Jesus was the one we come to three ways

JESUS WAS THE ONE WE COME TO THREE WAYS
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 NO. 3509
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 1916 DELIVERED
BY C. H. SPURGEON AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,
NEWINGTONON LORD’S-DAY EVENING, JUNE 27, 1868
“To whom coming.” 1 Peter2:4
IN these three words you have, first of all, a blessedpersonmentioned, under
the pronoun “whom”—“Towhomcoming.” In the way of salvationwe come
alone to Jesus Christ. All comings to baptism, comings to confirmation,
comings 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, it is 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 of all the saints as coming to Jesus, coming to Him as

unto a living stone, and being built upon Him, and no other foundation can
any man lay than that which is laid, and if any man saythat 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, at other times by trusting or believing, 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, but it is a mental coming, a
spiritual coming, 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 “To whom having come,”
though I trust many of us have come, but the wayof salvationis not to come
to Christ and then forget it, but to continue coming, to be always coming. It is
the very spirit of the believer to be always relying upon Christ, as much after
a life of holiness as when he first commenced that life, as much when he has
been blessedwith much spiritual nearness of accessto God, and 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, upon Him always relying, to His precious blood always
looking. So I shall take the text, then, this evening thus—These three words
describe our first salvation, describe the life of the Christian, and then
describe his departure, 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
accuratelytoo— I. 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 necessaryyou could rise and give your “Yea, yea” 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
assuaged. Butthough it is so plain that he who runs may read, and a man

needs scarce anywit to comprehend the Gospel, yet we went hither and
thither, and searchedfor years before we discoveredthe simplicity
2 Coming to Christ Sermon #3509
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which is in Christ Jesus. Mostof 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 ere long the night of sorrow came in. We
had a sight of our own sinfulness, and what we had spun, I say, by day, we
unwound again quite as quickly by night. Well, there are some of you much
in the same way now. You are like a foolishbuilder who should build a wall,
and then should begin to knock down all the stones atonce. You build, and
then pull down. Or, like the gardenerwho, having put into the ground his
seeds and planted his flowers, is not satisfied with them, and thinks he will
have something else, and so tries again. Oh, the methods and the shifts 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 chapel with wonderful regularity, and think that that
will ease their conscience,and when they getno ease ofconsciencefrom that,
then they will try sacraments, andwhen no salvationcomes from them, then
there will be goodworks, Popishceremonies, andI 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 wrought. 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 each
hand 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 ground 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, but it 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 best way to get faith? What is
the bestway 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 cannot be
long about that, I need not write a long treatise on it, the best way I know of is
to eat.” And when people say, “What is the best wayto getfaith?” I say,
“Believe.”“Butwhat is the best way to believe?” Why, believe. I can tell you
nothing else. Some may say to you, “Prayfor faith.” Well, but how canyou
pray without faith? Or if they tell 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, when He went to heaven, bade us go into all the
world and preach the Gospelto every creature, and what was that Gospelto
be? His own words are, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,”
and we cannot sayanything clearerthan that! “Believe”—thatis, trust—
“and be baptized,” and these two things are put 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 which faith 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?” Thatis similar to a man who, being very black and
filthy, coming home from a coalmine or from a forge, says, seeing the
Sermon #3509 Coming to Christ 3
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bath before him, “How shall I make myself fit to be washed?” Youtell him at
once that there cannot be any fitness for washing exceptfilthiness, which is
the reverse of a fitness. So there can be no fitness for believing in Christ,
exceptsinfulness, 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 fitted to receive the garments which charity is giving to those who need
them; if you are a sinner, you are fitted for Christ, and Christ for you; if you
are guilty, you are fitted to be pardoned; if you are lost, you are fit to be
saved. This is all the fitness Christ requires, and castevery other thought of
fitness far hence, yea, castit to the winds. If you be 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 wanted. 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 lastthought 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 eternallife,” he thinks about nothing but his
coming. He will not think about eternallife, 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. “What
kind of coming is that,” says John Bunyan, “whichsaves 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, they are many years before they cantrust 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 cometh to me I will in no wise
castout.” You may have come in the most awkwardwayin 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, cast
yourself flat before His cross, withall your guilt upon you, castyourself, 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 coming, 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 cannot make
out that great difficulty 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 Havento 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 wonderedwhatever they could do there,
and when I was at Heligoland I noticedthat almost every 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 of Sharon—thatis 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
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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 Godconceals truth which it were better not to
reveal. Come to Jesus. If you must have the knots untied, try to untie them
after you getsaved, but now your first business is with Jesus, your first

business is coming unto Him, 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 comfortedfor
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 constantlydoing the same,
but until you lookedto Christ, you had not any peace. You searched, and
searched, and searched, 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 He never 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 stopaway. 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.” Nay, but into the bosomof 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 wanted in Christ. There is a piece of iron, and if it were to say, “Where
am I to getthe powerfrom to cling to the loadstone?” the loadstone would
say, “Let me getnear 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?” Ay,
but let Christ getnear us, and He finds us with all that. We do not come to
Christ to bring our repentance, but to get repentance. We do not come to Him
with a broken heart, but for a brokenheart. We do not so much even come to
Him with faith, as come to Him for faith. “True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings us nigh; Without money, Come to Jesus Christ, and
buy.”
This is the first way of salvation—simply trusting 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 up-borne. Oh! my hearer, have you done this? If
so, you are certainly a saved one. If you have not, oh! may grace enable you to
do it ere yet that setting sun has hidden himself beneath the horizon. Have you
known this before, that a simple trust in Christ will save you? This is the one
messageofthis inspired Volume. This is the Gospel according to Paul, the one
Gospelwhich we preachcontinually. Try it, and
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if it save you not, we will be bondsmen for God for you. But it must save you,
for Godis true and cannot fail, and He has declared, “He that believeth on
him is not condemned, but he that believeth 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 twenty years ago, and done with, but
he comes today and he will come tomorrow. He will come to Jesus Christ
afreshtonight before he goes to bed. We come to Jesus daily, for Christ is like
the welloutside the cottager’s house. The man lets down the bucket and gets
the cooling draught, but he goes againtomorrow, and he will have to go again
at night if he is to have a fresh supply. He must constantly go 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, they must

have fresh air into the lungs moment by moment. Nobody thinks that he can
be fed upon the factthat he did have a goodmeal six weeks ago, he has to eat
continually. So “the just shall live by faith.” We come to Jesus just as we came
at first, and we say to Him— “Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to Thy
cross I cling; Nakedcome to Thee for dress, Helpless, look to Thee 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 brethren. 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 wrought out perfect righteousness forus. We come,
also, to Jesus Christ, more closelythan we used to do. I hope, brethren and
sisters, you can saythat you are not at such a distance from Christ now as you
once were. We ought to be always getting nearer to 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 then they have their satellites, their rings, their moons, and their
belts to make up for that. Justso, they said, with some Christians. They get
worldly comforts—theirmoons and their belts— but they have not got much
of their Master, they have gotenough to save them, but oh! such little light.
But, said they, when you getto Mercury, there is a planet without moons.
Why, the sun is its moon, and therefore, what does it want 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 did come at first, not so much loving Christ, as venturing to
trust Him, thinking Him, perhaps, to be a hard Master, but now we know
Him to be the best of friends, the dearestof husbands. We come to His bosom,
and we lean our heads upon it. We come in our private devotion, we tell Him

all our troubles, we unburden our hearts, and get His love shed abroad in our
hearts in return, and we go away with a joy that makes our heart to leap
within 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
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rejoice in Him, having no confidence in the flesh. It is still coming, but it is
coming after a dearerfashion. Yet, mark you, it is coming still to the same
person, coming still as poor humble ones to Christ. I have often told you, my
dear brethren 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 wear a rag of their
own spinning, they must be clothed with Christ’s righteousness fromhead 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 righteousness of
Christ, and there is not a cherub before the throne that wears a vestment so
right royal as the poor sinner does when he wears the righteousness ofJesus
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, washin the precious fountain always, wear
His righteousness continually, and be glad in the Lord, and your gladness
need never fail while you simply and wholly lean upon Him. And now, not to
detain you longer, I come to the last point, upon which we will only say a word
or two. The text is— III. A VERY CORRECTDESCRIPTION OF OUR
DEPARTURE. “Towhomcoming.” 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
satiety about it, but it cannot satisfythe greatheart 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 him that overcomethwill I give to sit upon my throne.” Lord, Lord, we
would be well contentto sit at Your feet. ’Twere all the 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 foreverand 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 thou hast given me be with
me where I am, that they may behold my glory.” So that we are to be going to
Christ ere long to behold His glory, and what a sight that will be! Have you
ever thought of that too? What must it be to behold His glory? Some of my
brethren 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 myselfmore satisfied
with the idea that I shall behold His glory, the glory of the Crucified, for it
seems to me that no kind of heavenbut that comes up to the description of the
apostle when he says, “Eye hath not seen, nor hath earheard, neither hath 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 conceivedof, 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.”
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St. Augustine used to saythere 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, or seeing anything, if we might but see the King in His beauty. Why,
even the distant glimpse which we catchof Him through a glass or a telescope
darkly, ravishes the soul. Dr. Hawkerwas once waitedupon 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 of
your country.” “Thank you, I do not wish to go.” “But I have gota ticket for
you, and you must go.” “No,” he said, “thank you,” and after he had been
pressedhard he said, “You have pressedme till I am ashamed, and now I
must tell you—my eyes have seenthe King in His beauty, and the land which
is very far off, and I have not any taste now for all the pomp that this world
could possibly show.” And if such a distant sight of Jesus cando this, what
must it be to behold His glory with what the old Scotchdivines used to call, “a
face-to-faceview,” whenthe veil is taken down, when the clouds are blown
away, and you see Him face to face? Oh! long-expectedday begin, when we
shall be to Him coming to dwell with Him. Once more only. Recollectwe shall
come to Christ not only to behold His glory, but to share in it. We shall be like
Him, for we shall see Him as He is. WhateverChrist shall be, His people shall
be, in happiness, riches, and 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 eternal triumph she will have her half, for Christ is no
miser to His imperial spouse, but she whom He chose before the world began,
and bought with His blood, and wrapped in His righteousness, andespoused
to Himself forever, shall be a full partakerof all the gifts that He possesses
world without end. And this shall be, and this shall be, and this shall be
forever, forever you shall be with Christ, forever coming to Him. When the
miser’s wealthhas melted, when the honors of the conquerorhave been blown
awayor consumed like 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 angelshall 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 oceanshallbe licked up 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 capacity of 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
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 soul anywhere? 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.)
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 scarcelyto 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 nearerto 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, which describe 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; sacredto 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 Peter 2:3. 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.
But chosenof God; either chosento be the foundation of the building, and
then it is the same as foreordained, 1 Peter1:20; or chosenis the same as
choice, excellent.
And precious:a different expressionof the same thing. Here seems to be an
allusion to those stones which men count precious, and have in greatesteem;
and Christ’s being precious in the sight of God, is setin oppositionto his being
disallowedof men, to intimate, that their unbelief, and rejecting Christ, doth
not make him less valuable in himself, when his Fatherso much honours him.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
To whom coming, as unto a living stone,.... Christhere, as often elsewhere,is
compared to a "stone";and Peter, by the use of this metaphor, shows that he
is not the rock, but Christ is the rock on which the church is built, and he is

the foundation stone on which every believer is laid; and it is chiefly with
respectto the usefulness of a stone in building, that Christ is compared to one,
who is the foundation and cornerstone, as wellas for strength and duration;
and he is called a "living" one, because he has life in himself, as God, as
Mediator, and as man; and communicates life to others, as natural life to all
creatures, and spiritual and eternallife to his people, whose greatprivilege it
is to come to him: and by coming to him is meant believing in him; and it does
not designthe first actof faith on Christ, or a soul's first coming to Christ, but
an after and continued exercise offaith on him; and it supposes Christ to be
come at, notwithstanding he is in heaven, and saints on earth, for their faith
and hope can enter into, and reachhim within the vail, and notwithstanding
their many transgressionsand backslidings;it supposes life in them, or they
could not come;and a sense oftheir need of him, of his righteousness to justify
them, of his blood for pardoning and cleansing, of his fulness to supply their
want of food, rest, peace, comfort, and salvationin him; and a persuasionof
his ability and willingness to relieve them: and they are encouragedto come to
him under the above considerations, as a stone, a foundation stone;believing
that he is laid as a foundation, and that he is the only foundation, and
therefore they lay the whole stress oftheir salvation, and build all their hopes
of happiness on him; and as a living stone, deriving grace, life, and strength
from him; exercising faith on him for all the mercies, blessings, and comforts
of a spiritual life, and looking to his mercy for eternal life,
Disallowedindeedof men; by the Jewishbuilders, high priests, Scribes, and
Pharisees,and the body and bulk of that nation; who rejectedhim as the
Messiah, andstone of Israel, refused him as a foundation stone, and left him
out of the building; and laid another foundation, even their own works of
righteousness, onwhich sandy foundation they built themselves, and directed
others to do so likewise;and set him, at nought, as a living stone, would not
come to him for life, but soughtit in the law, the killing letter, and among
their dead works;but though Christ was thus disallowedand disesteemedof
by men, yet was he highly valued and esteemedby God:
but chosenof God, and precious;his human nature was "chosen"from
among, and above all other individuals of mankind; to be united to the Sonof
God; as God-man and Mediator, he was chosento that high office, to be the

head of the church, and the Saviour of the body; to be the foundation in the
spiritual building, and to be the author and giver of spiritual and eternal life
to as many as were given him. Moreover, this phrase denotes the superior
excellencyof Christ to angels and men in the accountof God; being the
brightness of his glory, the express image of his person, the Sonof his love, in
whom he was always wellpleased, and in whom he took infinite delight,
consideredboth as his Son, and the surety of his people;and to whom he was
precious, and by him highly honoured, made higher than the kings of the
earth, than the angels in heaven, than the heavens themselves, being setdown
at God's right hand, and a name given him above every name in this world, or
that to come; and who is precious to the saints too, more so than rubies, or
any precious stones, orany thing or creature whatever;his personis precious,
and so are his name, his blood, his righteousness, his truths, his ordinances,
and his people.
Geneva Study Bible
{4} To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowedindeed of men, but
chosenof God, and precious,
(4) He advances the same exhortation, but uses another kind of borrowed
speech, alluding to the temple. Therefore he says, that the company of the
faithful is as a certain holy and spiritual building, built of the living stones, the
foundation of which is Christ, as a living stone sustaining all that are joined to
him with his living powerand knitting them togetherwith himself, although
this greattreasure is neglectedby men.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary
1 Peter2:4-5. The structure of this new exhortation is similar to that of the
previous sentence, to which it belongs in thought, externally (ὅν) as internally,
inasmuch as the imperative (οἰκοδομεῖσθε)is preceded by a participle
(προσερχόμενοι), and an adjunct introduced by ὡς, defining the subject more
nearly.

Starting from ὁ κύριος the apostle says:πρὸς ὃν προσερχόμενοι]προσέρχεσθαι
(elsewhere in the N. T. always construedwith the dative) denotes the going
spiritually to the Lord; the Christian does indeed already live in union with
Christ, but this does not exclude the necessityof becoming united ever more
completely with Him (thus also Hofmann).[114]Luther incorrectly: “to whom
ye have come,” as if it were the part. praet.; Hornejus wellputs it: non actum
inchoatum, sed continuatum designat.
λίθον ζῶντα] in apposition to ὅν; it is not necessaryto supply ὡς (Wolf). What
follows shows that the apostle had in his mind the stone mentioned in the
prophecies, Psalm118:22 and Isaiah 28:16 (cf. Matthew 21:42; Acts 4:11;
Romans 9:33). The want of the article points to the fact that the apostle was
more concernedto lay stress onthe attribute expressedin λίθος ζῶν, than to
draw attention to the fact that in these passages ofthe O. T. Christ is the
promised λίθος. In using this term, Peterhad alreadyin view the subsequent
οἰκοδομεῖσθε. The church is the temple of God, the individual Christians are
the stones from which it is built; but Christ is the foundation-stone on which it
rests. In order that the church may become ever more completed as a temple,
it is necessarythat the Christians should unite themselves ever more closely
with Christ. The apostle enlarges onthis thought with reference to those
predictions.
The explanatory adjective is added, as in 1 Peter2:2, to the figurative λίθον;
and by it, on the one hand, the expressionis marked as figurative, ne quis
tropum nesciret(Bullinger); and, on the other, the nature peculiar to this
stone is indicated. ζῶντα is to be taken here as in John 6:51 and similar
passages. Flacius correctly:dicitur Christus lapis vivus, non tamen passive,
quod in semet vitam habeat, sed etiam active, quia nos mortuos vivificat.[115]

ὑπὸ ἀνθρώπων μὲν ἀποδεδοκιμασμένον]a nearer definition, according to
Psalm118:22. What is there said speciallyof the builders, is here applied
generallyto mankind, in order that a perfect antithesis may be obtained to the
παρὰ δὲ Θεῷ. The want of the article τῶν does not warrant a toning down of
the interpretation to mean “by men,” i.e. by some or by many men
(Hofmann). The thought is generaland comprehensive;the article is wanting
in order to emphasize the characterof those by whom Christ is rejected, as
compared with God (Schott). Believers are here regarded“as an exception”
(Steiger).
παρὰ δὲ Θεῷ ἐκλεκτὸν, ἔντιμον]after Isaiah 28:16;Peterhas, however,
selectedtwo attributes only; “that is to say, he passes overthe characteristics
of the stone itself, and its relation to the building, giving prominence only to
its value in the sight of God” (Steiger). Both adjects. form the antithesis to
ἀποδεδοκ.;ἐκλεκτός is neither equal to eximius (Hemming) nor to
προεγνωσμένος (Steiger); but: “elect,” i.e. chosenas the objectof love; cf. 1
Timothy 5:21.
παρὰ Θεῷ] not: a Deo (Vulg.), but: ἐνώπιον τοῦ Θεοῦ, coramDeo, Deo judice,
“with God.” Worthy of note is the “antagonismbetweenthe human judgment
and the divine” (Wiesinger), the former given effectto in the crucifixion, the
latter in the glorificationof Christ.—1 Peter2:5. καὶ αὐτοὶ ὡς λίθοι ζῶντες
οἰκοδομεῖσθε]καὶ αὐτοί places the Christians side by side with Christ
(Wiesingerinappropriately takes αὐτοί as also applying to the verb οἰκοδομ.).
As He is a living stone, so are they also living stones, i.e. through Him. The
explanation: cum lapidibus comparantur homines, qui, quoniam vivant, vivi
lapides nominantur (Carpzov, Morus), is inadequate. Further, ὡς λίθοι
ζῶντες states the qualities which the readers alreadypossessed, notthose
which they were to obtain only through the οἰκοδομεῖσθαι (Schott);that unto
which they should be built is stated in what follows.

οἰκοδομεῖσθε is, according to the structure of the sentence, notindicative
(Hornejus, Bengel, Gerhard, etc.; more recently, Wiesinger, Weiss, Hofmann),
but imperative (Beza, Aretius, Hottinger, Steiger, de Wette-Brückner,
Luthardt, Schott, etc.). The objection, that the verses following are
declarative, may be quite as well used for the imperative force of that which
precedes them.[116]If 1 Peter2:4-5 serve as the basis of the foregoing
exhortation, this turn of the thought would also be expressed. Several
interpreters (as Luther and Steiger)incorrectly regardthe verbal form as
middle; it is passive:“be ye built up,” i.e. “let yourself be built up,” i.e. by
Christ, as the foregoing πρὸς ὃν προσερχόμενοι shows. Corresponding with
the reading ἘΠΟΙΚΟΔΟΜΕῖΣΘΕ super illum, i.e. Christum, is generally
understood; an unnecessarysupplement; the thought is: that (not: on which)
the Christians should let themselves be built up, to that, namely, which the
following words state.
οἶκος πνευματικός εἰς ἱεράτευμα ἅγιον]In the Rec. without εἰς the two
conceptions are co-ordinate, both stating the end of the ΟἸΚΟΔΟΜΕῖΣΘΑΙ:
“to the spiritual house, to the holy priesthood;” but if the reading οἰκ. πν. εἰς
ἱεράτ. ἅγ. be adopted, then “ἹΕΡΆΤ. ἍΓ. is the further result of the being
built up to the spiritual house” (Brückner). Hofmann holds that ΟἾΚΟς ΠΝ.
is in apposition to the subject containedin ΟἸΚΟΔΟΜΕῖΣΘΕ, andthat ΕἸς
ἹΕΡΆΤΕΥΜΑἍΓ. alone is directly dependent on ΟἸΚΟΔΟΜΕῖΣΘΕ;the
former view is, however, more expressive, inasmuch as it prominently shows
that the Christians should be built up to a spiritual house, ΟἾΚΟς ΠΝ.
contains the expressionof the passive, ἹΕΡΆΤ. ἍΓ., on the other hand, that of
the active relation of the church to God(Wiesinger, Schott, Brückner). The
dissimilarity of the two ideas seems to be opposedto the reading ΕἸς, since an
ΟἾΚΟς cannot be transformed into a ἹΕΡΆΤΕΥΜΑ; but this difficulty
disappears if it be consideredthat the house here spokenof is built of living
stones. It is clearly not the case that εἰς serves only to facilitate an otherwise
abrupt transition to a new idea (de Wette, Wiesinger).

οἶκος means, in the first instance, “house,” andnot “temple;” nor does the
attribute ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙΚΌς mark it as a temple. We must either hold by the
conception“house” (Luthardt, Hofmann),[117] or assume that by the house
Peterthought of the temple. The latter view deserves the preference on
accountof the close connectionwith what follows;comp. the passages1
Corinthians 3:16-17;2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Peter 4:17.
ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙΚΌς is the house raised from “living stones,”in contradistinction
to the temple built from dead ones, inasmuch as their life is rootedin the
Spirit of God, and bears His nature on it.[118]
ἱεράτευμα is here not the “office of priest” (2Ma 2:17), but the “priesthood”
(comp. Gerhard: coetus s. collegiumsacerdotum);comp. 1 Peter 2:9; Exodus
19:6; “not instead of ἱερεῖς ἅγιοι, but including the essentialidea of a
community” (de Wette). It has unjustly been maintained that if the reading
ΕἸς be adopted, ἹΕΡΆΤΕΥΜΑmust be understood of the priestly office.
ἍΓΙΟΝ subjoined to ἹΕΡΆΤΕΥΜΑdoes not mark a characteristic ofthe
ἹΕΡΆΤΕΥΜΑof the New as distinguishing it from that of the Old Testament,
but one which belongs essentiallyto the ἹΕΡΆΤΕΥΜΑ(of course “as
ordained by God,” Hofmann) as such. Here, too, there lies in the connectionof
thought a specialemphasis on ἍΓΙΟΝ, inasmuch as without sanctificationthe
priestly calling cannot be truly fulfilled.
ἈΝΕΝΈΓΚΑΙ ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙΚᾺς ΘΥΣΊΑς] is closelyconjoinedboth in form
(see Winer, p. 298 f. [E.T. 399f.])and purport with what precedes, pointing
out as it does the function of the ἹΕΡΆΤΕΥΜΑ. This consists, as under the
Old Covenant, in offering sacrifice. The word ἈΝΑΦΈΡΕΙΝ, which is never
used by Paul, has not indeed in the classics, but in the LXX., in the Epistle to
the Hebrews, and in the Epistle of James, the meaning “to sacrifice,” strictly
speaking “to bring the offering to the altar.”

The θυσίαι which the N. T. priesthood, i.e. the Christian church in all its
members, has to offer are called πνευματικαί, because theyhave their origin
in the ΠΝΕῦΜΑ, and bear on them its nature and essence. Calvinsays in what
they consist:inter hostias spirituales primum locum obtinet generalis nostri
oblatio, neque enim offerre quicquam possumus Deo, donec illi nos ipsos in
sacrificium obtulerimus, quod fit nostri abnegatione;sequuntur postea preces
et gratiarum actiones, eleemosynaeetomnia pietatis exercitia. Cf. with this
Romans 12:1; Hebrews 13:15-16.
ΕὐΠΡΟΣΔΈΚΤΟΥς Τῷ ΘΕῷ]ΕὐΠΡΌΣΔΕΚΤΟς (Romans 15:16), equivalent
to ΕὐΆΡΕΣΤΟς (Romans 12:1; Romans 14:18;Php 4:18, and other passages).
ΔΙᾺ ἸΗΣΟῦ ΧΡΙΣΤΟῦ]belongs not to ΟἸΚΟΔΟΜΕῖΣΘΕ (Beda), but either
to ΕὐΠΡΟΣΔ. Τ. ΘΕῷ (Luther: per Christum fit, ut et mea opera a Deo
aestimentur, quae alias non culmo digna haberet; Bengel, Steiger, Wiesinger,
Hofmann, etc.), or to ἈΝΕΝΈΓΚΑΙ(Grotius, Aretius, de Wette, Weiss,
etc.).[119]No doubt Hebrews 13:15 might be appealedto in support of the
latter construction; but in favour of the former are—(1)That the
ἈΝΕΝΈΓΚΑΙ as a priestly function stands in such close connectionwith
ἹΕΡΆΤΕΥΜΑἍΓ., that it seems out of place to suppose a medium (ΔΙᾺ ἸΗΣ.
ΧΡ.) in addition; and (2) With ἈΝΕΝΈΓΚΑΙ ΠΝΕΥΜ. ΘΥΣΊΑς the idea is
substantially completed, ΕὐΠΡΟΣΔ. being a mere adjunct, to which therefore
ΔΙᾺ Ἰ. ΧΡ. also belongs.
[114]The single passage, 1Ma 2:16, by no means proves that προσέρχεσθαι
πρός has in itself a stronger force than προσέρχ. cum dat. (as against
Hofmann). According to Schott, by προσέρχ. is meant: “not the individual
Christian’s deepening experience ofcommunity of life with Christ, but only
the conduct of the believer, by which, as a member of the church, he gives
himself up to the Lord as present in His church, in factto the church itself!”

[115]De Wette (as opposedto Clericus and Steiger)is right in refusing to see
here any reference to the conceptionof the saxum vivum as opposedto broken
stones (Virg. Aen. i. 171;Ovid. Metam. xiv. 741). Inappropriate is Schott’s
opinion: “that ζῶν indicates that by the self-unfolding(!) of His divinely
human life, Christ causes the church to grow up from Himself the foundation
stone.” Hofmann would erroneouslyexclude the secondofthe above-
mentioned ideas from the λίθον ζῶντα, although it is clearly indicated by the
very fact that through connectionwith the stone Christians themselves
become living stones.
[116]The structure of the clause is in favour of the imperative, inasmuch as it
is thus brought into conformity with the imperative preceding. When
Hofmann asserts that the sentence must necessarilybe indicative in form,
“because the words subjoined to χρηστὸς ὁ κύριος must state that to which the
goodness ofChrist brings them,” he does so without reason, for the clause
may also state that to which they should allow the goodness ofChrist to lead
them.
[117]Luthardt: “οἶκος is not equal to ναός; nor in the context is a temple
alluded to, for the emphasis lies on πνευματικός. οἶκοςis chosenbecause of
οἰκοδομεῖσθε:be ye built as a spiritual house! To this is joined: to an holy
priesthood.”
[118]Schott finds the antithesis therein, that in the O. T. temple “the
indwelling of God was confined to the Holy of Holies, and visible to the eye”
(?); whilst, on the contrary, in the Christian church there is “a real and direct
indwelling of God.”
[119]Brückner and Schott think it is correctto connectδιὰ Ἰ. Χρ. not with
ἀνενέγκαι only, but with the entire thought; but it is self-understoodthat in

the first combination, not the mere ἀναφέρειν, but the ἀναφέρειν πνευματικὰς
θυσίας κ.τ.λ., must be consideredas effectedby Christ.
REMARK.
In this description of the Christians’ calling, the apostle’s first object is not to
state the difference betweenthe church of the Old and that of the New
Covenant, but to show distinctly that in the latter there is and should have
been fulfilled what had aforetime indeed been promised to the former, but
had appearedin her only in a typical and unsatisfactoryway. The points of
difference are distinctly set forth. Israelhad an house of God—the Christian
church is calledto be itself that house of God. That house was built of
inanimate stones, this of living stones;it is a spiritual house. Israelwas to be
an holy priesthood, but it was so only in the particular priesthood introduced
into the church; the Christian church is calledto be a ἱεράτευμα ἅγιονin this
sense, that eachindividual in it is calledupon to perform the office of priest.
The sacrificeswhich the priests in Israelhad to offer were beasts and the like;
those of the Christians are, on the other hand, spiritual sacrifices,through
Christ well-pleasing to God.
The idea of a universal priesthood, here expressed, is opposednot only to the
catholic doctrine of a particular priesthood, but to all teaching with regardto
the office of the administration of word and sacramentwhich in any way
ascribes to its possessors animportance in the church, resting on divine
mandate, and necessaryfor the communication of salvation (i.e. priestly
importance).
Expositor's Greek Testament
1 Peter2:4-10. Passagesofscripture proving that Christ is called stone are
first utilised, then quoted, and finally expounded. The transition from milk to
the stone may be explained by the prophecy the hills shall flow with milk (Joel

3:18), as the stone becomes a mountain according to Daniel 3:21 f.; or by the
legend to which St. Paul refers (1 Corinthians 10:4); compare also ποτίσαι of
Isaiah43:20, which is used in 1 Peter2:9. This collectionoftexts can be traced
back through Romans 9:32 f. to its origin in the saying of Mark 12:10 f.;
Cyprian (Test. 1 Peter2:16 f.) gives a still richer form.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
4. To whom coming, as unto a living stone]The whole imagery changes, like a
dissolving view, and in the place of the growthof babes nourished with
spiritual milk, we have that of a building in which eachdisciple of Christ is as
a “living stone” spontaneouslytaking its right place in the building that rests
on Christ as the chief corner-stone. The new imagery is connectedin St
Peter’s mind with its use in Psalm118:22 and Isaiah28:16, but it is not
without significance to note that we have the same sequence of the two
metaphors in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2; 1 Corinthians 3:10-11. It may be noted also
that the Greek is bolder in its use of the image than the English, and has no
particle of comparison, to whom coming, even to a living stone. The term
“living” is used in its fullest sense, presenting the paradox of connecting the
noun with the adjective which seems most remote from it. The lowersense of
the word in which Latin writers applied the term saxum vivum to rocks in
their natural form as distinct from those that had been hewn and shaped, is
hardly admissible here.
disallowedindeed of men] The verb is the same as the “rejected” ofMatthew
21:42. We cannotforget that the thoughts on which St Peternow enters had
their starting-point in the citationof the Psalm by our Lord on that occasion.
In the substitution of the wide term “men” for the “builders” of the Psalm, we
may trace the feeling that it was not the rulers of the Jews only, nor even the
Jews only as a nation, but mankind at large, by whom the “headof the
corner” had been rejected. Here again we see in the Epistle the reproduction
of the Apostle’s earlier teaching (Acts 4:11).

but chosenof God, and precious]More accurately, but with God (i.e. in God’s
sight) chosen, precious (or, held in honour). The two words emphasize the
contrastbetweenman’s rejection and God’s acceptance. Bothare takenfrom
the LXX. of Isaiah28:16.
Bengel's Gnomen
1 Peter2:4. Ὅν, whom) Apposition: whom, that is, the Lord, the Stone.—
προσερχόμενοι, approaching)of your own accord, through faith.—λίθον,
stone)In what manner He is regarded both by believers and unbelievers, is
declared, 1 Peter2:6-7. The name given to Peterby the Lord remained fixed
in his mind: hence he alludes to it in various ways, not only under the name of
Stone, Acts 4:11, but also under the repeatedmention of firmness
[stedfastness,1 Peter5:9].—ζῶντα, living) living from the beginning, 1 John
1:1, and raisedfrom the dead, Revelation1:18, after that He had been
rejectedby men, both Jews and Gentiles.—ἀποδεδοκιμασμένον, disallowed)
especiallybefore His death: 1 Peter2:7, note.—ἐκλεκτὸν, elect)1 Peter2:6.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 4. - To whom coming as unto a living stone. Omit the words, "as unto,"
which are not in the Greek, and weakenthe sense. The participle is present;
the Christian must be ever coming to Christ, riot only once for all, but always,
every day. The ', living Stone" is Christ; the "Lord" of Psalm 34:8 is Jehovah.
St. Peterpasses from the figure of milk to that of a chief cornerstone. So St.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3, after saying that he had fed his Corinthian converts
"with milk, and not with meat," passes first to the figure of laborers on the
land, and then to that of builders upon the one foundation "which is Jesus
Christ." This, like so many other coincidences, indicates St. Peter's knowledge
of St. Paul's Epistles. St. Petermay have been thinking of his own name, the
name which Christ gave him when Andrew brought him to the Lord; though
the Greek wordhere is not πέτρα or πέτρος, but λίθος ( νοτ the solid native
rock on which the temple is built, nor a piece of rock, an unhewn stone, but a
stone shaped and wrought, chosenfor a chief corner-stone. Butthe apostle
does not mention himself; he omits all reference to his ownposition in the
spiritual building; he wishes to direct his readers only to Christ. He is plainly

referring to the Lord's own words in Matthew 21:42, where Christ applies to
himself the language of Psalm118, He described himself as a Stone;St. Peter
adds the epithet "living" (λίθον ζῶντα). The figure of a stone is inadequate, all
figures are inadequate, to representheavenly mysteries. This stone is not, like
the stones ofearth, an inert mass;it is living, full of life; nay, it gives life, as
well as strength and coherence,to the stones which are built upon it: for the
Lord hath life in himself - he is risen from the dead, and is alive for evermore.
Disallowedindeedof men. St. Peterslightly varies the quotation, and
attributes to men in generalthe rejectionascribedin the psalm and in the
Gospelto the "builders." "He was despisedand rejectedof men." In his
speechbefore the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:11), he had directly applied the prophecy
to the chief priests. But chosenof God, and precious;rather, as the Revised
Version, with Godelect, precious, or perhaps better, honored; a reference to
Isaiah28:16. He was rejectedof the builders, but chosenof God; despisedof
men, but with God held in honor. The adjective is not the same as that
rendered "precious" in 1 Peter 1:19: τίμος there marks the preciousnessof
the blood of Christ in itself; ἔντιμος here, the honor with which God "hath
highly exalted him."
Vincent's Word Studies
Coming (προσερχόμενοι)
Indicating a close (πρός)and an habitual (present participle) approach and an
intimate association.
A living stone (λίθον ζῶντα)
Omit as unto. So Rev. The words are in apposition with whom (Christ).
Compare Peter's use of the same word, stone, in Acts 4:11, and Matthew
21:42. It is not the word which Christ uses as a personalname for Peter
(Πέτρος); so that it is not necessaryto infer that Peterwas thinking of his own
new name.
Disallowed(ἀποδεδοκιμασμένον)
Rev., rejected. See on the simple verb, 1 Peter1:7. The word indicates
rejectionafter trial.

Of God (παρὰ Θεῷ)
Of in the A. V. is equivalent to by; but πατά has a strongersense, implying the
absolute power of decisive choice which is with God. Render, as Rev., with
God; i.e., God being judge; and compare Matthew 19:26; Romans 2:11.
Precious (ἔντιμον)
At 1 Peter 1:19 (precious blood) another word is used (τίμιος), denoting
essentialpreciousness.The word here indicates the preciousnessas recognized
or held in honor.
END OF BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
BRUCE HURT MD
1 Peter2:4 And coming (PMPMPN)to Him as to a living (PAPMSA) stone
which has been rejected(RPPMSA)by men, but is choice and precious in the
sight of God (NASB: Lockman)
Greek:pros on proserchomenoi, (PMPMPN)lithon zonta, (PAPMSA) hupo
anthropon men apodedokimasmenon(RPPMSA)para de theo eklekton
entimon, (NASB: Lockman)
ESV As you come to him, a living stone rejectedby men but in the sight of
God chosenand precious,
KJV To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowedindeed of men, but
chosenof God, and precious,

NET So as you come to him, a living stone rejectedby men but chosenand
priceless in God's sight,
NLT You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone ofGod's
temple. He was rejectedby people, but he was chosenby God for greathonor.
Phillips: To change the metaphor, you come to him, as living stones to the
immensely valuable living stone (which men rejectedbut God chose), to be
built up into a spiritual House of God, in which you, like holy priests, can
offer those spiritual sacrifices whichare acceptable to Godby Jesus Christ.
(Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest: towardwhom we are constantly drawing near, himself in charactera
Living Stone, indeed by men repudiated after they had testedHim for the
purpose of approving Him, in which investigation they found Him to be that
which did not meet their specifications,but in the sight of God a chosen-out
One and highly honored and precious.
Young's Literal: to whom coming -- a living stone -- by men, indeed, having
been disapproved of, but with God choice, precious,
AND COMING TO (toward, facing) HIM AS TO A LIVING STONE:pros on
proserchomenoi(PMPMPN)lithon zonta (PAPMSA):
Isa 55:3; Jer3:22; Mt 11:28;Jn 5:40; 6:37) (Living Stone - Jn 5:26; 6:57;
11:25,26;14:6,19;Ro 5:10; Col 3:4
Isa 28:16;Da 2:34,45;Zech 3:9; 4:7
1 Peter2 Resources - Multiple sermons and commentaries
RelatedResource:Christ the Stone
Spurgeoncomments that...
The Christian life is begun, continued, and perfectedaltogetherin connection
with the Lord Jesus Christ....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." Here is a

complete description of the Christian life. It is a continuous "coming" to
Jesus.
We should be always coming to Christ; we have come to Him, and we-are
coming to Him, and we will keepon coming to Him
Sinking down, settling, resting on that stone,-always pressing closelyupon
Christ: “To Whom coming, as unto a living Stone"
Christ always was disallowedofmen, and He always will be, until the great
consummation of all things. Some disown Him in one way, some in another.
Some boldly blaspheme Him with something like honesty; others pretend to
be His ministers, yet all the while are undermining the Gospelwhich He lived
and died to preach. It matters little that Christ is “disallowedindeedof men,”
for He is “chosenofGod, and precious.” (1 Peter2 Commentary)
Now to answerthe 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.
What is the best way to come afterwards? The answeris—Come just as you
used to come. The text does not say that 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. (Biblical
Illustrator)
In another place Spurgeon wrote on "coming to Him" - Everywhere
throughout Scripture the connectionbetweenthe saints and their Head is
perpetually mentioned. "In Christ" is the very symbol of New Testament
writers. Whatever choice and goodthings are mentioned concerning the
saints, their privileges and honors, we are always reminded that they are only
enjoyed in connectionwith the Lord Jesus, according as the Fatherhas
blessedus in Him and made us to be acceptedin the Beloved. Coming unto
Him as a foundation we become a temple, coming to Him as the Holy One of
Israelwe become a holy priesthood, and resting in His sacrifice we also offer
spiritual sacrifices.Coming close to Him—for such is the force of the word
(proserchomai)—coming closerand closer, we grow up in all things into Him
and become perfectin Christ Jesus. The way to be coming to Christ as long as
ever you live is to lean more on Christ, press more heavily on Christ, and
depend more upon Christ than everyou did. In this way, you know, some
stones seem, by long abiding and pressing, to cleave to one another, and unite
togethertill they appear to be no longer distinct, but one mass. Have you not
often noticed in an old Roman wall that you cannot distinguish the mortar
from the stone? You cannot tell where the stones were joined; they have
grown to be one piece. And blessedis that Christian who, like a living stone,
has continued so to come to the foundation till Christ and he have become one,
as it were—indeed, one in consciousfact, so that nothing can divide them.
Thus we continue still to come to Jesus, and draw nearerto Him; nearerand
yet nearerstill, built up into Him, perfectly joined in one spirit. Then, only
then, shall Christian life be perfected. I remember seeing a somewhatfamous
portrait of our Lord in which the artist never lifted his pencil from the paper
from beginning to end, but drew the whole of it with one continuous series of

circles. So here I may say the whole Christian life is drawn in one line—
coming unto Christ. “To whom you are drawing near.”
Coming (4334)(proserchomaifrom prós = facing + érchomai = come)means
literally to come facing towardand so to approachor come near. To come to
visit or associate with. It describes the approachto or entry into a deity’s
presence. Proserchomaiconveys notjust drawing close to Christ for salvation,
but drawing near to Christ in intimate, abiding, personalfellowship. The idea
in this context is movement of the entire inner personof the believer into the
experience of intimate and ongoing communion with Jesus Christ.
In the Septuagint (LXX) proserchomaiwas the verb used to describe the
approachof the priests to Jehovahfor worship and to perform of their
priestly (Levitical) functions. But under the New covenant, all seven uses of
proserchomairefer to believers possessing the privilege of accessto God the
Father through Christ the GreatHigh Priest.
To (4314)(pros) means facing or towardand with the verb in the present
tense pictures a habitual or continual drawing near to Christ, and thus
describes an intimate associationwith Jesus the Living Stone.
If we are going to be a spiritual temple for God's presence, andif we are going
to be a holy priesthood and if we are going to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God, then we must day by day, hour by hour come to Christ. It
is by coming to Christ that believers enter the realm of spiritual privilege.
The Savior's invitation has always been to come to Him...
Come to Me, all who are wearyand heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
"Take Myyoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in
heart; and YOU SHALL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. "For My yoke is
easy, and My load is light." (Mt 11:28-30-note)
Christ Alone is the the Stone in Whom all spiritual blessings abound as Paul
writes in a beatitude to God...

Blessedbe the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessedus
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (See note
Ephesians 1:3)
A living stone - A stone that gives life (see Col 3:4-note) and sustenance, Christ
is the fulfillment of the rock smitten in the wilderness which brought life-
sustaining waterto God's people (Ex 17:6; Nu 20:8; 1Cor10:4).
Wuest notes that...
The article is not used with the expression(living stone), showing that
emphasis is placed upon character or quality (the living quality and divine
characterof Jesus Christ). He is in charactera Living Stone.
Living (2198)(zao)is the verb describing natural physical life and thus having
and exhibiting life, the quality that distinguishes a vital and functional being
from one that is dead. Presenttense means continuously living - Christ lives
forever as the EternalGod. And as the living God, He is the Source of life to
all who place their faith in His perfect, once for all, substitutionary sacrifice...
Blessedbe the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His
greatmercy has causedus to be born againto a living hope through the
resurrectionof Jesus Christ from the dead (See 1Pe 1:3-note - 1 Timothy 1:1
teaches that Christ is our Hope, our Living Hope.)
for you have been born again not of seedwhich is perishable but
imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God. (1Pe 1:23-
note - John 1:1 teaches that Christ is the Living Word of God).
Jesus as the Living One and the Source of life declared...
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also
gives life to whom He wishes. (John5:21)
"I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this
bread, he shall live forever; and the bread also which I shall give for the life of
the world is My flesh."

The Jews therefore beganto argue with one another, saying, "How can this
man give us His flesh to eat?"
Jesus therefore saidto them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eatthe
flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He
who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him
up on the last day. (John 6:51-54)
Paul contrasting the first Adam by whom sin and death entered with the last
Adam, Christ, through Whom life is made available to all who would come to
Him...
So also it is written, "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL."
The lastAdam became a life-giving spirit. (1Cor 15:45)
In ColossiansPauldeclared
Christ...is our life (See note Colossians 3:4)
John explained how believers canexperience abundant life writing...
By this the love of God was manifestedin us, that God has sent His only
begottenSon into the world so that we might live through Him. (1John 4:9)
Stone (3037)(lithos) literally refers to a concretionof earthy or mineral
matter and in Scripture sometimes refers to a carved precious stone, but also
means building stone, which is the metaphoricalmeaning that best fits Peter's
later description of Christ as the Corner Stone.
In the Old TestamentMosesdescribesGod(Christ, for He is Jehovahin the
OT) as the only rock
"ForI proclaim the name of Jehovah; Ascribe greatness to our God! "The
Rock!His work is perfect, Forall His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and
without injustice, Righteous and upright is He...Indeed their rock is not like
our Rock, Evenour enemies themselves judge this. (Deut 32:3-4, 31)
Paul explains who Israelin the OT was drinking from writing that...

all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual
rock which followedthem; and the rock was Christ. (1 Cor 10:4) (Comment:
This againsubstantiates that the Jehovahof the OT is Jesus ofthe NT, the
same yesterday, today and forever. Amen!)
Jehovahwas the foundation and the strength of His people Israelin the OT
and of believers in the NT. Do you know Him as your Rock?
Rock ofAges, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the waterand the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save from wrath and make me pure. (Play)
Anecdote on Living Stone - When missionary David Livingstone, died alone in
the heart of Africa, his native porters found him kneeling beside his bed. They
cut out his heart and buried it in his beloved Africa. Then they took his body
and handed it over to the British authorities. It was transported back to
England and laid to rest in WestminsterAbbey amid the mourning nation. A
brass plate in the floor marks the spot, and a text tells the tale: "Othersheep
have I which are not of this fold, them also I must bring." Such was his noble
epitaph. However, he had anotherone. one of Britain's periodicals said it best.
Across its front page in banner headlines, it carried the legend:Granite may
crumble, but this is LIVINGSTONE!
Peteris picturing the believer's continual drawing near to Christ as their
Rock, the strong, living One, Who David's learned through trials and
afflictions was His eternal, steadfastRock, prompting this beautiful
description in Psalm 18...
The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in
whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God,

The LORD lives, and blessedbe my rock; And exaltedbe the God of my
salvation, (Psalms 18:2, 31, 46)
Spurgeon's comments on the Rock in Psalm18...Dwelling among the crags
and mountain fastnessesofJudea David had escapedthe malice of Saul, and
here he compares his God to such a place of concealmentand security.
Believers are often hidden in their God from the strife of tongues and the fury
of the storm of trouble. The clefts of the Rock ofAges are safe abodes. [Note
v2]... Who is a rock save our God? Where can lasting hopes be fixed? Where
can the soul find rest? Where is stability to be found? Where is strength to be
discovered? Surely in the Lord Jehovahalone can we find rest and refuge.
[Verse 31]... And blessedbe my rock. He is the ground of our hope, and let
him be the subjectof our praise. Our hearts bless the Lord, with holy love
extolling him. Jehovahlives, my rock be blessed!Praisedbe the God who
gives me rest! [Verse 46] The LORD lives, and blessedbe my rock;And
exalted be the God of my salvation,)
See RelatedResources:
Christ Our Rock
Christ The Rock of Ages
Christ The Rock of Our Salvation
Christ The Smitten Rock
Christ Our Rock of Refuge-Pt1
Christ Our Rock of Refuge-Pt2
REJECTED BYMEN BUT CHOICE AND PRECIOUS IN ("by the side of")
THE SIGHT OF GOD: hupo anthropon men apodedokimasmenon
(RPPMSA)para de theo eklektonentimon:
Ps 118:22,23;Isa 8:14,15;Mt 21:42;Mk 12:10,11;Lk 20:17,18;Acts 4:11,12
Isa 42:1; Mt 12:18, 7; 1:7,19;2Pet1:1,4
1 Peter2 Resources - Multiple sermons and commentaries

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