Theology of the Church, Mentor's Guide, MG03

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T H E O L O G Y O F T H E C H U R C H

Salvation as Joining the People of God (continued)

B. New Testament

“. . . who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good ” (Titus 2.14). 1. Both Peter and Paul suggest that the New Testament view of salvation is equally concerned as the Old Testament with God calling out a people but that the people “called out” are bound to Christ and his Church rather than to a political or ethnic “nation.” a. 1 Pet. 2.9-10 (ESV) - But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God , that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. b. Acts 15.14 (ESV) - Simon has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself . c. Eph. 2.13, 19 (ESV) - But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. . . . Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household. d. Rom. 9.24-26 (ESV) - Even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles ? As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people ; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” and, “ It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” 2. “On the other hand, while the [Gospel] message involved in every case is strict individual choice, yet the individual who accepted it entered into social relations with the others who had so chosen. So salvation involved admission to a community of service (Mark 9.35, etc.)” ( International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [Electronic Edition]).