent primarily to the Gentiles, while only a few Jews come into the Body of Christ — the reverse of the Old Testament pattern where God dealt only with the Jew and a few Gentiles picked up the gleanings.