A Chosen Race

1 Peter 2:6-10 ESV 

For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,

a cornerstone chosen and precious,

and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone,”

and

“A stone of stumbling,

and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

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.

Israel had a role to play in the plan of God for the salvation of mankind. God used them to bring the light of the law to bear on the weakness of man and to bear the light of the world for the salvation of man by overcoming that weakness. They would prepare the way for Christ and provide the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Their wilderness journey will come to an end when they see Christ, their Messiah. They were elected by God for this purpose. 

We are a chosen people of God, for we have chosen God. We have accepted His offer of mercy and life, thus He chooses us as children of His light and as sons of God to enter that life. 

Matthew 22:14

For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Few will answer. “Here am I.”

Exodus 19:5-6

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

We fulfill the role left undone by Adam and Israel. This is what God saw from the beginning.