1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Cor 1:1-9 (ESV)
Before the dawn of creation, and in perfect unity, the Persons of the Godhead chose to create a people in their image, who would intimately partake of the grace and love of God, in all its fullness, and for all eternity as true children and heirs. This people would be the gift of the Father to the Son, and would be filled, sustained and nourished by His own Holy Spirit. There has only ever been one such people, and they are a people not by their own will or volition, not by any merit they have shown, nor because of any great or glorious works they have done; but solely by the sovereign will and purpose of God the Father.
Throughout the epistles of the New Testament, the apostle Paul, a Jew amongst Jews himself, considered his heritage of the flesh to be nothing in comparison to his heritage given by grace, through faith in Christ alone, according to the will of the Father. It was he who noted that the mystery and wonder of the Gospel was not that God would elevate and save one earthly nation, but He would expand this nation to include men from every tongue, tribe and nation, according to the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Old Testament.
How wonderful it is to know that by faith we who believe have been gathered into the bosom of the family of saints, saved by the grace of God, through that same faith gifted to us, since the fall of Adam until the present. Not only are we saved from everlasting destruction according to the Gospel of Christ crucified, but the very promises of God to His people of old, “find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” [2 Cor 1:20] Not only so, but as the opening verses above also agree, “it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” [2 Cor 1:21-22] It is not that the elect of God shall ever fall away to destruction, but it is His sustaining power that will ensure we are justified from first to last, and are guaranteed of the inheritance promised to us.
Be encouraged saints of God, if you believe the Gospel of Christ today, your heritage is the same as that of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, according to the very same promises of God. Not that by an evil twist of fate that believers today have replaced Israel as the beloved people of God, but rather by faith the true Israel of God has become manifest throughout the nations of the earth by the power of the Gospel. No longer an earthly dwelling place, but a spiritual and everlasting community of those called out by God and given to His Son, who even now reigns as King at the Father’s right hand, and until all of His enemies have been made His footstool.
“Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands– remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
[Ephesians 2:11-22]
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