How Should We View Israel?
Part 2.
This week we are dealing with the question, “Who are God’s chosen people?” or more specifically, “Who are God’s chosen people since Pentecost?”
It is quite common to hear Evangelicals speak of Israel or Jews collectively as “God’s chosen people.” You may be familiar with an American-based ministry more than a century old named Chosen People Ministries which focuses on reaching Jewish people with the gospel. While I appreciate their faithful witness, we must question if there is biblical justification for this designation.
The following is by no means an exhaustive catalogue, but a sampling of prominent passages in the Old Testament that indicate that Israel was set apart as God’s chosen people or nation uniquely treasured by the Lord.
- Deuteronomy 7:6: “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (also see 14:2).
- 1 Chronicles 16:13: “O offspring of Israel his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones!”
- Psalm 135:4: “For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession.”
- Isaiah 41:8-9: “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off.’”
- Isaiah 44:1 “But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen!”
As we indicated in last week’s post, there was nothing inherently special about Abraham and his offspring that moved God to select them. He sovereignly set his love on them. There was no reason in them, but he chose them for a purpose: to be a light to the nations and the means through which he would fulfill his promise of the Messiah.
Over Israel’s long history there were many impenitent covenant breakers: evil kings, false prophets, defiant idolaters, and those characterized by unbelief. Consequently, not all individual Israelites were saved. Theirs was a historical election in general and a saving election of a remnant in particular.
When we come to the New Testament, we find Jesus and the Apostle Paul referencing Israel’s place in redemptive history. Jesus declares, “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). Sorrowful over the unbelieving state of the majority of his kinsmen, Paul writes: “They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 9:4-5).
What is so tragic, of course, is that Israel possessed all these advantages but rejected the long-awaited Son of David. They were entrusted with the very oracles of God (Romans 3:1-2) but the majority failed to believe in his saving promises. Jesus said to the Jews who opposed him, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40).
Without saving faith, such God-given advantages are of no benefit. In light of this Paul asks, “Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin” (Romans 3:9). Since no one can establish his or her own righteousness, every sinner needs a Savior — whether Jew or Gentile.
The New Testament does not directly echo the Old Testament's unqualified assertion that ethnic or national Israel is currently “God’s chosen people.” When Paul rehearses Israel’s history he mentions their chosen status in the past tense: “The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it” (Acts 13:17).
For the apostle, God’s chosen people are his elect comprised of both believing Jews and Gentiles. Consider how Paul addresses mixed congregations:
- Ephesians 1:4: “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.”
- Colossians 3:12 “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts …”
- 1 Thessalonians 1:4: “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you.”
- 2 Thessalonians 2:13: “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved.”
Language that formerly pertained to Israel under the old covenant is now applied to the church under the new covenant. Take for example Exodus 19:5-6: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
Notice the similarities when Peter applies this terminology to the church: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10).
God’s chosen people since Pentecost are those united to Jesus by faith, both Jew and Gentile. The Lord does not have two separate plans for Jews and Gentiles. In Christ he has had made them both one, each having equal access to the Father through the Spirit.
One feature of the new covenant is that the Lord “has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility (between Jews and Gentiles) by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances (the ceremonial and civil laws) that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility” (Ephesians 2:14-16).
Since the Lord has made the two one, we cannot speak of “God’s chosen people” apart from the church. The church is actually called “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16). That is not to say that the church replaces Israel — which was a theocracy — but rather that God’s promises are spiritually fulfilled in Christ’s universal church. Isn’t it interesting how the apostles see the fulfillment of Amos 9 in Acts 15:12-21? The rebuilding of David’s fallen tent is realized in connection with the ingathering of the Gentiles.
So who are God’s chosen people today? His church comprised of believing Jews and Gentiles. Since the inauguration of the new covenant, we can no longer call the nation of Israel or Jews en masse God’s chosen people. By employing that designation, we are tacitly projecting some exceptional grace that does not intrinsically belong to them. God’s grace is experienced only through faith in Jesus Christ.
While I disapprove of the label “Chosen People Ministries” I appreciate their passion to see Jews come to faith in Jesus the Messiah. Like everyone else, our Jewish friends and neighbors need the gospel desperately. By calling them God’s chosen people, I fear some Christians are not as earnest as they ought to be in evangelizing their Jewish friends — as if Lord will treat them under some special dispensation.
If the nation of Israel or Jews worldwide are not God’s chosen people, how does this affect our view of the modern state of Israel? We’ll consider that subject next week.