A chosen generation
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an
holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time
past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained
mercy, but now have obtained mercy.– 1 Peter
2.9-10
Not only are
we a spiritual house, but we are also a chosen generation. I am not going to
try to define exactly what this ‘chosen’ means. The church has be arguing for
2,000 years about what chosen is and neither ‘side’ as made any advance.
Instead
let’s just acknowledge that God chose to save all who put their faith in
Christ. Anyway – we are a people chosen by God. What a
wonderful truth that is. God chose us to show his praises because he called us
an delivered us from darkness into light. Before Christ we have not received
his mercy, but now we have.
What a great God.
But there are a couple more things to note. Not only
has He chosen us to do all those things. He has also declared us as a royal
priesthood. Every one of us therefore has immediate and direct access to God.
And then we have one of my favourite descriptions of
us as God’s people. This same phrase is used in Titus and I really like the old
King James phrase here – we are a ‘peculiar people.’ That word has a whole
different meaning today than it did then. Today it means odd or out of place. In
1611 it had more of the idea of being uniquely belonging to Christ.
But I’m not so sure there isn’t a viable connection.
If we uniquely belong to Christ we are going to seem peculiar to the rest of
the world. Our faith ought to cause a sense of peculiarity in this present
world. I am not so sure that ‘peculiar’ is a description for us to be put off
by.
So Lord, thanks for choosing me. Thanks for my royal
priesthood. And let me thrive in being peculiar for you!
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