The people of God

Read 1 Peter 2:9-10

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Peter returns to the theme of the blessings of being God’s people (2:5). In contrast (But you) to those who reject Christ, those who believe in him belong to God’s “chosen people” (9). The phrases he uses all referred originally to Israel (Ex.6:7; 19:6; Is.43:20-21) but now, through God’s new covenant in Jesus, Christians have become the new people of God (Jer.31:33).

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So the Christian life is a corporate experience. God’s purpose from the outset, both in creation and redemption, has been to make a people for himself. The church is the fulfilment of that purpose – we who “once were not a people are now the people of God” (10; Hos.2:23). By God’s great mercy we have been made alive in Christ and become part of his people, the spiritual house of which Jesus is the cornerstone (Eph.2:4-5,19-20; 1 Pet.1:3; 2:5).

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“No description of the church so emphasises the dignity, value and privilege of its members as the phrase the people of God” (David Watson). That privilege is for a purpose, just as God intended for Israel. As priests of the king, we are to be “for the praise of his glory” (Eph.1:12), declaring his truth so that others too might be brought out of darkness into light.