Abrahams Children
Jehovah repeatedly told the Israelites that they were a chosen people a people for Gods own possession. (Ex. 19:5-6; Deut. 7:6) And these same expressions are applied to the people of God in Christ — spiritual Israel. (1 Pet. 2:9; Titus 2:14) Those who obey the call of the gospel — who come into fellowship with God in Jesus Christ — are Gods people in a special or peculiar sense.
Students of the Bible (or even of secular history) are aware that many of the Jews were lifted in pride by Gods special treatment — that they came to regard their position as superior by virtue of ancestry — and forgot that their race was developed and chosen for a specific purpose; i.e., to bring Christ into the world. (Cf. Gen. 12:3 Gal. 3:16-29) Individual and national responsibility to be faithful to God was smothered by a pride in identity (We have Abraham to our father Matt. 3: 7-f) — an identity which became external only, and lost its inner and true significance.
If the Jews, and those who claim to be spiritual Israelites, will read Deut. 7: 7-f. this significant statement should dampen false pride.
Jehovah did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all peoples: but because Jehovah loveth you, and because he would keep the oath which he sware unto your fathers, hath Jehovah brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharoah king of Egypt.
God did not choose you because you were great. Israel, you were the fewest of all peoples; Christians. you were lost in sin, without hope. when Christ died for you. (Rom. 5:8; Eph. 2:1, 11-13) How easily man forgets his dependence upon God. The church grows and we praise the product of Gods mercy instead of the God who made the church possible.
We are chosen because God loved His creatures — so loved them that He gave His Son to die for their sins. (Jn. 3:l6) How often do we use this passage for something other than a rebuttal of faith only error?
It was Gods love for fallen mankind that initiated His covenant and promises to Abraham — that a special nation would be built; and in thy seed (singular — Christ) all nations he blessed. (Gal. 3:8-f) The passage in Deut. 7: tells the Jew that his being chosen was not for glorification of one race, but for the blessing of all peoples, in Christ.
We must endlessly remind Gods people today that they too have been chosen and developed for a specific purpose — to glorify and promote that Christ which the chosen Jews gave to the world. And this nation can lose its spiritual significance; its citizens. lifted with pride in externals, can utterly fail their purpose.
We are the church, someone cries; and I hear the echo. We have Abraham to our father! Will We never learn that being faithful to the party or staying with the building IS NOT THE SAME AS BEING FAITHFUL TO CHRIST.