What does it mean that God has chosen Israel as His people?

Welcome to the C3 Church podcast.

Our vision as a church is to practice the way of Jesus so that we experience the fame and deeds of God in our time.

My name is Colton Seegers.

And I'm Raimi Seegers.

And over the next couple of episodes, we wanted to do a question and response for the people in our church community.

And so what we did is we asked our church to submit questions, and these are our responses to a handful of questions that we received.

Love y'all.

Enjoy the podcast.

Alright, the next question is if the Jews are God's chosen people, what does that mean for everyone else?

Great question.

So I'll this is my understanding.

Colton, please obviously say it differently if you would say it differently.

God's plan has always been to create a people who will be his people and his partners.

That's what he did in Eden.

It was supposed to be all of humanity.

We were supposed to bear his image, be his partners, shepherd creation, display his character.

That's what we're for.

We blew it.

Can't, won't, couldn't do it.

So then he built it, makes a okay, still the plan.

We're still chugging at the same plan.

We're gonna build a new people.

We're gonna pick Abraham's family.

These people now, and because it didn't go great the first time, I'm gonna give you the law.

Now, if you obey the law, these people are gonna be my partners.

You're gonna display my character, you're gonna display my goodness, you're gonna display my justice, you're gonna display my mercy.

Here's my new partner.

Here, these people are gonna be my people, and I'm gonna bring you back to Eden, bring you back to the land, bring you back into a relationship with me.

Nope.

No can do.

They didn't do it.

They don't do it, they go into exile, they lose the land.

No.

So then we finally get the true Israelite, the only, the only, the true Adam and the true Israelite, the only human being ever to bear God's image correctly, and the only Israelite ever to keep the law correctly.

Jesus is the only true human and true Jew, the way that human, what human was supposed to mean and what Jew was supposed to mean, only Jesus accomplishes what that was supposed to mean.

Right.

And then by linking ourselves to him by faith in him, we get credit for being Israelites.

We get, we are well, like it says that we're adopted.

You're adopted as sons and daughters.

Well, adopted into what?

You're adopted into Abraham's family.

You're adopted into the family of Israel that you're actually not part of.

That's why you're adopted.

Now you are get by faith in Christ, you then, like Paul says, now there's no longer any Jew or Greek.

Right.

Being a Jew or a Gentile, being a Jewish person, being a non-Jewish person doesn't matter anymore.

Now you need to link yourself to Jesus, the only true Jew, the only true human.

Yeah.

Let his, he's the offspring of Abraham, he's the Israel, the law-keeping Israelite, he's the image-bearing human.

Let him credit all of that stuff to you, give you a belonging in the people of God that none of you, Jew or Gentile, not one of you deserves or has earned belonging in God's people.

Yeah.

All of you have earned exile and rejection.

And so let Jesus, let faith in Jesus, linking yourself to Jesus, gives you credit for being a law-keeping Israelite, which only he was.

Right.

And then by being filled with his spirit, the spirit will slowly get to work and start transforming you back into the image-bearing human being that you were supposed to be.

And so I think it's always been true that you've got to keep the covenant we humans, we people have to keep the covenant in order to be God's people and to be welcome in his kingdom and presence.

When we broke the covenant with him, they got kicked out of Eden.

When they wouldn't keep the covenant, they got kicked out of Israel.

If you won't keep the covenant, you're not going to be welcome in the kingdom.

And the covenant with Adam didn't work, the covenant with Moses didn't work.

Now we've got the New Testament, the new covenant, the covenant of Jesus' blood and the covenant of faith with him.

That's now the covenant you've got to keep.

You've always had to keep the covenant in order to be God's people.

That means that now, truly, quote unquote, God's people, Jews, Israel, the true humanity are people who link themselves by faith to Christ, are filled with his spirit and start to be transformed back into the people we always should have been.

Right.

And so I don't know that it's, oh, at one point he picked the Jews, but now he's done with that.

And so now he's on to the Christians.

Or actually the Jews have it better than the Christians, the Christians don't matter.

I don't think it, I don't think either of the, like Christians matter less than Jews.

No.

Or at one point he was into Jews, but now he's done with that.

Now he's into Christians.

Also, no, it is Jesus and his bride are the fulfillment and the ending of what the plan has always been.

What the plan was in Eden, what the plan was with the Jewish people in Israel, and what the plan is now in the church.

God is trying to create a people and a partner for himself who will obey him, recognize him as king, and keep the covenant.

We are not covenant-keeping people.

We've never been covenant-keeping people, Jews or Gentiles, we can't keep it.

And so the covenant you now have to keep in order to be part of God's people and to be the quote unquote Israel is faith in Christ and being credited with being Israel by the only true Israelite, the only true covenant-keeping Israelite.

Yeah.

So now the cov the covenant is saying yes to the salvation and kingship of Christ.

That's what makes you, quote unquote, a Jew.

That's what makes you a God's people.

That's what makes you part of Israel.

And that's what will cause you to be welcome in the kingdom.

Yeah.

And that's not new.

This is the next step of the same plan.

Yeah.

That's how I view it.

That's that's my understanding of it.

Yeah, the only I think the only thing that I would say is I I read Ephesians for this because Ephesians really, uh, whoever asked this question, or if you want to dive into this more, but like you said, if if they are if the Jewish people are God's chosen people, and it's like, yes, at one at one time it was it was operating through um Israel only.

Um and but Paul says to the Gentiles now, like, in him, in Christ, we are now chosen.

Um we're now the royal priesthood.

Yeah, and we're now the kingdom of priests.

If you and he says in uh chapter two, he says, remember, you were formerly Gentiles by birth, called the uncircumcision by those who call themselves the circumcision, the Jews.

Uh you are you are on the outs by those who were on the in.

Um you were excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenant.

Um, but now Christ Jesus, through him, uh, you who are once far away, have now been brought near to God by the blood of Christ.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household.

Um, and he says, In him, you two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit.

In the new temple.

Yeah, in the new temple.

And so um, yes, I just and it's even prophesied in the Old Testament, like there will be there will come a day when those who are called not my people will be called my people.

And I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh.

That's what you've got to have.

Right.

And it's and so Jesus has created in in Christ those who receive him.

I think this is John who says it, but those who receive him, he also gave the right to become children of God.

Yes.

Um, and that is what we are.

And so uh the now the chosen people or um are really those who are just in relationship with Jesus in Christ, um, those who are believers in Jesus, through him he has made a new people.

But it's made up of, if you read Revelation, it's made up of every tongue and every nation, every ethnicity, whether Jew or Greek or whatever, and you just keep going.

Um which of course people didn't when Jesus and Paul and the early church were preaching this.

Oh, they hated it.

Yeah, they didn't like that.

The Jewish people didn't like that.

But it's Peter, I think, in Acts is like, no, no, no, no.

This has been the plan all along.

And he quotes back to Genesis to God's covenant with Abraham, and he's like, God said to Abraham, I'm doing this with you, because by doing this covenant with me, this relationship with me, I'm gonna restore blessing to all nations.

I'm gonna make you a blessing to all nations, me blessing and welcoming back into being my people, all nations.

That has been the plan, even from the birth moment of Israel.

Right.

That's always been the plan.

And then when that came to be, people didn't like that.

Yeah, that's good.

Um, I hope that answers your question.

I hope that answers your question.

Um, but yeah, those who are shoot us a text if it does.

Yeah, that's right.

Those who are in Christ are now God's chosen, predestined people, those who are.

Um, and so it's no longer just for the Jew, uh, but also to the Gentile as well, because of what Jesus has done with them.