Albert Barnes Commentary Ezekiel 36:28

"And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God." — Ezekiel 36:28 (ASV)

Ye shall be my people—(Compare to 2 Corinthians 6:16–18; Hebrews 8:10). The writers of the New Testament appropriated these and similar phrases of the Old Testament to the Church of Christ. Between the restoration of the Jews (the first step) there are many steps toward the end—the spread of Christ’s Church throughout the world, the conversion of the Gentiles, and the acknowledgment of the true God—which justify men in looking forward to a time when the Gospel shall be preached in all the world, and the earth will become the kingdom of God in a fuller sense than it has ever been before. But all these are “steps.” Our prophecies look beyond all this to a new heaven, to a new earth, and to a new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:3).