It is my firm persuasion that the Scriptures teach that no one can be made right with God. i.e. saved, without being chosen in Christ, becoming a true Jew, and being saved by Christ alone, through grace alone, by faith alone.

Immediately you perceptive Bible students will pick up on a phrase I used and accuse me of heresy. That being that everyone must become "a true Jew" in order to demonstrate their being chosen of God and saved by grace.

Great numbers of modern day Christians have been taught by men like Pastor John Hagee that what I have said is true. However, the "true Jew" in his and their opinion is one based on race and not grace.

Pastor Hagee asserts: "The Jewish people have a relationship to God through the law of God as given through Moses," He went on to say: "I believe that every Gentile person can only come to God through the cross of Christ. I believe that every Jewish person who lives in the light of the Torah, which is the word of God, has a relationship with God and will come to redemption. "

In an interview with a reporter from the Houston Chronicle, Hagee said: "I'm not trying to convert the Jewish people to the Christian faith. In fact, trying to convert Jews is a "waste of time." The Jewish person who has his roots in Judaism is not going to convert to Christianity. There is no form of Christian evangelism that has failed so miserably as evangelizing the Jewish people. They (already) have a faith structure. Everyone else, whether Buddhist or Baha'i, needs to believe in Jesus, he says. But not Jews. Jews already have a covenant with God that has never been replaced by Christianity."  Whoa! Bad theology - heresy in fact.

Here's why I declare that in order to be saved you must be one of God's chosen people and become a "true Jew."

True Jews are described in this manner in Peter’s first letter:

“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy” (I Peter 2:9-10).

Notice, "true Jews" are called out, chosen, made holy, have received God’s mercy, and are walking as light in the midst of darkness.

Paul describes God’s chosen people clearly:

“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being chosen according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:11-12).

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do” (Colossians 3:12-13).

I can hear some of you protesting: "But this describes Christians, not Jews!"

So who is the "true Jew"?

The apostle Paul, an ethnic Jew himself, says that true Jews are those whose hearts have been circumcised:

“For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God” (Romans 2:28-29).

Huge numbers of Christians claim that all racial Jews, especially those living in Israel, are God’s chosen people and children of Abraham. But this contradicts the God-inspired Scriptures in which Paul wrote: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly.” On the other hand, Paul affirms who really is a Jew: “…but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is of the heart, in the Spirit.”

Adam Maarschalk observes: "Only those who are circumcised in heart, through the power of the Holy Spirit, can live out the callings of God’s chosen people described in I Peter 2, Ephesians 1, and Colossians 3. Are some ethnic Jews part of this chosen people, and living out these callings? Yes. Is this true of all ethnic Jews, or even a majority of them? No. Are some non-Jews (ethnically speaking) part of this chosen people, and living out these callings? Yes.

"Notice the verses immediately preceding Colossians 3:12 where Paul speaks of God’s chosen (or elect) people. He says that God’s people “have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” (Colossians 3:10-11). He then goes on to say, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved…” God’s chosen ones are simply those who are in Christ, and ethnicity is not a factor at all.

"Circumcision of the flesh (a major identifying trait of ethnic Jews) is meaningless under the new covenant, and meaningless when it comes to the role and identity of God’s chosen people:

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love… For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 5:6, 6:15-16).

"Remember that true Jews, Paul says, are those who are circumcised in their hearts. And Paul says elsewhere, “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh…” (Philippians 3:3).

"Ultimately, why is it that God’s chosen people are chosen today? It’s because we are in Jesus, and Jesus is the chosen One!

“Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles” (Isaiah 42:1)."

Pastor John Piper writes: "Jesus and all the apostles taught that Gentiles become true Jews by faith in the Messiah, Jesus, and Jews forfeit their final inheritance as Jews if they reject faith in Jesus as the Messiah. It is a profound misunderstanding of Christianity to describe this teaching as an arrogant presumption that Christianity simply wants all Jews to abandon their heritage. The Biblical way to say it is that "salvation is from the Jews" (John 4:22), and the promises made to Abraham are the root that supports all salvation (Romans 11:18), and the only way for any Gentile to be saved is to become a fellow heir of Abraham by trusting in the Jewish Messiah. The Jewish heritage is our only hope.

"Judaism is so central to Christianity that there is no salvation without it. And Jesus Christ is so central to Judaism that there is no salvation without him. It is not arrogant for Christians to say to Jews: We have no hope without your heritage and your Messiah; and neither do you." 

"From Paul's teaching we discover that Gentiles who trust in the Messiah, Jesus, are fellow heirs of the promise of Abraham and are actually children of Abraham - "true Jews".

"The very same way that we become children of Abraham, namely, by believing in the Messiah, we also become heirs with Abraham of the world, because the Messiah is heir of the world. He fulfils all the promises of God, and we become fellow heirs with Abraham in him. In him we are Jews, and in him we are heirs of God.

"Galatians 3:29is a wonderfully clear statement of both of these things: "And if you belong to Christ (that is, the Messiah), then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise." Both: in Christ you are Abraham's descendants, and in Christ you are an heir with him."

I believe the Scriptures teach that all persons, irrespective of their ethnicity, geography, or history, who turn, trust, and treasure Messiah Jesus are God's one chosen people and children of Abraham and "True Jews"!