Who am I, why am I here, and how did I get this way?

How we became who we are

Let’s begin with how we got here. What accounts for our identity as God’s special and personal possession? To whom or what do we attribute the fact that we are a chosen race and a holy priesthood? Peter answers this question in two ways in vv. 9b-10.

First, we are who we are because although we were once immersed in darkness, blind to the beauty of Christ and insensitive to the grandeur of God, he called us and brought us into the light of knowledge and forgiveness and understanding and joy.

In sovereignly choosing us for life God determined to deliver us from moral and spiritual and intellectual and social and relational “darkness” (v. 9). Apart from grace we don’t see spiritual things; they are invisible to us. We may not be physically blind but we are spiritually without sight! Even if we do see them, or know they are there, we have wrong notions about them. We call good evil and evil good. We are ignorant of and disdainful towards what is of infinite value and beauty, namely, God. We fail or refuse to see how splendid, majestic, and all-sufficient he is. We are blind to the beauty of Jesus, his excellency, his glory, and his power.

To be converted is to be brought out of such darkness into light, by which the apostle Peter means understanding and enjoyment. It isn’t enough to have the former without the latter. God has chosen us and delivered us that we might experience a new sight, a new taste. God’s shining of his light into the soul doesn’t merely awaken us to the existence or reality of spiritual things, of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit. It shows the excellency and glory and beauty of such and imparts a new taste for them.

Note Peter’s word: It is a “marvelous” light! Why? Because the things discovered by it are themselves marvelous, admirable, precious, and beautiful.

Second, we are who we are because although there was a time when we were not God’s people, we were made the recipients of divine mercy. In other words, God has acted to impart his mercy to us and make us his own.

This statement in v. 10 is a clear reference to the story of Hosea and his wayward wife Gomer and their children. Peter is taking that remarkable OT story and applying it directly to us, believers in Jesus, the church.

I read the Old Testament story of Hosea with shock and amazement. Hosea may have lived 2,700 years ago, but his idea of marriage wouldn't have differed greatly from mine. Like most other men, he wanted a wife who was faithful and pure and gentle and loving. He didn't get one.

Hosea married a whore. Sorry, but there's no reason to tone down the language. Hosea's wife, Gomer (I've often wondered if she had a brother named Goober!), was a whore, a prostitute. She was unfaithful, ungrateful, unbelieving, and unloving. Why, then, did he marry her? Because God told him to.

"Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord" (Hosea 1:2).

Hosea was to represent God. Gomer, his wife, was to play the part of Israel. Instead of simply telling his people how sinful they were and how he was determined to love them anyway, God brought Hosea and Gomer center-stage to dramatically act it out.

So Hosea married a harlot. He adopted the children she had conceived because of her immoral trysts (cf. Hosea 1:2). She then bore Hosea three children whom God also used to illustrate the depth of Israel's sin.

I'm fascinated with the reasons people give for naming their children the way they do. Often names are selected which they hope will instill confidence in their child. Others pick whatever is fashionable at the time. I happen to be named after my grandfather.

My father once told me of a family in his home town who named their six children Victor, Vada, Vida, Velda, Vester, and Vernon! A friend of mine, less concerned with alliteration, opted for biblical names for his seven kids.

When God named the offspring of Hosea and Gomer, his decision was shaped by the lesson he wanted to teach Israel. Thus, the firstborn, a son, was named Jezreel, which means "God scatters". This clearly pointed to the judgment that would befall Israel. The second child was a daughter, Lo-Ruhamah, which means "not pitied." And the third child, another son, was called Lo-Ammi, "not my people."

Marriage and motherhood did nothing to temper Gomer's promiscuous passions. She cheated on Hosea. She turned her back on him, spurned his love, and committed adultery.

Love, so we are told, like most everything else, surely has its limits. So who would dare speak ill of Hosea for divorcing Gomer? But he didn't. God's love, symbolically expressed in the action of Hosea, unlike everything else, shatters the mold. Indeed, it stretches the limits of credulity.

How can I even begin to describe a love so deep that it would pursue a chronic fornicator even as she seeks illicit pleasures in the arms of her paramour? Yet that is precisely what God told Hosea to do!

"The Lord said to me, 'Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.' So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, 'You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you'" (Hosea 3:1-3).

Hosea, playing the part of God, was to purchase back to himself his wayward and wanton wife. Gomer, playing the part of unfaithful Israel, is redeemed by the relentless love of her husband.

Moreover, the threats implied in the names of their children are graciously transformed into blessings. Such is the power of God's love that Jezreel no longer means "God scatters" but "God plants" (Hosea 2:22). Lo-Ruhamah becomes Ruhamah, "pitied." And Lo-Ammi becomes Ammi, "My people."

Make no mistake. The redemptive love of Hosea for Gomer, that is, of God for Israel, was a foreshadowing of God's love for the church, for you and me. Let me be blunt: you and I are spiritual fornicators. We are worthy of eternal divorce in the depths of hell. But "this is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God [any more than Gomer loved Hosea], but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10).

Gomer was redeemed by Hosea for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethek of barley. God redeemed us through the precious, spotless blood of His dear Son, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Peter 1:18-19)! Indeed, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8; cf. John 3:16; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 5:2).

Merely sending Jesus into the world could hardly be construed as an act of unparalleled love. But sending him to die as the redemptive price for the souls of scurrilous spiritual adulterers like you and me is love beyond degree.

So the answer to the question: How did we get this identity is that God gave it to us. He gave it to us by virtue of his irresistible call that brought us out of horrific and indescribable darkness into glorious and indescribably marvelous light! He gave it to us by showering us with saving mercy, by showing compassion on spiritual fornicators and making us the pure and chaste bride of his Son. We are now in his marvelous light, we are now God’s people, because of what God has done!

That brings us to our second question: what are we?

What we are

Peter singles out four things.

(1) We are a chosen race

See Isaiah 43:3,20-21.

Whether Jew or Gentile, Greek or Roman, from Cappadocia, Bythinia, Russia or Zambia, though from many races and colors and ethnicities, we have been united by faith in Jesus to be a new people, a new race.

But don’t think of the word “race” as you normally would in conversation today. This kind of “race” has nothing to do with ethnicity precisely because this race is comprised of every ethnicity! This chosen race is not solely black or exclusively white or only red or yellow or brown. It is comprised of each and every color and is therefore no single color in particular. It is a spiritual race, a chosen race!

What gives us our identity is not color or culture, but rather creed. This race is defined by what we believe. We believe in Jesus. We treasure Jesus. We regard Jesus as precious. That is the defining characteristic of this spiritual race. But note well: we believe in Jesus because we are chosen! We are a chosen race! “Christians are not the white race; they are the chosen race. Christians are not the black race; they are the chosen race. We are the black chosen and the white chosen and the yellow chosen and the red chosen. Out from all the races we have been chosen—one at a time, not on the basis of belonging to any group” (Piper).

The supreme trait of the new Christian race is treasuring Christ and building our lives individually and as God’s spiritual house on the living stone that is Christ.

(2) We are a royal priesthood

Look back with me at vv. 4-5. Not only are we living stones being built into a spiritual house for God's habitation, we are also a "holy priesthood." In other words, we are not merely the passive building where God dwells; we are also the active participants in worship. All of us, Elders and pastors and staff and musicians and singers and nursery workers and sound technicians and each and every one of you regardless of title or function are the priests of this new spiritual house, and our privilege now as priests is to draw near to God with spiritual sacrifices. The priests brought the sacrifices into the tabernacle in the Old Testament. But now that tabernacle is replaced by the Christian church. The atoning altar is replaced by Jesus Christ and his shed blood. And the priests are replaced by you, those who believe in Christ.

Each and every one of you, if you know Jesus and regard him as precious and believe in him for the forgiveness of your sins, each and every one of you are part of this priesthood. This priesthood is not made up of those who wear special clothing, whether clerical collars or robes. It is not made up only of those who are called “Pastor” or who attended seminary.

To be a part of this royal priesthood means that you all have access to God through Jesus Christ. You do not take your sacrifice to the priest or the pastor and watch while he takes it to the altar or to the tent of meeting with God. You all are called by God to approach the altar and the throne, and to make your own personal sacrifice in personal life and in corporate worship. The bottom line is that you don’t need me to worship God or to serve God or to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. You only need Jesus!

Consider how this applies to our prayer lives and prayer ministry. I have no more authority with God than you do! You need to pray for me! Any believer may pray for any other believer, for we all, as believer priests, have equal access to God the Father through God the Son in the power of God the Holy Spirit!

Note well: God chose you and bestowed his mercy on you and caused you to be born again and made you his personal possession precisely so that you may be actively engaged in priestly service and worship. As believer priests, we are never out of God's presence. You are never in a neutral zone. You are always in the court of the temple.

Note: Let’s be careful not to draw the wrong conclusions from Peter’s description of us as a “royal priesthood.” Some have attempted to use this as an excuse for ignoring or even eliminating altogether any place in the NT church for people with a special authority, such as Pastors and Elders. But there are two things to remember: (1) The designation of Israel as a “royal priesthood” in Exodus 19 did not preclude or undermine the establishment of the Levitical priesthood just a few chapters later. (2) Peter himself speaks about the unique role of Elders in the local church later on in chapter five.

Why are we called a “royal” priesthood? Surely not to suggest that we are to exert our dominion or rule over the nations of the earth. This is a distinctly spiritual privilege. We are a “royal” priesthood because we’ve come under the dominion of the King of the Universe, the Lord of lords and King of kings. Our lives and worship and ministries are grounded in our relationship to THE King, thus making all we do regal or royal in nature.

Before we leave this theme, we need to return to v. 5 where Peter says that as a priesthood we are to offer up “spiritual sacrifices” to God through Jesus Christ. Note well again: nothing is approved of God the Father that does not pass through God the Son! Exclusivity! Perhaps politically incorrect, but biblical nonetheless!

“Spiritual sacrifices” does not necessarily mean non-physical sacrifices. After all, our bodies are physical and we employ them to fulfill this responsibility. By “spiritual” he means sacrifices and service that are enabled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

What “sacrifices” are in view? Given v. 9 they are probably praise, but surely everything a believer does in the power of the Spirit that honors God and pleases him is included.

In Romans 12:1 Paul says that we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship, which means that everything you do with your body is to be done as an act of worship to God. Whether you eat or drink or hammer nails or drive a car or make a meal or program a computer or read a book or shoot a basketball or mend a shirt—whatever you do with your body, do to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Then it is your spiritual service of worship.

It probably also includes both private and corporate singing and celebration and praise and thanksgiving. We read in Hebrews 13:15 that we are to "continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name." So the spiritual sacrifices are the praises and thanks of God's people alone and in group worship.

Or it might include acts of love like giving and sharing. For example, in Philippians 4:18 Paul receives gifts of support from the Philippian church and says, “I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.” In Hebrews 13:16 we read that doing good and sharing with others are “sacrifices” that “are pleasing to God”!

What then are spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ? They are the deeds you do, the money you give, the words you speak, the songs you sing, when you do them spiritually. That is, when you do them in reliance on the power of the Spirit, according to the will of the Spirit, and for a manifestation of the Spirit, which is a manifestation of Christ.

Evaluate all you do at your church: Is our worship spiritual? What about our work in helping with childcare and children’s ministry? My preaching? Praying for one another? Giving? Etc. etc.

(3) We are a holy nation

This isn’t talking about America! This can’t be said about any geo-political nation in the earth.

You are not merely part of the world anymore. You are set apart for God. You exist for God. And since God is holy, you are holy. Your ultimate allegiance isn’t to this country. As much as I love the U.S., and I do love it deeply, my loyalty is first and foremost to the church, the body of Christ, regardless of the geo-political identity of those who comprise it.

The true social context for these Christians wasn’t Greco-Roman culture of the first century but the new nation which is the church.

(4) We are a people for his own possession

Although God owns everything (Exod. 19:5), we are special! We are unique. But we aren’t God’s people because we are special and unique. We are special and unique because we are God’s people! Don’t ever reverse it!

This is expressed twice. Verse 9: "You are . . . a people for God's own possession." Verse 10a: "You once were not a people, but now you are the people of God."

You are chosen by God; you are shown mercy by God; and the effect of that mercy is that God takes you to be his own possession. You are God's inheritance. You are the ones he aims to spend eternity with. When God says (in 2 Corinthians 6:16), "I will be their God and they will be my people [my possession]," what he means is that "I will dwell in them and walk among them."

You may not feel special. You may not feel a part of anything that really matters. You may not feel included. You may feel alone and isolated and ordinary, but I assure you that if you know Jesus, if Jesus is precious to you, if you have trusted him as Lord and Savior you are part of a people whom God has taken unto himself out of all the people in the world. You are his and he is yours.

Why we are

We’ve now come to third and final question. We’ve answered two questions. We learned both who we are and how we got to be who we are. Now we look at the most important question of all: Why are we? What was God’s purpose in choosing us and showering us with mercy and causing us to be born again so that Christ would be precious to our souls? Why? Why? The answer is there in v. 9b . . .

The word translated “excellencies” most likely refers to two things: God’s attributes and God’s activities.

(1) God’s attributes, his moral virtues, the greatness of his being, the splendor of his character; in word, his beauty! See Ps. 27:4.

Consider how perfectly harmonious in God are certain characteristics that in us often prove contradictory or at least in competition, such that we struggle to be both.

God is both tender-hearted and firm.

God is both good and great.

God is both forgiving and just.

God is both humble and exalted.

God is both transcendent and immanent.

God is both gracious and holy.

God is both powerful and self-sacrificial.

God is both loving and severe.

God is both kind and royal.

God is both a compassionate Father and a conquering King.

God is both merciful and moral.

(2) God’s actions, his deeds, his work on behalf of his people, chief among which, in this context, are his calling us out of darkness into light and his showering us with saving mercy such that we who were once not his people now are.

To “proclaim” or make known this aspect of God’s excellency means we are to tell of how he did this for us individually. Make your testimony known. Tell of his greatness and grace in your life. Seize every opportunity to brag on what he’s done for you!

• Proclaim the excellency of his power in lifting you out of a pit of sin and self-destruction and exalting you to his right hand together with Christ!

• Proclaim the excellency of redemptive purpose in Jesus in making provision for your ransom from slavery to sin and death.

• Praise the excellency of his self-emptying as seen in the willingness of the Son to put aside the glory of heaven and humble himself as a man who lived as a servant and slave to others so that they might become the children of God.

• Praise the excellency of his immeasurable strength in raising Jesus from the dead, thereby conquering death for us all.

• Praise the excellency of his wisdom in making a way for the righteous to suffer and die for the unrighteous so that the unrighteous would themselves never die!

• Praise the excellency of omnipresence such that he is always with you at the same time he is always with me at the same time he is always with everyone else who calls on him in faith!

• Praise the excellency of his triunity, in that he is mysteriously only one God but also three distinct persons.

• Praise the excellency of his eternal purpose that will be consummated when Christ returns and delivers the creation from its curse and transforms our lowly bodies into glorified and resurrected bodies like unto that of Christ himself!

When we look at this entire paragraph that began in v. 4, we see that who we are is incoherent and unintelligible apart from the centrality of God and who he is for us in Jesus and what he has done for us in Jesus. If you struggle with a sense of personal identity, I dare say it is because you have sought to find it apart from who God is and what God has done. We are who we are and exist for this purpose: to make Him known!

I love the way John Piper put it when he said that God “has given us our identity in order that his identity might be proclaimed through us. God made us who we are so we could make known who he is. Our identity is for the sake of making known his identity. The meaning of our identity is that the excellency of God be seen in us.”

The bottom line is that you and I were built for something far greater than admiration of ourselves, far greater than self-esteem, far greater than self-promotion.

We exist to make known both the intrinsic beauty of God’s character and the glorious power of his mighty acts, chief of which is his work of grace in Jesus to make us a people for himself.

“Do you love the thought that you exist to make God look glorious? Do you love the thought that all creation exists to display the glory of God. Do you love the truth that all of history is designed by God to one day be a completed canvas that displays in the best way possible the greatness and beauty of God? Do you love the fact that Jesus Christ came into the world to vindicate the righteousness of God and repair the injury that we had done to the reputation of the glory of God? Do you love the truth you personally exist to make God look like what he really is—glorious? I ask again: Do you love the fact that your salvation is meant to put the glory of God’s grace on display? Do you love seeing and showing the glory of God? This is why God created the universe. This is why he ordained history. This is why he sent his Son. This is why you exist. Forever to see and savor and show the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Do you embrace this calling as your treasure and your joy?” (Piper)