Who Are God’s Chosen People Today?

In Ephesians 1:3-6 Paul wrote,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. For He CHOSE us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love He PREDESTINED us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.

The key to understanding these verses is understanding the historical setting inspiring Paul to write.

Paul wrote at the time when God was creating a new spiritual family of grace through Jesus, abolishing the separation of Israel from the Gentile nations as previously established by the law of Moses.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:11-16,

Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles in the flesh and called uncircumcised by the so-called circumcision (that done in the body by human hands)— 12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

14For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility 15by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace 16and reconciling both of them to God in one body through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility.

Prior to bringing people from Israel and from the Gentiles together into one new spiritual family of grace, God separated the people on earth into nations (Genesis 10-11).

God then chose one nation for himself through whom he would bless the other nations (Genesis 12).

The blessing would come through Jesus (Romans 4; Galatians 3)

The nation was Israel.

Deuteronomy 7:6 (see also 10:15; 14:2)
For you are a holy people, who belong to the LORD your God. Of all the people on earth, the LORD your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure.

The people of Israel became God’s chosen people and related to God through the law of Moses.

However, the time would come when Israel would no longer be the chosen people of God because God had chosen before he laid the foundations of the earth to create a spiritual family of grace consisting of people from all nations.

Israel would temporarily be the chosen people of God under the law until Jesus came to permanently unite people from Israel and people from the nations together into one spiritual family of grace.

Bringing people into his spiritual family of grace was God’s predestined plan that he chose to fulfill through Jesus before he created the world.

Creating a spiritual family that would relate to him through grace was God’s ultimate goal.

This spiritual family is who Paul wrote about in Ephesians 1:3-12 (as well as throughout Ephesians).

Paul uses the word us and we about nine times in Ephesians 1:3-12 describing the spiritual family of grace.

It was God’s predetermined plan that Jesus would unite those from all nations into his one spiritual family of grace.

This spiritual family of grace became God’s chosen people, ending Israel’s chosen people’s status before God and under the law.

Israel had violated the law throughout their history.

According to the law (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28-32), God would judge them for their violations.

The final judgment on Israel was pronounced by Jesus and his apostles and carried out by the Roman armies from AD 66 to 70 when the land of Israel was destroyed, the people were killed or carried into captivity, and Jerusalems and the temple were destroyed (Luke 21:5-24).

This judgment ended the chosen people status of Israel, leaving only the spiritual family of grace as God’s chosen people.

This is recorded in the Book of Revelation.

Concerning this spiritual family of grace, Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:11,

In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will…

It was always God’s predestined plan (the plan he created before time began) to create a spiritual family through Jesus, and he worked throughout history to create this family.

God does not chose who becomes a part of this family.

Anyone can be a part of this family through faith in Jesus.

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