March 15, 2025 - 1 Peter 2:9 - Chosen, Redeemed, Called

1 Peter 2:9

"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:"

There are various illustrations that the Scriptures use to describe the Lord’s people. They have been redeemed and justified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and, in time, called out by the Holy Spirit. We see them described in 1 Peter 2:9 as a nation.

First, the Lord's people are a nation chosen out of every country and land in this world by His Sovereign will and pleasure. It is not because of any perceived faith in them or any perceived holiness. They have none. All of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). It is not because of any works of these hands that any may have done, but it is wholly attributed to God’s grace and to what He purposed to do before the foundation of the world.

Did you have a choice in where you were born? Did you have a choice in the color of your skin? God determined it all. He has determined your very path to this point. You didn’t decide. Everything that we are and have, as you look back, you can say, “God has traced it. God has done it. God has given it.” In Ephesians 1:3-5, this very truth is not a subject of stumbling for the Lord’s people but a blessing. It says: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will…”

Second, He describes those who are members of this nation of elected sinners as a royal priesthood. Where does that term originate? What does it mean? In Revelation 5, Christ, by His work accomplished for the salvation of sinners, has made a nation that is a kingdom of priests. It says in Revelation 5:9, “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.” There is one nation in Christ. It is made up of every possible race that you can think of. The Lord has chosen them, and Christ has redeemed them. Revelation 5:10 says: “And hast made us unto our God kings and priests.” How so? All that Christ is, we are. So, as He reigns, we reign. As He is the High Priest, by whom the sacrifices were offered for the people under the Levitical law, so the Lord Jesus has made redeemed sinners a priesthood unto God through Him. We, who are His redeemed ones, come unto God through Him.

In addition, we read, “…we shall reign on the earth.” We reign now as the subjects of Christ's kingdom that He established in His coming, doing, dying, and rising again (Acts 2:23-28). We are never to be encumbered with the cares of this world and feel that we are somehow subject to its devices. We are not subject to the world. We reign. God has His hand on you if you are one of His chosen ones for whom Christ died, rose again, and ascended on high. Therefore, we rest and look to Him in times of trouble. It doesn't mean that we won’t face difficulties like the rest of the world, but our mind is different, being redeemed and drawn to Christ by His Spirit. This is why it is described here as "a royal priesthood." We are kings to wear royal apparel. You say, “Well, what is our royal apparel?” It is the robe of righteousness that God the Father imputed to the spiritual account of each of His elected ones. This righteousness the Lord Jesus earned and established, and upon completion of His death on the cross, God the Father justified each one then and there (Romans 5:9-11).

To reign with Christ forever, as priests unto God, we are anointed by the Holy Spirit to serve God through the Lord Jesus, and thereby we draw nigh to God. We wouldn’t know where to go. We wouldn’t know how to approach a holy God in worship were it not for the Spirit of God opening our hearts to the Lord Jesus and drawing us to Him. But we come through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, God’s Lamb, and by Him, offer spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise (Hebrews 13:15).

Third, this nation is described as "a holy nation." Israel of old as a type was sanctified and set apart, separated from other nations and called the people of God. Even so the elect are the true Israel, being in the Lord Jesus, Who is God's True Israel. There is no going back to national or natural Israel. This redeemed and justified body of sinners is the nation. This is the people of God. It is done. To think of it ever going back to something else is a delusion.

Some speak of a time when God will supposedly rapture out the church and go back to working with national Israel again, as if the physical Jew is still the people of God. That goes against the whole direction of Scripture. This is a holy nation, made so by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why Paul's natural Jewish brethren got upset, but he did not hold back in declaring, as he did in Philippians 3:3: “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”  We are the circumcision, those chosen in Christ and redeemed and justified by His shed blood. This is His true Israel. What had been a term reserved for the Jew only, he now applies to those that Christ has redeemed out of every tribe, nation, and tongue. In Romans 2:28-29, it can't be stated any plainer: “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”

One final characteristic is that they are peculiar people. If you look it up in Strong’s Concordance, it means "a purchased people." That is why they are special. It is because they have been bought with the blood. It is not because they are any better, but because they are special to God. They bear the special love and favor of God, with all the spiritual blessings that come with that favor because they have been purchased. It shows us just how definitive the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is in the eyes of God. Before Christ died, their sin was covered. But when He died, that sin was put away. They, by the Spirit of God, looked forward to that day when Christ would come and put away that sin. We, by the same Spirit of God, look back to what was accomplished.

And what is the result? It says: “…that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” The Lord is going to have everyone that He has chosen, everyone that He has redeemed, called out. And it will be in His time. We are saved and delivered to the praise of His glory. It is not ours. It is His. And that will be forever, being trophies of His grace, just as we read in Revelation. We will never stop singing: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” (Revelation 5:12).

The question is: Have you been called out of darkness? Because anybody who is the special object of God’s favor in Christ, for whom He died, is, in time, brought to see that they were in darkness, that they were lost. Worthy is the Lamb is the testimony that we show forth, that we declare when He called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Who makes us to differ? The only thing we can say is it was God’s grace and favor toward poor, wretched sinners such as we are. We have nothing for which to boast. We give all the glory to God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.