Our Identity                                    1 Peter 2:4-10

We’ve looked at the reality of our destiny, the only two places we end up at after our death. We’ve looked at the reality of God’s love for us. How God wants all of us to be with him and sharing in paradise, and how our faith is the road to this reality. Today we see that our faith does not affect only our position after our death, it affects our identity while we still walk on the earth.

“…you yourselves,           like living stones,

are being built into a spiritual house,

to be a holy priesthood…”

How do you identify yourself? I identify myself as a husband, a father, a son. And how I identify myself has changed over the years. There were times I identified myself as a Revolutionary War Re-enactor, and as a Medical Technologist. And while these things may still be true about me, I just see them as an identity of who I am anymore. Peter uses this letter to explain our identity according to our faith in God. And as this identity fellows us with eternal God, this identity doesn’t change as our life does.

We are the living stones in God’s holy Temple. Peter uses the image of the Temple because this was the place God lived among the people. Now God lives among the people by living in the bodies of all believers.

Let’s look at this a little closer. At Jesus crucifixion the great veil to the Holy of Holies tore in two. Seventy some years later the Temple’s gold, treasures, and finery were removed by the enemies of Israel. Ultimately, the Temple was torn down. Why would this be allowed to happen? It was allowed because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Because the Temple has always been a shadow, a representation of God’s true dwelling place.

The Temple in Jerusalem was constructed of stones. God’s true Temple, God’s true church, is built with living stones. It is built with the forgiven, cleansed, and Spirit in dwelt people. Christians collectively are God’s church. And God lives in the center of that church, living within the being of every believer.

The Temple in Jerusalem was built with millions of stone blocks taken from a variety of quarries. God’s living Temple is built from millions of individual living stones taken from every tribe, language, and nation.

In Jerusalem’s Temple, every stone is laid to construct a large and strong structure. Each unique individual believer is brought together by the Holy Spirit to construct a strong, living church on earth. And because we are all stones in this great church, none of us are alone. We are all intertwined and involved with every other Christian in the world. And together we form a great and strong fellowship of saints for God.

Peter says we are a holy priesthood. Looking at Jerusalem’s Temple again, we see that the priests would minister before God on behalf of the people. They would offer sacrifices and bridge the gap between man and God. They had special access to the place where God sat.

Peter tells us we are each a priest of God. The priests of the Temple offered the sacrifices to garner forgiveness for the people’s sins. These sacrifices were a shadow of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. I do not believe we can offer anything to God in order to secure his forgiveness of someone else’s sins, this sacrificial offering is reserved for Christ. I do believe, as God’s priests, we can offer ministry, ministry that shows God through our words, our actions, and our lives.

Peter says in our verse 5 that we can “…offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.” These sacrifices are the sacrifice of our time, the sacrifice of our wealth. More importantly, they are the sacrifices of our compassion, our empathy, our awareness, our desire to emulate the example of Christ. Our spiritual sacrifices are our honest and heartfelt outpourings to God. In short, our spiritual sacrifices are our prayers, prayers offered with true goodwill and a desire to see God’s involvement in the middle of another’s trials.

Looking again to my question of how we identify ourselves, how do you identify yourself in the overall picture of your place in the world? For example, I can say I’m an American, I’m an Italian American, I’m a New Yorker. Verse 9, “But you are a chosen people…” I may be identified by all the things I mentioned, and more, but I identify most as a chosen child of the creator of the universe, chosen as a child of Almighty God.

We are chosen by God to be his children, but that does not mean we are above others, or better than others. Look at Jesus. He was above us. He was better than us. And he became one of the poor and marginalized to show us that even the best for God, are equal to the poorest for God.

Look to ancient Israel. God didn’t choose the nation as his chosen people because they were the strongest and most powerful nation. They weren’t the most influential or wealthiest nation. God chose Israel for his pleasure. He chose Israel to show his great redeeming glory. God chose Israel to live according to his way, thereby demonstrating his love and his grace through their love and grace for others.

To anyone in the world who thinks God chose them because of some greatness they have, I’m sorry, you’re wrong. God chose his followers because of his greatness, to show his grace for the world by the grace we show our fellow men.

Our world likes to put labels on people. Even the best do it to themselves and to others. And in man’s world, these identities can change as life changes. Peter writes here what our identity really is. We are the living stones that form God’s church. As such, we are in fellowship with each and every believer on earth. And this living church we form will stand to the end of time. And it will be a bastion against Satan and his works in the world.

We are each priests in God’s church, called on to make spiritual sacrifices of our hearts, to offer true and honest prayer on behalf of others, and to minister to others through our words and actions.

We are a chosen people. Not because of some inner greatness we possess, we are chosen by God because of his greatness. To be witnesses to his glory. And to demonstrate his grace through the grace we give to the world.

All of this gives us our true and eternal identity. Verse 9, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession.” My identity before men and angels; I am God’s possession. We are all God’s possession. Know your identity. Be blessed by your identity.

The peace, love, and grace of our Lord Christ Jesus

And his Father in heaven

Be on you always.                                 

 Amen.