A Chosen Race?

The Chosen Race in Christ

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. All who are in Christ are a chosen race, a new race taken from all races, born again in the Holy Spirit. It's not that ethnicity or culture or heritage are unimportant, but they are not what unites us to God or to one another.

Unity in Jesus Christ and the Royal Priesthood

We are one in Jesus Christ. We are His royal priests. No one was meant to worship as an island. We are a holy nation, and together, lifting our voices as one, our song is to proclaim His glory, for He has called us from darkness to His light.

Before His calling, we were not a people. We had no people. We were foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves, all of us, to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Salvation by Mercy and Forgiveness Among God's People

But when the goodness and loving kindness of our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy. And as we have been forgiven, so we must forgive one another.

No Ethnic or Social Division in the Church

Here, among the people of God, there is not black or white, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, native or immigrant, but Christ, who is all and in all, when we understand the text.