A Chosen Generation

“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: 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

For thousands of years, the people of God were exclusively the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ changed that. Peter is writing to the “strangers,” Jewish Christians who were scattered across the Gentile world. In the passage above, Peter says that they had not been a people, but now were the people of God. The Israelites were first a family (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), then a nation (Moses, Joshua, Saul, and David), but in the last several hundred years before Peter was writing this letter, they had not been a sovereign nation. Peter is telling them that in Christ, they have a new identity. Now they are again the people of God. This is what Peter means by calling them a chosen generation. They were the first Jews who had the opportunity to be God’s people through faith in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. In some way, every generation has an opportunity to be a chosen generation because God has a specific work that He wants to see accomplished in each time period. We have an opportunity to serve the Lord in ways that are unique to our time. We must accept the challenge to be His chosen people by obeying His Word and sharing the gospel with the world.