A HOLY NATION

“But 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.”    1 Peter 2:9 

In a recent blog, I mentioned the redeemed family and the dynamic of the relationship between Jesus and His Father is a whole lot of mutual joy, mutual love, and delight. Their relationship is the healthiest that has ever existed, and that is the pattern we are empowered and given grace to function in.

When we think about His progression – person, family, nation – let’s discuss the last one: God’s progressive expression of Himself in a holy nation. His holy nation is meant to wrap its arms around the world and invite every people group into the family of God. The church is defined as a nation.

In 1 Peter chapter 2, it says, “But 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.”

Notice how God is crafting in His redemption. He crafted a redefined individual and called them a son. He crafted a redefined family to demonstrate the health of the Godhead. Then, He crafts a whole new nation composed of redeemed families across the world.

God is a big-hearted Father who is inviting every people group into Himself. Literally no people group anywhere is excluded from becoming part of God’s new nation. God is the most inclusive being in the universe.

God’s redeemed family, from every ethnos or people group, has now become healthy enough to be integrated together into a holy nation. He designed the progressive nature of this: God transforms people, then He transforms families, then He integrates families together across the earth from every nation and people group, and then He takes His new nation and wraps His arm around the whole world, inviting them into family.

This is how He’s going to cover the earth with the knowledge of His glory. He is unlimited in His ability to transform people, families, and nations, and then make them an expression of Himself.

I feel confident about this. God is 100% competent and does not make promises like this on a whim. “I will cover the earth with a knowledge of My glory,” is a big promise. And to a level equivalent to two miles deep. He does not make promises without having a strategic plan to fulfill His promise. Let me show you His plan, and it should make you happy.

God made an irrevocable vow to Moses: “‘As surely as I live,’ saith the Lord, ‘the knowledge of my glory will cover the Earth, even as the waters, cover the sea.’” Then, in Isaiah 9:6, we are promised, “Of the increase of his government and of his peace, there shall be no end.”

Aren’t you glad you are part of a holy nation called to be as inclusive with God’s love as God Himself is?