“Who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
Who once were not a people but are now the people of God
There was a point when the Christian was not a part of the family of God. It is essential to occasionally to look back at what we were. There was a time when we were not naturalized, or shall we say “super-naturalized” into the people of God.
Ephesians 2:13, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
Galatians 3:26, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
The previous verse says that we are God’s special people, the people of his own possession. Once becoming a Christian, we are now people who belong to God. The onus is upon him to protect, care, and provide for us. We will never have a need or problem that he does not meet.
PRINCIPLE:
God wants us to compare our lost estate with our saved estate to appreciate what we have in Christ.
APPLICATION:
At one point, God did not claim us as his own. We were devoid of the presence of God in our lives.
Before we received Christ, we were not a people in God’s eyes – we did not belong to God. We were simply creatures created by God. All our thoughts were horizontal. We said prayers, but we did not talk to God. We were religious, but we had no relationship with God. We went through form and ceremony. We tried to be good, but we could not live up to our own expectations. Then one day, we met the Lord Jesus. We had a confrontation with the Son of God. Someone told us about the Savior. There is a difference between religion and Jesus.
Now that we are Christians, the onus is upon God to make provision for our daily needs.
If you compare this verse with verse 9, it says those who are part of the chosen people had once not been a people. This suggests to me that the timing of God’s choice of us is during our lives, because when God chooses us, we obtain mercy. However many people believe (Calvinist doctrine) that we were chosen individually before the foundation of the world, because scripture says we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. So were we chosen twice, i.e chosen before time to be chosen during our lives?
If we interpret this verse as saying we are chosen during our lifetime, does that not suggest God calls us through His gospel presented to anyone who will listen – for many are called but few are chosen – and then God chooses those whose faith He credits as righteousness.
Van, you are right in this interpretation. There is the eternal call and election of God and then there is the temporal call. We see the temporal call in verse 9. The word “called” in verse 9 is an aorist participle (a participle does not have mood; this participle carries the idea of an imperative even though it is aorist tense; the aorist in this sense is more point action establishing a principle; this participle is a verbal adjective). Seen my study on verse 9. Note this verse: “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2).