A Peculiar Treasure

It seems from scripture that as creator of heaven and earth (and all things that in them are) that God loves His human creations. So much so He gave the world His Only Begotten to save it. It would also appear that His Son was successful in this endeavor and has had the victory over sin and death. As a result, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. In the end it appears to me that all human creations will be ultimately reconciled to God by and through the victory of His Son.

For me, the thinking (while in opposition to Calvinism) looks something like this:

God is uncreated, eternal and all knowing
He has seen and known the beginning to the end
He then created us – with complete knowledge of all things in mind
All things includes the free will choices we would all make
His desires are that all would be saved
He will have that none perish
He gets His way – in the end
So His Son has paid for the sins of the entire world
By and through this means God has had victory over the fall and failures in Man.
Some will receive Him through His Son while here on earth
Others (here on earth) will reject His constant invitation to accept His Son
Those who reject His Son are His fleshly Children by birth
Those who receive His Son by faith are His Spirit Children by rebirth
Among those who have become His Spirit Children by rebirth have the power to become His Son’s and Daughters
But not all who become His Spirit Children will become His Sons or Daughters. Only those who live by faith in His Son and bear the fruits of Love by the Spirit.
These are His chosen, His elect, His peculiar people, and are joint heirs with Christ.
Where those who are His by faith and love joint-heirs with Christ in all things those who die rejecting His invitation have not been saved from afterlife loss.
Apparently these losses (and gains) will be seen in and through the type of resurrection each person receives at death.

The concept of God having among all peoples a special remnant that are His has been manifest throughout the Old and New Testament narratives. God began with Man who had direct from creation relationship with God. But being Man he rebelled against God and this open relationship and sin entered the world. This was part of God’s plan for raising up out of the human creations a choice people; a people who would choose to hear, and receive and love Him of their own volition – even to the point of willingly sacrificing their very lives to Him and His will and ways and not choosing to live according to their own. The notion of God wanting or desiring to have a part or portion of His human creations to be a special group of joint heirs is pictured for us all the way back in Exodus 19 where we read:

Exodus 19:3-6 And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. 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: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

Deuteronomy 7:6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

Deuteronomy 14:2 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.

Where the King James makes this say that the COI are “above” all the nations of the earth perhaps a better way to understand this is that “out of” all the Nations of the earth God has made them a peculiar treasure. Let’s take this concept and assign it to modern Christianity where God says to us through His Son:

“Thus shalt thou say to all who have believed on you; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.”

Is this not what God has done with each of us who have believed and received. Do we remember what He did unto the “Egyptians” (a symbol for sin and bondage) and “how he bore us up above this world and how it was Him and Him alone that brought us unto Himself?” Then to the Children of Israel God said:

“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: for all the earth is mine:”

His desire? That the Nation of Israel, among all other nations on earth, “would be a peculiar treasure to Him,” “above all people, for all the earth” (and the people on it) “are His.” Did those people have any obligation toward this desire of God’s to have them as His peculiar treasure? I mean, He is the one who saved them and delivered them and lifted them up on eagles wings, right? Right. But He conditioned their being “his peculiar treasure” on them “obeying his voice in deed and keeping His covenant.”

This was the conditions of His Covenant with the COI – they obey and He would bless and they would be His peculiar treasure. What if they disobeyed? They would suffer loss and in the end (while He would redeem them – this was His promise to them) few of them would be His peculiar treasure because few “obeyed his voice in deed and kept His covenant.”

With the wrapping up of all things occurring in 70 AD (culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, genealogies, priesthood, animal sacrifice, the brutal death of millions of Jews we now enter into the ages of ages where all things are spiritually based and driven.

In this day and age is God still looking to have a peculiar treasure among Man? (Yes)
Has He pulled us from bondage too? (Yes)
Are those who are His peculiar treasure different from the rest of human creation? (Yes – just as the COI were called out from among all other nations).
Do we have a part to play in this? (Yes!)

WHAT IS OUR PART?

The same as the part expected of the Children of Israel to “obey His voice in deed and keep his covenant.”

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

1st John 3:22-23 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE, TO BELIEVE AND LOVE?

For starters, we can look back to the last verse in Exodus 19 where God gives us some insight, saying:

“and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.”

What did priests do? They offered sacrifice! That so we see that this is a great part of being a Christian today – we are people who offer ourselves as a living sacrifice! Which is one aspect of loving one another. Such sacrifices can be summed up when we refuse to live by our will and ways but instead offer up our will and way to Him and His!

HOW or WHERE DO WE FIND OUR HOLINESS (or our rising up and over the ways of the world)?

1st John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

So we see in this single verse all the way back in Exodus the there is a command by God to love and live by faith!

Holiness by Faith and Love through sacrifice (the sacrifice of self)

Those who follow these two commands will certainly be seen as His peculiar treasure, His Sons and Daughters, His joint Heirs with Christ.