The Living Stone (1 Peter 2:4-8)

This sermon was preached on 19/6/2011

The New Testament has several ways of expressing the union that exists between Jesus and his people. Jesus, for example, used the illustrations of a vine and its branches and a shepherd and his sheep. Paul described the relationship as similar to that of a bridegroom and his bride and of a head and its body. Peter here uses the picture of a building composed of a cornerstone and stones, with Jesus being the cornerstone and his people being the other stones in the building. It is tempting to see here an allusion to the promise that Jesus made to Peter after his confession of Jesus as the Son of God concerning the certainty of his building his church.

The first detail that we can notice is that the role of Jesus as the cornerstone was prophesied long before he lived in this world. Peter cites from the prophesy of Isaiah (28:16) and says that the prophet’s words concerned the future place that the Messiah would have in the outworking of God’s kingdom. The prophecy was given originally during a time when God’s judgements were about to be enacted on Judah, so it was a reminder that God was also marked by mercy.

The purpose of God the Father

A second detail that Peter mentions is the purpose of God the Father. It was he who planned the position that Jesus would have. We see this position in the sentence, ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious.’ In the sentence, we can also see the esteem or value that the Father gave to his cornerstone. Several questions can be asked of this statement.

First, we can ask, ‘When did the Father choose His Son with the intention of him becoming the cornerstone?’ The answer to this question is that he chose his Son for this role in what we call the covenant of redemption. That covenant was an eternal agreement between the persons of the Trinity in connection to the salvation of sinners.

Second, we can ask, ‘What value did the Father place on his Son when he chose him to become the cornerstone?’ The answer to this question is found in the word ‘precious’. Something that is precious is valuable. There are various ways by which someone can be precious. If one is a relation, then he is precious. If one seeks our good, then he is precious. If one shares our goals, then he is precious. The Son was eternally related to the Father, the Son always worked for his Father’s pleasure, the Son fully shared the Father’s plans. In other words, he was unique. Of course, we can also say that the Father and the Spirit are unique. But for now, we want to focus on the Son. He was the only-begotten of the Father, and in that sense his worth to the Father was incalculable.

Third, we can ask, ‘When did the Father lay his Son as a cornerstone?’ The answer to this question is found in verse 7. The laying occurred after he had been rejected by some as a suitable cornerstone, and Peter here quotes another Old Testament reference, Psalm 118:22, which he had also quoted in his sermon preached years before in Jerusalem when he informed the Jewish leaders that they had rejected God’s Messiah (Acts 4:11). He had heard his Master refer to the same verse when he rebuked the chief priests and Pharisees (Matt. 21:42). They had assessed him and rejected his teachings about his kingdom. Their conclusion was that he was not fit to be the cornerstone; instead they deduced that he was a fraud and, keeping the illustration of stones, they proceeded to throw him into the place of rejected material. In a marvellous way the time of his rejection by men was the time of his positioning by the Father as the cornerstone.

Fourth, we can ask, ‘Where did the Father lay his Son as a cornerstone?’ The answer to this question is that he is the cornerstone of the spiritual Zion, the church. Peter could no doubt remember when Jesus had said that he would build his church. Zion is not a reference to the earthly Jerusalem, although that was the geographical location where, in a sense, the laying took place. But he was not participating in the foundation of an earthly building, but a spiritual one. It is quite clear from the New Testament that Zion must be understood in a spiritual sense.

Fifth, we can ask, ‘How did the Father prepare his Son to become the cornerstone?’ We can return to the first question regarding when the Father chose him to be the cornerstone and ask if the Son was ready then to become the cornerstone. The answer is that he was not ready then and certain things had to happen to him before he would be ready to become the cornerstone.

The first change that happened to the Son was that he became a man in order to become the cornerstone. He had to be divine in order to function in this role, but he had to be more than divine. In order to be part of the building he also had to be similar to the other stones in it. So the Son of God became a man with this end in view.

Yet it was not sufficient for him to become a man. More changes were to take place regarding his person. For thirty years, he lived a beautiful, perfect life. There were no flaws in him, so he was ideal cornerstone as long as the rest of the building would be composed of sinless creatures. But they were not and it was required of him that he do something about their situation. This was why he was chosen, and indeed it was a major reason as to why he was precious in the sight of the Father.

The second change that happened to him was that his perfect humanity was to be offered by himself as a sacrifice to satisfy his Father’s justice. This took place on the cross when he offered himself without spot to God. Yet as he offered himself, he received from his Father the awful punishment due against the other stones for their sins.

Yet even his becoming a man and his voluntary bearing of the sins of his people was not the total of how he became the cornerstone. Another change had to occur to him and that was that he had to be raised from the dead. If he remained dead, he could not function as the cornerstone in Zion. The building could not be erected until he was resurrected. Thankfully, on the third day he was raised by the Father in the power of an indissoluble life. His resurrection was the conclusive evidence that the rejection of him by the Jewish authorities was a huge error of judgement.

Sixth, we can also ask, ‘Having laid his Son as the cornerstone, what did the Father have in mind?’ Obviously when a builder lays a foundation, he intends to erect something on it. In a far higher sense, the Father had his purpose regarding what to do with the cornerstone? There are many aspects to this but I would mention two at this stage.

First, I would mention the emphasis that Paul stresses in Ephesians 2:20 when he says that Jesus is the cornerstone. There, Paul’s main focus is the unity between Jews and Gentiles in the church that Jesus brings about as the cornerstone. A cornerstone would bring two sides of a building together, and we can see how Paul could use it to describe how Jesus brought together Jews and Gentiles. In ancient buildings, it was the cornerstone that held the building together. Similarly, the only one that can hold the church together is Jesus, and we should not give the impression that someone else can do it (some vainly imagine that the Pope does this, but there is more than one kind of pretence in the professing Christian church).

Obviously the illustration breaks down eventually because there is no literal building in which every stone is on the foundation but instead one stone is built upon another. In the church, every stone is directly connected to the cornerstone and it is through union with him that his people are united to one another. It was the Father’s purpose that his Son and his people would be a different kind of building from any other in existence. The church is intended to be a place of unity and harmony.

Second, it was the case that the cornerstone became the model by which other stones were assessed. A building was composed of stones that were similar to its cornerstone. In the church, it is God’s intention that all the living stones become like the cornerstone. That is how onlookers will know that the stones are alive. It should be our aim to be growing in our likeness to Jesus.

Peter’s readers

In verses 4 and 5, Peter defines the Christian life. To begin with, he says that a healthy Christian is continually coming to Jesus. This is how they are built up as living stones. Regarding the picture of stones, we must remember that at one time they were, spiritually, dead stones without any spiritual life. Jesus cornerstone sent out his gospel to them and they became living stones because the Holy Spirit indwelt them as believers.

Further, because they are continuing to come to Jesus, it means that the stones in the temple should be getting bigger, but they should be enlarging together. The living stones are amorphous, with no defined or limited shape. Instead they are always growing in grace. Coming to Jesus as the fountain of grace results in spiritual growth. That is what we are doing when we have church services or when we use other means of grace.

There is also a sense in which Peter, since he is depicting the people of God as a temple, is describing their continual coming as that of worshippers. They approach Jesus with a sense of veneration continually in order to offer spiritual sacrifices. Peter mixes his metaphors as it were and the living stones of the temple are also the priests in the temple. Unlike the priests in a literal temple, their offerings are not physical presentations. Instead they are spiritual activities. What do they include?

The first aspect is personal consecration to Jesus. Paul describes this spiritual activity in Romans 12:1-2. In light of all that God has done for us, we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. We are to take each part of our body and dedicate them to Jesus. What a difference there would be if we lived this out day by day.

The second aspect is verbal appreciation of Jesus. In the temple in Jerusalem, the impressive stones used in its construction never said a word. It is very sad when the living stones of the new temple imitate the dead stones of the old temple. The function of the living stones is to speak well of their Master and commend him as much as possible.

The third aspect is costly activities for Jesus. I suppose the clearest example of this is Mary of Bethany. Probably, it is not possible to do this all of the time. She certainly did not give her expensive ointment to Jesus every day. It is right to be devoted to Jesus, but it is also good sometimes to do something special for Jesus.

Such offerings are summarised by the writer of Hebrews: ‘Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God’ (Heb. 13:15-16).

Yet even when the living stones function in this way and show great dedication to Jesus, the fact is that they are still imperfect and their spiritual activities are never accepted in themselves. There is only one way by which they can be accepted and that is through Jesus.

Peter reminds his readers also that their position is a great honour (v. 7). They are contrasted with those who stumble over Jesus because they do not think he is a suitable cornerstone. The destiny of such is to be ashamed of their choice, which destiny will be given to them at the Day of Judgement. It will be very different for those who belong to the spiritual temple. They are going to be the dwelling place of God, they are going to be the recipients of his blessings, they are going to share the fortunes of the cornerstone. They are going to be glorified.