A New People

Jim:

1 Peter 2:1-10
This passage is one of the most meaningful in all of the New Testament to me, and it has been for many years. I find great hope and confidence here, beautiful images of what it means to be a Christian and to be called by God. If I had to single out one verse, however, it would be verse 10: “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” At one of the youth conferences I attended as a high school student the keynote speaker quoted this passage as a source of strength and confidence for Christians. It made an impression on me then and has stuck with me to this day. No matter where we have been in our lives, no matter how far from God’s will we may have strayed, God still calls us back, still claims us, still has mercy on us and as a result we are blessed to be called the people of God. What great news!

Matthew 19:23-30
Verse 30 sums up the new ordering of things in the coming reign of God and ties in well with the reading from 1 Peter: “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” Those who have ultimate faith in themselves and who believe they can provide for themselves to the exclusion of God will find that they are farthest from the truth, while those who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, losing themselves in their devotion to Jesus, will find that they are nearest to the truth. They will recognize that it is not they, but God who has brought them back from sin and waywardness and claimed them to be God’s people.