“But you are a
chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own
possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of
darkness into his marvelous light.”
(1Peter 2:9 ESV)
If I go back fifteen or twenty years, I had an interest
in genealogy. Even though I had a pretty
good idea about my heritage, I wanted to learn more about my family and where I’d
come from. And, for this reason, I spent a fair amount of time tracing my
family history.
I did so until I hit a couple of roadblocks. At the time, I was frustrated by them. However, in recent years, my attitude has
changed.
Although I don’t want to forget my family history, I no
longer find my identity in it as I once did.
I find my identity somewhere else.
I find it somewhere more important.
I find my identity in the Lord. And I do so for a couple of reasons. I do so because, no matter our heritage and
no matter our race, we find our origin in one place. All of our family trees go back to the same
starting point.
Our ancestry goes back to one
man. It goes back to one couple. It goes back to the first man created by God
in the Garden of Eden. It goes back to
the woman that God created from that man.
I
also find my identity in the Lord because of what we read in the above
verse. We see in these words that God
has made us to be his own. We’re told
that we are a chosen race. And, in
saying this, he isn’t talking about a certain culture or skin color.
As
we read in John 1:12-13, we’re made his children by faith in Christ. We’re told that all who received Jesus and
who believed in his name were given the right to become God’s children. And this is not a matter of ancestry or
bloodline. It’s not something that we do
for ourselves, nor is it something that others do for us. We are made to be the children of God by God
alone.
As we see above,
we are a royal priesthood. We’re a
people set apart for his service. We’re
a people set apart to share his Word and promises with the world around
us. We’re a people sent to bring the
message of salvation to all mankind. We’re
a people sent to declare his excellencies.
We are a holy
nation. We are a people that have been
set apart from all other peoples on earth.
We’ve been set apart to belong to God.
God calls on us
to honor our father and our mother. And
we must not fail to do so. However, we
must also bear in mind that the church is our family. We must bear in mind that the faithful, all
around our world, are our brothers and sisters.
No matter their background, if they trust in Christ, if they trust in
his death and resurrection for salvation and the forgiveness of sins, if they
hold to his Word and promises, they are our family.
My identity,
then, is in Christ alone. And the same
is true for you. In him we find our
beginning, and in him we find our eternity.
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