WHO ARE GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE?

by Dena Ivie

For a time, the Jews were God's chosen people. They were chosen to live under the first covenant, the law of Moses. The Jews were also to provide the lineage from which Jesus came in His human form. At the death of Jesus Christ, this covenant was nailed to the cross. Colossians 2:14, "having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

This first covenant, the law of Moses, was replaced by the new covenant, the law of Christ.

Hebrews 8:7-9, "For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: 'Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah -- not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them,' says the LORD."

The human lineage of Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. Jesus, as a Jew, lived under the law of Moses. When Jesus Christ died, He purchased the church with His blood. Acts 20:28, Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood."

This church was not an afterthought, but had been purposed by God from the beginning of the world. Ephesians 3:9-11, "and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,"

In Acts 2 we read about the beginning of this church. Peter preached to those gathered in Jerusalem, Jews from every nation under heaven. The words Peter spoke are recorded in Acts 2:14-39. As Peter was concluding this, he told these Jews in Acts 2:36-38, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?' Then Peter said to them, 'Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

God's word tells us some Jews accepted this new covenant (the gospel of Christ) and many rejected it.

Was this new covenant only for the Jews, as the first covenant had been? Peter told the Jews, "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. " (Acts 2:39)

Continue reading in Acts 10 about Cornelius, a Gentile (a non-Jew), a devout man who feared God and prayed to God always. An angel of God appeared to Cornelius and told him what to do. At the same time, Peter, in Joppa, had a vision convincing him to go to Cornelius. Previously, the Jews were to have no dealings with the Gentiles. Continue reading, and you see Cornelius and his household obeyed the words Peter preached (the gospel of Jesus Christ) and were the first Gentiles to become Christians.

The new covenant, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is for both Jew and Gentile. To God, there is no difference in Jew and Gentile. Those who are baptized into Christ are now Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise of God.

Galatians 3:23-29, "But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

So who are God's chosen people today — the Jews or the non-Jews? God's word answers the question.

Peter, by inspiration of God, wrote to Christians in 1 Peter 2:9-10, "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy."

It is Christians, those who obey the new covenant, the gospel of Jesus Christ, who are God's chosen people today.