1 Peter 2:4-10 - The Foundational Truth

1 Peter 2:4-10

The Chosen Stone and His Chosen People (Ps. 118:22; Is. 28:16)

4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,

“Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,

“The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”

8 and

“A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.”

They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.

9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

We who are called into Christ and His righteousness by the eternal and enduring word of grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ must understand how we fit together as individual bricks of the whole body (which is the church) built upon our Lord.  He is Himself the living stone, the cornerstone (Isaiah 28:16, Psalm 118:22-23) of this building chosen by God the Father to be rejected by many but received according to His word and work that we may be living stones as well.  We together are being assembled and molded into a house of God and household of priests in it to offer true and acceptable lives of sacrificial worship (Romans 12:1-2) to serve our Lord through doing the works prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10) as built upon our faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) in the Son of God as we have been chosen and called to do.  Jesus is the cornerstone that scriptures like Isaiah 28:16 and Psalm 118:22-23 describe to us that we might build on Him (1 Corinthians 3:9, 11-12) as our only foundation into His true spiritual temple  (1 Corinthians 3:16) to worship from collectively which is the universal unseen body of all believers known as the church.  All who build on this foundation of salvation whose stone sets the rest straight and true as cornerstones do, all these are precious to Him and He to us as well obey the gospel by faith to take good at His word and settle firmly upon that confess of faith in Christ.  We will never be put to eternal shame as those who reject Him () and disobey the gospel of repentance and faith.  Those who stumble over Him will be ground to powder as we read in Luke 20:17-18 because they stumble in disobedience over the truth of the gospel and refuse to stand on Him alone for deliverance from sin’s power and penalty.  We who hear and turn from sin to Him, however, see that we are His chosen people, each one a priest (unlike some who imagine men alone can make on a priest) to our God to minister this good news to others by proclaiming and teaching them all things (Matthew 28:19-20) as we have been commissioned to do.  We who are in Christ are the true nation of God, the spiritual Israel (), made to speak these truths to the world.  We have known the darkness of the lost sheep in this present evil age but have been brought into His marvelous light of saving grace to know Him personally and corporately.  We now are the people of God (Hosea 1:10, Romans 9:6, 24-25) in Christ!  We have received mercy through grace in Christ alone by faith alone for God’s glory apart from any work we could ever hope or imagine to do on our own to earn such riches of eternal life!  We are His chosen people, the church of the called-out ones consisting of we all who are each and every one saints and priests to our God in Him.  This is the foundational truth of the gospel and indeed of all scripture from beginning to end.