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. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
– 1 Peter 2:9-10
One of the first electric acoustic guitars that the Gibson Guitar Corporation ever produced was the J-160E model. This was back in the 1950’s, and could’ve been purchased new at the time for roughly $800-$1000 (which would equal roughly $7000 today). You can still find them here and there in some guitar stores today. They run about $2500-$3000, used and in good condition.
But during an auction back in 2015, one of these J-160E Gibson models was sold at an auction for a record $2.4 million dollars! It wasn’t the age or condition or sound of the guitar that gave it so much value… it was that this very acoustic guitar was once owned and played by John Lennon while he was still touring with the Beatles. Isn’t it amazing how the value of an item can command such an incredible amount of money simply because of who the previous owner was that possessed it?
As ordinary people, I think we sometimes forget just how much God values us. But to Him, we’re anything but ordinary in His eyes. And Peter, who knew Jesus better than anyone, goes to great lengths to remind us of this.
Remember back as kids during afternoon recess on the playground, particularly when it came time to pick teams to play a sport, and how good it made us feel to be chosen early to be on someone’s team? And what about when there were an odd number of kids? How desperately we hoped that we would be the one selected and not the one overlooked?
Peter says that although we, as believers, may be ordinary people, we now have immense value because we belong to God and are now His chosen people, His special possessions. And not because we have done anything to deserve it or earn it, but because He showed us enormous kindness and mercy by pursuing us.
The people who first read Peter’s letter had lived without God and Christ for a long time. They tried everything in the world to obtain mercy for themselves, but failed miserably. In coming by faith to Christ, they finally found the mercy that for so long had escaped them. And with that came the gifts of grace, forgiveness, and eternal life.
Peter goes on to tell us that not only are we to be grateful to God for bringing us out of darkness and into the light, but we are to declare His praises and spur one another on through testifying to His love and mercy.
So how do we live out the Declaration of His praises? By becoming living advertisements for God’s kindness and goodness. We do this through praising Him not only with our speech, but with our day-to-day actions.
We were bought at such an enormous price. He owns us. We are His prized possessions. We are invaluable to Him!
Former Blackout Artist 