The Purpose of Salvation
One of life’s hardest lessons that I’ve had to learn—repeatedly—is this: it’s not about me. As much as I want the world to turn around me, it simply doesn’t. Rather, I keep being reminded in Scripture and in life that it is all about God, his purposes, and his glory. And that’s a good thing! Ironically, we even tend to make salvation about us (particularly in the Western church). God loves me. It’s my sins that are forgiven. I’ve been born again and given eternal life. The way we talk about salvation you’d think it’s about us. It’s not. I Peter 2:1-12 reminds us of who it is really about— Jesus!
The illustration used is a simple one. God is building a house. Actually, God is building a temple. Every building needs a cornerstone in which every aspect of completing the building will then follow. Jesus is the Cornerstone. Chosen. Precious. Believers are then likened to stones built upon the Cornerstone. Apart from the Cornerstone, all the stones are just. . .stones. They are insignificant and not useful for anything. I liken this illustration to that of a mosaic or stained glass window. A mosaic is an intricate piece of art created by placing small bits of stone in a particular order. A stained glass window takes shards of glass and puts them together to make a picture. A shard of broken glass, a pebble, a brick. That’s all we are apart from Christ.
In the hands of the creator—the artist—we become a holy temple for God’s purposes. In fact, Peter uses this analogy to show the corporate aspect of our faith. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. These are corporate descriptions. When we become followers of Jesus, we are inseparably united with other followers throughout the generations of time. People of every nation, language, and color are joined together as brothers and sisters in Christ. There is no other organization like the church! We are Community. It truly is the glorious body of Christ!
This glorious body has one main purpose: “to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (I Peter 2:9). It all comes back to Jesus. People have often come up with clever schemes to “evangelize.” I think Peter has a pretty good scheme. Proclaim Jesus’s excellency! I was blind, but now I see. I was lost, but now am found. I was in darkness, now I’ve been delivered into his light. Keep the focus on Jesus.
Scripture is full of paradoxes. The poor become rich. The persecuted are elevated. Once again Peter reminds his readers that they are exiles (I Peter 2:11). Exiles don’t have many legal rights in the country they currently reside in. Most of the time exiles are treated with disrespect, and sometimes disdain. Peter uses exile as a term of endearment, however. We are not to pity ourselves in our exile state. In fact, we are to have pity on those who don’t understand the privilege of following the King of kings and Lord of lords. May our sojourning provide opportunities to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us to be exiles for his name’s sake. May his nation grow and extend to the furthermost parts of the earth. May the earth be full of his glory!