Most people don’t understand how much God loves the Jewish people and how vital they are to His redemption story. By God’s grace I learned these truths as a child in Sunday school, where I discovered that God had “Chosen People”— and I wanted to be one of them.
My teacher plainly explained, “The Israelites are God’s Chosen People.” She also called them “the children of Israel.” By my understanding, this meant God must deeply love children, specifically Israelite children. So, in my heart, I yearned to be a little Israelite girl. I had no idea that “Israelite,” “Hebrew,” and “Jewish” all referred to the same race; nor did I know that I was a Gentile.
Three years later, my elder sister Debbie came home from church one day and announced that she was going to heaven because she was “saved,” but I was going to hell. I was terrified.
“You have to be saved to be God’s child,” Debbie said.
I was thrilled to hear these words because my heart still ached to be a chosen little Israelite girl. My sister read John 3:16 to me: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Then, she instructed me to ask God to forgive me right then.
I was doubtful. She was older and smarter than I was, but she didn’t seem very holy to me; and getting out of hell was too important to risk being left to someone who often got me in trouble. I wanted to wait to pray for salvation until I was in church so it would “work.”
Six months later, I attended a church service in which the pastor explained that because all people are sinners, they must be saved from their sin in order to go to heaven, where sin cannot be present. The only way for me to be saved from sin was to repent from it and believe that Jesus, God’s only Son, came to die for my sin in my place (Jn. 14:6; Rom. 3:23–24; 6:23; 1 Cor. 6:9–11).
Then, the pastor read John 1:12: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” The idea that I could be a child of God deeply resonated within my soul. Right there, I chose to believe in Him, confess my sin, and ask Him to forgive me and make me His child (Rom. 10:9–10, 13).
I had never heard the terms Abrahamic Covenant or substitutionary death, nor did I know the significance of words like justification or propitiation. I just wanted to be chosen by God, like the Israelites were.
Gratitude—Not Jealousy
Since I first heard that lesson about God’s Chosen People, I’ve held them in great awe. And as I have studied Scripture and grown in knowledge and faith, my gratitude for the Jewish people has only increased.
Sadly, Replacement Theology—the belief that the church has replaced Israel in God’s plans and affections—continues to pervade Christian circles. As anger toward Israel intensifies, so does the idea that God has cast away His beloved Chosen People. But nothing could be further from the truth, as is easy to see when reading His immortal Word.
God used Jewish prophets to reveal Himself. His priceless words tell the true account of creation, how to live in civilized society (the Mosaic Law), and His intervention in the lives of ordinary people. He used Jewish eyewitnesses in the New Testament Gospels, Acts, the epistles, and the book of Hebrews (1:1–2) to reveal Himself in Christ. In Revelation, He prophetically detailed the end-times and how He specifically will use His Jewish witnesses. From beginning to end, God loves the Jewish people with an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3).
Gentiles Included In God’s Blessing
Gentiles who hold to Replacement Theology may fear that God’s promises to the Jewish people exclude them from His blessing. Yet, when God made His covenant with Abraham, He promised him, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Though God’s covenant is with the Jewish people, we do not have to be Jewish to be included in its blessing of salvation. “All” means “all”; so, whether Jewish or Gentile, your family and my family can enjoy the fruit of this promise by accepting Jesus the Messiah as Savior (Jn. 3:16).
The Old Testament foretold the Messiah would come to bless the Gentiles and be a light to them (Gen. 22:18; Ps. 22:27; Isa. 11:1–2, 10; 42:6; 49:6). The New Testament confirmed His mission. Shortly after Jesus’ birth, when His parents brought Him to the Temple, Simeon, a Jewish man, linked Israel and Gentiles together, proclaiming Jesus would be “a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel” (Lk. 2:32). This was the great “mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints . . . which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:26–27; cf. Rom. 15:8–13; Gal. 3:7–9, 11–14, 26–29). Gentile inclusion in the Jewish blessing epitomizes God’s mercy and grace.
Jesus demonstrated His own love for Gentiles during His earthly ministry as He healed many, including a Samaritan leper, a Syro-Phoenician woman’s daughter, a demon-possessed man in Greco-Roman Gadara, and a deaf and mute man in the Roman Decapolis. As He healed a Roman centurion’s servant, He marveled, saying, “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel” (Mt. 8:5–13).
WASHED IN THE BLOOD
Sometimes I consider how undeservedly blessed I am as a Gentile to be saved from my sin and the punishment of hell. But I am also saddened to think of how many of God’s dear, treasured possessions, to whom He chose to grant unique blessings, reject Christ and His sacrifice of His life and blood, clearly foretold in Isaiah 53. The Torah taught that “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11), so God’s Chosen People knew atonement for their souls required blood sacrifices of perfect, unblemished lambs. Jesus fulfilled the Law when He laid down His life, redeeming believers “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:19).
Years ago, while teaching a Bible lesson, I showed children a visual featuring a sweet little lamb lying dead in the foreground. Scarlet blood flowed in a winding path toward the background, ending at the foot of Jesus’ cross.
It brought me to tears as I taught, “Look at this little lamb. It is innocent. It did nothing wrong and did not deserve to die. Why did it have to? Because of sin. Sin separates us from God and requires the shedding of innocent blood to wash it away [Heb. 9:22]. Jesus is this dear little Lamb; and this is what He did for us, giving His life for ours.”
From Genesis to Revelation, God manifested His love to the whole world as wicked Satan tried to extinguish it: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4–5). Oh, that all people would recognize the Jewish Messiah who came to die on a cross and rise from the dead to save the souls of everyone—Jewish or Gentile—who chooses to receive Him!
Belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ has been the greatest gift of my life. He chose me, a weak and fearful little girl from Potato Valley in central Pennsylvania, and predestined me to adoption (Eph. 1:3–6), pouring out His mercy and grace in abundance. He used Scripture to open my eyes; the Holy Spirit to draw me to Himself; and His grace to enable me to respond to the God of Israel, granting me eternal life.
God graciously satisfied the longing of my heart as a little child many years ago. I pray that you, too, are enjoying the privilege of being a child of God, having your sins forgiven by Jesus the Messiah. If you have yet to trust Him as your Savior, I pray you will make that decision today.
