In tonight’s service we looked at 1 Peter 2:9-10 as we started a new series entitled ‘The People of God.’ Our identity is crucially important to us, and since God is our Maker and Creator, what He says about us matters even more than what we feel about ourselves or than what others say about us. Our identity is bound up in the fact that we are made in God’s image (Gen 1:27) and is far more than our gender (which seems to be the hot topic at present) since we are spiritual as well as physical beings. Moreover, our identity is not simply an individual matter, for Peter says here we have a corporate identity as the people of God, chosen and loved by Him.
Both Peter and Paul (see Eph 2:1-10) remind us that there is a vast difference between how we used to live and our status now as God’s children. Our identity does not lie in our achievements (see Deut 7:7-9) but in God’s mercy and kindness. Peter calls us a chosen people (see Eph 1:11), a holy nation (called to reflect God’s holiness), a royal priesthood (fulfilling the priestly role of mediator between God and humanity which in the Old Testament was fulfilled by the Levitical priesthood) and God’s special possession, as precious as a bejewelled crown. (Zech 9:16)
We must learn to live in this God-given identity which we have received through the generosity, mercy, kindness, grace and love of God and to believe we are who God says we are, rather than being squeezed into the world’s mould or being shaped by our past, our feelings or our culture. We have great worth and value and purpose, being called now to declare God’s praises to a world still in darkness.
