You Are Accepted

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 1 Peter 2:9–10

You belong. You are accepted, and you don’t deserve it. You will never be rejected by God, who calls you his own.

Accepted. Isn’t that a great word? We all feel as if we don’t fit, as if we stick out. Whether it’s the person whose attention you want, or the law firm that doesn’t want you, or the mirror that lies to you, or the date who never called back, or the fraternity that didn’t invite you, or the voice in your head that says nobody cares about you, or the professor who makes you feel stupid, or the loneliness you experience, or the religious people who judged you—deep down, don’t we have a need to be accepted, one that is easily triggered by any sense of rejection?

We all suffer the wounds of rejection and judgment. We all long to hear that we are accepted, especially when we know we don’t deserve acceptance.

You will never be rejected by God, who calls you his own.

God’s Grace Takes the Guilt

Undeserved acceptance is a great way of explaining grace. Grace changes your guilt into assurance, and makes beauty out of things that were ugly. Grace means that God draws near to us when we are weak, not strong. When we feel separated and abandoned. When we despair over our failure, our compulsions. When we feel exhausted and hopeless.

At those moments, we remember God’s grace and we hear him say, “Because of what my Son did, you are accepted. Once you had not received mercy, but now you receive mercy. You belong to me. You don’t have to perform or accomplish anything right now. Just rest in the fact that you are in Christ, and you are accepted.”

Yes, you are flawed and you sin, but you are more accepted and more loved than you can imagine. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more (Rom. 5:20). Because Christ was your substitute, you are accepted and part of a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people who belong to God.