God Set Each of us Apart as His Holy People
God indeed has set us apart as his holy people. That is why he created us. He moved St. Peter to quote the words of Moses: "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." God created man in his image and expected him to keep that image. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve fell into sin. And when they fell into sin, St. Paul records the results: "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned." Nothing we can do can give us the status of God's holy people.
So then we question why God set us apart as his holy people. If we can do nothing to earn this status, how did we get it? God tells Jeremiah: "I knew you, I set you apart, I appointed you." God is telling us that he has chosen us to be his people. Not because we were or are special. Not because we come from a family that went to church every Sunday for x number of years. Not because we are WELS or even Lutheran or even American, if those are to be praiseworthy qualities. Rather God chose us by grace. He chooses us and he chooses all other men to know him. For when people come to know and believe in Jesus as their savior, then they are also God's chosen people. Apart from faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior there is no salvation. We are still separated from God. It is through the blood of God's son that God can declare us holy.
God set us apart as his holy people not to just sit around and say, "Yes, we've got it made." No! Rather, he set us apart to do his holy will. To Jeremiah he says: "I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Paul writes to the Galatians and says: "It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up." Two thoughts that come across are the variety of tasks as well as the skills to
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