Jewish Fables: It may come as a surprise to some that the Westminster Confession of Faith, a document so often revered for its precision and orthodoxy, teaches in its Larger Catechism that believers, in praying “thy kingdom come,” are to pray specifically for the “conversion of the Jews.” This statement, found in Question 191, presumes a future, national restoration of Israel as a distinct entity in God’s redemptive plan. Yet such a doctrine, though enshrined in confession, is found nowhere in Scripture. Those bound by the Westminster standards are thus committed to believe what the apostles never taught, and what the New Testament explicitly denies, that there yet remains a covenantal people outside of Christ who await a future national salvation. The gospel knows of no such people, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. Galatians 6:15. This idea of a separate, national restoration of Israel belongs not to the gospel of grace, but to what Paul warned Timothy against, Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth, Titus 1:14, and to insist on a future national restoration is to rebuild what God Himself has forever torn down.
If we wish to understand the true identity of God’s chosen people, Deuteronomy 7:6, we need look no further than the apostle Peter’s words. In I Peter 2:9 we read, “but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” Here the apostle gathers together a rich cluster of titles long associated with Israel, “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession,” and applies them, without hesitation, to believers in Christ. Every phrase echoes the Old Testament, yet every term now finds its fulfillment in the New. What once described a nation in the flesh now defines a people in the spirit. The line of promise has not continued through Abraham’s blood, but through Abraham’s seed, for it is in Christ alone that the covenant takes its substance and permanence. Peter’s purpose is unmistakable, to show that the privileges once confined to Israel according to the flesh have been gathered up and re-centered in Christ, who is the true Seed, the true Priest, the true Nation, and the true Temple.
Every phrase the apostle uses to describe believers in Christ comes from the Old Testament and is recast in New Testament light. The designations that once belonged to a single nation after the flesh now describe the redeemed people of every nation who are in Christ. Peter calls them, “a chosen generation,” which designation reaches back to Deuteronomy 7:6, where the LORD said to Israel, “the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself.” That same grace reaches its fullness in Christ, the true Elect One, Isaiah 42:1, and all who are found in Him as chosen in Him before the world began. Ephesians 1:4. Election, once shadowed in type, is now revealed in the body of Christ, a “chosen generation” not defined by physical descent, but by spiritual birth, “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:13.
The next title he uses for them is “a royal priesthood.” This phrase recalls Exodus 19:6, “ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” In the Old Testament, Israel stood as the visible witness of God’s rule and worship among the nations, but their priesthood was bound to symbols and sacrifices which could never truly cleanse the conscience. Hebrews 9:24-28. Their approach to God was mediated in figure through men as frail and defiled as those for whom they ministered, men who first needed atonement for themselves. But in Christ, every shadow finds its substance. He is Himself the everlasting King and Priest, after the order of Melchizedek, Psalm 110:4, Hebrews 7:24-25, and all who belong to Him are made partakers of this royal priesthood. Revelation 1:5-6. By His single, perfect sacrifice, Hebrews 10:12, Christ has sanctified His people as priests before God, granting them access into the holiest through His own blood. Hebrews 10:19. In so doing, He has brought forth a new order of worshippers, not a nation of priests after the flesh, but a kingdom of priests in the spirit, not outward or ceremonial, but inward and spiritual; not hereditary, but heavenly. I Peter 2:5.
Next we have, “an holy nation.” But what do men imagine when they hear those words? For many, their thoughts turn at once to that strip of land in Palestine which the world still dares to call “the holy land,” as though holiness could be measured in miles or inherited through bloodlines. The true holy nation is not one restored by politics or preserved by lineage, but one created by grace, gathered from every tribe and tongue into the kingdom of Christ. The holy nation is not a revived Israel after the flesh, but the redeemed Israel after the spirit, a people sanctified in truth, delivered from the world, and upheld by the grace that reigns through righteousness in Christ Jesus. “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:9-10. The holiness of this nation is not ceremonial but spiritual, not external but internal. Its citizens are those who have been cleansed by the blood of the covenant and set apart for the praise of the glory of his grace. “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” Leviticus 11:44; I Peter 1:16. The holiness of the people flows from the holiness of their Head. Colossians 1:21-22. As we reflect upon these titles, we behold the grace of God in every one of them, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation; each speaks of what the believer is in Christ, and all together they lead us to this culminating truth, that we are “a peculiar people,” chosen and called to declare the praises of Him who brought us out of darkness into His marvellous light.
This final title, “a peculiar people,” completes the picture. The phrase first appears in Exodus 19:5, where the LORD said to Israel, “ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine.” The word “peculiar” here does not suggest oddity or strangeness, but possession, that which belongs exclusively to another. In Deuteronomy 14:2 the Lord repeats, “the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.” By covenant, Israel after the flesh was distinguished among the nations as the Lord’s peculiar possession; yet within that outward body lay a hidden seed, the true Israel, a spiritual remnant known to God and comprehended in Christ. Romans 11:5. The promise belonged to the seed, which is Christ, and to those found in Him; and this spiritual Israel now stands revealed in the church of Jesus Christ. “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ” – “and if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:16,29.
As Paul writes in Titus 2:14, “who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” The same language reappears, but now with Christ as the center. No longer a people purchased by blood of lambs, but by the blood of the Lamb. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” I Peter 1:18-19. To be a peculiar people, then, is to belong wholly to Christ, set apart for His worship, and ruled by the truth of His word. I Peter 2:9. The world sees no beauty here, and in fact scorns those who dare to call themselves chosen, holy, or peculiar, as if they boasted of themselves. Christ alone is worthy, and all our distinction flows from His grace. The glory of the new covenant people lies not in their identity, but in their Redeemer. Everything revolves around CHRIST, the living Stone rejected of men but chosen of God and precious. I Peter 2:4.
Thus we behold the wonder that every designation finds its center and consummation in Christ. The chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, each title drawn from ancient promise, each fulfilled in the redeemed, all converging in this one grand design, that the people of God might proclaim the excellencies of Christ. Once they were not a people, but now they are the people of God; once without mercy, but now living monuments of mercy received. The Old Testament nation was but a shadow; the “church” is the substance. What once stood in type and symbol is now realized in a spiritual kingdom not of this world.
And so we return to where we began. What the Westminster “divines” – as they were pleased to call themselves, longed for in the restoration of an earthly people, a national restoration that scripture nowhere promises, has been consummated in Christ. II Corinthians 1:20. The kingdom has come, in Christ, the true Israel, the true Temple, the true Priest, and the true King. The prayer, “thy kingdom come,” is not a cry for ethnic revival, but for the increase of that spiritual dominion already begun in the hearts of the redeemed. To seek another kingdom is to look backward toward shadow; to rest in Christ is to stand in the substance. “Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” Colossians 2:17. MPJ