But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
An elect race ...  Just as the living stone was elect, so are the living stones who make up his spiritual body; but they are not elect in their own right, being elect "in Christ."  It is true of the elect, no less than of the disobedient, that they are "appointed" unto their destiny.  This means that God has predestined and appointed all who shall be found in Christ to eternal glory; but people come under the benefits of such an appointment only when they are baptized into Christ and are "found in him" at last  (Revelation 14:13).