- Jesus Christ's work was not to make us God's people; we were already God's people, chosen by God and given to Christ to be redeemed.

- Jesus did not come to make God love us; God already loved us, and that is why He sent Jesus to save us.

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I was reading Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones exposition of John 17:6 last night where he goes into more detail on this topic:

"thine they were, and thou gavest them me."

"Many are guilty of misunderstanding the work of Jesus Christ. I have two points here. Does it come as a surprise to anybody that, according to this doctrine, it is no part of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ to make us God's people? Have we not always thought that that was his work - that he suffered for us and made us the people of God? But he did not; we were the people of God first and it was God who gave us to him. If that comes as a surprise to us, it is because we read our Bible with prejudiced eyes instead of looking at what it really says. 'Thine they were, and thou gavest them me.'

My second point is equally important. This is that it is no part of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ to secure God's love for us. I am very fond of our hymns, but I always try to remember that they are not divinely inspired, indeed some of them are tragically wrong and misleading. So many of them give the impression that our Lord is having to plead with his Father on our behalf, that God, as it were, is opposed to us, that our Lord has to engage his love for us and secure it for us. This doctrine shows us that it is not a part of the purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ to do that. It is because God loved us that he ever gave us to Christ. Christ has died for us not to secure the love of God for us, but because God has marked out his people before the foundations of the world. He hands them to the son and says, Go and save them, they are mine, I leave them to you, make them fit for me. For, 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son (John 3;16); 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself (2 Cor. 5:19) - not himself to the world. Oh how foolish we are and what an injustice we do to the name of our God and to his glorious love and grace! How frequently. because we neglect this fundamental doctrine, do we go wrong in our doctrine of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Quote Source: The Assurance of our Salvation: Exploring the Depth of Jesus' Prayer for His Own, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

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Someone pointed out the following verse: 

"Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Peter 2:10 ESV.

I hate to contradict the good Dr. but Peter seems to disagree with his conclusion.

Response

It's understandable to see how 1 Peter 2:10 might appear to contradict Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones's position at first glance. However, we can reconcile these two perspectives by understanding the context in which each is speaking.

1 Peter 2:10 states, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Peter is addressing Gentile believers, reminding them that they were previously not part of God's chosen people, Israel. This passage highlights that, through Christ, those who were once outside of God’s covenant community have now been brought into the fold. It speaks to the expansion of God's people to include the Gentiles, showing that salvation through Christ is open to all who believe, regardless of their ethnic or spiritual background.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones, on the other hand, focuses on the idea that those who come to faith were always chosen by God before the foundation of the world (as seen in Ephesians 1:4). His argument is based on the concept of God’s sovereign election — that God chose His people in Christ before time began, and these people were given to Christ for salvation (John 17:6). Lloyd-Jones emphasizes that Christ's work does not make us God’s people but rather accomplishes the salvation of those already chosen by God.

These two perspectives do not necessarily conflict. Peter is describing the process of people becoming part of God's covenant community in time, while Lloyd-Jones is emphasizing God’s eternal plan and purpose. Both affirm the same truth: it is through God's grace in Christ that we become His people. The key difference is the perspective — Peter speaks to the experience of believers entering into God's family, while Lloyd-Jones speaks to the theological foundation that underlies why and how they belong to God.

So, to reconcile the two, we recognize that from our human perspective, there is a moment when we become God’s people through faith in Christ. Yet, from God’s eternal perspective, those who come to faith were always His people, chosen in Christ before the world's foundation. Both truths coexist within the mystery of God’s sovereign will and His unfolding plan of salvation in history.