Introduction Was the cross a plan B? We might dismiss this question, but it is an important question. On the surface, the ministry of Jesus looks like a series of setbacks. The reality is that Christ is rejected by the religious establishment that He has come to establish. Christ is not only rejected, but handed over to Rome in a Kangaroo court. He is then sentenced to death by the demands of his own people. And yet it is this same Peter, the author of this letter, who tells us that we should see Christ’s mission as a success despite this major setback. This is shocking because this same Peter once told Christ that he did not have to go to the cross. In fact, Christ rebukes him and associates Peter’s words with Satanic temptation (Matthew 16:23). So, why would Peter see the cross as a mission success rather than a failure? God's Intention: The Rejected Stone Peter introduces Christ in verse 4 with a striking image as a living stone. Calling Christ a living stone is a strange assertion. We know that stones are many things. They're useful, durable, and some are even valuable. You can build with them, polish them, and set them in a wall. But we don't look at a stone and expect life from it. We would never see stone as a living thing. Peter identifies Christ as the living stone. A living stone is a stone that not only possesses life, but also gives life. Peter is telling us that Christ is the stone that keeps the new temple square. Christ is also the stone that gives the temple life. Peter appeals to Isaiah 28 to establish his claim. In the context of Isaiah 28, Isaiah reminds us that Israel has made a covenant with Egypt, trusting a foreign superpower to protect them from Assyria. Isaiah rebukes it as a covenant with death. He says it is a covenant with Sheol. The people have looked at the geopolitical realities around them and decided to trust what they can see rather than the Lord’s protection. The Lord gives the assurance, “I am laying in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone.” The cornerstone is the stone that establishes the angle of an entire building. The Lord is not only going to build a new temple, but he will keep the building square. The Lord is not only a shield and defender for his people, but he also continually nourishes his people as a new temple (Isaiah 28:16). Peter adds to this with Psalm 118 and Isaiah 8. Peter applies Psalm 118 to Christ as the stone that the builders rejected, and Isaiah 8:14 tells us that this same stone is the rock of offense, a stumbling stone. Isaiah 8 is telling us that those who will not trust in the Lord’s stone will see the stone as a stumbling stone rather than a life-giving stone. Peter shows from these three texts one argument: the rejection of Christ by men was not an accident, but the means that the Lord intended to use to build his building. As we are in Christ by the Spirit and faith, we are part of this building. Christ's Submission: The Anointed One Our catechism in Lord’s Day 12 presses us on what it means to call Jesus Christ, the anointed one. Christ is from Christos in Greek, Messiah in Hebrew. It means he was set apart and empowered by the Holy Spirit for a specific mission. But the catechism is also clear that this anointing was not simply ceremonial. At his baptism, the Spirit descended on him literally, actually equipping him to fulfill his mission. Christ will live up to the words at Baptism and the Transfiguration that the Father is well pleased with His Son. And what does an anointing require? Submission. Every anointing in Scripture is simultaneously an empowering and a binding to submit to the Father’s will. Christ is submitting to the Father’s will. We know that as a prophet is anointed by God, the prophet does not deliver his own words. He delivers the word of God. A priest anoints the temple ministers according to what God has prescribed. A king anointed to rule rules for God's glory and the people's good. Christ, as our prophet, fulfills this: he reveals what was hidden. What the prophets spoke in shadow, what was veiled in Isaiah and the Psalms, is now made plain in Christ. Christ shows the clear intention of the Lord’s prophetic word. The mystery has been revealed because the prophet has spoken, and the incarnate Word, Christ, has confirmed the prophet’s word. He submitted to the Father’s will. Our Anointing: Living Stones in a Living Temple Calvin puts it plainly: as long as Christ remains outside of us, he is of no benefit to us. This is why Christ has to be the cornerstone and the living stone. He holds the building together, and he gives the building life by uniting the stones to him. Verse 5 assures us that we are that building. Christ’s people are part of the new and living temple united to the cornerstone. The cornerstone that was rejected, suffered, and raised to life. Now, that cornerstone gives life to the whole temple, making us the Lord’s spiritual house. This is what Peter is teaching in verses 4-8. Peter says that we are living sacrifices. Does this mean that we are living sacrifices called to finish Christ’s work? Well, Peter is not calling our attention to sacrifices that take away sin. The sacrifice that Peter alludes to would be thanksgiving offerings. These are sacrifices that people would give if, say, for instance, a child recovered from severe illness, whose harvest exceeded all expectations, whose life turned out better than expected, and the examples continue. The sacrifice of someone who looks at what they have and says simply: I don't know how this happened, but thank you, Lord. Peter is calling us to see that our lives are that offering. We are not finishing Christ’s work, but we are the garnish to the work. Our sacrifice is not the substance of the offering, but a display of thankfulness and joy that we are set free in Christ. Then, in verses 9 and 10, Peter reaches back to Exodus 19. At Sinai, the Lord told Israel in Exodus 19:5-6: if you obey, you will be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. It was conditional and future. There is a radical change in Christ. Peter picks up that same language and transforms it: “You are a chosen race. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation.” What Moses announced as a future possibility has become a present reality for those built on the cornerstone. Now, we have become what God’s people were promised to be. And notice the final word: once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Peter is assuring us that the people who were distant from the Lord’s promise are now recipients of the promise. We have received mercy. This is not by our merit, but the Lord’s mercy. This is why we live as thanksgiving offerings or out of gratitude as we walk in the Spirit by faith. Conclusion Peter begins this entire section asking whether the cross was a failure, and he ends it with those who were no people at all becoming the building blocks of God's new temple. This is all done by the Lord’s mercy. So the Christian life is not a heavy list of obligations designed to earn what Christ has not yet finished. It is the life of someone who has been placed in the building, aligned to the cornerstone, and is now living out of the sheer gratitude of that reality. It is a story that does not end in death, but in life. Christ is the living stone, giving life to the stones in the living temple. As we take hold of Christ by faith and walk in the Spirit, we are the temple people. Let us live out who we are: living stones, built on the living stone, in the temple that God is raising to his own glory.
