The Apostle Peter writes, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9 ESV).
Do we know what that means that we were called out of darkness? Do we understand the significance? In this verse Peter identifies our starting point in our relationship with God as darkness.
He called us out of darkness. We begin in the dark. All of us. If you have believed in Jesus Christ, God has called you out of darkness. He didn’t call you from some neutral moral consciousness or from your kindness or your good intentions. He called you out of the deep darkness that Adam brought into this world when he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
We were called out of darkness into his marvelous light.
But thousands of people sitting in churches across our great country this morning will not hear that message. They will be given false ID’s, fake credentials identifying them as Jesus followers, ticket in hand and on their way to heaven.
But how can this be?
Because they will hear preaching that downplays the darkness of the sin of humanity. They will hear about the marvelous light. And the identity of the children of God as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation and God’s prized possession will be eloquently and powerfully expounded from the pulpit.
But what they will not hear is that they must start from the darkness. And as we have seen, our starting point must be the darkness as God calls his people out of darkness.
If someone is coming to visit you and calls you and asks for directions to your house or your place of business, what is the first thing that you ask them? Where are you right now?
Right now, this morning as I speak, in churches across our country, people will hear directions to heaven along the wide road of destruction because these preachers refuse to begin with the darkness as God’s starting point in salvation.
The biblical doctrine of the depravity of humankind teaches us that we begin in the darkness. It is only against this backdrop of the blackness of sin that we understand the marvelous light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Only in understanding fully where we were—in the darkness, do we understand where we are, and understand our call to the marvelous light, the glory of God.
No one gets called into the marvelous light from any other starting point than the darkness.
Message Title: The Image of God, Version 2.0
Message Text: 1 Peter 2:9 & Selected
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