2.03.18. "The Lord's peorpe, the Lord's treasure"
XVIII. “THE LORD’S PEOPLE, THE LORD’S TREASURE.”
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people.” — 1 Peter 2:9.
HE last of these four expresses the aim or object pursued and attained; and the three preceding reveal the steps or means by which that end is reached. We shall accordingly examine the last first. The central object here is the special designation given to the Lord’s redeemed as his “ peculiar people.” On this point in the middle we must plant our compass, if we would trace to any good effect the circumference of the verse, explaining alike what goes before and what follows. At this stage the view-point of the observer is changed.
Hitherto we have been considering redemption as some good thing which we obtain from God; now we must think of it as some good thing that God obtains for himself. In this case the Good Shepherd has lost some of his own sheep. He is not willing to want them. He leaves the unstrayed safe on the pasture, and goes after the wanderers until he find them; and when he has found them, he bears them back rejoicing.
Some years since the son of a wealthy English family was seized by a band of robbers while he was making a THE lord’s people, tour in the mountains of Greece. Through some mismanagement the ransom demanded was not promptly paid, and the men, in revenge, killed their captive. There was a great deal of trouble with the Government of Greece; but nothing could restore their beloved child to his bereaved family. They had agreed to pay the stipulated sum, and they remained inconsolable because that ransom, instead of reaching the robbers, returned to their own hands. Their money came back, but they lost their son.
More recently, a young man was similarly captured and held to ransom by bandits in Italy. The parents, in this case, succeeded in paying the price, and redeeming their son. From this completed transaction two distinct joys sprang — one, the joy of the child in gaining his liberty; the other, the joy of the parents in obtaining their child.
Hitherto we have been thinking of redemption through grace as the first of these joys; now we think of it as the second. In the preceding verses we have stood on the view-point of the ransomed captive; now we stand on the view-point of God who redeems. “ This my son was dead, and is alive again; was lost, and is found.”
Literally and fully the expression is, “ A people for his peculiar property.” The idea is transferred from the Old Testament: ’* Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people “ (Exodus 19:6). The word “ peculiar,” by which the thought is expressed in English, we derive directly through the Latin, and the use of the term in the secular life of the Romans will throw light on its meaning here in the spiritual sphere. The system of slavery prevailed in the Roman Empire. It interpenetrated all society. An elaborate code of laws had sprung up to regulate its complicated and imnatural relationa The slave, when he fell into slavery, lost all. He became the property of his master. But if he served faithfully, law and custom permitted him to acquire private property through his own skill or industry. A man might, for example, hire himself from his owner, paying him so much a day. He might then employ himself in art or even merchandise, and if successful, might soon accumulate a considerable sum. Some slaves, in this manner, purchased their own Uberty, and raised themselves to a high position. Now the savings of a slave, after satisfying the demands of the master, were called his pecvZium. The law protected him in his right to this property. It may be supposed to have been very dear to the poor man. It constituted his sole anchor of hope. He cherished it accordingly. From this a conception and expression have been borrowed to show the kind of ownership that God is pleased to claim in the persons who have been won back to liimself after they were lost.
He had made man in his own image and for himsell For him he had formed and furnished the world. Man, made last, made best, was the chief of the Creator’s works. That chosen, cherished portion was lost and enslaved. The Father was not content to leave his child a captive in the enemy’s hands. He provided a ransom. The ransom was paid. The slaves set free returned in number and purity like dew-drops from the womb of the morning. The darkened and denuded heavens were studded again with stars. The portion regained became dearer than ever to the Redeemer. These sons and daughters of the Lord bmighty became a “ peculiar people.” They were God’s THE lord’s people, own cherished treasure in a closer sense than any other creature of his hand. The same language is frequently employed in the New Testament, to indicate that while all other beings and things belong to God, human sinners redeemed by the blood of Christ are in a higher sense his own — the treasure in which he delights. When Paul is commending the church at Ephesus to the special care of its own elders, he reminds them that God had purchased that church as his own peculiar treasure, by the price of the Redeemer’s blood. The circumstance that they are so peculiarly precious to the Lord that bought them, is given as the strongest reason why the under-shepherds should faithfully feed the flock.
While therefore it is right to stand on the earth below and look up to redemption as a boon which the ransomed obtain, it is right also, in proper place and time, to reverse the view, — to come up higher, and look as the Redeemer looks upon the portion he has won. Those whom he has bought with his blood are his treasure, his portion, his reward. He rejoices over them with a joy that is unspeak? able and full of glory. He keeps them as the apple of his eye. It is a great thing that my Redeemer is mine; but it is still a greater, if I can attain to it, that I am his.