A Precious Corner and the Light
4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,
5 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.
6 For this is contained in Scripture: “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL 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,”
8 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.
9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so 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.
1 Peter 2:4-10 (NASB)
"Bright Ideas - Day 263 of Project 365" by purplemattfish is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
This is a bridge between the week 15 lesson we had last Sunday in class and the week 16 lesson coming up this Sunday in class. The linkage between the two is the light and the light switch. Last Sunday, we talked about whether or not the switch is on or off. This coming Sunday, we will talk about who might be seeing the light when it’s on, but we have a unique context. I don’t want to spoil the lesson, but it has to do with who the people of God are, why they are the people of God, and what to do about it. I am going to spoil this part. It isn’t going to tell you what to do about it. However, answering the questions of the week might reveal the first step on that path.
The First Peter passage for today has a lot of Old Testament references to it, which I have listed at the end of this if you would like to look them up. It also has quite a few New Testament references as well. This is a fantastic passage of scripture drawing from Old Testament authority with New Testament explanation about what Christ completed in His sacrificial act on the cross.
17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
19 “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:17-20 (NASB)
It is vitally important to understand Christ’s fulfillment of the law as the final sin-offering for the salvation of all the world. That’s what it was. The spotless lamb, the gift of great price, the firstborn of the Almighty, “the stone that the builders rejected,” God’s child given as a sacrifice to bring all of creation from the dawn of time back into harmony with its Creator. That work gets completed on the cross. We partake in that work through faith that God actually completed it through Jesus, the “choice stone, a precious corner.”
The builders who rejected a “stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense” are the people of the world who see in Christianity something they don’t like. They don’t like it because God’s Word makes clear there are things that are right and things that are wrong in the world. People doing those things God does not like naturally will be offended when this is revealed. We cannot help that. When a lamp is lit, the light illuminates everything; it shows the clean and the dirty things in the house. But it also reveals a way to move from out of the dirty parts into the clean parts. It also reveals what needs to be cleaned and where the cleaning supplies are. It also reveals, or it should anyway, the smiling faces of people who are willing and able to help with the chores.
We don’t have to do it all by ourselves. We weren’t designed to do it by ourselves. We are not meant to be alone in the world.
20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.
22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”
24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
Genesis 2:20-24 (NASB)
This is about Adam and Eve, the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman, and that we are different but the same. It is also about the concept that human beings are not meant to move through life by themselves. We are meant to be in community. It is how we were created. It is how we are meant to be. There wasn’t just Adam or just Eve or even just Adam and Eve. They were together with God as a group in the Garden, and they each had their specific role to fulfill, their own jobs to do. We still do.
17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful.
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:17-20 (NASB)
So, the questions are, is your light switch on? What are you using your light to build up? Who sees what you’re building up?
Scripture References by NASB All-Caps from 1 Peter 2:4-10
Isa 28:16, Rom 9:32, 10:11, 1 Pet 2:8
Eph 2:20
Psalm 118:22, Matt 21:42, luke 2:34
1 Pet 2:4
Isa 8:14
Isa 43:20, Deut 10:15
Isa 61:6, 66,:21, 1 Pet 2:5, Rev 1:6
Ex 196, Deut 7:6
Ex 19:5, deut 4:20, 14:2, Titus 2:14
Hos 1:10, 2:23, Rom 9:25, 10:19