A Royal Priesthood !
1 Pet 2:9
But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Are these here Peter calls a Royal Priesthood Abraham's physical descendants the jews ? No, not by any means, unless peter was writing to ethnic jews under the OC out of the tribe of levi, otherwise they were not qualified to be priests.
So these are not Abraham's physical descendants, but his Spiritual Offspring, comprised or made up of believers [jew or Gentile] in Christ, because those who belong to Him are the Seed of Abraham
Gal 3:29
And if ye be Christ's,[His Body the Church]
then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
That these Peter wrote to were Gentiles, at least some of them, is seen from the quote he uses from
Isa 43:21
21 This people have I formed for myself;
they shall shew forth my praise.
Which appears to be joined to what precded in verses 19-20
Isa 43:19-20
19
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
20
The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
Which language points to the Gentiles "The
beast of the field shall honour me,"
This is also connected with the vision God gave Peter when sending him to the Gentiles with the Gospel, the vision of the wild beasts
Acts 10:9-15
9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:
10 And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,
11 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth:
12 Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth,
and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
13 And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.
14 But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.
15 And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
For these Gentiles were those God said of them in
Isa 43:20-21
20
The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people,
my chosen.
21
This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.
They are His Chosen, which goes with
1 Pet 2:9
9 But ye are
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
This is part of the Mystery of Christ, that the Gentiles, those that were Chosen, were on a same level with the Chosen jews, the Chosen of God ! Paul said that he had obtained Mercy
1 Tim 1:13
13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but
I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
No differently from the Gentiles did
1 Pet 2:10;
Rom 11:30
30 For as ye in times past have not believed God,
yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
And as he obtained it in unbelief, so did the Gentiles, for unbelief is not an obstacle in obtaining Mercy to the Vessels of Mercy, its the occasion for it, and which the obtaining of it, makes believers out of them, as Paul states that his own obtaining of it proved to be the example
1 Tim 1:16
16
Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering,
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
So the Royal Priesthood is the Church, the Body of Christ, Abraham's Spiritual Believing Seed !