'Isn't Christianity the religion of Jewish people and foreigners? Yahweh is the God of Israel—what has he to do with us Chinese people?' These are sincere questions for many. Following the Bible's storyline from Genesis to Revelation, this article shows that the God of Scripture is the Creator of all humanity from its very first page. He chose Abraham's family precisely so that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. Election is the means; blessing all peoples is the goal. From beginning to end, this God has always been the God of every people and nation—including you.
Speaker: Pastor Bond
“For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)
When sharing the gospel among Chinese people, we often hear a sincere objection:
“Isn't Christianity the religion of Westerners and Jews? Everything in the Bible happened over in the Middle East. Yahweh is the God of Israel—what has he to do with us Chinese people? We have our own culture and ancestors. Why should we believe in a foreign God?”
This sounds reasonable and reflects real feelings about history. Yet it rests on a misunderstanding: the assumption that the God of the Bible is merely the local or tribal deity of a particular people.
Remarkably, we need not go outside the Bible to find an answer. Follow its own storyline from the first page to the last, and you discover that this God has always been the Creator and Saviour of all humanity, rather than the private possession of one people. From the beginning, his choice of Israel was intended to bless all peoples. Let us follow the story step by step.
Notice something often overlooked: the Bible does not begin with the Israelites.
The Bible's first eleven chapters, Genesis 1–11, tell the shared story of all humanity, rather than the story of one nation. God creates the heavens, the earth and everything in the universe, and makes humanity's first ancestors. Humanity falls, faces judgment through the flood, and begins again through Noah's family. After Babel, people scatter into nations and peoples. Only in chapter 12 do Abraham and, subsequently, Israel enter the story.
This order matters. The Bible first establishes that God is the God of all humanity: every race and people shares a common origin, created by the same God in his image.
“God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
Later, addressing Greek philosophers in Athens, the apostle Paul proclaimed precisely this:
“He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth… that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” (Acts 17:26–27)
In the Bible's understanding of the world, no people is an outsider. Chinese people, Greeks, Jews and Africans all come from this same Creator, and all are within his care and his searching love.
Why, then, did God single out Abraham and Israel? Was that favouritism?
Quite the opposite. Read what God said when he called Abraham. These words provide a key to the whole Bible:
“I will make of you a great nation… All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:2–3)
Do you see it? From the outset, the purpose of choosing Abraham was clearly stated: “All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” God began with one person and one family to open a channel through which blessing could flow to all peoples. Election is the means; blessing all peoples is the goal.
After Babel, all the nations lived within social structures of rebellion against God. So God did not select an existing nation as his favourite. He called Abraham to leave his “country”, his “relatives” and his “father’s house” (Genesis 12:1), and began forming an entirely new people from one man. This was, in fact, the fairest solution: rather than favouring an existing nation, he established a new beginning outside the existing nations so that blessing could ultimately reach them all. This new people was to bear witness among the nations to the Creator's love, power and glory, allowing blessing to flow once again to all the families of the earth, rather than shutting itself away for its own sake.
Later, at Mount Sinai, God made Israel's identity even clearer:
“…you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:6)
What does a priest do? A priest stands between God and people, bringing people into God's presence. God intended the whole nation of Israel to become priests for all peoples: to display the true and living God to the nations so that others might come to know him through them.
Once we read the Old Testament through the lens of all peoples, we discover God's love for the nations everywhere.
The prophets repeatedly declare that God's salvation reaches to the ends of the earth:
“I will also give you as a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6)
The prayers of the Psalms also look far beyond Israel alone:
“May God be merciful to us, bless us… That your way may be known on earth, and your salvation among all nations… Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy…” (Psalm 67:1–4)
More moving still, Old Testament stories repeatedly show Gentiles welcomed into God's household. Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute, was saved through faith and even entered the Messiah's genealogy. Ruth, a Moabite woman, took refuge in Israel's God and became King David's great-grandmother. When the reluctant prophet Jonah went to the great Gentile city of Nineveh, he struggled to accept God's compassion for it. Yet God said:
“Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand…?” (Jonah 4:11)
Even a Gentile city, its people and its animals are within God's compassion. The Old Testament tells the story of God extending grace to all peoples through the Jews, rather than loving the Jews alone.
In the New Testament, this storyline of blessing all peoples reaches its climax in Jesus Christ.
Yes, Jesus was Jewish according to the flesh, born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth. But he came for the whole world. The world's best-known Bible verse speaks of “the world”, beyond the boundaries of the Jewish people:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
After his resurrection, Jesus' final command to his disciples opened the door wide:
“Go and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19–20)
On the day the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, people from nations across the world, speaking different languages, heard the disciples declaring God's mighty works in their own native tongues (Acts 2). This was a reversal of Babel and a sign that the gospel would break through every boundary of language and ethnicity.
The apostle Paul explains the theological meaning of this with particular clarity. In Christ, the longstanding wall between Jews and Gentiles has been demolished:
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation…” (Ephesians 2:13–14)
“There is neither Jew nor Greek… for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)
The gospel therefore comes “for the Jew first, and also for the Greek” (Romans 1:16). “First” reflects the preparation and arrival of salvation in history through Israel. Coming afterwards never means being second-class: salvation comes to every people with the same fullness and preciousness.
If you are still unsure how wide God's heart is, turn towards the Bible's final chapters and see how history ends.
In a vision, the apostle John saw the final gathering of the redeemed:
“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb… They cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation be to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:9–10)
Look closely at those words: “every nation and… all tribes, peoples, and languages”. God's story ends with people from every people group and language on earth worshipping together before the throne, rather than one nation monopolising heaven.
This echoes the Bible's beginning. At the beginning, God makes every nation from one origin; at the end, the nations gather before him. From Genesis to Revelation, this God remains the God of all humanity. Israel's election is one part of this vast story; the destination has always been all peoples.
We can now return to the objection that Christianity is a foreign religion.
The God of the Bible is the one true God who created you, your ancestors and the entire Chinese people, rather than a God belonging exclusively to Westerners or a tribal deity of the Jews. Before the scattering at Babel, the ancestors of Chinese people came from this same God, just as the ancestors of every nation did. China's ancient tradition of reverence for Heaven cannot be directly equated with biblical revelation, yet it shows that reverence for the Most High is not unfamiliar to the human heart. (For this theme, see “Chinese People and God: From Humanity's Common Origin to China's Tradition of Reverence for Heaven”.)
For a Chinese person, then, believing in Jesus means returning to your true roots: coming back to the one true God who created all peoples and created you. It does not mean embracing a foreign God and betraying your origins. You are neither an outsider nor a late arrival in this great story. You were already within his purposes before the creation of the world. Among those before the throne, there will certainly be people from your own people group, speaking your language and singing their praise.
Dear friend, we can draw the whole storyline together in one sentence:
From its first page, the Bible presents God as the Creator of all humanity. He chose one family to bless every family. From beginning to end, he has always been the God of every nation and people—including you.
This God loves the world, and you are clearly included in that world. Through Jesus Christ, he has broken down every dividing wall and extends his hand to invite you.
If you would like to know this God of all humanity, begin by reading John's Gospel. See for yourself whether “God so loved the world” truly includes you.
Let us pray together:
God who created every people, thank you for showing me that you have never been the private possession of one nation. You are the one true God who created my ancestors and created me. Thank you for choosing Israel so that blessing could flow to all peoples, reaching even this day and reaching me. I confess that I once thought this was a foreign religion with nothing to do with me. Please open my eyes to recognise that trusting you means returning to my true roots, to the Lord who created me and deeply loves me. Let me share in the worship before your throne, with every nation, tribe, people and language. In the name of the Lord Jesus, amen.
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