“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
Peter concludes this portion of 1 Peter with a moving exhortation to live out the Christian life based on our position before God. Four titles express our position, setting forth our privileges before God. We cannot properly orient ourselves to God without knowing these privileges.
In these verses, Peter presents the believer’s position and then explains its purpose. The believer’s position in the Christian life is fourfold.
But you
“But” is a right about-face word. “But you” stand in emphatic contrast to non-Christian attitudes toward Christ (1 Pe 2:8). Billions of years before anyone existed, God knew that you would live in time. He knew you by name. He knew you would make the greatest decision of all: to receive Christ as your Savior. Because you made that decision, God made provision for you billions of years ago in the form of positional privilege before God. This is what makes the believer stand in such contrast to those without Christ.
The unbeliever cannot have eternal meaning and purpose. No matter how successful he may be in this life, he cannot have what the most humble Christian can have. The believer, no matter what disaster has overtaken him or what failure has occurred in his life, holds a position before God.
All four privileges are positional. These are things accomplished by God. Therefore, we hold our privilege by our status before God. No matter how we fail, we still have these prerogatives before God because of Christ.
PRINCIPLE:
The Christian holds prerogative before God by Christ.
APPLICATION:
Any person who is a Christian has been born into the family of God. It begins with the second birth, spiritual birth. We enter into life by physical birth. We enter eternal life through spiritual birth. When we accept Christ, we enter into union with Christ.
God changes our status forever on our second birth. To orient ourselves to God’s plan, we have to know who we are. If we have personally accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are part of the elect race. Does this make us superior to others? No, it makes Christ superior to others. Christians are not superior in themselves; therefore, they should not act as if they were superior to others. We have no right to look down our nose at others.
