BIG IDEA:
C. THE LIVING STONE In Fulfillment of OT Prophecy Elevates The Privileges
and Worship of God’s People in the Church (2:4-10)
INTRODUCTION:
Erland Waltner: Peter seeks to help his readers understand who they are as a new house or household of God, made up of “living stones” built on Jesus Christ, the Living Stone. They are to be a people of God with a royal priestly function in the world. Michaels suggests, plausibly, that the original intention is to give mostly Gentile converts to Christianity a sense of continuity with “a Jewish identity.” As Paul pleads in Ephesians, Gentile believers are indeed also “the people of God.”
Striking in this passage are OT quotations and allusions, used in midrashic style, with freedom of interpretation. The image of the stone is a significant linkage in the passages used from Isaiah 28:16; Psalm 118:22; and Isaiah 8:14. Later, the image shifts to peoplehood and employs references to Exodus 23:22; 19:5-6; Isaiah 43:20-21; and finally Hosea 1:6, 9; 2:1, 23.
Wayne Grudem: Christians who remain in fellowship with Christ the cornerstone (vv. 5–6) are ‘living stones’ in a new kind of temple, far superior to the lifeless stones of the physical temple in Jerusalem. Now, in the New Covenant age, God’s dwelling place on earth is no longer limited to the Jerusalem temple, for Christian believers are now the living stones in a ‘temple’ made of people, and God will now manifest his presence in the new kind of temple wherever his people gather together. Christian believers are now also priests in this new temple, fully qualified to enter into God’s presence in worship and prayer. In addition, they are no longer ordinary, common people but are members of God’s royal family. The vivid images of Christian believers as living stones and as a royal priesthood provide abundant incentive for Christians to show love towards one another: if that is who they really are, then it will certainly affect the way they treat one another.
Daniel Doriani: following Christ entails joining his community, the church. “To accept the Redeemer means also accepting the people whom he has redeemed.” The freelance Christian, who follows Jesus but is too good, too busy, or too self-sufficient for the church, is a walking contradiction. In the old covenant, God set his people apart from the nations. In the new covenant, he sets us apart as we live among the nations. But all of Scripture testifies that believers cannot be godly or fruitful without joining God’s family and realizing some form of separation from the world.
Above all, the church is Christ’s community. Peter begins: “you come to him” (1 Peter 2:4). Apart from Jesus, there are religious and moral communities, but the church is the one community centered on Jesus rather than morality or spirituality. In both Psalm 118 and Isaiah 28, God declares that he will lay down a foundation stone and build on it (1 Peter 2:6–7 quotes verses from both texts).
I. (:4-5) THOSE WHO VALUE CHRIST AS A LIVING STONE ENJOY THE PRIVILEGE OF FUNCTIONING AS LIVING STONES IN WORSHIPPING GOD
A. (:4) God’s People Value Christ as the Living Stone
And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men,
but choice and precious in the sight of God,
- Our Desire is to Constantly Draw Closer to Christ
John MacArthur: The compound verb coming (proserchomenoi), however, conveys more than a mere drawing close to Christ for salvation. The preposition pros is a prefix to the normal verb erchomai and adds intensity, denoting a drawing near to Christ in intimate, abiding, personal fellowship. The writer of Hebrews uses this same term a number of times to denote a conscious coming into God’s presence with the intent to remain (4:16; 7:25; 10:22). For Peter, the word implied the movement of the entire inner person into the experience of intimate and ongoing communion with Jesus Christ.
2. Significance of “Living Stone” — Combines Life and Permanence
3. Two Different Estimations of the Value of Christ
a. Judgment of Fallen Man
Peter Davids: People rejected him. Ps. 118:22, which will be quoted in v. 7, is already in mind. This theme, which came from the oral tradition of Jesus’ sayings (Mark 12:10), also appears in Acts 4:11. The term “rejected” implies examination by builders and then casting aside as a reject, unfit for the future building of the nation. With that the readers can surely identify, for they were feeling the rejection of their fellow-citizens as well.
b. Judgment of God
Peter Davids: But the foundation, the cornerstone of the temple of God is Jesus, who, far from being rejected, is a choice or select stone, a precious or valuable stone, even if the world does not yet share that valuation. This is the one to whom they have come and whose dual fate they share. Cf. Isa. 28:16
B. (:5) As Living Stones Comprising the Spiritual House of God, Exercise the Privilege of Your Holy Priesthood by Offering Up Appropriate Spiritual Sacrifices
you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- Our Identity as Living Stones
Daniel Akin: Every stone is unique. Every stone is valuable. Every stone has been chosen and placed in its location in Christ, the “chosen and honored cornerstone” of verses 6-7. We will see how great a builder God is once he finishes his work.
2. The Church Transcends the Glory of the Jewish Temple
Peter Davids: The concept of the nonphysical church replacing the material temple in Jerusalem is widespread in Christian writings (Mark 14:58; 15:29; John 2:19; 4:21, 23-24; Acts 7:48; 17:24, as well as some of the references cited above). Thus the house of God is no longer to be thought of as a physical building, but as a living “house” in which God lives. It is therefore impregnable, unlike physical temples and meeting places, a certain comfort to an oppressed Christian group.
3. Our Priesthood Transcends that of the OT Levitical Priests
John MacArthur: Three Old Testament passages offer significant parallels to the characteristics of believers’ priesthood. Exodus 28–29 lays out God’s commands regarding the priesthood, such as the standards and principles for the office, as well as the functions of the office. Leviticus 8–9 describes the inauguration of men into the priestly office. Malachi 2 contrasts an apostate priesthood to the legitimate, God-ordained priesthood. From those passages flow six basic characteristics of the Old Testament priesthood that have great relevance to New Testament believers’ spiritual privileges as priests.
- God sovereignly chose the priests – 49:5-7
- God cleansed them from sin before they embarked on their duties – 8:6-36
- God clothed the priests for service – 28
- God through Moses anointed the Levitical priests for service – 8:30
- God prepared its members for service – 8:33; Ezra 7:10
- God called the priests to obedience – 10:1-3
4. Our Sacrifices Transcend Those OT Animal Sacrifices
Daniel Doriani: In the Old Testament, the break between priests and people was sharp. God had set apart the priests to offer sacrifices and forgiveness, to pray for the people, and to instruct them in his truth (Jer. 37:3; Mal. 2:7; Heb. 5:1–5). But now we are all priests (cf. Rev. 5:10). We all pray and ask forgiveness. We have access to God, without intermediaries or permission slips (Rom. 5:2). We can understand God’s Word because we know God and he leads us into all truth (Jer. 31:33–34; 1 John 2:27).
As priests, we offer “spiritual sacrifices” that are “acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5) As we know, God accepts perfect sacrifices, and ours are flawed; therefore, we offer them through Christ, who forgives and perfects them.
5. All This is Possible Thru Jesus Christ–the Living Stone
John MacArthur: In this passage, the apostle emphasizes the richness of the privileges believers already have in Christ.
Daniel Akin: This verse is foundational to the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. As believer-priests we all have direct access to God through our one mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Tim 2:5). Timothy George writes,
The priesthood of all believers was a cardinal principle of the Reformation of the 16th century. It was used by the reformers to buttress an evangelical understanding of the church over against the clericalism and sacerdotalism [wherein priests have spiritual powers as mediators between God and man] of medieval Catholicism. . . . The reformers talked . . . of the “priesthood of all believers” (plural). For them it was never a question of a lonely, isolated seeker of truth, but rather of a band of faithful believers united in a common confession as a local, visible congregatio sanctorum. . . .
The priesthood of believers is not a prerogative on which we can rest; it is a commission which sends us forth into the world to exercise a priestly ministry not for ourselves, but for others—“the outsiders,” not instead of Christ, but for the sake of Christ and at His behest. . . .
No one should deny the importance of the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. It is a precious and irreducible part of our Reformation heritage and our Baptist legacy. But let no one trivialize its meaning by equating it with modern individualism or theological minimalism. It is a call to ministry and service; it is a barometer of the quality of our life together in the Body of Christ and of the coherence of our witness in the world for which Christ died. (“The Priesthood,” 291–94)
II. (:6-8) THE FULFILLMENT OF OT MESSIANIC PROPHECIES REGARDING CHRIST AS A LIVING STONE – IN RELATION TO BELIEVERS AND UNBELIEVERS
A. (:6-7) The Value of Christ as a Living Stone for Believers
For this is contained in Scripture: “Behold I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, And he who believes in Him shall not be disappointed.” 7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, “The stone which the builders rejected, This became the very corner stone,”
B. (:8) The Liability of Christ as a Living Stone for Unbelievers
and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.
John MacArthur: A stone of stumbling was any stone that people could trip over as they moved down a road, and a rock of offense was the rock bed they could be crushed against after they fell over the other stone. In Peter’s symbolism, the Jews threw away the true cornerstone, then wound up falling over it to be finally crushed in judgment by the same rock (Luke 20:17–18; cf. Matt. 13:41).
III. (:9-10) THOSE WHO ENJOY THE PRIVILEGES OF BEING GOD’S PEOPLE SHOULD PROCLAIM HIS EXCELLENCIES
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
David Walls: “A chosen people,” “a people belonging to God,” and “the people of God” emphasize God’s ownership in our lives. Throughout history God has claimed for himself his own people as his prized possession. Christians are a people for God to possess. A very ordinary thing acquires a new value if it has been possessed by some famous person.
John MacArthur: Scripture suggests at least five superlatives related to God’s sovereign choice to save certain sinners.
- First, election is absolutely the solitary decision of God, thus it is the most pride-crushing truth in God’s Word. It devastates humans’ pride since nothing in their salvation derives from any merit in them—it is all of God (cf. Jonah 2:9; John 1:12–13; Eph. 2:8–9).
- Second, because election is totally by divine grace, it is the most God exalting doctrine (cf. 9:23; Eph. 1:6–7; 2:7; 2 Thess. 2:13).
- Third, election is the most holiness-promoting doctrine. Because God set His love on believers before the world began, they should be consumed with gratitude and a passion to obey Him no matter what (cf. 11:13; Josh. 24:24; Rom. 6:17; 7:25).
- Fourth, because God’s election is eternal and unchangeable, it is the most strength-giving doctrine in the Bible. Therefore it affords believers genuine peace no matter what circumstances they face (cf. 85:8; John 14:27; 1 Cor. 14:33; Eph. 2:14–15; Col. 1:20; 3:15; 2 Thess. 3:16).
- Finally, election is the most joy-producing spiritual privilege because it is the surest hope believers have in the midst of a sinful world (cf. 1:21; Eph. 4:4; Col. 1:5, 23; 1 Thess. 5:8; Heb. 7:19).
Peter Davids: This poem sums up the election theme of this section and gives comfort to a suffering and rejected people who are to see that their earthly rejection is only earthly. In truth they are the accepted ones of God.