THE TRUE CHOSEN PEOPLE OF GOD MADE SIMPLE
When the New Testament speaks of the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16), it is not drawing a line around one ethnic group—it is drawing a circle around everyone who belongs to Christ by faith. The old covenant traced its identity through flesh and family lines; the new covenant traces its identity through faith and the new birth. People thought that what mattered in Abraham’s day was physical descent. But what matters in Christ’s kingdom is spiritual rebirth. Jew and Gentile, joined to Christ, become one family, one people, one redeemed nation.
Paul explains this gently but unmistakably: “They are not all Israel who are of Israel” (Romans 9:6). In other words, simply being born a Jew did not make someone the true people of God. The real children of Abraham are those who share Abraham’s faith (Romans 4:11-12).
He says it even more clearly in Galatians: “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). That means every believer—whether raised in a synagogue, a church, or far from either—is part of God’s covenant family through Christ.
This doesn’t erase Israel; it fulfills Israel. The promises God gave to Abraham were never limited to one nation forever. God told him that in his Seed “all nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 22:18). Paul tells us that Seed is Christ Himself (Galatians 3:16).
So the covenant God made with Abraham grows wider, not narrower. It stretches out to include every person—Jew or Gentile—who trusts in Jesus, the promised Messiah. The people of God are no longer identified by circumcision of the flesh but by circumcision of the heart (Romans 2:28-29).
When Christ came, He created one new man out of the two (Ephesians 2:14-16). The dividing wall between Jew and Gentile fell. There is “one body and one Spirit” (Ephesians 4:4). No second-class citizens, no separate tracks, no two-tiered covenants.
The church—redeemed by the blood of Christ, alive by the Spirit, rooted in the promises made to Abraham—is the true Israel of God.
This does not mean Gentiles were ever meant to “replace” Israel. From the beginning, the covenant was founded on the faith of Abraham, and the promises God made always pointed beyond ethnicity to all who would believe.
In a symbolic sense, Gentiles are grafted in, yet ultimately the blessings of God’s covenant were meant for all nations, with Israel serving as the instrument through which God revealed His plan. Believing Jews remain the faithful heirs of that promise, and believing Gentiles share in it through faith—together forming one covenant family under God’s purpose.
So when we say the church is the true Israel of God, we simply mean this: God’s covenant family is defined by faith, not flesh; by Christ, not bloodlines; by new birth, not ancestry.
The promises of God find their “Yes” in Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20).
And all who trust in Him stand together as the people of God—one flock, one Shepherd, one redeemed Israel made whole in the Messiah.
BDD
