Jesus was the one to whom we come

JESUS WAS THE ONE TO WHOM WE COME
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
1 Peter 2:4 4As you come to him, the living Stone-
rejected by humans but chosenby God and precious
to him-
Coming To Christ BY SPURGEON
“To whom coming.”
1 Peter2:4
IN THESE three words you have, first of all, a blessedPersonmentioned
under the pronoun, “whom”–“To whomcoming.”In the way of salvationwe
come alone to Jesus Christ. All coming to Baptism, coming to Confirmation,
coming to sacraments are all null and void unless we come to Jesus Christ!
That which saves the soul is not coming to a human priest, nor even attending
the assemblies ofGod’s saints–itis coming to Jesus Christ, the greatexalted
Savior, once slain, but now enthroned in Glory. You must get to Him, or else
you have virtually nothing upon which your soul can rely. “To whom
coming.” Peterspeaks ofall the saints as coming to Jesus, coming to Him as
unto a living stone, andbeing built upon Him–and no other foundation can
any man lay than that which is laid, and if any man says that coming
anywhere but to Christ can bring salvation, he has denied the faith and
utterly departed from it! The coming mentioned in the text is a word which is
sometimes explained in Scripture by hearing,and quite as frequently by
looking. “To whom coming.” Coming to Christ does not mean coming with
any natural motion of the body, for He is in Heaven, and we cannot climb up
to the place where He is–it is a mental spiritualcoming–it is, in one word, a
trusting in and upon Him. He who believes Jesus Christ to be God, and to be
the appointed Atonement for sin, and relies upon Him as such, has come to

Him, and it is this coming which saves the soul! Whoever the wide world over
has relied upon Jesus Christ and is still relying upon Him for the pardon of
his iniquities, and for his complete salvation, is saved!
Notice one thing more in these three words, that the participle is in the
present. “To whom coming,” not, “Havingcome to Him,” though I trust many
of us have come, but the wayof salvationis not to come to Christ and then
forgetit,but to continue coming, to be always coming! It is the very spirit of
the Believerto be always relying upon Christ, as much after a life of holiness
as when he first commencedthat life. As much when he has been blessedwith
much spiritual nearness of access to Godand a holy, heavenly frame of mind.
As much, then, I say, as when a poor trembling penitent, he said, “God, be
merciful to me a sinner.” To Christ we are to be always coming–uponHim
always relying–to His precious blood always looking!
So I shall take the text, then, this evening thus–These three words describe our
first salvationthe life ofthe Christian , for what even is that but to be still
coming to Christ–to be in His embrace forever? First, then, these three words
describe, and very accurately, too–
1. THE FIRST SALVATION OF THE BELIEVER.
It is coming to Christ. I shall not try to speak the experience of many present.
I know if it were necessary, youcould rise and give your, “Yes, yes,” to it. In
describing the work of Grace atthe first, I may say that it was, indeed, a very
simple thing for us to come to Christ, but simple as it was, some of us were
very long in finding it out! The simplest thing in all the world is just to look to
Jesus and live, to drink of the life-giving stream and find our thirst forever
relieved. But though it is so plain that he who runs may read, and a man needs
scarcelyany wit to comprehend the Gospel, yet we went here and there and
searchedfor years before we discoveredthe simplicity which is in Christ
Jesus!Most of us were like Penelope, who spun by day and then unwound her
work at night. It was even so we did. We thought we were getting up a little.
We had some evidence. We said, “Yes, we are in a better state and shall yet be
saved.” But before long the night of sorrow came in. We had a sight of our
own sinfulness, and what we had spun by day, I say, we unwound againquite
as quickly by night! Well, there are some of you much in the same waynow.
You are like a foolish builder who builds a wall and then begins to knock
down all the stones at once. You build and then pull down! Or, like the
gardenerwho, having put into the ground his seeds and planted his flowers, is
not satisfiedwith them and thinks he will have something else, and so tries
again. Ah, the methods and schemes we will try and save ourselves, while,
after all, Christ has done it all! We will do anything rather than be savedby

Christ’s charity! We do not like to bow our necks to take the mercy of God as
poor undeserving sinners! Some will attend their church or their chapelwith
wonderful regularity and think that that will ease theirconscience–andwhen
they getno ease ofconsciencefrom that, then they will try sacraments, and
when no salvationcomes from them–then there will be goodworks, Popish
ceremonies and I know not what besides!
All sorts of doings–good, bad, and indifferent–men will take to if they may but
have a finger in their own salvation, while all the while the blessedSavior
stands by, ready to save them altogetherif they will but be quiet and take the
salvationHe has worked. All attempts to save ourselves by our own works are
but a base bargaining with God for eternal life, but He will never give eternal
life at a price, nor sell it, for all that man could bring, though in eachhand he
should hold a star–He will give it freely to those who want it. He will dispense
it without money and without price to all who come and ask for it and,
hungering and thirsting, are ready to receive it as His free gift, but–
“Perishthe virtue, as it ought, abhorred,
And the fool with it, who insults his Lord,”
by bringing in anything that he can do as a round of dependence, and putting
that in the place of the blood and righteousness ofthe Lord Jesus Christ!
I said, dear Friends, that it was very simple, and indeed it is so–a very simple
thing to trust Jesus and be saved–butit costsome of us many a day to find it
out. Shall I just mention some of the ways in which persons are, long before
they find it out? Some ask, “Whatis the bestway to getfaith? What is the best
way to get this precious believing that I hear so much spokenof?” Now the
question reminds me of a madman who, standing at a table which is well
spread, says to a person standing there, “Tellme what is the best way to eat.
What is the philosophy of eating?” “Why,” the man replies, “I cannotbe long
about that! I need not write a long treatise on it–the best way I know of is to
just eat.” And when people say, “What is the bestway to get faith?” I say,
“Believe.”“Butwhat is the best way to believe?” Why, believe! I cantell you
nothing else. Some may say to you, “Prayfor faith.” Well, but how canyou
pray without faith? Or if theytell you to read, or do, or feel, in order to get
faith, that is a roundabout way. I find not such exhortations as these put down
as the Gospel, but our Master, whenHe went to Heaven, bade us go into all
the world and preachthe Gospelto every creature–andwhat was that Gospel
to me? His own words are, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved,”
and we cannot sayanything clearerthan that! “Believe”–thatis, trust–“and
be baptized,” and these two things areput before you as Christ’s ordained way
of salvation! Now you want to philosophize, do you? Well, but why should a

hungry man philosophizes about the bread that is before him? Eat, Sir, and
philosophize afterwards!Believe in Jesus Christ, and when you get the joy
and peace whichfaith in Him will be sure to bring, then philosophize as you
will!
But some are asking the question, “How shall I make myself fit to be saved?”
That is similar to a man who, being very black and filthy, coming home from
a coalmine or from a forge, says, seeing the bath before him, “How shall I
make myself fit to be washed”?You tell him at once that there cannotbe any
fitness for washing except filthiness, which is the reverse of a fitness!So there
can be no fitness for believing in Christ, except sinfulness, which is, indeed,
the reverse of fitness!If you are hungry, you are fit to eat. If you are thirsty,
you are fit to drink. If you are naked, you are fit to receive the garments
which charity is giving to those who need them. If you are a sinner, you are fit
for Christ, and Christ for you! If you are guilty, you are fit to be pardoned. If
you are lost, you are fit to be saved. This is all the fitness Christ requires–cast
every other thought of fitness far from you! Yes, castit to the winds! If you
are needy, Christ is ready to enrich you. If you will come and confess your
offenses before God, the gracious Savioris willing to pardon you just as you
are! There is no other fitness needed.
But then, if you have answeredthat, some will begin to say, “Yes, but the way
of salvationis coming to Christ and I am afraid I do not come in the right
way.” Dear, dear, how unwise we are in the matter of salvation! We are much
more foolish than little children are in common, everyday life. A mother says
to her little child, “Come here, my dear, and I will give you this apple.” Now I
will tell you what the first thought of the child is about–it is about the apple!
And the secondthought of the child is about its mother. And the very last
thought he has is about the way of coming. His mother told him to come, and
he does not say, “Well, but I do not know whether I shall come right.” He
totters along as best he can and that does not seemto occupy his thoughts at
all! But when you say to a sinner, “Come to Christ, and you shall have eternal
life,” he thinks about nothing but his coming! He will not think about eternal
life, nor yet about Jesus Christ, to whom he is bid to come, but only about
coming, when he need not think of that at all, but just do it–do what Jesus
bids him–simply trust Him. “Whatkind of coming is that,” says John Bunyan,
“which saves a soul?” And he answers, “Any coming in all the world if it does
but come to Jesus.” Some come running–at the very first sermon they hear,
they believe in Him. Some come slowly–itmay be many years before they can
trust Him. Some come creeping–scarcelyable to come, they have to be helped
by others, but as long as they do but come, He has said, “Him that comes to

Me I will in no wise castout.” You may have come in the most awkwardway
in all the world, as that man did who was let down by ropes through the
ceiling into the place where Jesus was, but Christ rejects no coming sinner–
and so you need not be looking to your coming, but looking to Christ! Look to
Him as God–He can save you! As the bleeding, dying Son of Man–He is
willing to save you, castyourself flat before His Cross, with all your guilt upon
you, and believe that He will save you! Trust Him to do it, and He must save
you, for that is His ownword, and from it He cannotdepart. Oh, cease, then,
that care about the calling and look to the Savior!
We have met with others who have said, “Well, I understand that, that if I
trust in Christ, I shall be saved, but–but–but–I do not understand that
passagein the Revelation!I cannotmake out that greatdifficulty in Ezekiel!I
am a greatdeal troubled about predestination and free will, and I cannot
believe that I shall be saveduntil I comprehend all this.” Now, my dear
Friend, you are altogetheron the wrong tack!When I was going from Cook’s
Haven to Heligoland to the North of Germany, I noticed when we were out at
sea, far awayfrom the sight of land, innumerable swarms of butterflies. I
wondered whateverthey could do there and when I was at Heligoland I
noticed that almostevery wave that came up washedashore large quantities
of poor dead, drowned butterflies. Now do you know those butterflies were
just like you? You want to go out on to the greatsea of predestination, free
will, and I do not know what. Now there is nothing for you there, and you
have no more business there than the butterfly has out at sea!It will drown
you. How much better for you just to come and fly to this Rose ofSharon–that
is the thing for you! This Lily of the Valley–come and light here! There is
something here for you, but out in that dread-sounding deep, without a
bottom or a shore, you will be lost, seeking afterthe knowledge ofdifficulties
which God has hidden from man–and trying to pry into the thick darkness
where God conceals His Truth which it were better not to reveal. Come to
Jesus!If you must have the knots untied, try to untie them after you get saved,
but now your first business is with Jesus!Your first business is coming
untoHim, for if you do not, your ruin is certain and your destruction will be
irretrievable! But I must not enlarge. Coming to Christ is very simple, yet how
long it takes men to find it out!
Again, we, bear our witness tonight, that nothing but coming to Christ ever
did give us any peace. In my own case I was distracted, tossedwith tempest
and not comforted for some years. And I never could believe my sin forgiven
or have any peace by day or night until I simply trusted Jesus–andfrom that
time my peace has been like a river. I have rejoicedin the certainty of pardon,

and sung with triumph in the Lord my God–and many of you are constantly
doing the same–butuntil you lookedto Christ, you had not any peace. You
searched, and searched, andsearched, but your searchwas fruitless until you
lookedinto the five wounds of the expiring Savior, and there you found life
from the dead!
And once more, when we did come to Christ, we came very tremblingly, but
He did not castus out. We thought Henever died for us, that He could not
washour sins away. We conceivedthat we were not of His elect! We dreamed
that our prayers could only echo upon a brazen sky and never bring us an
answer. But still we came to Christ because we dared not stayaway. We were
like a timid dove that is hunted by a hawk and is afraid. We fearedwe should
be destroyed, but He did not sayto us, “You came to Me tremblingly, so I will
rejectyou.” No, but into the bosom of His love He receivedus and blotted out
our sins! When we came to Jesus, we did not come bringing anything, but we
came to Him for everything! We came strictly empty-handed and we got all
we needed in Christ. There is a piece of iron, and if it were to say, “Where am
I to get the power from to cling to the loadstone?”the loadstone wouldsay,
“Let me get near you and I will supply you with that.” So we sometimes think,
“How can I believe? How can I hope? How can I follow Christ?” Yes, but let
Christ getnear us and He supplies us with all that! We do not come to Christ
to bring getrepentance!We do not come to Him with a broken heart, but for a
broken heart. We do not so much even come to Himwith faith–
“True belief and true repentance,
Every Grace that brings us nigh–
Without money,
This is the first wayof salvation–simplytrusting and looking up to Christ for
everything. But, then, we did trust. There is a difference betweenknowing
about trust and trusting. By God’s Holy Spirit, we were not left merely to talk
about faith, nor to think about it, but we did believe! If the Government were
to announce that there would be ten thousand acres of land in New Zealand
given to a settler, I can imagine two men believing it. One believes it and
forgets it–the other believes it and takes his passageto go out and get the land.
Now the first kind of faith saves nobody, but the secondfaith, the practical
faith, is that which, for the sake ofseeking Christ, gives up the sins of this life,
the pleasures ofit–I mean the wickedpleasures ofit–gives up all confidence in
everything else and casts itselfinto the arms of the Savior!There is the sea of
Divine Love–he shall be savedwho plunges boldly into it and casts himself
upon its waves, hoping to be borne up. Oh, my Hearer, have you done this? If
so, you are certainly a saved one! If you have not, oh, may Divine Grace

enable you to do it before yet that setting sun has hidden itself beneath the
horizon! Have you known this before, that a simple trust in Christ will save
you? This is the one message ofthis Inspired Volume. This is the Gospel
according to Paul, the one Gospelwhich we preach continually. Try it and if it
saves you not, we will be bondsmen for God for you. But it will save you, for
God is true and cannotfail–and He has declared, “He that believes on Him is
not condemned, but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has
not believed on the Sonof God.”
Thus I have tried to explain as clearly as I can that coming to Jesus is the first
business of salvation. Now, secondly, and with brevity. This is–
II. A GOOD DESCRIPTIONOF THE ENTIRE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
The Christian is always coming to Christ. He does not look upon faith as a
matter of 20 years ago, and done with, but he comes today and he will come
tomorrow! He will come to Jesus Christ afresh tonight before he goes to bed.
We come to Jesus daily, for Christ is like the well outside the cottager’shouse.
The man lets down the bucket and gets the cooling draught, but he goes again
tomorrow–andhe will have to go againat night if he is to leave a fresh supply.
He must constantlygo to the same place. Fishes do not live in the water they
were in yesterday, they must be in it today. Men do not breathe the air which
they breathed a week ago–theymust have fresh air into the lungs moment by
moment. Nobody thinks that he can be fed upon the factthat he had a good
meal six weeksago–he has to continually eat. So “the just shall live by faith.”
We come to Jesus just as we came at first, and we sayto Him–
“Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Your Cross I cling!
Nakedcome to You for dress,
Helpless, look to You for Grace.
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Washme, Savior, or I die!”
This is the daily and hourly life of the Christian.
But while we thus come daily,
we come more boldly than we used to do. At first we came like cringing
slaves–now
we came as emancipatedmen. At first we came as strangers. Now we come as
Brothers and Sisters. We still come to the Cross, but it is not so much to find
pardon for past sins, for these are forgiven, as to find fresh comfort from
looking up to Him who workedout perfectrighteousness for us!

We come, also, to Jesus Christ, more closelythan we used to do. I hope,
Brothers and Sisters, you can saythat youare not at such a distance from
Christ now as you once were. We ought to be always getting nearerto Him.
The old preachers used to illustrate nearness to Christ by the planets. They
said there were Jupiter and Saturn far away, with very little light and very
little heat from the sun. And they have their satellites, their rings, their moons
and their belts to make for that. Just so, they said, with some Christians. They
get worldly comforts–theirmoons and their belts–but they have not gotmuch
of their Master. They have gotenough to save them, but oh, such little light.
But, they said, when you getto Mercury, there is a planet without moons.
Why, the sun is its moon and, therefore, what does it need with moons when it
has the full blaze of the sun’s light and heat continually pouring upon it? And
what a nimble planet it is–how it spins along in its orbit, because it is near the
sun! Oh, to be like that–not to be far awayfrom Jesus Christ, even with all the
comforts of this life, but to be near Him, filled with life and sacredactivity
through the abundance of fellowshipand communion with Him. It is still
coming, but it is coming after a nearer sort.
And I may say, too, that it is
coming of a dearer sort, for there is more love in our coming, now, than
there used to
be. We came at first, not so much loving Christ, as venturing to trust Him,
thinking He, perhaps, to be a hard Master. upon it. We come in our private
devotion. We tell Him all our troubles. We unburden our hearts and getHis
love shed abroad in our hearts in return, and we go awaywith a joy that
makes our heart to leapwithin us and to bound like a young roe over the
mountaintops. Oh, happy is that man who gets right into the wounds of Jesus
and, with Thomas, cries, “My Lord and my God!” This is no fanaticism, but a
thing of sober, sound experience with some of us. We can rejoice in Him,
having no confidence in the flesh. It is still coming but it is coming after a
dearer fashion.
Yet, mark you, it is still coming to the same Person, coming still as poor
humble ones to Christ! I have often toldyou, my dear Brothers and Sisters,
that when you geta little above the ground, if it is only an inch, you gettoo
high. When you begin to think that surely you are a saint, and that you have
some goodthing to trust to, that rotten stuff must all be pulled to pieces!
Believe me, God will not let His people weara rag of their own spinning–they
must be clothed with Christ’s Righteousnessfrom head to foot! The old
heathen said he wrapped himself up in his integrity, but I should think he did
not know what holes there were in it, or else he would have lookedfor

something better! But we wrap ourselves in the RighteousnessofChrist and
there is not a cherub before the Throne of God that wears a vestment so right
royal as the poor sinner does when he wears the RighteousnessofJesus
Christ! Oh, child of God, always live upon your Lord! Hang upon Him, as the
pitcher hangs upon the nail. Lean on your Beloved!His arm will never weary
of you. Stay yourselves upon Him–wash in the precious Fountain always!
WearHis Righteousnesscontinually and be glad in the Lord–and your
gladness neednever fail while you simply and wholly lean upon Him. And
now, not to detain you longer, I come to the lastpoint, upon which we will
only say a word or two. The text is–
III. A VERY CORRECTDESCRIPTION OF OUR DEPARTURE.
“To whom coming.” We shall soon, very soon, quit this mortal frame. I hope
you have learned to think of that without any kind of shudder. Can you not
sing–
“Ah, I shall soonbe dying,
Time swiftly glides away,
But on my Lord relying
I hail the happy day!”?
What is there that we should wait here for? Those who have the most of this
world’s goods have found it paltry stuff. It perishes in the using. There is a
fullness about it–but it cannot satisfy the great heart of an immortal man. It is
well for us that there is to be an end of this life, and especiallyfor us to whom
that end is glowing with immortality! Well, the hour of death will be to us a
coming to Christ, a coming to sit upon His Throne. Did you ever think of that?
“To himthat overcomes willI give to sit upon My Throne.” Lord, Lord, we
would be well contentto sit at Your feet! It were allthe Heaven we would ask
if we might but creepbehind the door, or stand and be manual servants, or
sit, like Mordecai, in the king’s court. No, but it must not be. We must sit on
His Throne and reign with Him forever and ever! This is what death will
bring you–a glorious participation in the royalties of your ascendedLord!
What is the next thing? “Father, I will that they also whom You have given
Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My Glory.” So that we are
to be going to Christ before long to behold His Glory! And what a sight that
willbe! Have you everthought of that? What must it be to behold His Glory?
Some of my Brothers think that when they get to Heaven they shall like to
behold some of the works ofGod in Nature and so on. I must confess myself
more satisfiedwith the idea that I shall behold His Glory, the Glory of the
Crucified, for it seems to me that no kind of Heaven but thatcomes up to the

description of the Apostle when he says, “Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard,
neither has it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God
has prepared for them that love Him.” But to see the stars has entered into the
heart of man! And to behold the works of God in Nature has been conceived
of! But the joys we speak of are so spiritual that the Apostle says, “He has
revealedthem unto us by His Spirit,” and this is what He has revealed, “That
they may behold My Glory.” St. Augustine used to say there were two sights
he would like to have seen–Rome in her splendor, and Paul preaching–the last
the better sight of the two! But there is a third sight for which one might give
up all–give up seeing Naples, orseeing anything–if we might but see the King
in His beauty! Why, even the distant glimpse which we catch of Him through
a glass ora telescope darklyravishes the soul! Dr. Hawkerwas once waited
upon by a friend who askedhim to go and see a naval review. He said, “No,
thank you, I do not want to go.” “You are a loyal man, Doctor, and you would
like to see the defenses ofyour country.” “Thank you, I do not wish to go.”
“But I have got a ticketfor you, and you must go.” “No,” he said, “thank
you,” and after he had been pressedhard he said, “You havepressedme till I
am ashamed, and now I must tell you–my eyes have seenthe King in His
beauty, and the land which is sight of Jesus cando this, what must it be to
behold His Glory with what the old Scotchdivines used to call, "a face-toface
view”–whenthe veil is takendown, when the clouds are blown away, and you
see Him face to face? Oh, longexpectedday, begin, when we shall be coming to
Him to dwell with Him forever!
Once more only. Recollectwe shall come to Christ not only to behold His
Glory, but to share in it. We shall be likeHe, for we shall see Him as He is.
WhateverChrist shall be, His people shall be–in happiness, riches, honor–and
togetherthey shall take their full share!The Church, His bride, shall sit on
the same Throne with Him, and of all the splendors of that eternaltriumph
she will have her half, for Christ is no niggard to His imperial spouse, but she
whom He chose before the world began, bought with His blood, wrapped in
His Righteousness andespousedto Himself forever, shall be a full partakerof
all the gifts that He possessesworldwithout end! And this shall be, and this
shall be, and this shall be forever–foreveryou shall be with Christ, forever
coming to Him! When the miser’s wealthhas melted. When the honors of the
conqueror have been blown awayor consumedlike chaff in the furnace.
When sun and moon grow dim with age and the hoary pillars of this earth
begin to rock and reel with stern decay. When the Angel shall have put one
foot on the sea and the other on the land, and shall have sworn by Him that
lives that time shall be no more. When the oceanshall be lickedup with

tongues of fire and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth
and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up–then, then shall you be
forever with the Lord, eternally resting, eternally feasting, eternally
magnifying Him–being filled with all His fullness to the utmost capacityof
your enlargedbeing, world without end!
So God grant it to us, that we may come to Christ, now, that we may continue
to come to Christ, that we may come to Christ, then, lest rejecting Him tonight
we should be rejecting Him forever!Lest refusing to trust Him, we should be
driven from His Presence to abide in misery forever! May we come now, for
Christ’s sake!Amen.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Living Stones
1 Peter2:4, 5
A. Maclaren
1 Peter2:4, 5 (to "built up").
Living stones. We have here incidentally a plain proof that to Peter, Jesus
Christ was Divine. He has just been quoting Old Testamentwords which
speak of "the Lord" as "gracious,"and he goes on, "to whom coming, as unto
a living Stone." He therefore regards Christ as standing in the place of the
Jehovahof the old covenant, and has neither scruple in asserting that he is the
"gracious Lord" of the psalm, nor thought that he need pause to explain or
vindicate the assumption. Obviously such a tone indicates that the truth of our
Lord's Divinity was familiar to the recipients of the letter. We have here, in
broad, generaloutline, the greatoffice which Christ sustains;the highest gift
which he bestows;and the condition on which we receive it from him.
I. CHRIST'S GREAT OFFICE - THE FOUNDATION-STONE FOR ALL
MEN'S LIVES AND HOPES. In this metaphor many 01d Testament
references unite. The Shepherd, the Stone of Israel had been celebratedin
ancient poetry. Isaiahhad spokenof the tried Foundation laid by God's own
hard in Zion, which yet should be a Stone of stumbling to those who refused to
build on it. A psalmist of a later period had sung amidst the ruined walls of

Jerusalem, and the effort to rear againthe temple, of the Stone rejectedby the
builders becoming the Head of the corner. A prophet of the same epoch had
seenin vision the head-stone of the completedand transformed theocracy
brought forth with triumphant acclaim. Danielhad prophesied of a Stone cut
out without hands, which should crashamong the kingdoms of the earth like a
boulder hurled by an avalanche among peasants'cottagesand gardens. And
all these streams of prediction had been gatheredinto one, in the words which
Peterso well remembered, with which, in those lastdays of hand-to-hand
conflict, his Masterhad silencedhis antagonists, andclaimed to be at once the
tried Foundation, and the ponderous Rock which, when it was set in motion,
would grind oppositionand opposers to powder. The echoes ofthese mighty
words stand here, as they have been interpreted to the apostle by all that has
passedsince he first heard them. He understands now better than he did, even
when he fronted the Sanhedrin with the bold proclamation, "This is the Stone
which is setat naught of you builders." He has learned that his Lord is not
merely meant to be the Foundation on which Israelmay build, but that on
which "strangers scatteredabroadmay be gathered into one." In all aspects
and relations Jesus Christ is the Foundation-stone. The whole universe rests
on him. He is "the Firstborn of every creature," the Agent of creation, the
Mediatorthrough whom all things came to be, and basedupon whom the
mighty whole of the material creationcontinues to exist. He is the Foundation
of humanity, the Rootfrom whom it springs, the Head in which it is gathered
into one. He is the Foundation on which the individual soul must build all
hope, joy, and goodness. He is the Foundation of the highestand purest form
of sociallife, in which ultimately all others shall merge, and men be one in
him. He is the Basis ofall true thoughts of God, man, immortality, and duty.
He is the Motive and Inspiration of the purest life. His Person, work, and
teaching underlie all being, all peace, and all nobleness. He is the "living
Stone," inasmuch as in him is essentiallife, and he ever lives to be the Source
of life to all who build on him.
II. CHRIST'S GREAT GIFT, THAT OF ASSIMILATION TO HIMSELF.
Coming to him, we become living stones. One can scarcelyavoidseeing here
some allusion to the apostle's ownname, as if he would share whatever honor
there was with all his brethren, and disown any specialprerogative. "'Thou
art Peter'was, indeed, saidto me; but you are all living stones. 'On this rock'
was, indeed, said to me; but Christ is the only Foundation." Peter's own
understanding of these much-controverted words is no bad guide to their
meaning. The image here but puts under one aspectthe wide generalprinciple
that transformation into Christ's likeness is the greatend of his work on us. Is

he a Son? Through him we become sons. Is he "the Light of the world"?
Illumined by him, we too become lights. Is he anointed with the Spirit?
Through him we too receive that unction which invests us with his threefold
office of prophet, priest, and king. We are one with him, and participate in his
relation to God; we are one with him, and receive of his fullness, are clothed
with his righteousness, andgrowingly conformed to his image. We are one
with him, and shall be one in destiny. "As he is, so are we in this world." "We
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." And the deep truth which
underlies all these representations is the actualcommunication of the life of
Christ to us. That life rises up from the foundation through all the courses of
the building. This truth is more obviously suggestedby the kindred metaphors
of the vine and the branches, and the head and members; but it is clearly
intended here also, and is conveyed, though with some incongruity, by the
expression, "living stones." The life which is in us is Christ's life. Therefore it
unfolds itself in us in a form like his, and the vital contactwith the living Stone
makes us, too, living stones.
III. THE CONDITION OF ASSIMILATION. It is expressedin grand
simplicity by that one pregnant phrase, "to whom coming." The original word
implies, by the force of a compound, a very close approach. We must be so
near him as to touch him, if his transforming power is to flow into our hearts.
A hair's breadth of separationis enough to stopthe passageofthe electric
current. The thinnest film of distance betweenthe soul and Christ is thick
enough to be an impenetrable barrier. There must be a real living contactif
his life is to pour into my veins. And if we ask how this close approachis to be
effected, our Lord's own words are the simplest answer, "He that cometh unto
me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." We
come in the actof faith. To trust him is to draw near to him. Faith is the
approachof the soul to Christ, and we touch when, with the reliance of our
whole nature, we grasphis cross, andhim who died on it, as our only
Foundation. But that act of faith must be continuous, if we are to draw life
from him in an unbroken stream. The form of expressionin the Greek shows
that the "coming" is not an act done once for all, but one constantly repeated.
The grace drawn from Christ in a moment of active faith cannot be storedup
for use in a time when faith has fallen asleep. As soonas we ceaseto draw
near to him, the flow stops. There must be a present faith for a present
blessing. Let us, then, rely on no past acts of devout emotion, but hourly
renew our conscious faith, and seek to nestle closerto his side, from whom all
our life and all its hopes and joys, with all its goodness andpower, proceed. So

shall there rise up into us, from the living Root, the sap which shall produce in
us flowers and abiding fruit. So shall there be one life in him and in us. - A.M.
Biblical Illustrator
To whom coming, as unto a living stone.
1 Peter2:4, 5
Coming -- always coming
C. H. Spurgeon.
The Christian life is begun, continued, and perfectedaltogetherin connection
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes when you go a journey, you travel so
far under the protection of a certain company, but then you have to change,
and the rest of your journey may be performed under very different
circumstances, upon quite another kind of line. Now we have not so far to go
to heaven in the guardian care of Jesus Christ, and then at a certainpoint to
change, so as to have somebody else to be our leader, or some other method of
salvation. No, He is the author and He is the finisher of our faith. We have not
to seek a fresh physician, to find a new friend or to discovera novel hope, but
we are to look for everything to Jesus Christ, "the same yesterday, and today,
and forever." "Ye are complete in Him."
I. HERE IS A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. It
is a continuous "coming" to Jesus. Noticethat the expressionoccurs in
connectionwith two figures. There is one which precedes it in the second
verse, namely, the figure of a little child fed upon milk. Children come to their
parents, and they frequently come rather longer than their parents like; it is

the generalhabit of children to come to their parents for what they need. Just
what your children began to do from the first moment you fixed your eyes on
them, and what they have continued to do ever since, that is just what you are
to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. You are to be always coming to Him —
coming to Him for spiritual food, for spiritual garments, for washing, guiding,
help, and health: coming, in fact, for everything. You will be wise if, the older
you grow, the more you come, and He will be all the better pleasedwith you.
If you will look againat your Bibles, you will geta secondillustration from the
fourth verse, "To whom coming as unto a living stone," etc. Here we have the
figure of a building. A building comprises first a foundation, and then the
stones which are brought to the foundation and are built upon it. This
furnishes a very beautiful picture of Christian life.
II. Now to ANSWER THE QUESTION, WHAT IS THE REST WAY OF
COMING TO CHRIST AT FIRST?
1. The very best way to come to Christ is to come with all your needs about
you. If you could getrid of half your needs apart from Christ, you would not
come to Jesus half so well, for your need furnishes you with motives for
coming, and gives you pleas to urge. Suppose a physician should come into a
town with motives of pure benevolence to exercise the healing art. What he
wants is not to make money, but to bless the townsmen. He has a love to his
fellow men, and he wants to cure them, and therefore he gives notice that the
poorestwill be welcome, andthe most diseasedwill be best received. Is there a
deeply sin-sick soulanywhere? Is there man or womanwho is bad altogether?
Come along, you are just in a right condition to come to Jesus Christ. Come
just as you are, that is the beststyle of "coming."
2. If you want to know how to come aright the first time, I should answer,
Come to find everything you want in Christ. I heard of a shop some time ago
in a country town where they soldeverything, and the man said that he did
not believe that there was anything a human being wanted but what he could
rig him out from top to toe. Well, I do not know whether that promise would
have been carried out to the letter if it had been tried, but I know it is so with
Jesus Christ; He can supply you with all you need, for "Christ is all."
3. The best way to come to Christ is to come meaning to get everything, and to
obtain all the plenitude of grace which He has laid up in store and promised
freely to give.
III. WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO COME AFTERWARDS? The answeris
— Come just as you used to come. The text does not saythat you have come to
Christ, though that is true, but that you are coming; and you are to be always

coming. The way to continue coming is to come just in the same way as you
came at first.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ a living stone
R. S. MacArthur.
I. CHRIST THE SURE FOUNDATION. Without Christ the Bible is
meaningless, the world hopeless, heavencharmless. Youmight as well have a
summer without a gleamof light, without the smell of flowers, or the song of a
bird, as have a life without Jesus Christ. You might as well have a year
without a summer, nothing but barrenness and death, as to have a life without
Jesus Christ. You might as well have a night without a morning, as to live in
this world, and die, and be buried without Jesus Christ. You might as well
speak of the astronomy of the world and leave out the sun, as speak ofhistory,
philosophy, and creation, and leave out Jesus Christ. In Christ, and in Him
alone, the real and the ideal meet. Christ was the perfect, the symmetrical
Man, the true centre of redeemedhumanity.
II. CHRIST REJECTED BYMANY. He reveals character;He makes men
declare themselves;He is the touch stone that draws worth and develops
worthlessness. Come nearto Christ, and if you have the elements of nobility
you will be drawn toward Him; if you are worth less you will hate Him.
III. A STARTLING CONTRAST — God's judgment of Christ as compared
with that of men: "Chosenof God, and precious." Godknew Him, and He
knew God as it is impossible for men to know Him; and this is the judgment
which God here gives.
IV. In order to receive the blessing of Christ's life, WE MUST COME TO
HIM. God's promise includes God's condition.
(R. S. MacArthur.)
The living stone
J. C. Jones D. D.
I. THE CHURCH OR SPIRITUAL TEMPLE IN ITS FOUNDATION.
1. Jesus Christis here set forth as the foundation of the Christian Church.

2. The apostle here seems to violate the rules of rhetoric and elegant
compositionby attributing life to a stone. God's thoughts were so infinite that
the laws of grammar stoodin constantneed of expansion to receive them.
3. "Disallowedindeedof men, but chosenof God." This Divine choice does not
refer primarily, if at all, to God's eternal electionof His Sonto be the
foundation of the Church, but to His choice ofHim in consequenceofHis holy
life and atoning death. The disallowing by men and the choosing by God were
simultaneous processes. Godchose Him, not arbitrarily, but on accountof
fitness after trying Him.
II. THE CHURCH OR SPIRITUAL TEMPLE IN ITS SUPERSTRUCTURE.
1. What then is the first step you should take to be built into the walls of this
spiritual edifice? This — you must come to Jesus Christ. "To whom coming";
or, as the words might be rendered, "To whom coming close up," "to whom
coming very near" — so near as to be in personalcontactwith Him, nothing
whateverintervening. You must remove all the earth and brush awayevery
grain of sand, and build your house on the clean face of the rock, with nothing
whatsoeverbetween.
2. "To whom coming close up, as unto a living stone," then it follows that "ye
also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house." The word for "stones"
here suggests — I do not say it positively means, but it suggests stonesdressed,
smoothed, and polished, fitted to their place in the walls of the spiritual edifice
— the root of the Englishword lithograph. Young people, and old, you will
not do to be built into the walls of this temple in the rough, as you come from
the quarry of the world. The Holy Spirit alone can prepare you for this.
III. THE CHURCH OR SPIRITUAL TEMPLE IN ITS SERVICE.
1. "A priesthood." So there is a priesthoodin the Christian Church. The
whole body of believers forms the Christian priesthood.
2. "An holy priesthood." A learned priesthood? No. An educatedpriesthood?
No. No; an holy priesthood.
3. "To offer up spiritual sacrifices,acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."
"Spiritual sacrifices":what are these? Singing? Yes. Praying? Yes.
Preaching? I am glad to believe it. Under the law material sacrificeswere
required — oxen, sheep, doves; but under the gospelonly those sacrifices
which proceedfrom a regenerate heart, and which testify to the gratitude and
devotion of an emancipatedspirit. God condescends to acceptthe offering for
the sake ofthe love which inspires it. What else is necessary? Thatwe present
all by, or, as in the Welsh, "through" Jesus Christ. Our sacrificesmust ascend

to the throne through Him; and as they go through Him they are beautifully
filtered and refined.
(J. C. Jones D. D.)
Disallowedindeedof men
Christ disallowed
John Rogers.
Disallowedlie was, indeed, of men: they calledHim the carpenter's Son, a
Samaritan, winebibber, deceiver;they would have no other king but Caesar;
with them Barabbas was meeterto live than He. What was the cause?They
lookedfor one that should come as an earthly prince, to deliver them out of
the hands of the Romans;but His kingdom was not of this world. They looked
also for one that should have upheld their customs, laws, and traditions; but
the date of them was out. Again, how came they to this height of disallowing
Him? At the first of ignorance and blindness, but after of malice;so men grow
(when they desire not to amend and see the truth) from one degree of
wickednessto another.
(John Rogers.)
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up
Living stones
W. Skinner.
Religious art finds its culmination in the temple of the ancients and the
cathedralof the moderns. Higher than this it cannotreach. That the temple
made a profound impressionupon the minds of the apostles, that its
associationinterpenetratedtheir religious life and coloured their teaching, we
have unmistakable evidence. In his Epistle to the Ephesians Paulseizes hold of
the idea to illustrate the stability, the growth, and the grandeur of the Church.
It is preciselythe same idea which Peter had in his mind. The idea is a grand
one, and it has had a fascinationfor more than one of the greatmen of the
Church. To mention only one instance, it has given to us the immortal work of
John Howe, "The Living Temple." Let us look at it. Rising slowly in the midst
of the world, noiselesslyand unobserved by the majority of men, are the fair
proportions of a temple in comparisonwith which the grandestconceptions of
man are but blurred and broken lines of beauty. Century after century has
contributed its quota to the pile, and during the unborn ages it will continue to

increase in symmetry and perfection, until with the last man the edifice will be
complete. The text reminds us that believers are the living stones of this living
temple. Let us pay a visit to the temple, and look upon the stones that are
being built into it.
I. As soonas we approachour attention is arrestedby some HUGE,
UNSHAPELY BLOCKS OF STONE, SHARP ANGLED, AND
DISFIGURED HERE AND THERE WITH MUD. We glance hastily up at the
superb building before us, re-examine the stones, and then in some wonder
ask our guide, "What possible use canthese be put to?" Touching the stone
tenderly with his fingers, the master builder replies that there is no better
material built up in the whole fabric than this. Despite their roughness and
shapelessness, these stones, he says, possessa nature which yields readily to
the tools and skill of the workmen. Do we understand the teaching? Have we
not in our Church fellowship met with men and women freshly hewn from the
world's quarry, with such angularities of character, with such imperfect
knowledge, withsuch lack of grace, that we have begun to question if such
rough material could be used for anything but stumbling blocks in the cause
of Christ? It may have been, even, that we have treatedthem with
indifference, if not with contempt, and denied them the assurance ofa
brother's sympathy. Forgetting "the hole of the pit from whence we have been
digged," we have despisedthese little ones for whom Christ died. Let us be
consistentwith ourselves. We profess to believe in spiritual capacities and
capabilities, and we cry eachday out of the depths of our weakness and
ignorance, "Lord, help us." In what lies the difference betweenus and them?
Are not their souls endowedwith the satire faculties, the same capabilities,
spiritually, as ours? But if we have seenanything of the operation of Divine
grace upon the heart, we surely have seenenoughto leadus to the belief that
there is no limit to its power, that it can fashion the roughest into symmetry
and grace. The tinker of Elstow is transformed into the immortal dreamer.
Ah, surely bitter must be our humiliation if by our spiritual pride we mar the
beauty and usefulness of our Christian life, and see those whom we have
despisedoutstripping us in service, and bearing more vividly upon them the
imprint of Divine favour. Proceeding in our examination of the stones, we
have one pointed out to us as being of great importance.
II. Examining it we find that WHILE IT BEARS EVIDENT MARKS OF
THE WORKMEN'S TOOLS, IT IS ONLY A LARGE PLAIN BLOCK OF
STONE, WITHNO PRETENSIONTO ORNAMENT WHATEVER. We
acknowledge atonce its solidity, but have to ask an explanation of its use. We
are led to a part of the building where the first stones are being laid in the

freshly excavatedearth, and there we are told that these plain blocks of stone
are used for the wall foundations. "What!" we exclaim, "are they to be hidden
out of sight, and their worth never to be appreciated?" "True,"replies our
guide, "they are hidden, and the thoughtless dream not of them; but the
architectknows their value. They serve a grand purpose; upon them depends
the strength, aye, and the beauty of the building, too." Unspeakable comfort
this to many a lonely, toiling Christian. Look at that mother, the object of her
children's lavish affection — their most trusted adviser in times of difficulty
and doubt. But she is unknown to the world and fame. Men do not know that
the strength and nobility of characterwhichthey have been accustomedto
admire in her son, has a foundation in her life and heart. Let us take courage,
therefore, and labour on in the dark a little while longer. We cannotpass by
these pillars without stopping a minute or two to admire their strength and
various beauty.
III. In these pillars WE SEE GRACE, STRENGTH, AND UTILITY
COMBINED.To be a pillar in the Temple of God is the highesthonour to
which we can reach. Do we covet their position, their fame, or their worth?
Then we must drink of the cup they have drank of, and be baptized with the
baptism they were baptized with. That the Church has had such pillars, and
will continue to have them, is her strength and hope. "Ah! more ornamental
than useful," we exclaim, as we are calledto look at some stones coveredwith
filigree work, or highly finished carving. "A judgment somewhathasty and
thoughtless," replies the architect. "See, this stone you have despisedbecause
of its ornament is fashioned for a keystone, and its utility will be enhancedby
its beauty. This other, with all its marvellous delicacyof carving, has a sound
core, and is fashioned for the capital of one of these pillars. It will add grace to
the pillar, and will sustain part of its load." Hasty and thoughtless judgments
are, alas!too frequent among professing Christians. By some zealous workers
the men and women of culture are despisedas being necessarilymore
ornamental than useful. They are not seento be enthusiastic in the service of
the Master, and forthwith, without a moment's calm thought, they are spoken
of rather as hindrances than helps in the cause ofrighteousness. Have we been
tempted to think so of anyone? Let us see to it that we have not been doing
greatinjustice to a keystone or a capital in God's Temple — living stones,
perchance, not only more beautiful than we, but vastly more useful also. Some
of the most zealous and humble Christian workers are to be found among the
men and womenof culture today. And not only is it so, but they do a work
that the less cultured cannot do. Like the carved capital or keystone, they can
catchthe eye of the carelessorscepticalmen of culture and compel them, by

the force of their intrinsic worth, to investigate the claims of religion. "How
beautiful is the polish on this stone!How it reveals the beauty of the granite!
How it flashes back the sunlight! Such is our exclamationover a stone which
our guide regards with a look of mingled tenderness and delight. "Very
beautiful," he replies, "but at what cost!" and then he explains to us the hard
pressure, the constantfriction, and the other processesto which it had been
subjectedbefore it took on this lustrous beauty. Just so. We have a friend in
whose Christian life there is a sparkle, a heavenly beauty, as exceptionalas it
is delightful. Would we know the secret? Thenlet us look into his past life.
Sorrow came to his heart suddenly, overwhelmingly. "Made perfectthrough
suffering!" How difficult the lesson!Instinctively we shrink from pain. Truly,
pain is a mystery. "Hold, hold!" cries the stone to the polisher when the cold
waterand rough sand are thrown upon it, and the heavy polishing plane
passes overit for the first time. "Hold, hold! Why this rough treatment? What
wrong have I done? Have I not alreadysuffered at the hands of workmen?"
"Peace, foolishstone,"cries the polisher. "Dostthou not know that there are
yet roughnessesin thy nature to be rubbed down, and wilt thou grudge the
pain? Dostthou not know that I will bring to light thy hidden beauty by this
process?Thouwilt become a mirror to catchthe faintestsmile of heavenif
thou wilt but suffer it to be so now."
IV. "What mean these quantities of SMALL STONES lying here and there?
Is it possible that they can be used in the greatbuilding?" To which question
our instructor replies, "The temple could not be built without them. There is
not only a place for them, but there are places which nothing but they canfill.
Unseen by the eye, these small stones supplement the deficiencies of the larger
ones, and there would be many an interstice through which the wind and rain
would penetrate were it not for these insignificant-looking stones." Little
children living stones in God's temple! Sweetthought! What parent does not
clutch at it with unspeakable joy? The factmay well fire the zeal and intensify
the love of every parent and teacherof the young in pouring out their souls
labouring for their weal. We would do well to ponder —
1. In the first place, it is quite possible for the living stones to be deceivedwith
regard to their position and importance.
2. In the secondplace, a true view of our own hearts, as well as of the
importance of Christian service, will leadus to castourselves atthe Master's
feet, saying, "Choosemy place for me."
(W. Skinner.)

The Church the temple of God
D. Thomas, D. D.
I. IT IS ORGANISED AFTER A DIVINE PLAN.
1. This is the leading plan in the world's history.
2. This plan, though unknown by men, is being workedout by them.
II. IT IS COMPACTEDTOGETHER INTO A NECESSARYUNITY.
Supreme love for a common Father, unbounded confidence in a common
Christ, life consecrationto a common cause, are the indissoluble bonds of
union. This union is —
1. Independent of localdistances.
2. Independent of external circumstances.
3. Independent of ecclesiasticalsystems.
4. Independent of mental idiosyncrasies.
III. IT IS THE SPECIAL RESIDENCE OF THE ETERNALSPIRIT. There
is more of God to be seenin the true Church than anywhere else under
heaven. In nature you see His handicraft, in saints you see His soul.
(D. Thomas, D. D.)
Living stones
J. Ruskin.
The only idea which I think can be legitimately connectedwith purity of
matter, is this of vital and energetic connectionamong its particles;and the
idea of foulness is essentially connectedwith dissolution and death. Thus the
purity of the rock contrastedwith the foulness of dust or mould is expressed
by the epithet "living," very singularly given the rock in almostall languages;
singularly I say, because life is almost the last attribute one would ascribe to
stone but for this visible energyand connectionof its particles; and so of
wateras opposedto stagnancy.
(J. Ruskin.)
Cohesionin God's spiritual house
G. G. Findlay.
The apostle assumes, as a matter of course, that if one is in Christ, one is also
in His Church. Detachedstones are mere rubble. There is contact, cohesion,

mutual attachment and support in these "living stones" ofGod's spiritual
house. Basedon the "living stone," the bedrock of the Church, they grow
togetherinto God's glorious human temple.
(G. G. Findlay.)
Mind the temple is not built without you
A. Maclaren.
Travellers sometimes find in lonely quarries, long abandoned, or once worked
by a vanished race, greatblocks squaredand dressed, that seemto have been
meant for palace or shrine. But there they lie, neglectedand forgotten, and the
building for which they were hewn has been rearedwithout them. Beware,
lest God's grand temple should be built up without you, and you be left to
desolationand decay.
(A. Maclaren.)
Living stones
Hours of Exercise onthe Alps.
Tyndall, speaking ofthe frozen crystals in snowflakes, says:"Surely such an
exhibition of power, such an apparent demonstration of a resident intelligence
in what we are accustomedto call'brute matter,' would appearperfectly
miraculous. If the Houses of Parliament were built up of forces residentin
their own bricks, it would be nothing intrinsically more wonderful."
(Hours of Exercise onthe Alps.)
An holy priesthood
The priesthood of the laity
Canon Body.
Christians are a royal priesthood; they are united togetherin the Church to
be a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrificesacceptable to God by Jesus
Christ: the joy of priesthood should be the tasted joy of every member of the
Church of Christ. True it is that in its fullest sense there is but one priest —
Jesus, the anointed of the Father. No other priest canbe, since He ever lives
and ministers in His priesthood. But He ministers as priest under two
conditions — in heaven in His glorified human body: on earth in His mystical
body — the Church. When He was on the earth "in the days of His flesh," He

ministered to men through His natural body. In it He interceded for them
with God, and instituted and offeredthe holy Eucharistic sacrifice. Byit He
spake to them God's words, and did among them God's works. But when His
body was takenup into heaven, it could not be the instrument of His
priesthood on earth. So He createdHis mystical body — the Church. Thus the
Church, as the mystical body of Christ, is the extensionof His natural body,
and so is the fulness of Christ, As, then before His ascension, Christ
ministered on earth in His natural body, since His ascensionHe ministers on
earth in His mystical body. Hence His Church is a sacerdotalsociety. It is a
kingdom of priests, because its members are the ministers of Christ's priest
hood. Its priesthood is not one existing side by side with, nor is it supplemental
to, the one priesthood of Christ. It is not the delegatedrepresentative ofan
absent Lord fulfilling priestly ministries on His behalf; it is the organismof a
present Lord. It is the organism whereby Christ intercedes with God for men
in prayer and Euchariston earth, and by which He teaches men God's faith,
and ministers to them God's grace. This sacerdotalvocationand characteris
not the exclusive possessionofany one sectionof the mystical body of Christ
— it is common to all Christian men. Eachmember of the mystical body of
the GreatHigh Priestis himself a priest unto God. But he is a priest calledon
to minister in the unity and in the order of that mystical body. Eachmember
in it is placed in his position in its structure to fulfil the ministry proper to him
as the organof the whole body. The priestly characteris common to all, but
all are not calledto the same measure of priestly ministries or gifts. The
priesthood of the laity is recognisedby the Church in confirmation. Christians
are born to priesthood in the sacramentof regenerationas sons of the second
Aaron, just as Aaron's sons were born to the priesthood of Israel. But as in
Israelof old those thus born were at a given age solemnly consecratedand
commissionedto execute the priest's office;so in the Church of Christ the
regenerate are consecrated, commissioned, anddowered, for the lay
priesthood in the sacramentofconfirmation. This priesthood of the laity has,
as priesthood always has, a two-fold aspect — Godwardand manward. The
Church, as a sacerdotalsociety, has primarily to minister to God — to offer
up spiritual sacrificesacceptable to God by Jesus Christ. The first duty of the
lay priesthoodis by cooperationwith the consecratedministers of the Church
to offer to God continual worship in Christian sanctuaries. Closelyalliedwith
the ministry of worship is the ministry of intercession. He whose soulascends
to God and rests in God in adoration will share with God His love to men,
and, sharing this love, he will breathe it out in intercession. Moreover, as
God's priest, the layman is calledto minister to man for God in active service.
He has his place in that greatmediatorial system by which God wills to give to

men the two greatgifts of truth and grace. EachChristian Churchman is here
in a position of grave responsibility. All wealthis a trust held by eachfor all.
And, in addition to this, as the priest of God, the layman is calledon to do
what he can to bring his fellow men into the knowledge ofthe truth as he
knows it, and with those gracious conditions of life in which he is privileged to
live. He must be an evangelist — the bearer to others of the goodtidings in the
joy of which he is privileged to live. Let me conclude with two cautions
bearing on this question of lay priesthood.
1. Avoid individualism in its exercise. Priesthoodis an official status;it exists
in the body of Christ, and can only be rightly exercisedaccording to the will of
God in the unity of that body. All its ministries must be performed "decently
and in order." God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, in all churches
of the saints, "and peace is," as St. teaches us, "the harmony of ordered
union."
2. The one motive of the layman in his priesthood must always be to reveal to
men and to bring them to submit to the One Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, as
He ministers in and through His Church. No one can rise to the realisationof
his lay priesthood excepthe be one who, in the unity of the Church, tastes and
sees the goodness ofthe Lord.
(Canon Body.)
The Church the priesthood of God
D. Thomas, D. D.
I. THE PERSONS OF WHOM THIS PRIESTHOOD IS COMPOSED. The
apostle is here writing, not to Church officers, but to individual Christians
scatteredthroughout the world. Why should they be representedas a
priesthood?
1. On accountof their entire devotedness to Divine service.
2. On accountof their free accessto the Divine presence (Ephesians 2:18;
Hebrews 10:19-22).
II. THE CHARACTER BY WHICH THIS PRIESTHOOD IS
DISTINGUISHED. "Holy." Moralholiness is resemblance to Christ — the
spirit of supreme love to the Father and self-sacrificing love for man.
III. THE SERVICE TO WHICH THIS PRIESTHOOD IS CONSECRATED.
1. The sacrifices are spiritual.
2. Mediatory.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)
The Christian priesthood
Abp. Leighton.
The priesthood of the law was holy, and its holiness was signifiedby many
outward things, by anointings, and washings, and vestments;but in this
spiritual priesthood of the gospel, holiness itselfis instead of all these, as being
the substance ofall. The children of God are all anointed and purified, and
clothed with holiness. There is here the service of this office, namely, to offer.
All sacrifice is not taken away, but it is changedfrom the offering of those
things formerly in use to spiritual sacrifices. Now these are every way
preferable; they are easierto us, and yet more acceptable to God. How much
more should we abound in spiritual sacrifice, who are easedofthe other! But
though the spiritual sacrificing is easierin its own nature, yet to the corrupt
nature of man it is by far the harder. He would rather choose stillall the toil
and costof the former way, if it were in his option. A holy course oflife is
calledthe sacrifice ofrighteousness (Psalm4:6; and Philippians 4:18; so also
Hebrews 13:16), where the apostle shows what sacrificessucceedto those
which, as he hath taught at large, are abolished. In a word, that sacrifice of
ours which includes all these, and without which none of these can be rightly
offered, is ourselves, our whole selves. Now thatwhereby we offer all spiritual
sacrifices andeven ourselves, is love. That is the holy fire that burns up all,
sends up our prayers, and our hearts, and our whole selves a whole burnt
offering to God — and, as the fire of the altar, it is originally from heaven,
being kindled by God's own love to us, and the graces ofthe Spirit received
from Christ, but, above all with His own merits. The successofthis service;
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. The children of God delight in offering
sacrifices to Him; but if they could not know that they were well takenat their
hands, this would discourage them much; therefore this is added. He accepts
themselves and their ways when offered in sincerity, though never so mean;
though they sometimes have no more than a sigh or a groan, it is most
properly a spiritual sacrifice. No one needs forbear sacrifice for poverty, for
what God desires is the heart, and there is none so poor but hath a heart to
give Him. But meanness is not all. There is a guiltiness on ourselves and on all
we offer. Our prayers and services are polluted. But this hinders not, for our
acceptanceis not for ourselves, but for the sake ofone who hath no guiltiness
at all, "acceptable by Jesus Christ." In Him our persons are clothed with
righteousness. How ought our hearts to be knit to Him, by whom we are
brought into favour with God and kept in favour with Him, in whom we

obtain all the good we receive, and in whom all we offer is accepted!In Him
are all our supplies of grace and our hopes of glory.
(Abp. Leighton.)
The true priesthood, temple and sacrifice
C. H. Spurgeon.
I. First, all those who are coming to Christ, daily coming nearer and nearerto
Him, are as living stones built up into A TEMPLE.
1. They are called a spiritual house in opposition to the old material house in
which the emblem of the Divine presence shone forth in the midst of Israel,
that temple in which the Jew delighted, counting it to be beautiful for
situation and the joy of the whole earth. When we become holy, as we should
be, we shall count all places and all hours to be the Lord's, and we shall
always dwell in His temple because Godis everywhere.
2. We are a spiritual temple, but not the less real. The Lord has a people
scatteredabroadeverywhere, whose lives are hid with Him in God, and these
make up the real temple of God in which the Lord dwelleth. Men of every
name and clime and age are quickened into life, made living stones, and then
laid upon Christ, and these constitute the true temple, which Godhath built
and not man, for He dwelleth not in temples made with hands; that is to say,
of man's building, but He dwelleth in a temple which He Himself hath builded
for His habitation forever, saying, "This is My restforever; here will I dwell,
for I have desired it."
3. This temple is spiritual, and therefore it is living. A material temple is dead,
a spiritual temple must be alive; and so the text tells us, "Ye also as living
stones."
4. We are a spiritual house, and therefore spiritually built up. Petersays, "Ye
are built up" — built up by spiritual means. The Spirit of God quarries out of
the pit of nature the stones which are as yet dead, separating them from the
mass to which they adhered; He gives them life, and then He fashions,
squares, polishes them, and they, without sound of axe or hammer, are
brought eachone to its appointed place, and built up into Christ Jesus.
5. We are a spiritual house, and therefore the more fit for the indwelling of
God who is a Spirit. It is in the Church that God reveals Himself. If you would
know the Lord's love and powerand grace you must get among His people,
hear their experiences, learnfrom them how God dealeth with them, and let
them tell you, if ye have grace to understand them, the height, and depth, and

length, and breadth of the love of Christ, which passethknowledge, forHe
manifesteth Himself to them as He doth not to the world. Hath He not said, "I
will dwell in them and walk in them"?
II. In addition to being a temple, God's people are saidto be A
PRIESTHOOD.Observe that they are spokenof together, and not merely as
individuals: they make up one indivisible priesthood: eachone is a priest, but
all standing togetherthey are a priesthood, by virtue of their being one with
Christ.
1. This stands in opposition to the nominal and worldly priesthood.
2. This priesthoodis most real, although it be not of the outward and visible
order; for God's priests become priests after a true and notable fashion.
3. We are priests in the aspectof priesthood towards God. You are to speak
with God on man's behalf, and bring down, eachof you, according to the
measure of your faith, the blessing upon the sons of men among whom you
dwell.
4. And you are priests towards men also, for the priest was selectedfrom
among men to exercise necessaryoffices forman's good. The priest's lips
should keepknowledge,and if ye be as ye should be, ye hold fast the faith once
delivered to the saints.
5. This is to be your function and ministry always and in every place. You are
a holy priesthood; not alone on the Lord's day when ye come into this house,
but at all times.
III. Considerthe SACRIFICES whichwe offer — "spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."
1. We offer spiritual sacrifices as opposedto the literal.
2. This sacrificing takes various forms. "I beseechyou, brethren, that ye
present your bodies a living sacrifice."You are to present yourselves, spirit,
soul, and body, as a sacrifice unto God. You are also to "do goodand to
communicate, for with such sacrificesGodis well pleased." To Him also you
are to "offerthe sacrifice ofpraise continually, the fruit of your lips giving
glory to God." To the Lord also you must present the incense ofholy prayer;
but all these are comprehended, I think, in the expression, "I delight to do
Thy will, O God."
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The doctrine of sacrifice

A. Mursell.
The theory of sacrifice seems to be intuitively inherent in all religions. The
sacrifice ofthe life and death of Christ is the one essentialfoundation of every
acceptable offering which can be made to God. God never requires what we
cannot offer. He never asks a sin or trespass offering from us. You and I could
not offer that. But He asks whatwe can give, a sweet-savouroffering, as a
testimony of our gratitude and love. Not a sin offering. As far as Christ's work
was propitiatory, it stands absolutely alone:"He offered one sacrifice forsin."
But though no sufferings, no work, no worship, no service of ours can
propitiate, God still requires from us offerings of another character. Theseare
called"spiritual sacrifices," whichwe are "ordained" to offer. There is no
more attractive form in which a devout life can appear than that of a constant
oblation to God, of all that we are, have, or do. Let the thought of sacrifice be
inwoven into the texture of your life. Study to turn, not your prayers alone,
but your whole daily course and conversation, into an offering. Surely the
thought that God will acceptit if offered in union with the merit of His Son, is
enough to give stimulus to the sacrifice;to open purse, and hand, and heart.
You can please Him if you give, strive, work in His name. To please God.
What a privilege to lie open to us day by day, and hour by hour! What a
condescensionin our heavenly Father, when we considerthe strictness ofHis
justice, the impurity of our hearts, and our manifold falls, to admit of our
pleasing Him, or to leave any room for our touching His complacency. We
may have this dignity if we offer all in Christ. We need not go far to seek the
materials of an acceptable offering;they lie all around us; in our common
work;in the little calls of providence; in the trivial crosses we are challenged
to take up; nay, in the very recreationof our lives. If work be done (no matter
how humble) in the full view of God's assignmentof our severaltasks and
spheres of labour, and under the consciousnessofHis presence, itis a sacrifice
fit to be laid upon His altar. If we study the very perversity of our enemies
with a loving hope that we may find something of God and Christ about them
yet, which may be the nascentgerm of better things; if we try to make the best
of men, and not the worst, treating them as Christ treatedthem, we may thus
redeem an hour from being wasted, and sanctify it by turning it into a
sacrifice to God. If you should obey an impulse to divert some trifle meant for
self and luxury to Christ's poor and charity, here, again, is a sacrifice, sweet
smelling before God, which will buy the better luxury of His smile and love.
And if you regardtime as, next to Christ and the Holy Spirit, the most
precious gift of God; if you gatherup its fragments and put them into God's
basketby using them for holy things and thoughts — this, too, grows into a

tribute which God will accept. It is the altar which sanctifieth the gift. Apart
from Christ and Christ's sacrifice, no offering of ours is redolent of the sweet
savour, For our best gifts are fleckedand flawed by duplicity and evil.
(A. Mursell.)
Christians are priests
R. M. McCheyne.
Christians, you are priests. Be like Christ in this,
1. Whereveryou go carry a savour of Christ. Let men take knowledge ofyou,
that you have been with Jesus;let it be plain that you come from within the
veil, let the smell of your garments be as a field which the Lord hath blessed.
2. Carry a sound of Christ wherever you go. Not a stop, Christians, without
the sound of the gospelbell! Even in smallestthings, be spreading the glad
sound, Edwards says, wherevera godly personenters, he is a greaterblessing
than if the greatestmonarchwere entering. So be it with you.
(R. M. McCheyne.)
To offer up spiritual sacrifices
The Christian's sacrifices
John Rogers.
1. The offering up of our bodies and souls, and all that is in us to serve God;
having neither wit, will, memory, nor anything else, but for the Lord's use. It
is meet we should offer this sacrifice, forit is His by right of creation,
redemption, and continual preservation.
2. The sacrifice of a contrite and broken heart.
3. Prayerand praise.
4. Alms, mercy to all in hunger, thirst, sickness, prison, especiallyto the
household of faith.
(John Rogers.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) To whom coming.—The word used is that which gives rise to the name of a
“proselyte.” (Comp. Note on 1Peter2:2.) It is also strangelyused in something
of the same sense in 1Timothy 6:3. “Joining Him therefore as proselytes.” Not
that St. Peterhas any notion of a mere external accession. The Apostolic
writers do not contemplate the possibility of a difference betweenthe visible
and invisible Church. From this point the regeneration-idea, whichcoloured
the whole of the preceding portion of the Epistle, suddenly disappears. The
thought is no longer that of a spiritual seedinstead of a carnal seed, but of a
spiritual Temple instead of the stone temple at Jerusalem.
A living stone.—The very structure and order of the sentence puts Jesus
Christ first. Foundation first, building afterwards. It is a pity to insert “as
unto” with our version; it takes off from the striking, attracting effect of the
sudden metaphor. St. Peteris fond of explaining his metaphors—e.g.,
“inheritance . . . in heaven,” “testedgenuineness. . . more precious than of
gold,” “gird up . . . loins of your minds:” so here, “living stone.” It is more
than doubtful whether St. Peter, in what follows, had before his mind the
giving of his own surname. The word which he here uses is neither petros, nor
petra, but lithos; and indeed the whole idea of the relative position of the
Church to the petra and to the lithos is quite different. Neither petros nor
petra could possibly be used of the squared wrought stone, but represent the
native rocky unhewn substratum—part, or whole—whichpre-exists before
any building is begun, even before the “chiefcorner-stone” would be placed.
(Comp. Matthew 7:24.)Here, therefore, the idea is quite different: the
substratum is not thought of at all; and Jesus Christis a carefully selectedand
hewn stone (lithos), speciallylaid as the first act in the work of building. The
only thing, therefore, which is, in fact, common to the two passages is the
simple thought of the Christian Church being like a building. Our present
verse gives us no direct help towards finding how St. Peterunderstood the
famous name-passage.All we can sayfor certain is that he did not so interpret
it as to suppose an official connectionwith his own personto be the one
essentialofthe true Church, or else in againusing the metaphor of building
the Church (though in a different connection)he could hardly have omitted
all mention of himself. He is, apparently, thinking only of the Messianic
interpretation of Old Testamentsayings as expounded by our Lord—the
“unsophisticatedmilk of the word” of 1Peter2:2.
Disallowedindeedof men.—A direct reference to the passage(Psalm118:22),
which is quoted below in 1Peter2:7. It here says “men,” rather than
“builders,” in order to contrastthem more forcibly with God. The word
“disallowed,”or“rejected,” implies a form of trial or probation which comes

to an unsatisfactoryconclusion. The human builders examine the stone,
inspect all its qualifications, and find it unsuited to the edifice which they have
in hand, and refuse it not only the place of honour, but any place at all, in
their architecture. St. Peterwishes to bring out strongly the absolute
opposition betweenGod and the Jews.
But chosenof God, and precious.—Literally, but with God elect, honoured.
This is a direct allusion to the passage, Isaiah28:16, which is quoted in 1Peter
2:6. While the human builders saw the qualities of the stone, and rejectedit
because ofits not fitting in with their ideal, on the other hand, “with God,”
i.e., in God’s counseland plan, it was “elect,”i.e., choice had been laid upon it,
it had been selectedforGod’s building purposes;and not only “elect” (forthis
might be equally said of all the “living stones;” see 1Peter1:2, where the word
has preciselythe same meaning), but also “honoured,” which is further
explained to mean, singledout for the place of honour, i.e., for that of corner-
stone. The designationof this stone as “elect,” brings out again what we have
had in 1Peter1:11; 1Peter1:20, viz., the eternal predestination of Jesus to the
Messiahship.
MacLaren's Expositions
51 Peter
LIVING STONES ON THE LIVING FOUNDATION STONE
1 Peter2:4-5.
I wonder whether Peter, when he wrote these words, was thinking about what
Jesus Christ said to him long ago, up there at CæsareaPhilippi. He had heard
from Christ’s lips, ‘Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church.’
He had understood very little of what it meant then. He is an old man now,
years of experience and sorrow and work have taught him the meaning of the
words, and he understands them a greatdeal better than his so-called
successors have done. For we may surely take the text as the Apostle’s own
disclaimer of that which the RomanCatholic Church has founded on it, and
has blazoned it, in gigantic letters round the dome of St. Peter’s, as meaning.
It is surely legitimate to hear him saying in these words: ‘Make no mistake, it
is Jesus Himself on whom the Church is built. The confessionofHim which
the Fatherin heaven revealedto me, not I, the poor sinner who confessedit--

the Christ whom that confessionsetforth, He is the foundation stone, and all
of you are calledand honoured to ring out the same confession. Jesusis the
one Foundation, and we all, apostles andhumble believers, are but stones
builded on Him.’ Peter’s relation to Jesus is fundamentally the same as that of
every poor soul that ‘comes to’ Him.
Now, there are two or three thoughts that may very well be suggestedfrom
these words, and the first of them is this:--
I. Those that are in Christ have perpetually to make the effort to come nearer
Christ.
Remember that the persons to whom the Apostle is speaking are no strangers
to the Saviour. They have been professing Christians from of old. They have
made very considerable progress in the Divine life; they are near Jesus Christ;
and yet Petersays to them, ‘You can get nearerif you try,’ and it is your one
task and one hope, the condition of all blessedness, peace, andjoy in your
religious life that you should perpetually be making the effort to come closer,
and to keepcloser, to the Lord, by whom you say that you live.
What is it to come to Him? The context explains the figurative expression, in
the very next verse or two, by another and simpler word, which strips away
the figure and gives us the plain fact--’in Whom believing.’ The act of the soul
by which I, with all my weaknessandsin, castmyself on Jesus Christ, and
grapple Him to my heart, and bind myself with His strength and
righteousness--thatis what the Apostle means here. Or, to put it into other
words, this ‘coming,’ which is here laid as the basis of everything, of all
Christian prosperity and progress for the individual and for the community,
is the movement towards Christ of the whole spiritual nature of a man--
thoughts, loves, wishes, purposes, desires,hopes, will. And we come near to
Him when day by day we realise His nearness to us, when our thoughts are
often occupiedwith Him, bring His peace and Himself to bear as a motive
upon our conduct, let our love reach out its tendrils towards, and grasp, and
twine round Him, bow our wills to His commandment, and in everything obey
Him. The distance betweenheaven and earth does part us, but the distance
betweena thoughtless mind, an unrenewed heart, a rebellious will, and Him,
sets betweenHim and us a greatergulf, and we have to bridge that by

continual honest efforts to keepour wayward thoughts true to Him and near
Him, and to regulate our affections that they may not, like runaway stars,
carry us far from the path, and to bow our stubborn and self-regulating wills
beneath His supreme commandment, and so to make all things a means of
coming nearerthe Lord with whom is our true home.
Christian men, there are none of us so close to Him but that we may be
nearer, and the secretofour daily Christian life is all wrapped up in that one
word which is scarcely to be called a figure, ‘coming’ unto Him. That nearness
is what we are to make daily efforts after, and that nearness is capable of
indefinite increase. We know not how close to His heart we can lay our aching
heads. We know not how near to His fulness we may bring our emptiness. We
have never yet reachedthe point beyond which no closerunion is possible.
There has always been a film--and, alas!sometimes a gulf--between Him and
us, His professing servants. Let us see to it that the conscious distance
diminishes every day, and that we feel ourselves more and more constantly
near the Lord and intertwined with Him.
II. Those who come near Christ will become like Christ.
‘To Whom coming, as unto a living stone, ye also as living stones.’ Note the
verbal identity of the expressions with which Peterdescribes the Masterand
His servants. Christ is the Stone--thatis Peter’s interpretation of ‘on this rock
will I build My Church.’ There is a reference, too, no doubt, to the many Old
Testamentprophecies which are all gatheredup in that saying of our Lord’s.
Probably both Jesus and Peter had in mind Isaiah’s ‘stone of stumbling,’
which was also a ‘sure corner-stone, and a tried foundation.’ And words in the
context which I have not takenfor consideration, ‘disallowedindeedof men,
but chosenof Godand precious,’plainly rest upon the 118th Psalm, which
speaks of‘the stone which the builders rejected’becoming ‘the head of the
corner.’
But, says Peter, He is not only the foundation Stone, the corner Stone, but a
living Stone, and he does not only use that word to show us that he is
indulging in a metaphor, and that we are to think of a person and not of a
thing, but in the sense that Christ is eminently and emphatically the living
One, the Source of life.

But, when he turns to the disciples, he speaks to them in exactly the same
language. They, too, are ‘living stones,’because theycome to the ‘Stone’ that
is ‘living.’ Take awaythe metaphor, and what does this identity of description
come to? Just this, that if we draw nearto Jesus Christ, life from Him will
pass into our hearts and minds, which life will show itself in kindred fashion
to what it wore in Jesus Christ, and will shape us into the likeness ofHim
from whom we draw our life, because to Him we have come. I may remind
you that there is scarcelya single name by which the New Testamentcalls
Jesus Christ which Jesus Christ does not share with us His younger brethren.
By that Son we ‘receive the adoption of sons.’Is He the Light of the world?
We are lights of the world. And if you look at the words of my text, you will
see that the offices which are attributed to Christ in the New Testamentare
gatheredup in those which the Apostle here ascribes to Christ’s servants.
Jesus Christ in His manhood was the Temple of God. Jesus Christ in His
manhood was the Priestfor humanity. Jesus Christin His manhood was the
sacrifice for the world’s sins. And what does Peter sayhere? ‘Ye are built up a
spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices.’Youdraw
life from Jesus Christif you keepclose to Him, and that life makes you, in
derived and subordinate fashion, but in a very real and profound sense, what
Jesus Christ was in the world. The whole blessedness andsecretof the gifts
which our Lord comes to bestow upon men may be summed up in that one
thought, which is metaphorically and picturesquely setforth in the language
of my text, and which I put into plainer and more prosaic English when I say--
they that come near Christ become as Christ. As ‘living stones’they, too,
share in the life which flows from Him. TouchHim, and His quick Spirit
passes into our hearts. Restupon that foundation-stone and up from it, if I
may so say, there is drawn, by strange capillary attraction, all the graces and
powers of the Saviour’s own life. The building which is reared upon the
Foundation is cemented to the Foundation by the communication of the life
itself, and, coming to the living Rock, we, too, become alive.
Let us keepourselves nearto Him, for, disconnected, the wire cannotcarry
the current, and is only a bit of copper, with no virtue in it, no power. Attach
it once more to the battery and the mysterious energyflashes through it
immediately. ‘To Whom coming,’ because He lives, ‘ye shall live also.’
III. Lastly:

They who become like Christ because they are near Him, thereby grow
together.
‘To whom coming, as unto a living stone, ye also, as living stones, are built
up.’ That building up means not only the growthof individual graces in the
Christian character, the building up in eachsingle soul of more and more
perfect resemblance to the Saviour, but from the contextit rather refers to the
welding together, into a true and blessedunity, of all those that partake of
that common life. Now, it is very beautiful to remember, in this connection, to
whom this letter was written. The first words of it are: ‘To the strangers
scatteredabroadthroughout,’ etc. etc. All over Asia Minor, hundreds of miles
apart, here one there another little group, were these isolatedbelievers, the
scatteredstones ofa greatbuilding. But Petershows them the way to a true
unity, notwithstanding their separation. He says to them in effect:‘You up in
Bithynia, and you others awaydown there on the southern coast, thoughyou
never saw one another, though you are separatedby mountain ranges and
wearyleagues;though you, if you met one another, perhaps could not
understand what you eachwere saying, if you "come unto the living Stone, ye
as living stones are built up" into one.’ There is a greatunity into which all
they are gathered who, separatedby whateversurface distinctions, yet, deep
down at the bottom of their better lives, are united to Jesus Christ.
But there may be another lessonhere for us, and that is, that the true and only
secretof the prosperity and blessednessandgrowth of a so-calledChristian
congregationis the individual faithfulness of its members, and their personal
approximation of Jesus Christ. If we here, knit togetheras we are nominally
for Christian worship, and by faith in that dear Lord, are true to our
professionand our vocation, and keepourselves nearour Master, then we
shall be built up; and if we do not, we shall not.
So, dear friends, all comes to this: There is the Stone laid; it does not matter
how close we are lying to it, it will be nothing to us unless we are on it. And I
put it to eachof you. Are you built on the Foundation, and from the
Foundation do you derive a life which is daily bringing you nearer to Him,
and making you liker Him? All blessednessdepends, for time and for eternity,
on the answerto that question. Forremember that, since that living Stone is
laid, it is something to you. Either it is the Rock on which you build, or the

Stone againstwhich you stumble and are broken. No man, in a country
evangelisedlike England--I do not sayChristian, but evangelised--cansaythat
Jesus Christ has no relation to, or effectupon, him. And certainly no people
that listen to Christian preaching, and know Christian truth as fully and as
much as you do, can say it. He is the Foundation on which we can reara
noble, stable life, if we build upon Him. If He is not the Foundation on which I
build, He is the Stone on which I shall be broken.
BensonCommentary
1 Peter2:4. To whom coming — With desire and by faith; as unto a living
stone — Living from eternity; alive from the dead; and alive for evermore:
and a firm foundation, communicating spiritual life to those that come to him,
and are built upon him, making him the ground of their confidence and hope
for time and for eternity. The apostle alludes to Isaiah28:16, where the
formation of a Christian church, for the spiritual worship of God, is foretold
under the image of a temple, which God was to build on the Messiahas the
foundation-stone thereof. See the note there. There is a wonderful beauty and
energy in these expressions, whichdescribe Christ as a spiritual foundation,
solid, firm, durable; and believers as a spiritual building erecting thereon, in
preference to that temple which the Jews accountedtheir highest glory; and
St. Peter, speaking ofhim thus, shows he did not judge himself, but Christ, to
be the rock on which the church was built; disallowed — Αποδεδοκιμασμενον,
rejectedindeed of, or by, men — First and primarily by the Jews and their
rulers, as not answering their carnaland worldly expectations, norsuiting
their way of building; that is, not to be made use of for the carrying on and
promoting of their worldly projects and interests. By representing Christ as
being rejectedof men, the apostle intimated that he was the person spokenof
Psalm118:22;The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone
of the corner; a passagewhichour Lord himself, in his conversationwith the
chief priests and elders, referred to as a prophecy which they were about to
fulfil by rejecting him; but whose exaltation, notwithstanding all they could do
to prevent it, should assuredly take place. See on Matthew 21:42. But the
Jews, or, added to them, the Turks, heathen, and infidels, are not the only
people that have rejected, and do rejectChrist; but all Christians so called,
who live in knownsin on the one hand, or who expectto be savedby the merit
of their own works on the other, reject him; as do also all hypocrites,
formalists, lukewarm, indolent, worldly-minded professors, and all those
backsliders who, having begun in the Spirit end in the flesh, and draw back
unto perdition, instead of continuing to believe, love, and obey, to the saving of
their souls, Hebrews 10:38-39. But chosenofGod — From all eternity, to be

the foundation of his church; and precious — Of unspeakable dignity and
worth in himself, in the sight of God, and in the eyes of all true believers.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
2:1-10 Evil-speaking is a sign of malice and guile in the heart; and hinders our
profiting by the word of God. A new life needs suitable food. Infants desire
milk, and make the best endeavours for it which they are able to do; such
must be a Christian's desires after the word of God. Our Lord Jesus Christis
very merciful to us miserable sinners; and he has a fulness of grace. Buteven
the bestof God's servants, in this life, have only a taste of the consolationsof
God. Christ is called a Stone, to teachhis servants that he is their protection
and security, the foundation on which they are built. He is precious in the
excellence ofhis nature, the dignity of his office, and the glory of his services.
All true believers are a holy priesthood; sacred to God, serviceable to others,
endowedwith heavenly gifts and graces. Butthe most spiritual sacrificesof
the bestin prayer and praise are not acceptable,exceptthrough Jesus Christ.
Christ is the chief Corner-stone, that unites the whole number of believers
into one everlasting temple, and bears the weight of the whole fabric. Elected,
or chosen, for a foundation that is everlasting. Precious beyondcompare, by
all that can give worth. To be built on Christ means, to believe in him; but in
this many deceive themselves, they considernot what it is, nor the necessityof
it, to partake of the salvationhe has wrought. Though the frame of the world
were falling to pieces, that man who is built on this foundation may hearit
without fear. He shall not be confounded. The believing soul makes haste to
Christ, but it never finds cause to hastenfrom him. All true Christians are a
chosengeneration;they make one family, a people distinct from the world: of
another spirit, principle, and practice;which they could never be, if they were
not chosenin Christ to be such, and sanctifiedby his Spirit. Their first state is
a state of gross darkness, but they are calledout of darkness into a state of
joy, pleasure, and prosperity; that they should show forth the praises of the
Lord by their professionofhis truth, and their goodconduct. How vast their
obligations to Him who has made them his people, and has shown mercy to
them! To be without this mercy is a woful state, though a man have all
worldly enjoyments. And there is nothing that so kindly works repentance, as
right thoughts of the mercy and love of God. Let us not dare to abuse and
affront the free grace ofGod, if we mean to be saved by it; but let all who
would be found among those who obtain mercy, walk as his people.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
To whom coming - To the Lord Jesus, forso the word "Lord" is to be
understood in 1 Peter2:3. Compare the notes at Acts 1:24. The idea here is,

that they had come to him for salvation, while the greatmass of people
rejectedhim. Others "disallowed" him, and turned away from him, but they
had seenthat he was the one chosenor appointed of God, and had come to
him in order to be saved. Salvationis often represented as corning to Christ.
See Matthew 11:28.
As unto a living stone - The allusion in this passage is to Isaiah28:16, "Behold,
I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a
sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste." See the notes at that
passage. There may be also possibly an allusion to Psalm118:22, "The stone
which the builders disallowedis become the headstone of the corner." The
reference is to Christ as the foundation on which the church is reared. He
occupiedthe same place in regard to the church which a foundation-stone
does to the edifice that is reared upon it. Compare Matthew 7:24-25. See the
Romans 9:33 note, and Ephesians 2:20-22 notes. The phrase "living stone" is
howeverunusual, and is not found, I think, except in this place. There seems
to be an incongruity in it, in attributing life to a stone, yet the meaning is not
difficult to be understood. The purpose was not to speak ofa temple, like that
at Jerusalem, made up of gold and costlystones;but of a temple made up of
living materials - of redeemedpeople - in which God now resides. In speaking
of that, it was natural to refer to the foundation on which the whole rested,
and to speak of that as corresponding to the whole edifice. It was all a living
temple - a temple composedof living materials - from the foundation to the
top. Compare the expressionin John 4:10, "He would have given thee living
water;" that is, waterwhich would have imparted life to the soul. So Christ
imparts life to the whole spiritual temple that is reared on him as a
foundation.
Disallowedindeedof men - Rejectedby them, first by the Jews, in causing him
to be put to death; and then by all people when he is offeredto them as their
Saviour. See the notes at Isaiah 53:3. Psalm 118:22;"Which the builders
refused." Compare the Matthew 21:42 note; Acts 4:11 note.
But chosenof God - Selectedby him as the suitable foundation on which to
rear his church.
And precious - Valuable. The universe had nothing more valuable on which to
rear the spiritual temple.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
4. coming—drawing near (same Greek as here, Heb 10:22)by faith
continually; present tense:not having come once for all at conversion.

stone—Peter(that is, a stone, named so by Christ) desires that all similarly
should be living stones BUILT ON Christ, the true foundation-stone; compare
his speechin Ac 4:11. An undesigned coincidence and mark of genuineness.
The Spirit foreseeing the Romanist perversionof Mt 16:18 (compare Mt
16:16, "Sonof the Living God," which coincides with his language here, "the
LIVING stone"), prescientlymakes Peterhimself to refuse it. He herein
confirms Paul's teaching. Omit the as unto of English Version. Christ is
positively termed the "living stone";living, as having life in Himself from the
beginning, and as raised from the dead to live evermore (Re 1:18) after His
rejectionby men, and so the source of life to us. Like no earthly rock, He lives
and gives life. Compare 1Co 10:4, and the type, Ex 17:6; Nu 20:11.
disallowed—rejected, reprobated;referred to also by Christ Himself: also by
Paul; compare the kindred prophecies, Isa 8:14; Lu 2:34.
chosenof God—literally, "with (or 'in the presence and judgment of') God
elect," or, "chosenout" (1Pe 2:6). Many are alienated from the Gospel,
because it is not everywhere in favor, but is on the contrary rejectedby most
men. Peteranswers that, though rejectedby men, Christ is peculiarly the
stone of salvation honored by God, first so designatedby Jacobin his
deathbed prophecy.
Matthew Poole's Commentary
To whom; to which Christ.
Coming; by faith: q.d. In whom believing, John 6:35,44,45. The word is in the
present tense, the apostle describing here not their first conversionto Christ,
but their presentstate, that they, being in Christ, were daily coming to him in
the continued exercise oftheir faith.
As unto a living; not, only having life in himself, but enlivening those that by
faith adhere to him.
Stone; viz. a corner-stone, as 1 Peter2:6. Being about to set forth the church
as a spiritual building, he first mentions Christ as the foundation, and corner-
stone.
Disallowedindeedof men; rejected, not only by the unbelieving Jews and
their rulers formerly, but still by the unbelieving world.

Jesus was the one to whom we come

Jesus was the one to whom we come

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Jesus was the one to whom we come

Similar to Jesus was the one to whom we come (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Jesus was the one to whom we come