Applying the Gospel Study Bible
Church & Ministry Resource Guide
Christians Have a New Identity
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. 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. —1 Peter 2:9–10
A Chosen Race
Genuine believers together make up “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.” That four-part description defines Christians’ true identity.
First, Peter says, believers collectively are God’s “chosen race.” This race is made up of individuals set apart by God to be his very own, to belong to him by faith in his Son (see also Eph. 1:5). As we noted in our discussion of 1 Peter 2:8, we choose to believe in him only because he determined, before time began, that we would believe (see also Rom. 8:28–29). No one comes to God apart from God’s enabling through the gift of faith. John Piper encourages us:
Revel in the wonder that you are a Christian because God chose you to be one. Your roots, as a child of God, are in eternity—in the infinite mind and heart of God. Your faith, and all its fruits, are God’s eternal gift.1
Those he has chosen come from every race and ethnicity. Together we make up one family. Our racial and ethnic distinctives beautifully reflect God’s diverse creativity, and in that sense they greatly matter. So our differences are meant to glorify God but never divide us. In Christ we are a single chosen race made up of people from every skin color, geographic region, and cultural background.
1 Peter
Lydia Brownback
In this volume in the Conversational Commentary series, Lydia Brownback offers women a warm and clear verse-by-verse examination of the book of 1 Peter. It’s an accessible resource for personal study, small-group discussions, teaching, and outreach.
Christians are also described as God’s “royal priesthood.” Priests under the old covenant, the Mosaic law, served as mediators between God and sinners. The priests offered the people’s sacrifices for sins in the tabernacle, later the temple, until Christ died on the cross as the full and final sacrifice. Because sacrifices for sin are no longer needed, the priesthood of believers serves a very different function. Instead of offering sacrifices for sinners, we point sinners to the sacrifice made for them in Christ. And we don’t carry out this ministry in a designated temple; together we are the temple, God’s spiritual house. Peter describes our priesthood as “royal,” because we serve the King of kings, the Lord Jesus.
The third component of our new identity is that together we are a “holy nation.” The designation “holy” means “set apart” for God’s service and for his glory. In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel held this set-apart designation. Now, the holy nation made up of Christians includes both Jews and Gentiles, people from every nation in the world.
The fourth aspect of our identity in Christ is that we are “a people for his own possession.” God owns us, and he paid a costly price to do so—the lifeblood of his very own Son. This means that we don’t have the right to live any way we choose. Because we are the Lord’s possession, we are to shape our lives—our choices, our convictions, and our entire worldview—by God’s word. And as each one of us does this, the church is built up and strengthened.
Our natural tendency is to define ourselves by what we have or what we do: “I’m a stay-at-home mom,” or “I’m a math teacher.” Because that’s true, we must allow Peter’s categories to reshape our perspective. Together we are the church, and individually members of it. This is our new identity. And the overarching purpose for which we’ve been defined this way is to demonstrate the truth of the gospel in all we do and say. As we live out the new identity we’ve been given in Christ, we showcase the very real distinction between spiritual darkness and spiritual light.
Peter sums up our Christian identity in verse 10: We are “God’s people.” Peter once again draws from the Old Testament—this time from the prophet Hosea, who prophesied during a time when Israel was unfaithful to God. God called Hosea to marry a loose woman, Gomer, who would cheat on him with other lovers and break his heart. Gomer’s children were given names to reflect the troubled marriage. A daughter was named “No Mercy,” and a son was named “Not My People” (Hos. 1:6, 9). This broken family was meant to reflect that God’s people were cheating on him with idols and cutting themselves off from their divine husband. But God never leaves his people, even when they leave him. So to demonstrate his heart for the wayward, God instructed the grief-stricken Hosea to go after his cheating wife and do whatever was necessary to bring her home. This is exactly what God has done for us. He has brought us home by means of his Son, showering us with mercy and making us his people forever.
Exiles
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. —1 Peter 2:11–12
The word “Beloved” at the beginning of verse 11 is Peter’s way of beginning a new section (he does the same thing later, in 1 Pet. 4:12). With mercy now fresh in the minds of his readers, he makes an urgent appeal in verses 11 and 12. He roots this appeal in their present position—they are “exiles,” pilgrims on a journey to a heavenly homeland. Let’s remember that when Christ saves us, we are transferred from the kingdom of this world to the kingdom of God. Although the transfer isn’t visible, it’s very, very real. And it’s why we are exiles in this life, wherever we live. Living with our status as exiles always in mind helps us keep our day-to-day lives in perspective. As hard as life here might be, it’s only a journey to a pain-free destination, and the sojourn is so very brief in light of eternity and the joys that await us when the journey is done.
But God never leaves his people, even when they leave him.
The urgency underlying Peter’s instructions in verse 11 underscores the intensity of the battle against sin and temptation. “Passions of the flesh,” which fuel temptation and incite us to sin—what Peter describes as war being waged against our soul—include things like envy, hatred, revenge, lust, overindulgence in God’s good gifts, and taking part in blatant sin (see, for example, Paul’s “works of the flesh” list in Gal. 5:19–21). We must “wage war” against those passions that, if not battled, will dull our spiritual fervor and lead us to sin against God (1 Pet. 2:11).2
Another reason to fight against fleshly passions is the watching world, which is what Peter is getting at in verse 12 when he writes, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable.” In the Bible, the term Gentile was applied to non-Jewish people—those outside Israel, God’s family. After the coming of Christ, God’s family expanded to include people from every nation and race, and the term Gentile came to be used for anyone outside the Christian faith. So in verse 12 Peter uses the word “Gentile” the way we use “unbelievers” or “non-Christians.” People who don’t know Christ observe those who profess him, and they can be either attracted to the gospel or repelled by it based on what they see in believers’ lives.
Peter’s hope is that the Gentiles will “glorify God on the day of visitation.” Scholars aren’t completely sure what Peter means by “day of visitation.” He might have been thinking about an actual day when these watching Gentiles get saved, or he might have in mind the time when Christ will return to gather all his people and take them home to heaven forever.
Notes:
- John Piper, “Ten Reasons to Revel in Being Chosen,” Desiring God, October 27, 2015, https://desiringgod.org/.
- Aaron Garriott explains, “Regeneration and its fruit, conversion to Christ, signify a drastic change in identity. Regeneration does not, however, purge the effects of our fallenness from our souls and bodies. Regeneration imparts spiritual life into the soul, but one’s history before regeneration is not changed. This means that a Christian will hate his sin, but he still might be attracted to the same sins as he was before conversion.” Garriott, “Why Do Christians Do Bad Things?,” Ligonier, May 6, 2024, https://learn.ligonier.org/.
This article is adapted from 1 Peter: Hope for Exiles by Lydia Brownback.
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