graphic: Martha G. Brady
But you are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a people for his own possession,
that you may proclaim the excellencies of him
who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh,
which wage war against your soul.
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable,
so that when they speak against you as evildoers,
they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
I Peter 2:9-12
This is a hopeful passage to think about at the beginning of the New Year isn’t it? It’s a repeat of the Covenant mentioned in Exodus and Deuteronomy, but adjusted a bit for after the cross. It’s roots are definitely deep in those Old Testament passages.
Let's live like the people we are! A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for GOD's possession...this is who we are in Christ! Share on XFor a Jewish person, the closeness to their promise from the Old Testament in Exodus and Deuteronomy would be difficult to miss. They had it memorized. For the gentile, they might not have heard it, but if they were in a church, there might be Jewish believers present who had. If they were aware of some of the other apostolic teachings being written that are now our New Testament, they were learning more and more from those who had actually talked to Jesus, what He was like; what the scene at the cross was actually like with all the chaos, screaming, upset, and in the end, the shaking of the ground with the earthquake!
People who were there to experience that event must have never forgotten the experience! They must have understood the battle of good and evil that went on that day!
We who are in Christ, are GOD’s chosen people now
To hear that we are a chosen people…yes, we gentiles! It is a special thing to hear. Once we were not a people, but now we are GOD’s people! What does that look like? Seeing how that plays out in the real world is something I’m still not sure I always understand.
So this week and in the year to come, let’s live like the people we are! A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for GOD’s possession…this is who we are if we are in Christ!
Let’s live like it. What a challenge! I so often live like a pauper. Blessings today!
Martha, in reading about the death of the wife of the Awana founder this morning, I came across a different blog post about Awana and how the books state the Bible is always right, and how she pulled her child for that. The comment section was full of arguments, statements that most Christians know there are errors in the Bible, etc., etc. I was struck by the wisdom and love in your comment about the Bible and, rather than comment on a four-year-old blog, wanted to let you know how much I appreciated your comment. I will be following your blog now. (Unless I read something that goes against the gospel.) 🙂 As a mom of adult children and a grandmother, it’s refreshing to see a blog by a mature woman of the Word, encouraging other mature women.
thanks you tina. i’m touched by your kind words. i do believe the Bible is GOD’s Word and inspired by Him. But i also think that we can come across very negatively in the way we present truth to our world. the ability to speak with love, when it happens, is not natural for me. i’m always touched when others see it in my words. thanks.
This is such wonderful truth and it comes to mind whenever I read the Old Testament – promises like Jeremiah 29:11: Can I claim this for me — today? Really?
Yes, and thanks be to God that we are grafted into Abraham’s family!
And thanks for your words today!
not only can we claim it, the promise was made at time when GOD’s people were headed into exile! yet the promise was that GOD had a future for them. what a promise. it wasn’t going to be exciting for the next few years of their lives, but overall, the future GOD had for them was a good one. when you think about what was ahead when that promise was made, it is an exciting promise for sure! it wasn’t promising rainbows and butterflies!