The Living Stone and Living Stones (1 Peter 2:4-5)

Verse 4 describes a continual activity of all believers in Jesus. Such come to him for grace and keep on coming to him for provision of grace. There are different ways of coming to Jesus, of course. There is an initial coming to him at conversion, but that coming is only the first of many by every believer. We come to him afterwards for forgiveness, fellowship, protection and guidance. It is an obvious sign of spiritual health to keep coming to Jesus for our needs to be met.

 

Yet we don’t only come for our needs to be met. One incident from the Gospels particularly points to this. On one occasion, Jesus healed ten lepers. Their healings needed to be verified by a Jewish priest. After they had done this, only one of them, out of a desire to praise God, returned to thank Jesus for curing him. He was the only one who expressed gratitude, who acknowledged Jesus in this manner, and Jesus commented on it (Luke 17:12-19).

 

The word that Peter uses here has the idea of worship, of drawing near to God in his temple. Yet his readers did not live in Jerusalem and attend the temple there. So what is Peter saying here? We may put it this way. Instead of going to a temple to see the religious personnel that functioned there, we come to Jesus and worship God because we are a spiritual temple. We come to be reminded of who he is, where he is, and what he can do for us.

 

Who is Jesus?

We know that people have different perspectives on other people which may be very wide of the mark. That is also the case with regard to Jesus. There are numerous opinions about him, but the opinion that matters must be a true opinion. How does Peter describe Jesus here?

 

Notice that Peter says that Jesus is a living stone. By this expression, Peter means two things. First, he means that Jesus is alive from the dead. We know that the gospel announces that Jesus died for our sins on the cross. There he paid the penalty that was required by divine justice. But he did not remain dead because three days later he rose from the dead, an indication that his sacrifice on the cross had been accepted by the Father.

 

Second, Jesus is a life-giving stone. In the Jewish temple, all the stones were like the cornerstone, lifeless. Although the cornerstone was the most important stone, it was only a stone. It possessed no power to give life to the other stones connected to it in that great temple. In contrast, Jesus is a lifegiving stone, able to give life to all who are connected to him. Because he lives, we live also.

 

Notice too what people think of Jesus. They reject him and his message and his position. This took place before he died on the cross as well as afterwards. The rulers and others opposed him and despised him. They refused to acknowledge that he was the promised Saviour. Even after he rose from the dead they continued their opposition to him. Such opposition happens still, as we know is the case when people refuse the gospel message. It may describe some of us.

More importantly, we should observe what God thinks about Jesus. Peter tells us that God the Father constantly looks at Jesus. We can see that is the case from the reference Peter makes to the sight of God, to what he is looking at. Recall the day of the baptism of Jesus when God the Father spoke from heaven and announced to all present that he was well-pleased with his beloved Son. This was the Father’s verdict on the so-called thirty silent years of Jesus. People may not have noticed Jesus, but the Father in heaven did, and continued to look on him with delight. And it is the same today now that he is highly exalted in heaven. We could almost say that the Father never stops looking at Jesus.

 

Peter uses two adjectives to describe the Father’s estimation of Jesus. One of the words is chosen, which refers to the eternal plan of God and how the Father purposed to send his Son into the world as the Saviour of his people. The Son was the Father’s eternal choice, and the Son was eternally willing to come. He was the best candidate for this role, in fact he was the only candidate because no one else could perform it successfully.

 

The second word is precious. It is possible for someone to choose a person for a role and have no delight in the individual chosen. A boss may give a role to a person whom the boss regards as obnoxious in character. Or a person may be selected from a list of people and those making the choice hope they have made the right one. But that was not the case when the Father chose the Son. As I said, he was the only One who could fulfil this role, and there never was any doubt in the mind of the Father about it.

 

Precious points to a sense of endearment and an awareness of value. The Father loved the Son always and he constantly knew his worth. Throughout eternity, this had been the case. And it was also the case when the Son became a man and lived down here among us. That was the point of the voice that came from heaven at his baptism. We can also say that Jesus remained chosen and precious even when the Father turned his face away when he poured his wrath out at the cross. Moreover, it is the same today now that the risen Son is in the highest place in heaven. Through all those different situations, he remains the chosen and precious one.

 

Who are Christians?

There are many descriptions in the New Testament of believers. No doubt, we can think of some of them such as them being disciples, saints, and children of God. Or there are other descriptions taken from daily life such as them being soldiers in an army, runners in a race, and members of a city. Other descriptions are taken from the history of Israel, and we have an example of them here when Peter says that believers are a temple and a priesthood. Of course, in everyday life, a group could not be a temple although they could be priests in a temple. But when it comes to God’s Word, it transcends normal limitations when describing the effects of salvation.

 

Peter says that each believer is a stone in the temple that is currently in the process of being built. Some were added to the building in the first century, and many others have been added since then. Where did these stones come from? We are told in the first chapter of this letter where the original readers came from. They came from Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia (1 Pet. 1:1). In other words, they were Gentiles, but they are now regarded by Peter as the real Israel who can worship the true and living God. But the places of their origin reminds us that the God of heaven had revealed his grace to them through the gospel.

 

Peter’s plan for the building is notable. Jesus is said in the next set of verses to be the cornerstone of the building. The cornerstone was usually the first stone to be laid because it secured the dimensions of the building and held the foundation together. Without a cornerstone, the building would collapse. We can imagine a situation in which a cornerstone became damaged or had some kind of weakness in it. When that happened, the building would not be secure. So what kind of cornerstone is Jesus? Peter points out that Jesus is the living stone, and he means by that description that Jesus is the source of life, of indestructible life. There is no power that can cause Jesus the cornerstone to move an inch from his crucial position. On him the church is built.

 

Yet Jesus is not the only living stone in this unusual building. In fact, there are countless other living stones because each believer has the life of God in him through the work of the Holy Spirit. They are not the source of life for one another, but they all receive the same life from their union with Jesus. This means that they are permanently alive.

 

Moreover, the believers are not static. They become bigger in themselves, or at least they should increase in stature. One commentator said of them that ‘They are living stones, and they are part of a growing house. God’s architecture is biological. His house grows as new stones are added, but also as the stones in place are perfected.’ We can say that each living stone is in the process of being sanctified. None of them is yet a perfect stone, but all of them are connected permanently with the Living Stone.

 

Who lived in the temple in the Old Testament? Whose house was it? God lived in it in a special manner, it was his earthly home. It is true that he is omnipresent, but it is also true that he has special presences. For example, he is currently present in heaven in a manner that he is not present on earth. Or he is present in church in a way that is different from his presence in a supermarket, although he is fully present in both places.

 

The temple was holy because God dwelt there in a special way. Even within the temple, there were degrees of holiness. I suppose the different rooms were chosen to say to worshippers that they had to draw near to God carefully. In the outer courts, sacrifices were offered because no one could draw near without one as a substitute. In fact, an Old Testament worshipper had to offer lots of sacrifices, so we should be thankful that Jesus our sacrifice fulfils them all. The point I am making is that in the church when seen as a temple God is inviting us into his home.  The church is where God dwells. This is his address, the place where he is at home.

 

But what are we meant to do in God’s home? Perhaps we have found ourselves in a person’s home without having been given any advice regarding what we should do or say. Imagine receiving a letter inviting us to meet the king at Buckingham Palace. What thoughts would go through our minds? We are in a more important location when engaged in the worship of God. Jesus informed the woman of Sychar that the Father sought her worship (John 4).

 

What do Christians do as living stones?

Peter mentions a very important truth in verse 5 which is often termed the priesthood of all believers. In Israel, only one tribe could provide priests and Levites, and they had to be male and to be of a certain age. It is all different in the church because every believer, whatever their gender or their age or their position in life, is an equal priest, set apart by God to live in a holy manner in his presence.

 

They are to offer spiritual sacrifices, not animal sacrifices. What is included in spiritual sacrifices? They can be covered by referring to two areas of worship. 

First, recall what Paul urged the Roman Christians to do in Romans 12:1. They were to present or offer themselves as living sacrifices. To get the point, we should imagine the disciples there listening to the letter being read. I wonder what they did when the reader came to chapter 12 after reading about all the great blessings God had given to his people such as justification, adoption, and the prospect of glorification. Do we think that they just sat there staring at the reader? No, they would have dedicated themselves afresh to God because of his goodness to them. They would have engaged in what the author of Hebrews calls ‘the sacrifice of praise,’ which he defines as ‘the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.’ Maybe he is referring to singing, but he is not referring to silence. Such sacrifices are vocal.

 

Second, they were to engage in practical Christian activity. The same author of Hebrews goes on to say, ‘Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God’ (Heb. 13:16). Worship involves thinking about the other living stones. Practical expressions of fellowship seems to be in view here, all the more important because of the persecution that some of the recipients of this letter were experiencing.

 

The astonishing detail concerning these sacrifices is that although they are offered by sinners they are acceptable to God because of the ongoing work of Jesus Christ in heaven.