No they can't; they are an integral gift.

It's better not to describe Jesus as a mere "devout Jew" but instead as the perfect Son of God.     He was the perfect son of a monotheistic God. 

God "used" the Jewish people in a sense, because they were closest to the truth, of a monotheistic and personal God ("Father"). 

I will wait for a more substantial defense of a sharp distinction between the "institutional" Church and "the people of God".  

It's simply begging for an intellectual defense.