"As you come to Him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to Him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. . . . You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light." (NIV)
Everyone likes to be treated and considered "special." It’s likely one of the reasons that America spends literally millions of dollars each year on lavish weddings. The bride gets to dress up and be the center of attention, at least for one day. As Christians, I think we often forget that we are the center of God’s attention every moment of every day. We are chosen and precious to Him.
Who are we? Who has He made us to be? We are living stones being built into a living house, a holy and royal priesthood, a chosen people, a holy nation, and God’s special possession.
Living stones
For years, the Jewish people were nomadic and their temple was a tent. When God finally established them in a more permanent home, He allowed King Solomon to build a stone temple in which they were to worship and offer their sacrifices. Even though the people were scattered across Israel, the only place they were to worship was the temple in Jerusalem.
In His encounter with the Samaritan woman, the Lord Jesus talked about this standard of worship:
"‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that You are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’
"‘Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe Me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’" (John 4:19-24 NIV).
The Temple in Jerusalem had been rebuilt at least three times. It was not the original temple that Solomon had built. But it was never God’s intention for His worship to be confined to a single building. His plan was to build a spiritual temple which would consist of the Christian Church. His eternal temple is built from living stones. Each of us is a living stone and part of that temple. It is within us that the worship of God occurs in Spirit and in truth. God has chosen us to be His vessels of worship!
Holy and royal priesthood
God established a priesthood in the book of Leviticus. It was a restrictive, exclusionary group of men. There were a number of requirements for becoming a priest; this was not a vocation open to simply anyone who wanted to participate. A priest had to be:
• A male
• Married only to a woman who was a virgin prior to her marriage to him. He couldn’t marry a widow or a divorced woman.
• Couldn’t shave their beards.
• Could only attend the funerals of their immediate family; they weren’t allowed to attend funerals of extended family or friends.
• They couldn’t have any disability.
• They couldn’t serve in their office of priest if they were ill, had touched something considered unclean until they were ceremonially cleansed.
The priesthood was severely limited to a chosen few. Everyone else had to worship with these as their intermediaries between them and God. But when the Lord Jesus died, the division between the priests and everyone else was broken. God’s intent was that this form of worship—with human intermediaries—was only temporary. "They [the priests] serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven" (Hebrews 8:5a NIV). God never intended for certain humans to be between us and Him. His purpose was always to draw all believers to Himself. His purpose was always that we would have the right to "approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16b NIV). We have been given the right to have full access to God that we might approach Him boldly as His priests.
But we are more than the priesthood. We are the chosen priesthood. The Greek word is eklektos (Strong’s G1588) meaning elect and is so much more than just being chosen. It means the best of its kind or class, as appointed by God to the most exalted office conceivable. We have been chosen to be as close in position and to power to the Holy Trinity without actually being the Trinity. In other words, God lifted us to a place in all of creation that the only Being who is higher, more exalted, and more powerful is Himself! This isn’t something we earned, but is a gift from Him given simply because that’s how much He loves us! We are more than just His priesthood, we are His chosen priesthood!
We are the royal priesthood. Now, in many countries today, there is either no monarchy or a very watered-down version of a monarchy. We don’t much subscribe anymore to the idea of one person (or one family) ruling everyone else. But there do still exist in the world some countries where there is a monarch (a king or queen) who is an absolute ruler. In one such country, it’s even illegal to insult the king’s dog (and the penalty is rather severe). With the idea of royalty comes the idea of supreme power. Whether or not we believe it, God is the supreme power in the universe. In contemporary vernacular, it’s His playground and He gets to decide the rules. As the royal priesthood, we will share in God’s power and authority over the rest of creation. "Do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels?" (1 Corinthians 6:2-3a NIV).
As God’s priesthood, we are more than just priests. We have full and confident access to Him. We have been chosen to be His worshipers and to rule with Him in eternity. There is no creature in all of creation who has such a great position as that given to Christians.
A chosen people
The KJV translates this as "peculiar" but not in the meaning that we would likely define it today (as odd or eccentric). The Greek is peripoiesis (Strong’s G4047) and means "a thing acquired, an acquisition, possession." We are more than simply His followers, His believers, even His priesthood. The apostle Paul wrote:
"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20a NIV).
God didn’t just choose us; He redeemed us. The idea of redemption is the idea of buying back that which originally was owned, but was lost (or stolen). I recently experienced a loss of some heirloom jewelry (it was stolen from my house). If I could find it again, I would gladly buy it back in order to have it again. That is exactly what the Father did for us. We belonged to Him by virtue of being His creation. But He redeemed us by paying the penalty for our sins through the death of His only Son, Jesus. He paid a price (the ultimate price) in order to have us back as His creations. (And then He elevated us to the highest position possible in all of creation). We have been purchased to become His special possession, the bride for His Son.
A holy nation
A nation is a group of people who live in a particular place and share a particular culture. In 1 Peter 2:11, Peter characterizes Christians as "foreigners and exiles." The English word is sojourner which means a temporary resident, someone who isn’t a citizen, but is simply living in that country temporarily. The sense is also someone who is traveling, who hasn’t taken up permanent residence, but is continuing on to their permanent destination somewhere else. This is the kind of nation that God is creating, a nation that is established in heaven for eternity, a nation set apart for Himself. We are citizens of that country, people only temporarily living on this earth. The Lord Jesus Himself is preparing our home for us, an eternal nation free from want, pain, disease, and suffering. It is the ultimate nation for which everyone longs! And we have already been made citizens of that nation.
God’s special possession
Did you ever, as a kid, have a treasure box? I did. It was filled with the kind of trinket things that only a kid would want, but it was my treasure and I loved it. We are God’s treasure, His very special possession. We are so special to Him that He redeemed us back with His own life! He died for us so that we might live with Him forever. And even now He’s fixing up a very special place for us to live eternally with Him.
We are living stones being built into a living house, a holy and royal priesthood, a chosen people, a holy nation, and God’s special possession. He has made us amazing, not because we deserved it, but because He loves us so much that He wants to simply shower us with blessings. It doesn’t matter how much we’ve been rejected by this world; we are greatly and totally cherished by the King of kings! We are His children and nothing could be better than that.
© 2016 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.
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