Pastor Bola Bello
[biblegateway passage=”1 Peter 2:9″ display=”1 Peter 2:9″]
There’s connection between generation and a royal priesthood. Peter was addressing the northern Asian minor in (1 Peter 2:9); he wasn’t specifically addressing the Jews. This should excite us because it was showing how the gentiles have been engrafted into this royalty.
The message peter gave to them was not limited to them specifically and it is also not limited to us. Generation talks about certain things that are in vogue at a particular time, it also speaks about certain people too but in the Bible, generation is concentrated on the family tree.
[biblegateway passage=”Genesis 5:1-3,30; 3:10; 10:1,18,27″ display=”Genesis 5:1-3,30; 3:10; 10:1,18,27″]
Adam and Eve were a generation on their own, and when they began to give birth to children, another generation started. Holiness and righteousness reigned in that generation. Man was not conscious of himself in that generation. They were only conscious of the relationship with the father.
When Adam fell, communion with God began to diminish. Adam became conscious of himself (flesh). For this reason, Adam’s offspring began to come up in the image of Adam and not God’s image. Every other person who came after Adam began to come in the nature of the flesh, it was no longer after the Spirit.
Noah became a tree we could reckon with as another generation, and God decided to wipe away all other generation that was not in sync with God because God is very interested in his relationship with man. We could say that Noah was a righteous man in his generation.
God did not reckon with the generation of Ham and Japheth because they were not in sync with God, but God chose the generation of Shem. God also reckoned with Abraham as a tree because he was in sync with God (righteousness and holiness). We must fear God (Romans 3:2).
[biblegateway passage=”Ephesians 4:24-25″ display=”Ephesians 4:24-25″], [biblegateway passage=”Matthew 1:1″ display=”Matthew 1:1″]
Abraham walked in righteousness, even though we say Noah was righteous in his generation but it’s instructive to us that we cannot compare our righteousness to that of Noah’s. God is still separating the wheat from the shaft in our days. The statement made in the book of Matthew 1:1 speaking about Christ wasn’t talking about Jesus who came in form of flesh. But speaks of Christ. Making us aware that there’s is a new beginning of walking in Spirit.
It is instructive for us to know that Jesus while addressing his generation, never stopped accusing the generation because the generation walked after the flesh. When Christ resurrected the accusation stopped and a new generation emerged.
The priesthood of Christ was of sacrifice. The order was that of cleansing, it was an activity of sanctification so that everyone of us can be cleansed. The essence of the sacrifice was so that everyone who came after Christ will have the propensity to access the oracle through the sacrifice. The royalty no longer became a Jew thing but a universal thing.
[biblegateway passage=”Romans 9:8″ display=”Romans 9:8″], [biblegateway passage=”1 Corinthians 15:45″ display=”1 Corinthians 15:45″], [biblegateway passage=”2 Corinthians 5:17″ display=”2 Corinthians 5:17″], [biblegateway passage=”John 6:63″ display=”John 6:63″]
We have graduated from being seeds of Abraham to being seeds of Christ. Being a chosen generation speaks about the person of Christ. The last Adam was the Jesus of Nazareth not Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth came to fulfil the life the first Adam could not live. This is stating a truth that one can live a life of perfection.
We are now birthed after the spirit and not after the Flesh. We need the word of God before we can become quickened. The testimony of God is the word of God. The more the word of God you receive, the more quickened you become.