THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS THE CHOSEN GENERATION IS TIME SENSITIVE

By G. Laine Robinson

1 Peter 2:9-10 (NASB):  9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Have we always thought about generations in the proper context? I mean when we hear the word generation, often our minds immediately go to legacy, youth, children, or whoever is up next. There are so many classifications for generations, from boomers to alphabets, and they seem to be transitioning more quickly. 

I’d like to look at generations from a different perspective. To understand the work of Christ through a “chosen generation” we must look beyond age, and look towards purpose. The chosen generation is the generation of God’s choosing for a specific purpose at a specific time. Every generation is chosen for a purpose, and our responsibility as believers is to discover what that is. 

“You are a chosen generation.” The word “generation” in this context does not mean contemporaries, but the offspring of one common parent, the offshoots of one original stock. In other words, its relevance is of dual importance; whose you are, and when you are. There are three major factors for the chosen generation. 

Every generation has an assignment

The first time the term “chosen generation” is used in the Bible is in the book  of Exodus, and the assignment was to establish a people that were set apart for God.  Today, we are the church, the Ekklesia (the called out ones). We are the called out ones that are set aside for God’s purpose. From building the temple, to conquering in the promise land, to establishing the first church, every generation we encounter in the Bible has an assignment.

Every generation is an offspring

The singer songwriter Shawn Mendes penned some powerful lyrics in his song “It isn’t in my blood.” He was describing going through a difficult place that led him to want to give up, to quit, to cease going after his purpose, but then he realized that quitting wasn’t in his blood. It was not his nature to stop short of his intended goal. 

Likewise, for us, when we were born again and reGENErated, we were given the blood stream of Christ. So now, we are the chosen people, and the royal priesthood. And just as Jesus did not give up or stop short of His purpose, we too can continue until our victory is in hand. Our responsibility is to reproduce the next generation of chosen priests, by discipling our children, neighbors, friends, and associates. It’s not about the age, it’s about the time.

Every generation has an adversary

An adversary can be a person, a government, or a spirit. Some of the more famous adversarial relationships in the Bible are David with Goliath in the Old Testament and John the Baptist with Herod in the New Testament.   Governments can also be adversaries. Egypt in the Old Testament and the Roman Empire in the New Testament both had adversaries of the children of God. Adversarial relationships with spirits could look like Jezebel and Elijah in the Old Testament and in the New Testament the young man tortured in the mountains by a group of demonic oppressors known as legion.

So we, as a chosen generation, are responsible to fulfill the purpose for which we have been chosen. Just as valuable as building and rebuilding the temple was to the children of Israel, our generation is chosen to re-establish the centrality of Christ in the home. There is a shift from a building being the center, to the house being the center. I believe the Lord is calling us to become the local church again, which is solely reliant on the priesthood of all believers for its success.