NATURE OF GOD’S PEOPLE

If you were to conduct a national survey and ask Americans one question: "What kind of people are Christians?", what do you think most people would say? Would they respond: "They are very narrow-minded? They believe you have to accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God and obey the gospel to go to heaven?" Would some people say: "0 they are just like everyone else? They go to the same places, engage in the same activities and talk just like everybody else?" I must be more specific. What would be your response to the question? Do you believe Christians are bigoted, narrow-minded, out-of-touch with reality and dangerous to our freedom?

The sad truth is: You can find people in all of these categories who claim to be Christians. Recently I heard a comedian tell some off-color jokes. At the end of his soliloquy he said: "Thank you for being here and God bless you." All of us have known people who claimed to be Christians who drank like a fish, used language that would embarrass a sailor, chased every woman they met and cheated and lied whenever the occasion seemed to demand it. We are not being honest with ourselves when we ignore that fact. Such people are a reproach to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are many passages which tell us what Christians ought to be. I shall mention a few. Paul admonished the Christians at Ephesus: "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18). Our Lord asked some Pharisees: "0 generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Mt. 12:34). Paul pled with the Corinthians: "Flee fornication (or sexual immorality)" (1 Cor. 6:18). The same apostle demanded of the Roman Christians: "Provide things honest in the sight of all men" (Rom. 12:17). Paul charged the Colossians: "Lie not one to another, seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, who is renewed in knowledge after the image of him who created him" (Col. 3:9-10). Christians cannot live like people of the world and still honestly call themselves Christians.

The Apostle Peter provides some insight into the kind of people God wants Christians to be. "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2:9). Based on this verse, our study today will be devoted to the theme: "The Nature of God's People."

Peter calls Christians "a chosen generation." The word "generation" comes from a Greek word that can be translated "race," "kindred," "offspring," "countrymen" or "nation." Paul used the word in his great sermon to the Athenian philosophers. He quoted Epimenides, the Cretan, as saying of human beings: "We are the offspring of God." Paul commented: "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto silver, or gold, or stone, graven by art and man's device" (Acts 17:28-29). Incidentally, the English word "genocide" is derived from the Greek word translated "generation."

The Greek word translated "chosen" comes into English in our word "elect." The word can also be rendered "select." There is little controversy over whether men and women are chosen. The disagreement arises over how we are chosen or elected for salvation. By divine inspiration, the Apostle Paul settles the controversy once and for all. He told the Thessalonians: "But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. 2: 13-14).

The word "chosen" in the passage from 2 Thessalonians is not the same word Peter used, but the basic meaning is the same. Paul affirms that God "chosen us through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." If we have to believe the truth to be chosen, we are not chosen unconditionally. A careful reading of the conversions recorded in Acts of the Apostles should prove to any open-minded person that we are not chosen unconditionally. For example, Philip must have stressed faith and obedience in his sermon to the Samaritans. "When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women" (Acts 8:12). Were faith and baptism essential for the Samaritans to be chosen?

Not only are Christians "a chosen generation"; we are also "a royal priesthood." The word "royal" comes from the family of words meaning "kingly." God told the Israelites: "You shall be a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation" (Ex. 19:6). Since Christ is the king and priest over his kingdom, as citizens in that kingdom we are "a kingly priesthood." Can you think of a greater honor than to be a part of the "royal priesthood?"

The Law of Moses ordained a special class of people to serve as priests. All Bible students are familiar with the fact that the members of the tribe of Levi served as priests under the Mosaic covenant. The new covenant does not have a special class of priests. Every member of the body of Christ is a priest. Peter affirmed of every member of the church: "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood." The book of Revelation adds: Jesus Christ "has made us kings and priests unto God our Father" (Rev. 1:6). Every Christian is a king and a priest. God has made arrangements for every one of us to make our petitions to him without an intermediary. No one is authorized in the new covenant to serve as a priest between God and his children.

God's people in the Christian era constitute "a holy nation," that is, nation set apart for God’s purpose. The same expression was used of the nation of Israel (Ex. 19:6). The word "holy" appears hundreds of times in the Old Testament. Its first appearance is in the passage I have just mentioned. One of the major blunders of the Israelites was their failure to discriminate between the holy and the unholy, and between the clean and the unclean (Lev. 10:10). God urged his people to be holy. "For I am the Lord your God: you shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall you defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. For I am the Lord that brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: you shall therefore be holy, for I am holy" (Lev. 11:44-45).

The Psalmist asked: "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?" The Psalmist provides God's answer. "He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart. He who backbites not with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor. In whose eyes a vile person is despised; but he honors them who fear the Lord. He who swears to his own hurt, and changes not" (Psa. 15:1-4). Is the Psalmist arguing that a person has to be holy to enter God's holy hill?

The New Testament does not use the word "holy" as many times as the Old Testament, but one cannot read the New Testament without understanding that God demands that his people be holy. Paul told the Ephesians that God "has chosen us ... that we should be holy and without blame before in him in love" (Eph. 1:4). He informed the Colossians: "And you, who were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled in one body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and without reproach in his sight" (Col. 1:21-22). The Apostle Peter admonished the early Christians: "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as he who has called you is holy, so be holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be holy; for I am holy" (1 Pet. 1:13-16).

Peter also refers to Christians as "a peculiar people." So far as I know, the King James Version is the only version that uses the word "peculiar" of Christians. The King James Version of the Old Testament uses that expression a number of times. God pled with the Israelites: "Now therefore if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine" (Ex. 19:5). Moses informed the Jews: "For you are a holy people unto the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth" (Dt. 14:2). In both of these passages, the English Standard Version translates the Hebrew: God's "treasured possession. "

In his farewell address to the elders at Ephesus, Paul used the verb form of the word translated "peculiar." The King James Version reads: "Take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20:28). The word "purchased" means to acquire for oneself or to secure for oneself. Paul used the same word of deacons. "For they who have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 3:13).

I sincerely hope you can see the significance of the expressions Peter used in describing Christians. He explains the purpose for God's people being "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people (or a people for God's own possession)." The purpose is: "that they should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

The term, "show forth," means to publish, to tell forth, to divulge, to declare abroad. In very simple language, we are not to withdraw ourselves from the world to keep from being contaminated by worldly activities. We are to use every opportunity to tell men and women about the love of God that led him to send his Son to die that we might live eternally. When the early Christians in Jerusalem were being persecuted, they left the city and "went everywhere preaching the word" (Acts 8:4). Paul urged the Philippians: "Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain" (Phil. 2:14-16). And did not our Lord tell his immediate disciples that Christians are not to hide their light under a bushel (Mt. 5:I5)?

We may be tempted to excuse our indifference to teaching others by explaining that it is the duty of preachers to tell people the old, old story. Preachers in most cases have a greater obligation because we have more opportunities to tell people about Christ. But some of the most effective evangelization is the godly behavior of faithful Christians. That was our Lord's reason for telling his disciples: "You are the salt of the earth.... You are the light of the world." We must let our light so shine before men, that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father who is in heaven (Mt. 5:13-16).

Unbelievers often invent arguments which they believe can refute the teaching of scripture. But a godly life is a difficult argument to refute. Peter urged Christian women married to unbelievers: "Likewise, you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation (or manner of life) of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear" (1 Pet. 3:1-2). Wives often make a mistake when they nag their unbelieving husbands about obeying the gospel. But if they live their faith, it may make a deep impression for good on their husbands.

Many years ago, one of my second cousins married a good moral man who was not a Christian. On the first Sunday after the honeymoon, the wife started preparing to attend the worship services. Her husband asked: "Where are you going?" She told him she was going to church. He said: "0 no you are not." She said: "0 yes I am." He told her he would not drive her to the services. She walked that Sunday. She never walked again. He always drove her to the services. Twenty-five years later that husband obeyed the gospel. Paul encouraged young Christian men to be "a pattern of good works" (Tit. 2:7). Would not the same principle apply to young Christian women and to older Christian men and women?

Is there any doubt in your mind that the Apostle Peter was a great preacher and apostle? Do you remember who brought him to Christ? Jesus encouraged two of John's disciples to come and see where he dwelt. "One of the two who heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first finds his own brother Simon, and says unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus" (John 1:40-42).

Many years ago, probably in the 1930's, an old man in West Texas was on his way to evening worship services. As he walked toward the building, he saw a group of children playing marbles. He invited them to go to church with him. One of the young men said to the old man: "Let me go ask my mama." The mother permitted him to go with the old man. Years later that young man obeyed the gospel, did mission work in Germany and helped to establish churches in a number of German cities. He was the founding president of Michigan Christian College. For fourteen years he was chancellor of Columbia Christian College. He also served as president of European Christian College in Vienna, Austria. He wrote one of the very best books on personal evangelism. I had the privilege of meeting Otis Gatewood and inviting him to speak on the annual Bible lectureship at Freed-Hardeman University.

Christians must show forth the praises of him who has called us "out of darkness into his marvelous light." Before we became Christians, we were walking in spiritual darkness. Paul reminded the Ephesians: "For you were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord: walk as children of light.... And have no fellowship with the works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (Eph. 5:8,11). Paul does not use the word "darkness" in the following passage, but it shows how the Colossians were walking in darkness before they became Christians. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things' sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience: in the which you also walked sometime, when you lived in them" (Col. 3:5-7).

We do not know the circumstances surrounding the conversion of the Colossians, but we know the results of their obedience. Paul thanked the Father that he had made the Colossians "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins" (Col. 1:12-14).

What does a person have to do to be "delivered (or rescued) from the power of darkness" and "translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son?" My question is very easy to answer. Alien sinners must hear the saving gospel of Christ. "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). In order for that faith to be saving faith, it must be an obedient faith. Otherwise, it is dead faith (Jas. 2:17). Paul told the Romans: "God be thanked that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine delivered unto you. Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness" (Rom. 6:17-18). Obeying the form of doctrine means being buried with our Lord in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:3-5). "For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:26-27).

Do you understand how easy it is to preach the soul-saving gospel when you follow the simple teaching of scripture? If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, will you this very day confess your faith in him, repent of your aliens sins and be baptized to have your sins remitted (Acts 2:38) and to be added to the Lord's church (1 Cor. 12: 13).

Winford Claiborne

The International Gospel Hour

P.O. Box 118

Fayetteville, TN 37334