I Peter 2:9-10 9 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. 10 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.
Let’s explore what God does in us that enables us to live out our chosen status.
First of all, being born again, being saved in and through the blood of Jesus, who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, make us royalty. I Peter 2:9 says we are a royal priesthood. We are royalty. When we accept Jesus, we have royal blood flowing through our veins! The world seems to be obsessed with royalty. Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses stay in the media. Decades later people are still preoccupied with Princess Dianna. People seem fascinated by all things Windsor. Queen Elizabeth’s passing has been big news this past week. Contrary to the royal status she had which was mainly symbolic, and not authoritative, our royal status comes with power and authority. Luke 10:19 says we have all power and authority over Satan. That is huge!
Like the Windsor family in England, we also carry our royal family’s name with us wherever we go. We are Christians, born of Christ, following after Christ, and the name of Christ, the name of Jesus, opens doors no man can shut. The name of Jesus causes demons to flee. The name of Jesus brings healing and hope into dark moments and places where there would be no way for change in the natural. Our royal status gives us authority over Satan. Through the royal blood of Christ and our connection to Him, we can command Satan to flee from us. We can cancel every assignment He has in mind for us. Revelation 12:2 tells us we overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the blood of Jesus. His blood is what gives us our royal status.
Second, in addition to being made royal, I Peter 2 tells us we have been made priests. We are priests. Jesus is our High Priest, and He has chosen us to be priests in His service. In the Old Testament, only the High Priest had direct access to God, but in and through Christ, we now, each one of us who is a Christian, each one of us has direct access to God through Jesus. In prayer, we can boldly enter the throne room of God. Hebrews 4:16-“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
The High Priest could only enter the Holiest Place once a year in the Tabernacle. We can be in God’s presence every day! The High Priest had to go through tremendous cleansing rituals before entering that Holy Place. We are cleansed from every sin by the blood of Jesus according to I John 1:7.
Look at 1 Peter 2:5 in the chapter we are studying today. “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Not only did the Old Testament have access to the Holy of Holies where God’s presence dwelt, but the priests were the ones to offer spiritual sacrifices. We get to do similarly. Romans 12:1-2 tell us that we can present ourselves as living sacrifice to God. Oh, the sacrifice for sin, for all time, was made by Jesus, so we don’t have to try to offer a sacrifice for sin anymore. That priestly duty is finished. But we can offer our lives in sacrifice to the God who has loved and redeemed us and given us grace to live for Him.
In addition to offering ourselves as living sacrifices, as priests unto God, because we have been chosen, we are to offer sacrifices of praise and worship to God. Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.” Every good thing that happens to you is because God has made it possible, and every good thing you receive or every good thing that happens to you becomes your opportunity to glorify God. That job promotion becomes an opportunity to tell people about how good God is. The way God brought you through a trial is another chance to give glory to His name.
Look at the first verse of our text again: I Peter 2:9-10 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
Can you fathom that your chosen status makes you holy? When we were born physically, we were identified with Adam, we were identified as sinners. Because of Adam’s sin, we were born with a sin nature. However, when we are born again, we are given a new nature and are identified by the righteousness of Christ. The “Adam-Life” ends, and the Jesus-life begins! We no longer live for sin, but we live for the will of God, as Jesus did. When we accept what Christ has done for us, we depend on Him to take care of our need for spiritual and personal transformation. We trust Him to change us. We trust Him to empower us to live differently, to live a holy life. Jesus dealt with the Adam-Life, with the sin nature, when our sins were all nailed to the cross with Him. The sin that condemns no longer condemns the person who has accepted their chosen status in Christ because He dealt with our sin. He hung condemned in our place, so we could be made holy.
Holiness is about our desire and availability to be God’s man or God’s woman. To be holy literally means to be “set apart for God’s use.” Our holy status, our chosen status, puts us in a state of readiness to be used by God how and when He sees fit. II Corinthians 5:21 says God made him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness (holy) of God. Jesus was holy in every way. He was without sin and lived to do all that pleased the Heavenly Father. We live out our holy status as begin to desire God’s ways and as we seek to accomplish God’s will for our lives.
Peter’s description in I Peter 2:9 includes that we are God’s special possession. That very description makes you valuable. How much do you think you are worth to God? There is really just one main thing that determines the value of something. What is someone willing to pay for something? The answer to that question speaks to its value. Listen, there can be no mistake about the value of a believer. I Corinthians 7:23 tells us we have been bought with a high price, that we were paid for by the death of Christ on the Cross. What He was willing to pay is what determines our value! He was willing to give His very life. That makes us priceless.
Look again at I Peter 2:10: 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. Once you were not a people? What? How do you live without an identity? You live in constant search of one. What a rat race that is. I think that is what the world is doing; they are living in constant search of an identity. They think they will find it in their career or in a relational status. Perhaps they look for it by developing a certain skill or by affiliating with a certain group of people. Until they become part of the chosen, until they become part of the Family of God, they will continue to search and come up empty. Understanding who we are gives us a greater sense of purpose and destiny. In Christ, I am who God says I am.
Listen, Christian, you are who you are because of who Christ is and has always been. He has imparted His life to you. You are who God says you are because God cannot lie.
I Peter 2:9-10 9 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. 10 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.
Live like a chosen child of God!
