What is the spiritual house in 1 Peter 2:5?

In this living, spiritual building of true believers, God has been dwelling through the Spirit. It has been His house and temple, His habitation since its formation upon the descent of the Spirit from heaven in Acts 2. Writing to the Corinthian believers, Paul says, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (I Cor. 3:16) . Collectively, the believers at Corinth were God's temple and house in that local place, as, is also true of believers today in every place. This is what the house of God is. It is not a church building of material stones, etc., as is often thought and spoken of, but a spiritual building of living stones believers in Christ.

God therefore no longer dwells in the midst of Israel. Can He possibly have another dwelling? How wonderful is the answer to this! The Lord Jesus said while still on earth, "On this rock I will build My Church" (Mt. 16:18). This building began when the Spirit of God came on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). It is not a material building but a "spiritual house" (I Pet.2:5), composed of all believers, Jew and Gentile. They are all the product of His work in their hearts. Each is a living stone added by the Lord Himself as the house gradually "grows into a holy temple in the Lord" (Eph.2:21).

In the second chapter of the first epistle of Peter we learn something more concerning this living structure. It is a spiritual house, composed of living stones; those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; who come to Him as the Living Stone. Every true believer is part of Christ's assembly, and forms part of the spiritual house. In relation to the spiritual house, Christ is seen as the "Chief corner stone, elect, precious;" and the believer in Him is not confounded, but rather enjoys the preciousness connected with the Person of Christ.

Verse 5, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” There you come to the contrast between what exists today and what existed in the past—here you come to a spiritual house, spiritual stones. The stones of the temple in the past dispensation were hewn from the quarry, were shaped there, and then were brought to the place where they were building the temple, and were put into the building, and the building grew to a holy temple; but it was a material structure, and in it were the sons of Aaron, who officiated as priests; but when you 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. We are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit; we are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, and we grow to an holy temple in the Lord. We are the stones in that vast building; but we are also the priests; the temple is composed of believers, but the priests are believers. Peter says to these newborn babes, you, believers, are an holy priesthood. Oh, but says one, I thought the priest was not the same as the congregation. Is there not a distinction between clergy and laity? But who has separated them in that way? Peter, inspired by the Holy Ghost, tells us that all believers are priests. Who are you to believe? Do you believe God or man? “You are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”

When we come to the New Testament we find the antitype to this. The boards were fitly joined together. We read, "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God: and are BUILT upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Corner Stone" (Eph. 2:19-20). Again, "In whom ye also are BUILDED together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. 2:22). Again, "Ye also, as lively stones, are BUILT up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5). God has a house here on earth composed or built up of His own redeemed people, among whom He is pleased to dwell. How good it is that believers are not saved to remain as individuals, that there is a wonderful Christian fellowship, likened to a building, reared up by the Holy Spirit of God. How we should prize such fellowship. It is indeed a source of strength and encouragement when God's people get together as gathered to the Lord by the Holy Spirit. So we read of the early disciples, that "they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and FELLOWSHIP, and in breaking of bread and in prayers" (Acts 2:42).

From these verses we learn that the believers in Christ are builded together by the Spirit upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ as the chief corner stone, for an habitation or dwelling place of God. Whenever anyone is saved, he is added as a stone to this spiritual building, and fitly framed together it groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. In this sense the Church is an unfinished building which will be completed when the last soul is saved in this present church or grace period and then the Lord will come for His people.

Peter also tells us in his first Epistle a little about God's house. He says, "Ye also, as lively (living) stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (ch. 2: 5). The believers are here spoken of as living stones built upon Christ, the living Stone, and forming a spiritual house for the purpose of offering up spiritual sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to God.

The coming formation of this spiritual house was revealed to Peter by the Lord, when He said, “Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Christ is the living Stone, the foundation of this spiritual house. As the living Stone He is rejected of men, but chosen of God, and precious. Coming to Christ as the living Stone, believers as living stones are built up “a spiritual house”. It is true that the Christ to whom we come is the living Stone, rejected of men; but we may ask, How many have come to Christ in the realisation that He is rejected by man and in reproach? Coming to Him in the consciousness that He is in rejection will of necessity involve that we leave behind the corrupt religious world that in practice denies His rejection. We go forth to Him, bearing His reproach.

And who and what is the Lord to whom we have come? He is the "Living Stone." This is a remarkable title of our Lord. It sets Him forth as the One in whom is life, who became Man, and who, by death and resurrection, has become the Head and Foundation of this new structure which God is building composed of men who live through Him and in Him. He is the "chief corner stone, elect, precious" (verse 6), "the head of the corner" (verse 7). The men who, as "living stones," have been built into this "house" of a living sort, became such by coming to Christ, the Living Stone.

The question as to whether "coming" to Christ, in verse 4, refers to our first coming to Him as the Saviour, can be best answered by a consideration of the context, and of the character of the truth presented in the passage. The words, "to whom coming," follow, "If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious," and this connection supposes, we judge, that those who "come" already know the Lord. And then it is to be observed that the "coming" is not to Him as Saviour, or as Lord, but to Him as a foundation, a Living Stone, as the foundation of the spiritual house which is composed of those who have become "living stones" through faith in Him, the Son of the living God, who, as risen out of death in the power of resurrection, is the rock on which, according to His word to Peter, He builds His church. (Matthew 16:16‑18.) In support of this interpretation, the meaning of the word "coming" may be remarked. It is the word often used in the Hebrews (see, for example, Heb. 4:18; Heb. 7:25, etc.), and signifies "approach." It is quite true that it is only by contact with Him who is a living stone, that believers become living stones; only it must be remembered that the apostle is presenting to those, who had once been Jews what is now God's house, and who are now God's priests, in contrast with the temple and the priests of a dispensation which had for Christians for ever passed away. This explains the reason of Peter's solitary allusion to the church in the aspect of the house; and it shows, at the same time, the vast importance of understanding the truth of our being living stones, and what it is to be built up on Him who is the Living Stone, "a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."

I now know the Lord Himself: I have tasted that which He is. Moreover this is still in contrast with the legal condition of the Jew, although it is the fulfilment of that which the Psalms and the prophets had declared (the resurrection having plainly revealed in addition a heavenly hope). It was they themselves who were now the spiritual house, the holy priesthood. They came to the Living Stone, rejected indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, and they were built up on Him as living stones. 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, and the Lord told him that on this rock (that is, on the Person of the Son of God in power of life, manifested in the resurrection, which declared Him to be such) He would build His assembly. Peter, by his faith, participated in the nature of this living rock. Here then (1 Peter 2:5) he extends this character to all believers, and exhibits the holy house built on the Living Stone, which God Himself had laid as the chief corner-stone elect and precious. Whosoever believed in Him should not be confounded.