Seeds for 04/29/2024 - 1 Peter 2:9a
Scripture:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Observation:
The Christian believers Peter addresses are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession.”
Those who believe in Jesus as Messiah are regarded as the People of God, in the same way that Israel was, whether or not they are ethnically Jew or Gentile.
Again, Peter’s basic assumption about believers is to regard us as a collective community, not merely a collection of individuals with basically the same beliefs. The descriptions here make sense inasmuch as they are describing the community of faith, not simply individuals within it.
Let’s look at each descriptor.
As Israel was chosen by God to be saved by His gracious and powerful action on their part by delivering them from slavery in Egypt, so the Christian community is chosen by God to be saved by His grace and power by delivering them from slavery to sin.
As Aaron and his descendants were priests before God, the Christian community is to fulfill the function of the priesthood, being a go-between that facilitates people being reconciled with God. This happens as we share the Good News that Jesus has made a once and for all sacrifice that atones for sin and restores our relationship with God.
As Israel was a nation set apart for holiness unto the Lord in order to have a witness to the nations, so the Christian community is set apart for holiness unto the Lord to display His character as we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ.
Finally, Israel was God’s special possession, a people claimed by God simply by sheer grace—His desire to extend His love freely to them not because of anything special they had done, but due to His gracious choosing alone. In like manner, the Christian community bears witness to this scandal of grace in that we are not members of the People of God because we were so great, but because God so loved the world that He gave His only Son for our sake. If we have put our faith and trust in Christ, we belong to God as His special possession.
Application:
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for your saving grace in Jesus and for making me part of the people of God. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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