The People of God

This is a theme every Bible student should know.

It is not only one of the basic themes of Scripture, but it is difficult to fully understand the Bible without it.

Is there such a thing as 'the people of God'? Are not all human beings corporately 'the people of God'? It would appear not. Time and again the Scriptures refer to God's covenant people. In Ephesians 1:3-14 the writer speaks of God's elect people, chosen before time to be holy, to be the sons of God, to be redeemed and to be to His glory. Romans 8:29 speaks of these foreknown elect as being ultimately 'conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he [the Son] might be the first-born among many [such] brethren'. Other Scriptures speak of those out of every nation, and people, and tribe and tongue who will be redeemed and will appear before God in eternity.

The Scriptures also speak of others who have 'no hope' and are 'without God in the world'. These are they who 'go away into eternal punishment', for they are 'the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted . . . murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars' and their lot is 'in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death'. In other words, there are the people of God and others who do not wish to be the people of God. The distinction is clear.

How this came about, and how it obtains, we will see as we go through our studies.