In today's passage Peter presents Christ as the "stone" mentioned in the books of Isaiah and Psalms.
Peter begins with a paragraph that is a bridge between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. In Chapter 1 he reminded us who we are in Christ and how we are to live in Christ, so he says, "Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good." (1 Peter 2:1-3) Peter uses the Greek word "apothesthai" which is translated in the NIV as "rid yourselves" and in other versions as "laying aside" or "putting off". This is the same word a Greek-speaking person of Peter's day might use when talking about taking garments off. If we had nothing but a filthy and ragged set of old clothes, and someone came along and gave us a brand new set of clothes, wouldn't we gratefully take off the old clothes and put on the new clothes? This is what Peter says we who are in Christ must do. It would be foolish to keep on wearing old stained garments after being given a brand new outfit; it would be even more foolish to keep living like the world after being transformed into new creatures by Christ.
He uses another fitting example. We have been born again into a new life, so just as babies need milk in order to grow and thrive, we need the milk of the word of God in order to grow and thrive. Do you know Christians who genuinely came to faith in Christ but seem to have little desire for the word of God? Have you ever been in that shape yourself? I have, from time to time, and I can assure you I did not grow and thrive in the faith when I wasn't regularly in the word of God. When we came to the faith we tasted that the Lord was good. It is natural that we should crave more and more of Him. The Lord's word is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12); without it we will not grow spiritually and we will not learn more about Christ the living Stone, the solid Rock and foundation of our faith.
"As you come to Him, the living Stone---rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to Him---you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: 'See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.'" (1 Peter 2:4-6) Peter quotes Isaiah 28:16. He is telling his readers that Christ is the cornerstone of the Christian faith and that we who are believers are the additional stones that make up the spiritual house of God. We are the temple now that the Holy Spirit resides within us. Before Christ came, the Gentiles to whom Peter is speaking were left out in the cold. They were not a chosen people. They had no holy priesthood. They had no access to the temple of God. But we must keep in mind that God never requested that King David, King Solomon, or anyone else build a temple for Him; His true desire was to live within the hearts of the human beings He created. Now He can do this in a new way, for since Christ ascended to heaven the Holy Spirit has come to indwell believers.
"Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, 'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,' and, 'A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.' They stumble because they disobey the message---which is also what they were destined for." (1 Peter 2:7-8) The first quotation is from Psalm 118, generally believed to have been penned by David. Jesus applied this verse to Himself in Matthew 21:42 during one of the parables He taught in the temple after riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, presenting Himself as the king foretold in Zechariah 9:9. He was criticizing the self-righteous Pharisees and comparing them to unrighteous tenants of a vineyard, saying, "Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed." (Matthew 21:43-44) This is why Peter also applies a quote from Isaiah 8:14 to Christ and why Christ applied this same quote to Himself in Luke 20:18. There are only two things we can do with Christ: we can either fall on Him as Lord and Savior and trust Him for our salvation, or we can stumble over Him and not accept that He is who He says He is.
The apostle is not saying that God caused anyone to stumble when he says some are "destined" to stumble. He's telling us that we create our own destinies. There are individuals who have never had any heart for God and never will. God didn't force them to be that way. They simply love the things of the world more than they love the things of God. An example we could use for this is that in Israel there were always people faithful to God and there were always some who weren't, which is why Paul said, "Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel." (Romans 9:6b) It is the same in the world today; there are those who genuinely want to know God and there are those who have no interest in Him whatsoever. King David took note of such people, saying, "Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies." (Psalm 58:3) We know that we all have a fallen nature, but there seem to be those who wish to remain fallen and who even take pleasure in wickedness, so David's remark means something like this, "It seems like some people have never wanted to do good. They were born into a fallen world with a fallen nature (as we all were) but they have no desire for a new nature. They have no interest in God's grace and mercy. They don't want to know Him and don't want Him involved in their lives." Those who wish to remain fallen are destined to fall over the Stone which is Christ, is what Peter is telling us in verse 8. Nothing in them desired to know the Lord in the first place, so they will automatically reject Christ and receive the penalty for it.
Just as it seems foolish to go through life wearing a filthy set of ragged garments, Peter says it's foolish to go through life stained with sin and smelling of the filth of the world. Christ offers us a new set of garments, a new nature, and a new beginning. We don't have to be those who destine ourselves to stumble and fall into perdition. We can have a fresh start.
We will close with this lovely worship song.
Two Coats
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