Because it is contained in the scripture Behold, I lay in Zion a corner stone, elect, precious and he that believes on him shall not be put to shame.
Peter does not argue for Christ's worth. He quotes Isaiah, because God said it long before. Three questions follow: who laid this Stone, why God calls Him chosen and precious, and what the promise to the believer covers.
Who is speaking in Isaiah's words? One writer asks that question and answers it:
He was "rejected by men" — by the natural heart in every one of us. But who is it that says, "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, chosen, precious; and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame"? It is God. He laid this corner stone, not man, and He says, This is what I think of Christ. By learning from God, as He teaches me by the Holy Spirit, I come to have the same thoughts about Jesus that He has. Here I find my strength, my comfort, my joy.
Peter opens the verse by saying the words stand in Scripture. One writer shows what that appeal rests on:
Peter is just as clear. The Spirit of Christ was in the prophets, and gave His testimony beforehand. "It is written" is enough authority — that is the natural appeal. So Christianity is for them to act on, because it too is contained in the scripture, "Behold I lay in Zion," and so on. Isaiah's prophecies are woven into Peter's own statements. What Isaiah was prophesying, he was preaching; both stand or fall together.
The Stone is laid in Zion — the very city that refused Him:
Israel's leaders refused Him, yet God lays His foundation stone in Zion, the place where He was refused. God laid the foundation of His assembly in Jerusalem, in the men who went about with the Lord and received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The stone God laid as His foundation was a tested stone, His chief Corner Stone. He had been tested to the utmost in death, but had proved faithful to God.
One writer looks ahead to what Zion will mean for Israel:
The full fulfilment of this waits for the thousand-year reign of Christ. Zion is the name Jerusalem will be known by at that time. Then all blessing will flow to Israel from Christ, the true Messiah, and in Him the nation will find its eternal stability. The church, though, is blessed before Israel is, in having the same corner stone.
A corner stone carries weight. That is what this Stone does for God's people:
The Apostle quotes the prophet Isaiah to show God's purpose. It was always His purpose that Christ should be the sure foundation of all blessing for His people. He is the chief corner Stone that carries the whole weight of the building above. Since He is chosen of God and precious, we can be sure that no one who believes in Him will be put to shame.
Israel's leaders looked at the same Stone and refused Him. God's estimate was the opposite:
The One to whom we came was not allowed His rightful place by the leaders of Israel, but He was "chosen of God, and precious". How great the contrast of God's thoughts and men's. God knew His true worth. He chose His dear Son for something far greater than a place in the building of Israel's leaders — a place, the chief place, in the spiritual House. Jesus, His dear Son, must have the first place wherever He is found.
Older translations render the promise "he shall not be confounded". One writer compares the wording in Isaiah, Romans and Peter:
The believer is not ashamed. This is quoted from Isaiah 28:16. The "make haste" of Isaiah becomes "ashamed" in Romans, and "confounded" in Peter. This is a good illustration of how New Testament quotations enlarge the sense of Old Testament predictions. The one who believed Isaiah's word would never have to run away in panic before the avenging judgment. Neither shall we.
For readers who had accepted Jesus as the Messiah, that promise meant no regret:
Since they had believed on Him, they would never be confounded — a word which means "ashamed". They would never regret having accepted Jesus Christ as the true Messiah… So the obedience of faith had brought them into this high position, where all the preciousness of Christ is found. They took character from the "corner stone" with all His preciousness resting upon them.
- God lays it. The Stone was placed by God, not chosen by men; the verse is God telling us what He thinks of Christ.
- Scripture proves it. Peter's authority is "it is written" — Isaiah prophesied what Peter preached.
- Zion receives it. The foundation is set down in the very city that refused Him, and it is a tried Stone, tested to the utmost in death.
- The corner carries it. As chief corner Stone He bears the whole weight of the building and the whole line of blessing for God's people.
- Faith never regrets it. Whoever rests on this Stone will never run in panic. He will never be ashamed of the choice. God's view of Christ becomes the believer's security.
To you therefore who believe [is] the preciousness; but to the disobedient, the stone which the builders cast away as worthless, this is become head of [the] corner,
The verse sets two groups side by side: those who believe, and those who do not. The stone men threw away as worthless now holds the highest place in God's building. Everything that stone is worth now belongs to those who believe.
The phrase Peter uses here is not the same as the "cornerstone" of the previous verse. One writer traces the difference in the Greek, and shows why it matters.
The previous verse also mentions a cornerstone. That cornerstone is the foundation and reference point for the spiritual house made up of living stones, that is, of all true believers. It is the stone the whole building lines up with. We must tell the cornerstone in verse 7 apart from the one in verse 6. Verse 7 uses a different expression. It denotes the "head of the corner" (Gr. kephalē gonias). It is the last stone, and builders set it in an open, visible place when the building is finished. That is what this verse stresses: God has given Christ the highest place. The world still rejects Him, but God gives Him the highest place.
Men looked at this stone and threw it out. God's answer gave Him three places in His building at once.
This rejected Saviour, whom men despised and rejected, is the sure foundation of the building of God. He is also the corner-stone into which God fits together believers from among the Jews and from among the Gentiles. And He is more than these: He is "the head of the corner" — the crown and glory of the building! What an answer God has given to man's treatment of Him by exalting Christ like this! He has made Him everything to those who believe! The preciousness of Christ is theirs! He is the ground of all their confidence — the "sure foundation." He is the bond of their holy unity — the "corner-stone." He is the grace and glory of the building too — the "head of the corner." How great is the loss of those who reject Him! How infinite is the gain of those who believe on Him!
Verse 6 has already said the stone is precious to God. Verse 7 says that same worth is now the believer's. The ESV reads "the honor is for you who believe"; other translations read "to you who believe He is precious." One writer ties the believer's view of Christ to God's own.
"To you therefore who believe He is precious," that is, what God sees as precious, you see as precious. Faith sees exactly what God sees.
This shared worth also settles where the believer stands.
Because they had believed on Him, they would never be ashamed. They would never regret accepting Jesus Christ as Israel's true Messiah. He is now the "head of the corner" in the new spiritual house into which they had been brought. As the "chief corner stone" Christ holds the whole building together. So the obedience of faith had brought them into this high position, where all the preciousness of Christ is found. They took their character from the "corner stone," and all His preciousness rests on them.
Some read this as a measure of the believer's feelings. One writer says the verse draws a different line.
Some look at this as an experience of feeling. But what is meant here shows the contrast between a believer and an unbeliever. He is "precious" to the believer. To the "disobedient" He is a "stone of stumbling."
The second half of the verse shows where unbelief ends.
This leads the Apostle to contrast believers with those who reject the living Stone. To those who believe belongs the preciousness. God makes good to the believer all the preciousness of Christ and all the blessing He secures. Sad to say, there are those who are disobedient. Being disobedient, they throw away as worthless the One whom God has exalted as the head of the corner. To such people He becomes a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. Men stumbled at His word. They would not believe the truth, and to that end they were appointed. They were not appointed to sin or to disobey. But being rebellious and disobedient, their unbelief destined them to stumble at the humiliation of Christ.
- Rejected. The builders looked at this stone and threw it away as worthless.
- Exalted. God made Him the head of the corner — the last stone, set in the open, in the highest place. The world still refuses Him.
- Precious. He is precious to God. Faith sees what God sees, so that same worth now belongs to those who believe.
- Shared. God makes good to the believer all the preciousness of Christ and all the blessing He secures, and the believer takes his character from the corner stone.
- Divided. To faith the stone is the crown of the building. To the disobedient it is the stone they trip over. The verse leaves two groups, and no third.
and a stone of stumbling and rock of offence; [who] stumble at the word, being disobedient to which also they have been appointed.
This verse splits the human race by what people do with one Stone. The same Christ who is the foundation of faith becomes the thing others trip over. Peter's last words say they were destined — older translations say appointed — to this. That raises the hardest question here: did God set them up to fall?
The preciousness Peter speaks of in the previous verse is not a mood in the believer. It marks a line between two kinds of people.
Some treat this as a matter of feeling. But what is meant here shows the contrast between a believer and an unbeliever. To the believer He is precious. To the disobedient He is a stone of stumbling.
Nothing changes in the Stone. What changes is the person who meets it — and no one can avoid that meeting.
To Israel He is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Yet He remains both the Stone and the Rock — not something anyone can easily brush aside and forget... The stone stood right in their way. Either they had to submit to Him, or else rush on headlong and stumble.
A stone only trips you if it sits low. What made Christ so easy to reject was the very humbleness of His coming.
Psalm 118 shows us the Stone the builders rejected becoming the Head of the Corner. Here His humiliation is still the stumbling-stone to men. The Stone was low enough for them to trip over. Yet it is the foundation stone on which faith builds, and the only stone on which the temple to God's praise can stand.
The nation had the greatest possible advantage. That is where it fell.
Why do they stumble at the Word? Because they will not obey God. "To this they were also appointed." Appointed to what? Appointed as a nation to have this stone put before them. God gave them the most wonderful privilege possible — He put Christ before them. And they stumbled over Him. Because He came in lowly grace the nation stumbled over Him.
Peter does not say they failed to understand. He says they disobeyed — and the stumbling followed from that.
Some people are disobedient. Being disobedient, they throw away as worthless the One whom God has exalted as the Head of the corner. To such He becomes a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. Men stumbled at His word. They would not believe the truth... They were not appointed to sin or to disobey. But being rebellious and disobedient, their unbelief destined them to stumble at the humiliation of Christ.
The order of the words matters. Disobedience comes first; the appointment attaches to how that disobedience would show itself.
The Jews were appointed to stumble at Christ. That was to be their judgment. But they were not appointed to be disobedient. Judas was not appointed to be a sinner. Being a sinner, he was appointed to be a betrayer of Christ.
The verse rules out two opposite errors. It does not blame God for sin, and it does not give man credit for good.
Neither here nor anywhere else do we find the fixed decree of condemnation taught by the Calvinistic school. Scripture gives that view no more support than it gives the opposite error of the Pelagians, who credited man with power for good. All the evil is man's; all the good comes only from God's grace. He never made man to be a sinner. He takes no pleasure in a sinner's death, still less in his everlasting destruction. But He is supreme. However bold man may be in deliberate disobedience, God's will stands... They were appointed to this — not to be disobedient, but, being disobedient, to stumble in this way. This was the trial God in His wisdom had appointed for them.
The verse describes Israel first. But the same trap still catches people who have every religious advantage.
Men, baptized men, stumble still, as Israel stumbled, at the stone of stumbling, the Lord Jesus. If they felt their own real state, how would they not bless God for such a Saviour! But they were proud, and blind as well. They were satisfied with their own obedience, or at any rate with their own efforts. They stumbled at the stumbling-stone. But the same Christ delivers the believer from harm, from shame, from confusion.
- One Stone. Christ does not change; He is precious to those who believe and a stone of stumbling to those who do not. The difference lies in the person meeting Him, not in Him.
- Low enough to trip over. His humiliation makes Him easy to despise. Yet the same Stone is the only foundation anything can stand on.
- The word is the test. They stumble at the word because they will not obey; the failure is in the will, not the understanding.
- Appointed, not made, to fall. They were not appointed to be disobedient. Being disobedient, they were appointed to stumble at Christ — and that was their judgment.
- Still happening. Pride in one's own efforts still trips people over Christ, just as it tripped Israel. All the evil is man's; all the good is God's grace. Yet the same Christ delivers the believer from shame.