[InChristAlone]

Originally Posted by awareness

By this take God's steadfast love doesn't extend to anyone but the Jews.

In the EOC, we believe that after Christ, the Covenant of God, the Covenant of Abraham and Moses became open to gentiles, i.e. us Christians. Therefore, the Church is Israel and Christians are true Israelites, since most of the Jews rejected Jesus Christ. The Church is built on the foundation of one God, one Christ, one Israel, one Covenant, and those who reject any Revelation of this Covenant, or its oneness, do not participate in this Covenant and place themselves outside of the Church. The Orthodox Church does not claim to replace the Old Israel precisely because the New Israel (i.e. the Church) is nothing else but that very Israel of Abraham, Moses and the prophets, but already opened (revealed) to those non-Jews who believe in Christ.

The emergence of the Christian church was conceived by its early Apologists as being the inheritor of this heritage from the Old Testament. The church is in continuity with the Israel of God. The church Fathers made this clear in their writings and the Orthodox Christian Church maintains the position that the church is the people of God and the new Israel. Father Georges Florovsky made this clear in the following statement:

The first followers of Jesus in the "days of His flesh," were not isolated individuals engaged in their private quest for truth. They were Israelites regular members of an established and instituted Community of the "Chosen People" of God ... Indeed; a "Church" already existed when Jesus began His ministry. It was Israel, the People of the Covenant... The existing Covenant was the constant background of His preaching. The Sermon on the Mount was addressed not to an occasional crowd of accidental listeners, but rather to an "inner circle" of those who were already following Jesus . . . "The Little Flock" that the community which Jesus had gathered around Himself was, in fact, the faithful "Remnant" of Israel, a reconstituted People of God. . Each person had to respond individually by an act of personal faith. This personal commitment of faith, however, incorporated the believer into the Community. And this remained forever the pattern of Christian existence: one should believe and confess, and then he is baptized, baptized into the Body.

The New Covenant continued the Hebrew understanding of the people of God in its own terminology and perception. The Christians looked on the people of God as the "saints" and "holy people." That is, Jesus' disciples, or the Church corporately conceived, were thought of as the gedoshin, "hoi hagioi," the saints and gedosh, "ho hagios," the holy ones."

The term "hagioi" was used in the early church to designate those who followed Jesus or all the Christians. The terms "saints" or "holy ones" came to designate a universal community, one that was not distinguished according to race or nationality or class or sex, as explicitly stated in the letters of St. Paul. Paul writes, "There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus."' The term "holy people of God" designates the church. The church is open to all, transcending all barriers between Jews and gentiles.

A contemporary scholar makes the following observation of the New Testament understanding of Israel as the people of God. He states:

For Matthew, Israel has been replaced by another people, coming from all Gentile peoples: Matt. 8:11-13; 21:43; 27:15-26.

Paul grants Israel, as the people of God, a general amnesty, as the whole of Israel after a temporary rejection shall be saved at the end of times: Romans 11.

The Gospel of John shows that throughout the history of Israel there were always two groups among the people; these were separated through the coming of the Messiah-Jesus. Only one of the groups is and has been Israel, and this group is found in the Church.

The church is the Israel of God, "nor a new Israel, but the one and only people of God, Israel in a new Face of history, namely, that of Jesus."

The church is all encompassing and provides divine revelation and salvation to all people and races. One interpreter of St. Paul makes the point that; "In Jesus there is a new universalism, not a bare transposition from Israel to the Church. "

There is a relation of Church (Ekklesia) and the people of God as perceived by the New Testament documents. However, the Church of God (He Ekklesia tou Theou) is also an eschatological community and exists to gather all peoples and nations under the rule of God in recognition of Christ as the Messiah.

http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith9285