October 2

A chosen generation. - 1 Peter 2:9.

IT is of Christians the apostle is here speaking. We allow there is an especial reference to the Jews as the commonwealth of Israel, and in an important sense the words may be exemplified in their privileges and prerogatives; they were indeed “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a peculiar people.” But they were always designed to be typical of another, a nobler community. “For,” says the apostle, “if we are Christ’s then are we Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.’ We may observe, therefore, while there is a reference to the Jews, the representation is intended to be significant of real Christians who, as the apostle says, are “the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus, and who have no confidence in the flesh.” We must not judge of persons by their outward rank, but by their spirituality.

The precious sons of Zion, says Jeremiah, “comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter.” But if they are afflicted they are comforted in all their affliction and distress. If they are poor in this world’s good, they are “rich in faith,” and rich towards God. If they are despised and rejected of men, they are “chosen of God and precious.” They are here described as a “chosen generation.” A generation is a duration of beings measured by an age. Hence it is said, “David served his generation according to the will of God;” that is, he served those who lived in his days. A generation means posterity, and it is used for offspring. Thus, it is written, “The generation of the upright shall be blessed.” They are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. Of the Messiah it is predicted, “He shall see his seed;” and again, “A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.”

Mortality enters the church as well as the world. “Our fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever?” Those who are partakers of divine grace “are not suffered to continue by reason of death.” But if they die, others rise up in their room, and thus the generation remain, and will remain to the end of time; and the “gates of hell”-that is, of death and the grave-“shall not prevail against them.” But they are a chosen generation.

It is absurd to suppose that God does any thing without design, or that he does what he does without choosing to do it. This choice regards, not, as some persons imagine, things only, but persons, and not only persons collectively, but individually; and not only has a regard to temporal, but a reference to eternal, concerns. And this choice was not only free and sovereign, but altogether gracious. Therefore, saith the apostle, as the ground of his argument, because “God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation, through the sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth,” they are “a chosen generation.”