Scripture Daily

Context No. 1937 of 4322 · 1 Peter

Context · Reflection

1 Peter 2:7-12: in context

7For you who believe therefore is the honor, but for those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” 8and, “a stumbling stone and a rock of offense.” For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed. 9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10In the past, you were not a people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 11Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good works and glorify God in the day of visitation.

Peter describes the identity of those who believe in Christ, the rejected stone who became the cornerstone. You, he says, are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, called out of darkness into his marvelous light, that you may proclaim his praises. 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. And he urges them to live as strangers and pilgrims in the world, with conduct so good that even those who malign them will glorify God.

The identity Peter confers on believers is staggering, and worth dwelling on. You are, he says, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own possession. These are titles of immense dignity and belonging: chosen, royal, holy, God's treasured possession. And the wonder is heightened by what he says next: once you were not a people, and had not received mercy; but now you are God's people, and have received mercy. The ones on whom these titles are conferred were, before, nobodies, without status, without mercy, no people at all; and God made them his own chosen, royal, holy people. This is the transformation of identity that grace works. In ourselves, apart from Christ, we have no such standing; we were, as Peter says, not a people, in darkness, without mercy. And God, by his grace, has made us his own, conferred on us an identity we could never have earned: chosen, royal, holy, his treasured possession, called out of darkness into his marvelous light. This is who believers are, not by their own achievement but by God's grace and calling. There is a security and a dignity in this that can steady us. When we feel worthless, insignificant, nobody, we can remember what God has made us: his own chosen people, called out of darkness into light, a treasured possession. Our identity and worth do not rest on our own status or achievement, which may be little, but on what God has made us by grace. And there is a purpose attached: called out of darkness into his marvelous light, that we may proclaim his praises. The identity is given not only for our security but for a purpose, to declare the excellencies of the God who called us and to live, among those who do not yet know him, lives so good that they are drawn to glorify God. Once we were not a people; now we are God's people, chosen, royal, holy, his own possession. To grasp this identity, conferred by grace, is to find our worth and security not in what we have achieved but in what God has made us, and to live as those called out of darkness into his marvelous light.

When I feel worthless or insignificant, do I locate my identity and worth in my own status and achievement, which may be little, or can I take hold of what God has made me by grace, a chosen, royal, holy people, his own treasured possession, called out of darkness into his marvelous light, once no people and now God's own?

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