Studies in First Peter Part 11
“9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (I Peter 2:9-10).
Don’t you love these descriptors of who we are as living stones in God’s spiritual house? “A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.” We are chosen; you raised your hand and God chose you. We are royals; children of the King of Kings. We are holy; God made you holy when you believed His gospel message. And we are a “people for God’s own possession.” We can’t get any closer to God than His own possession.
You were bought with a price, the invaluable blood of Jesus. “Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (I Peter 1:18-19).
And now you belong to Jesus. “Our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:13-14).
As chosen, royal, holy people for God’s possession, we have been created for good deeds, created for righteousness. And we have been given a mission to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Please look carefully at this message we are to proclaim.
It is a message of the excellencies of Jesus. It is the message of Jesus. No additives, no religion, no lists of do and don’ts, no condemnation, no clean up before we come to Him, no behavior modification, no sin management… just the excellence of Jesus and what He – not we – accomplished. And this is His number one accomplishment. He transferred us from “darkness into His marvelous light.”
He transferred us from lost to saved, from “in Adam” to “in Christ,” from unbeliever to believer, from outsider to child of God, from death to life, from darkness to light. “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). We have been “rescued and transferred” from the “domain of darkness” to the light; “the kingdom of His beloved Son.”
Our message to the world is not a message of judgment. It is a message of invitation. Jesus is inviting you to join this transfer train from death to life, from darkness to light. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24). The invitation is for you to cross to the other side, cross from death to life. Jesus is waiting there to welcome you home.