1 Peter 2:4–5

The question of whether "coming" to Christ in verse 4 refers to our first coming to Him as Saviour is best answered by looking at the context... The words "to whom coming" follow "if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good," and this connection assumes, we judge, that those who "come" already know the Lord. And notice that the "coming" is not to Him as Saviour, or as Lord, but to Him as a foundation, a Living Stone... Notice the meaning of the word "coming." It is the word often used in Hebrews, and it means "approach."

It is "to whom coming" — that is, you are brought to have dealings with a Person. Do you know what this is? Have you had dealings, in the history of your soul, with the Son of God as a living Person? If you have, what is the result? "You yourselves also, as living stones, are built up."

"Living" is a word close to Peter's heart. That is how he was able to confess Christ as "the Son of the living God," and his Master called him "blessed" for it... "the Son of the living God" puts strong emphasis on our Lord as the conqueror of the one who has the power of death. So the person of the Lord, revealed in this way, is the rock on which He would build His church.

It is being built of living stones. The temple Solomon built was not like this. It was the wonder of the world, but men cut its stones out of natural rock — all lifeless material. This house is alive with the life of the Son of the living God.

When the Lord Jesus appeared, men tried to work Him into their building and failed. Had He agreed to fall in with man's ideas it would have been otherwise. It would have delighted them if someone so great had supported, or even developed, Roman government, Greek philosophy, or Jewish religion. Coming as He did on God's behalf, He exposed their folly and fitted none of their notions. He was, so to speak, a stone of such odd shape that there was not one niche in the imposing temple of man's fame where He fitted.

It is true that the Christ we come to is the living Stone, rejected by men. But we may ask: how many have come to Christ realising that He is rejected by man and living in reproach? If we come to Him knowing He is rejected, we must leave the corrupt religious world behind. That world denies His rejection in practice. We go out to Him, bearing His reproach.

God reversed everything man handed out to the Lord Jesus. If they killed Him, God raised Him from the dead. If they heaped shame on Him, God highly exalted Him. He is the head stone of the corner. He is the foundation. He is what holds the whole building together, and He is the glory of it too.

Drawn to Him, we know Him as the One refused by men, but "in the sight of God chosen and precious"... He has become the very strength and beauty of everything God is shaping for His own praise and glory, and this unique preciousness is our present enjoyed portion. "So the honour is for you who believe."

They come and are built up, as living stones are built up. They are built on the Lord; as living stones they come. There is no human builder, and Christ is what they are built on.

We have come to Christ (1 Peter 2:4), and so we are priests. Aaron's sons were priests in the same way. They had come to Aaron, and that joined them with him in the priest's office.

The apostle delights in this word "living." It was to him the Father had revealed that Jesus was the Son of the living God. No one else had then confessed Him as such. The Lord told him that on this rock He would build His assembly. That rock is the Person of the Son of God in power of life, shown in the resurrection, which declared Him to be such. Peter, by his faith, shared in the nature of this living rock. Here then (1 Peter 2:5) he extends this character to all believers.

The apostle Peter runs parallel with this when he writes: "you also, like living stones, are being built up a spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5). One stone cannot make a building, and stones do not choose their own place. Each stone in this spiritual house finds its place according to the mind of the Divine Architect.

The stones of the temple in the past age were cut from the quarry and shaped there. Then they were set in place, and the building grew into a holy temple. But it was a material structure, and in it were the sons of Aaron, who served as priests. Now come to the present house of God, the present temple. It is the spiritual house, and the stones and the priests are the same thing — the stones are the priests, and the priests are the stones. They are all who have tasted that the Lord is gracious and have come to Him, the Living Stone… Is there not a distinction between clergy and laity? But who has separated them in that way?

All true believers are holy priests. Spiritual birth makes them so, just as natural birth made Aaron's sons priests… We do not become priests by offering priestly sacrifices. But being, through grace, made priests, we are called upon to present the sacrifice. If we were to live a thousand years twice over, and spend all that time working, we could not work ourselves into the position of holy priests. But the moment we believe in Jesus… we are born anew into the position of holy priests.

Those who make up the spiritual house and offer the spiritual sacrifices have come to Christ, the Living Stone, the One who is "chosen and precious". Those who have believed in Him have learned the preciousness that is in Christ, and their spiritual sacrifices are what they present of Christ to God. Long ago, the priests presented the blood, the wave breast, the heave shoulder, and all that was "the food of the offering" to the Lord. In worshipping God, we are able to speak to Him of the preciousness of the blood, and of the wonderful love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. We can speak of the strength of Christ that sustained Him while He bore the divine judgment, to do the will of God in His death.

We have read of the one perfect sacrifice offered once for all, so never to be repeated. No more sacrifice for sins can there be… We have no altar on which to kill a victim. Yet have Christians no sacrifices to offer? Certainly they have… "Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." To care for others in their need is a feature of Christian sacrifice, and an acceptable one.

We are to offer our sacrifice of praise by the hand of our Great High Priest, who is always in the presence of God for us… Suppose we could see our own sacrifice laid on the altar by the priestly hand of the Great Minister of the sanctuary. We may be sure we would not recognise it. It goes up to God, not as it comes from us, but as He presents it. Stripped of all the imperfection and failure that belongs to us, it rises to God in all the fragrance and acceptance that belongs to Him. The faintest note of praise, the simple "Thank God," is perfumed with the incense of Christ's infinite preciousness.