An Apologetical Explanation of the

Church as the People of God

Why is the Church called the People of God?

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…. I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  (Jer 31:31-33)

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.  (1 Pt 2:9-10)

The Church, the congregation of all those who believe in Christ, is the People of God, which he himself bought with his Blood.  It is closely related to the assembly of Israel at Mount Sinai.  After setting the Israelites free from their bondage in Egypt, god made a covenant with Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai, promising that if they kept the covenant, they would be his Chosen People, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

In the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, God once again set his people free—and called upon all to become his disciples, thus forming the new People of God:

At all times and in every race God has given welcome to whosoever fears Him and does what is right (cf. Acts 10:35).  God, however, does not make men holy and save them merely as individuals, without bond or link between one another.  Rather has it pleased Him to bring men together as one people, a people which acknowledges Him in truth and serves Him in holiness.  He therefore chose the race of Israel as a people unto Himself.  With it He set up a covenant…. All these things, however, were done by way in preparation and as a figure of that new and perfect covenant, which was to be ratified by Christ…. Christ instituted this new covenant, the new testament, that is to say, in His Blood (cf. 1 Cor 11:25), calling together a people made up of Jew and gentile, making them one, not according to the flesh but in the Spirit.  (LG 9; cf. CCC 804)

The People of God have several identifying characteristics.  God calls together his people from among all peoples of the earth.  They become members by faith and Baptism, and have Christ himself as their head.  they possess dignity and freedom as children of God, living according to the new commandment of love and carrying out his sacred mission within the world by virtue of their vocation as a priestly, prophetic, and royal people.  Finally, God’s people are destined for eternal glory in Heaven.  (Cf. CCC 782-786, 802, 1141, 1268)

The Catechism addresses this question in paragraph 781.

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