Articles
A People of Gods Own Inheritance
A People of Gods Own Inheritance
"But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day" (Deuteronomy 4:20).
Peter wrote of Christians: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9). He had also written: "you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5).
The physical descendants of Abraham thru Isaac thru Jacob were chosen out of all the nations to be a peculiar people unto God. He gave them a law / covenant thru Moses. He gave them a land to be separate from the other nations. He gave them great promises and He also gave them great responsibilities.
Among those promises was the coming Messiah who would bring blessings to all nations (Gen. 12:1-3). He would be an eternal king and rule over all the kings of the earth (Psalm 2, Daniel 2). This was fulfilled in Jesus, the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matt. 1:1). With the coming of Jesus the invitation of serving God through His son was opened to all nations / men (Matt. 28:18-19, Mark 16:16). The Israel of God is no long counted from the flesh but from faith. Those who walk in the steps of Abraham are children (Rom. 4:11-12). Those who believe in Jesus and are baptized into Christ are 'of Abraham' and heirs according to promise (Gal. 3:26-29)
We who believe are the children of promise (Gal. 4:28). We, as the people of God, are hence a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for His own possession. What great privilege, honor, and blessing we have from God. Along with such comes great responsibilities. We live to proclaim HIS excellencies. Let us not fail to glorify God as did Israel of old. Let us not turn aside unto idols or materialism. Let us not be slack in our doing of good deeds that would cause people to glorify our God.
