“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. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.” (Deuteronomy 7:6-11 ESV)
Now this is Old Covenant teaching, but yet so much of it is New Covenant teaching, too. But let’s begin with the Old Covenant. God’s people at that time were the Israelites, the Jews, the physical descendants of Abraham and Sarah. They were God’s chosen people, his holy nation by physical birth. God had made a covenant with Abraham and with his offspring that he would give them the land of Canaan (the Promised Land) for an everlasting possession. But with all of God’s promises there was a requirement that they had to meet. They had to keep (obey) the Lord’s covenant throughout their generations (Genesis 17:7-9; Genesis 18:19).
Now, many people today are still claiming that covenant for the Jewish nation of Israel, but it is not theirs to claim unless they are now believing in Jesus Christ, for Jesus is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he is the promised seed of Abraham from whom now all God’s holy people are spiritual descendants if they trust in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of their lives and if they obey the Lord and his commandments (New Covenant). We are now the children of the promise, for if we belong to Christ, then we are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
[Romans 2:28-29; Romans 9:4-8; Romans 11:1-36; Galatians 3:16,26-29; Galatians 4:22-31; Ephesians 2:11-22; Ephesians 3:6; 1 John 2:22; John 8:18-19,38-47; Jude 1:5; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16; Hebrews 8:6-13; Revelation 2:9; Revelation 3:9]
So, that was then but this is now. And today God’s holy people are believers in Jesus Christ who have been crucified with him in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. We are God’s holy people, his holy nation, Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. We are God’s possession. We are his temple in whom God dwells by his Spirit. God is now our God, and we are his chosen people. For in Jesus’ death he destroyed that dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile and he made us both one in Christ by genuine God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ.
[Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:6-7; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-29; Rom 11:1-36; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 1:9; 1 Co 3:16-17; 1 Co 6:19-20; 2 Co 5:15,21; 2 Co 6:14-18; Gal 5:13-21; Eph 1:3-4; Eph 2:11-22; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:27; Col 1:22; Col 3:12-15; 1 Thess 4:7; 2 Tim 1:8-9; 2 Tim 2:21; Heb 8:8-10; Heb 10:30; 1 Pet 1:13-16; 1 Pet 2:5-10,24; 2 Pet 1:3; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 2:3-6]
So we who believe in Jesus today, with God-persuaded faith in him, are a people holy to the Lord. We are his chosen people, regardless of whether we are Jew or Gentile by physical birth. We are his treasured possession. And he has redeemed us not from physical slavery to a physical nation, but out from our slavery to sin so that we can now honor the Lord Jesus with our lives. And just like his covenant with the Israelites of old, the New Covenant relationship we have with Jesus Christ is conditional upon us loving God and keeping (obeying) our Lord’s commandments (New Covenant). But those who do not obey his commandments will be cast off (Matthew 7:21-23).
[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-11; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
So, don’t take your salvation from sin and eternal life lightly, thinking that you can just pray a prayer or make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ but that you can continue living in sin against the Lord as a matter of habit. For if sin is what we practice, and not righteousness, and not obedience to our Lord, we will die in our sins and we will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what our lips profess. For Jesus said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one DOING the will of God the Father in heaven (Matthew 7:21-23). So, please take all of this to heart, and please follow Jesus in obedience to his will.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg
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