Who You Are in Christ (Part II)

“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 marvelous 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.”
– I Peter 2:9-10

Building on the previous article Who You Are in Christ (Part I), we move on to to study how God describes the church as a body.  Notice the words used here in I Peter -  ‘chosen’, ‘royal’, ‘holy’, and ‘peculiar.’  We may appreciate the first three, the last one ‘peculiar’, not so much.

Contemporary translations are very helpful in understanding God’s Word, but for word studies (defining the choice of word used and tracking it back to the original meaning), consulting a Strong’s Concordance is always best. See link at the bottom of this article for a link to e-Sword a free downloadable Bible resource.

Let’s examine these four words God uses in describing His beloved Church:

Chosen – select, or favorite
Royal – a kingly order
Holy – sacred or blameless
Peculiar – a continual, purposed acquisition

Not only are we these four things mentioned and defined above, God notes in verse 10 that we were not even a collective people, He gathered us to Himself. And further, God adds that prior to this gathering,  He had no mercy for us, but now (through Christ) we have obtained the mercy of God.

Is this not medicine for the ‘gray’ days of your life?  Can we not see here that if God gathered us, had mercy on us, and made us His favorite. And further He calls us blameless and placed us in a kingly order. If God thought that much of us, how can we wallow in the muck and mire of self-pity as we face the ‘grey’ days?

When we realize what God thinks of us, we find that the section of Scripture above that says ‘…that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.’ 

And walking in this knowledge, how can we not praise Him?

—

Visit www.e-sword.net to download your free Bible resource for Bible study.