1 Peter 2:9-10
Peter again echoed the Old Testament, specifically Isaiah 43:20. “Chosen people,” which used to apply only to Israel, was now used of both Jewish and Gentile believers. The responsibility once solely trusted to the nation of Israel has now, during this Age of Grace, been given to the church. At Sinai, God told Moses to tell the people, “You will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:6). Now believers in the Church Age are called a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God
Peter just used similar terms to point up similar truths. As Israel was “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God,” so too believers today are chosen, are priests, are holy, and belong to God. Similarity does not mean identity.
But when ‘chosen’ is placed in the fuller phrase chosen race, the allusion to Israel, the race God had chosen as his own, is inescapable (see Isa. 43:20, where both these words are used). God has chosen a new race of people, Christians, who have obtained membership in this new ‘chosen race’ not by physical descent from Abraham but by coming to Christ (v. 4) and believing in him (vv. 6–7).
Just as believers are a new spiritual race and a new spiritual priesthood, so they are a new spiritual nation which is based now neither on ethnic identity nor geographical boundaries but rather on allegiance to their heavenly King, Jesus Christ, who is truly King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16).
Seeking our own eternal well being—right though that is—could never provide a truly satisfying goal for life. The answer to our search for ultimate meaning lies in ‘declaring the excellencies’ of God, for he alone is infinitely worthy of glory. Redemption is ultimately not man-centred but God-centred.
This purpose of redemption is too often thwarted by our silence or self-congratulatory pride, but even brief association with a Christian whose speech fulfils this purpose invariably refreshes our spirits.
But now they have been granted the highest privilege in the universe: now you are God’s people—not by any merit of their own, for they were deserving only of judgment.
Christians must grow together as well as individually, and Peter now raises this theme. He is so thrilled by the thought that he mixes his metaphors, but the argument is easy to follow. By constant communion with Christ, the living Stone, Christians will become like him, living stones. By itself a stone is of little use, but joined with others it becomes part of a building. A ‘living’ stone has a purpose to be part of the whole. Peter’s thought then switches from the structure (presumably the temple) to those who function in that building. Their responsibility as members of God’s spiritual household is two-fold: to worship, offering spiritual sacrifices (5) and to witness, declaring the praises (9).
You are … that you may underlines the biblical principle that privilege involves responsibility.
The word from which priesthood is derived is never used in the NT to describe the Christian ministry, but rather the task of all Christian believers (cf. Rev. 1:6)
Best seems to strike the right balance here: “Christians exercise priestly functions but always as members of a group who all exercise the same function.”
God’s ultimate purpose in everything he does is designed to bring him praise (Isa 43:7). The declaration of God’s praises includes both worship and evangelism, spreading the good news of God’s saving wonders to all peoples.
