Have you ever met someone with an obsession with the royal family? Maybe that’s you…and that’s okay! The tradition, formality, affluence, and luxury of the royal family lures people to them. I’ll admit, there is something fascinating about this family of kings, queens, princes, and princesses.
What if I told you we are part of our own royal family? One that is even better than the royal family. First Peter 2:9–10 is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. Peter describes the family of God as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own.” We are set apart by God for God to share His excellencies to the rest of the world.
As we’ve explored the story of Scripture in this study, we’ve seen God’s love for His people on full display. God’s family consists of a variety of people, but the most important thing unites us all together—the hope we have in Jesus. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (NIV). God, Himself, puts eternity on man’s heart. He loves us too much to leave us dead in our sin. He initiates salvation with us, and that’s why Peter says we are chosen.
So, what are the riches we have in Christ that come with our priesthood? Ephesians 1 is full of the blessings of union with Christ: salvation, redemption, justification, unification, and glorification to name a few. All of these and more are gifts we’ve done nothing to earn. God’s love reached out to save us while we were still sinners.
And now we get to know Him and make Him known forever.
The second part of our SOAP verse emphasizes the believer’s response to being chosen by God. The blessings we’ve received aren’t just intended for our own enjoyment. God asks us to share these blessings with others. When I learned how to share the gospel in college, I learned to ask people, “What’s the best gift you’ve ever been given?” Some responses were a car, an Xbox, even a household pet. While these may be great gifts, they pale in comparison to the greatest gift in the world—the gift of our salvation in Jesus.
If you’ve been given the greatest gift to ever exist, wouldn’t you want to share it with others? My intention is not to communicate shame for not sharing the gospel more. Trust me, evangelism can feel hard for me too. The reality of us being in Christ is that the Holy Spirit lives in us and makes Christ known through us by the way we live. It is a joy to be set apart from the world by being obedient to God’s commands so that others can see our Christlikeness and want to know Him as well.
When I was younger and immature in my faith, I thought I could pick and choose which Scriptures to obey. I felt like I could have some of God and some of the world at the same time. What I didn’t realize then is that there is way more joy found in being fully surrendered to God than only partly surrendered to Him. In David G. Benner’s book, Surrender to Love, the author writes, “surrender to love offers us the possibility of freedom from guilt, freedom from effort to earn God’s approval, and freedom to genuinely love God and others as the Father loves us.”
Friend, we can only love others if we first know how loved we are by our Heavenly Father. Anything we do out of an overflow for God’s love for us will be a representation of Him to the world watching around us. If God’s love is a new concept for you today, you are in a good place. You are chosen, loved, redeemed, and called by a Father who is not distant or removed, but intimate and waiting to embrace you with open arms.
