Loved By and Belonging to God

9 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. 10 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.

The Lord who claims our allegiance is God, our Creator and Savior.

God delivered Israel when he brought them out of Egypt. They had been slaves there for hundreds of years. Faithful to his covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 12:1-3; 15:13-21; Exodus 3), God called this people his own and continued his work of making them into a nation through which all other nations would be blessed. Then, many years later, through Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, God brought salvation to the world—and today God includes all who believe in Christ as his people, his worldwide family. So if we believe in Christ, we belong to God, and we are his alone.

As 1 Peter 2 puts it, we are a holy nation set apart to be “God’s special possession.” From the beginning, it was love that created us and has bound us to God. And since our relationship with God is based on love, God’s law is not a burden but a means of showing that love.

A Reformation-era catechism rejoices and takes comfort in the fact that we belong to God, our Creator and Savior:

“Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?

“A. That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.”

O God, help us to see you as our faithful Creator and Savior. And help us to see obedience to your law as a picture of what love can look like as we live from day to day. Amen.