He Has Made Us a Mighty Nation

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.

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 2:9-12

Out of all cultures, all tongues, all skin colors, and all religions, God has called His people into His marvelous light. Those who were once “not a people” are now “God’s people” and those who had not received mercy have now received it abundantly. Throughout time this globe-spanning people-gathering has taken place leaving in its wake citizens of heaven walking the earth. What is God doing leaving His church scattered in every tribe, tongue, and nation from the busy streets of London to the jungles of South America? He is proclaiming His Holy Name.

Many Christians in America rarely consider the Christianity outside of their own situation. In their minds, Christ died for them so that they can be saved from their sins and they can go to heaven. The problem is not that this kind of thinking is wrong but that its incredibly small. These are small thoughts incomparable to the grand picture of Scripture.

According to Peter, Christianity can be view not as a group of individuals with personal, private relationships to Christ but as the great and holy nation of God’s people. They are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for His possession. Out of all nations, God has formed His nation, unified by the blood which has washed away the boundary lines of tribe and tongue and distinct from the nations as the people to whom God has shown mercy. The gospel is the message of salvation to the individual but it is also the invitation to the Church.

Why has God built for Himself a nation on the earth? Why not zap His people straight up to heaven after they convert? Why bother with the difficult hike that is sanctification when glorification could be a prayer away? To find an answer to these questions, one might simply turn to Ezekiel 36:16-25.

The Israelites are in exile (a term Peter applied to believers regularly) and God is promising to take them out from among the nations back into the Promised Land. He plans to do this not because the people learned their lesson but because they were a terrible testimony to His Holy Name. Apparently, during their stay among the nations, they had profaned the name of the Lord in word and deed to the point that God’s reputation was being damaged among the nations.

Compare this with John 17 when Jesus prays to the Father that He would keep the disciples in the world in spite of hostility so that many “will believe in me through their word” (v 20) and that “the world may believe that you have sent me”. The Israelites defamed and profaned the name of God among the Gentiles. Christians “proclaim the excellencies of him who called” them.

God has left us in the world as a distinct people group unified in the blood of Jesus to proclaim the excellencies of the One who gathered us. Not the wording here. This is not a declaration of doctrine (though doctrine is important) but the proclamation of first-hand experience. We might choose to call this experiential evangelism! Peter is painting the picture of a mighty nation gathered from all others to declare the precious wonder (what the word excellencies seems to mean) of Him who gathered them together. Evangelism is communal, delightful, and it is experiential!

Evangelism needs words. This is an undisputed fact. Whether they are the words of a Bible, a sermon, a friend, or a letter, the gospel is verbally communicated. However, Peter completes his view of God’s people by appealing to their deeds. God has placed among the nations to declare His glory and bring fame to His name. One of the greatest testimonies to the greatness of God is obedience to His word. Look at how this story ends: “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.”

God gets glory by our distinctiveness, by our proclamation, and by our good deeds. This is why you are here on the earth. All other reasons are secondary. You who are among the nations, bring glory to God.