By Frank Wessling
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…. (1Peter 1:3)”
This is the way the First Letter of Peter tells early Christians: Thank God and celebrate! Your life is altogether new. Start over in the pattern of Jesus.
A few paragraphs on, Peter expands the picture: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people…. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.”
It is not only as individuals that we have new life through Christ, but now, if we didn’t realize it before, we are a “people.” A “nation.” And moreover, a “holy nation.”
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