we are no people, enemies of God, unworthy of his love.1 Yet, as Peter declares, we who were no people are now the people of God, chosen in Christ as an elect race, a holy nation. Peter’s declaration of our ‘peoplehood’ in Christ has vast consequences for the life of the church of Christ. The church is not just a religious association formed by saved individuals to give united expression to their faith. Rather, the church is more a people than Israel was under the old covenant. Scattered in the