(1 Pet 2:9 NKJV) 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;
(1 Pet 2:10 NKJV) who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
Background
(1 Pet 1:1 NKJV) Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
Last week we learned that in this letter the Apostle Peter is addressing Jewish Christians who have been persecuted and as a result have fled their homeland. These people were called the Christians of the Dispersion and lived in the Asian provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 1 Peter was a circular letter to be read and passed on to these Christians who were scattered.
In this letter, Peter attempts to provide an explanation for and encouragement in the "fiery trial" (1 Pet. 4:12) which harassed his Christian readership. Peter wanted his readers to know that Christians suffer so that they might become more like their Savior, Jesus Christ.
By the time we get to chapter two where our text is found, Peter has already encouraged his readers in many areas.
In 1:2, he has called them the "elect according to the foreknowledge of God."
In verse 3-4, he writes to them about a “living hope” that they have been begotten to through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and an undefiled and incorruptible inheritance which has been reserved and is being protected for them in heaven.
In verse 5, Peter conveys to his readers truths about their eternal security. He writes that they are “kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
In verse 6 through 12, Peter encourages them to rejoice in spite of the trials that they are undergoing. He says that they can rejoice because one day their Savior Jesus Christ will be revealed from Heaven and He is going to remove them from their pain and reward them with the final phase of their salvation—the glorification of their bodies.
Verses 13 through 17 begins with a "therefore." Peter is insisting that because of the promise of the rapture of the redeemed ones and their future glorification, they should be living a certain way (as God’s obedient children) while awaiting Jesus' return.
As an encouragement to holy living, Peter also reminds them of how they were redeemed. The word “redeem” or “redemption” means “to set free by the paying of a price.”
The forefathers of these Christian Jews believed that they were brought into a proper relationship with God by the keeping of certain laws and rituals. They thought that by keeping their many rituals God would be pleased and reward them with salvation.
In verse 18-21, Peter wanted his readers to know that they weren’t redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold and vain religious rituals and laws practiced by their ancestors but with the precious and priceless blood of Jesus Christ.
This is the only way to be redeemed from sin, if you have been trying to make it in any other way, the Bible says you are like a thief and a robber. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
This is the true Gospel message. This is the only way to get right with God which is the point Peter makes in verse 22.
(1 Pet 1:22 NKJV) Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth…
The purification that Peter is referring to is a moral purity that comes to the Christian by means of the Gospel. The “truth” that Peter refers to in this verse is the Gospel. Last week we saw that within this verse is nested some very important principles that we must not let escape us:
People get saved by obeying the truth. Many Christians are espousing a modern-day version of the Gospel which really isn’t the Gospel at all. They are teaching that God is begging people to get saved when in actuality, He is commanding everyone, everywhere to repent.
People don’t get saved by merely picking Christ from a smorgasbord of alternatives, they get saved by obeying the truth. Christ is the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through Him
Obedience to the truth is confirmed by a consistently purified “soul” or life. We saw that Peter isn’t speaking of perfection, he was speaking of the direction of one’s life. The Bible teaches that Christians are alive.
We have been raised with Christ. (Eph. 2:6; Col. 1:3)
We have been taken out of darkness and placed into the light of the Lord. (1 Peter 2:9)
We have passed from death to life. (John 5:24; 1 John 3:14))
The Apostle Paul wrote, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:1)
Since this is true of a Christian, we must conclude that a Christian is someone who must grow. Dead things don’t grow only living things do. None of us have arrived but as Paul, are constantly “pressing onward toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:14)
This is what “purifying your souls in obeying the truth…” is all about. Obedience to the truth results in a purified life—there is no way around it. Christians are compelled to obey the Word of God. As we saw last week, this doesn’t mean that Christians don’t sin. It does mean that sin will be incidental or occasion, not a way or pattern of life as with some people who claim that they are Christians.
The Bible teaches that the one who is in Christ has ceased from habitual sin. It says that the one who has had their sins forgiven no longer practices sin. The one who habitually sins is of the devil. Listen to the Apostle John:
(1 John 3:7 NASB) Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
(1 John 3:8 NASB) the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
(1 John 3:9 NASB) No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
(1 John 3:10 NASB) By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
Christians are uniquely different from other people in that they have been born again. This is the point that Peter is making in verse 23 of the first chapter of his letter.
(1 Pet 1:23 NKJV) having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
(1 Pet 1:24 NKJV) because "All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away,
(1 Pet 1:25 NKJV) But the word of the LORD endures forever." Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
Born again is not merely a rebirth of thought or attitude. It is not merely a change of one's life direction. A born again person isn't merely one who has decided to join a church or adapt a new creed or philosophy of life.
Peter says that the born again does not mean a physical rebirth. The born again person hasn’t been born again of corruptible seed—that is, of human cohabitation, but of incorruptible seed through the Word of God which lives and abides forever.
This reality brings us to chapter two, Peter begins to build on this thought. Using “therefore” in verse one, Peter is encouraging his readers to reflect on what he has just said in chapter one and apply it to what he is about to say in chapter two. In essence he is saying:
*In view of the truth that we have been purified our souls in obeying the truth of the Gospel,
*In view of the fact that we have been born again by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God,
*Since we have been born again for eternity by the enduring Word of the Lord, be conducting yourselves in the following way:
(1 Pet 2:1 NKJV) Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
(1 Pet 2:2 NKJV) as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
Basically what Peter is saying here is, instead of sinning, Christians should be taking in the Word and growing. Again, Peter is emphasizing that there must be growth in the life of one who professes Christ as their Savior.
Just as a newborn baby longs and craves for its mother’s milk a Christian should long and crave for the Word of God. Just as our bodies crave for nutrition to survive, the Christian must “nourish himself in the words of faith and of good doctrine…” (1 Tim. 4:6). If you aren’t craving and longing for the Word of God, you need to ask yourself is something wrong
(1 Pet 2:3 NKJV) if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
(1 Pet 2:4 NKJV) Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,
(1 Pet 2:5 NKJV) you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
(1 Pet 2:6 NKJV) Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame."
(1 Pet 2:7 NKJV) Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, "The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,"
(1 Pet 2:8 NKJV) and "A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense." They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
(1 Pet 2:9 NKJV) 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;
1 Pet 2:9: As "living stones" (v. 5), believers are placed in a new and significant relationship to Jesus, the "chief cornerstone" (v. 6): (1) They are members of a "chosen generation," i.e., an elect race. (2) Furthermore, all believers are "priests," a word indicative of privilege in access to God but also of ministry to others in Christ's name. This priesthood is a royal priesthood as a result of the relationship of sonship which the believer possesses. (3) As a member of an elect race, the believer is also a part of a "holy nation." (4) The designation "special people" may be rendered more literally, "a people to be around," stressing that God's people are a possession of God Himself. (5) The function of this believing community is to "proclaim the praises" of God. The doctrine of the priesthood of all believers is a significant N.T. revelation. The old dispensation featured a Levitical priesthood, offering sacrifices for the people, interceding with God in their behalf, and on the Day of Atonement entering before God with sacrificial blood for the people. The new dispensation makes each believer a royal priest. This means: (1) every believer has immediate access to God in Jesus Christ; (2) the approach to God has been made forever open by a perfect sacrifice in Jesus; (3) the saints of God have the privilege and responsibility of interceding for one another before God; and (4) each Christian has the responsibility of a meaningful priesthood, representing God to the people in witnessing and teaching.
(1 Pet 2:10 NKJV) who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
1 Pet 2:10: The term laos (Gk.), translated "people," is always reserved in the N.T. for God's people. The term ethne (Gk.) is used for all other peoples. In Rom. 9:25, Paul, like Peter, also appeals to Hos. 1:9, 10; 2:23 to stress the universal motif of God's mercy. Peter, however, emphasizes the eschatological blessedness which his readers now enjoy as a result of believing in Jesus Christ.
