Who can be the people of God? This might be the most basic question that everybody who believes in seems to have the answer for it. Many of them says that we can be God's people through the faith in Jesus Christ. Or others might say we have to love God with all our heart and mind. All these answers seems to be plausible and sensible and seems to be logical. But when we ask more fundamental question, "How can we be sure that our answers are true or not?", we might hesitate to say that our answers are definitive and absolutely correct. It is because these are just our thoughts, and we are not sure if God's thoughts are the same as ours.

Even God says,

Isaiah 55:8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Then how can we be absolutely sure that we are God's people in the eyes of God, not in our own opinions? How can we receive God's approval, not our own? To find the answer for these questions we have to look at the bible.

Condition to be the People of God

Then how can we be approved by God to be God's people? Just because we have faith in God, can we become the people of God? This is totally wrong. Jesus said about this:

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Jesus said that we cannot be His people through the faith alone. This means "faith in God and Jesus" is not the sole condition to be the people of God. Then how can we be approved by God to be His people? What is God's standard in choosing and deciding His people? The answer for the question can be found in the Book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 8:8 “The days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
9 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,
and I turned away from them,
declares the Lord.
10 This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
11 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”

Here God unequivocally states that those who keeps the new covenant are his people and they will know who God is.

God's People Through the New Covenant

Therefore, we can now know the true will of God in choosing His people. Through the new covenant God will forgive their sins and they will be people of God who can receive salvation. Therefore, according to this verse we have to know and keep the new covenant. And this is the only way approved by God. Then what is the new covenant?

Luke 22: 15~20 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. ....19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

On the night of the Passover, Jesus established the new covenant and gave it to his disciples. Through the Passover, we can receive the flesh and blood of God and become the children of God who has the same flesh and blood as God. Since we are children, God considers us as heir who can inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Therefore, if there is anybody who want to be the people of God, they have to keep the Passover. This is the will of God. Jesus said not everyone can be people of God, but only those who do the will of God. The Passover new covenant is the will of God that we have to keep to be the people of God.