Chosen People

“Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed." So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

(Galatians 3:7-9 ESV)

All throughout history, the people of Israel had believed themselves to be the people of God. They believed themselves to be his chosen people. And, according to Old Testament law, they made a clear distinction between themselves and the Gentiles. They were God’s children, they were the children of promise, while the Gentiles were not.



It’s for this reason that some of the Jewish believers tried to force their law upon the Gentiles. If they were to be saved, if they were to become the people of God, they first had to become Jews. They had to be circumcised and live under the ceremonial law.



In light of the gospel, Paul proclaimed a very different message. He emphasized not the lineage of the people. He preached that it was not his genetic makeup that made a person a child of God. It was his faith that did so.



Jesus emphasized the same thing in the eighth chapter of John. Even though they claimed Abraham as their father, Jesus told the Jews that this was not the case. They were, in fact, children of the devil. If they were children of Abraham, he said, they’d be doing the things that Abraham did.



Paul also shared this truth in Romans 9. He stated that not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. He taught that not all are children of Abraham because they’re his offspring.



If this is true, we may wonder, who is a son of Abraham? Who is a child of God? Who are his chosen people? And who is it that belongs to Israel?



Paul tells us, above, that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. God had promised to Abraham that, in him, all the nations would be blessed. And this is how that promise is fulfilled. We are made part of the people of God as we share in the faith of Abraham.



This, then, is good news for us. It’s good news because we are assured that we are not outside of God’s promises. And it assures us that we are not excluded from his people.



We are made part of God’s people. And it’s not our bloodline or our actions that make this possible. This becomes possible by faith alone.



If we, then, have faith, we can know that we’re Abraham’s offspring. If we have faith, we can know that we’ve received the salvation of God. If we have faith, we can know that we are part of the people of God, his chosen people.



This is comforting because our salvation is not dependent on us in any way. Our confidence is found not within, but outside of ourselves. It’s found in Christ alone. It’s found only in the salvation he has accomplished on the cross.