New Babes and A Rejected Cornerstone
1 Peter 2:1-10
Tom J. Nettles
I. New, Not Immature – 2:1-3 – in these verses Peter emphasizes that Christians should yearn for every gift of the new life that the new birth has given them and put away every remnant of the former evil propensities.
A.
Put Away – Peter takes a look at
issues in human relations that once dominated the mind of the unbeliever and
were sharpened to an art for self-advancement (malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy,
slander) and warns that they are to be put away. All of these attitudes are the
opposite of the “sincere brotherly love” [1:22] that comes from the new birth. The
Bible teaches that when we are born again, the flesh no longer has dominance;
it is put into a position of being put to death , but
it is still present and is active against the operation of the Spirit of God.
See Galatians 5:16, 17. The newness of the “new” birth and the “new” covenant,
however, is that there is a strong and progressively dominant action by the
Spirit that marks Christians off from a merely natural person, so that they are
continually putting to death the deeds of the flesh Romans 8:12-15. So here, in this text,
Peter identifies some especially sinister and corrupting attitudinal issues
that Christians should recognize as activities of the flesh, and left unchecked
would present to the soul a virtual hell of internal torment and hostility
toward others.
B. A New Longing – He is not speaking of immaturity by using the image
of babes and milk. That image is the thrust of Hebrews 5:12, 13.
·
Here Peter refers
to a new life that comes from the new birth that brings along with new longing
like the natural urge that babes have for milk. That propensity is built in by
God in natural birth and is also intrinsic to the Spirit’s work in giving the
birth from above. The pure truth of God as contained in the Bible is the
natural yearning of the soul that has now become a child of God. In the way
that brotherly love, which can and should be pursued and developed, and that
the presence of the flesh must be progressively mortified, so the yearning for
unadulterated nourishment of the spirit by the Spirit from the word of God must
be expanded and enticed by placing the inexhaustible riches of truth before
those yearning spiritual eyes.
·
By this means,
the intake of spiritual purity both for the mind and for the heart, the goal of
the salvation that God gives is advanced. We grow up in salvation by this
yearning. God not only saves from the condemning curse of sin, but also saves
from its corrupting power. Paul expands this ideas when he said that Scripture
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in
righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).
·
These actions
will be taken—negatively putting away destructive mental attitudes, and
positively embracing a thoroughgoing purity instructed by the word—if we have
tasted that the Lord is good. His own goodness has invaded the soul of the
newborn, and this child wants more. He has been enticed by the taste that he
has had of the divine goodness and will walk the path that flows beside the
stream of living water and is daily strewn with the bread of life.
II. A Living Stone, living stones and a Spiritual House – Peter emphasizes the contrast between rejection and acceptance shows the blinding nature of human sin on the one hand and the power of divine grace on the other.
A. [4] “As
you come to Him” – Peter begins to show how God will bring believers into a
corporate fellowship to bring eternal praise to God. It begins by showing the
infinite contrast
·
He is a living
stone. Peter has emphasized a living hope [1:3], the living word [2:23] and in
3:10 marks some traits of those that ”love life.” How
strange that men would reject this living stone, but
their blindness to the true nature of life has made them conclude that they
have tested him and found him wanting. [“rejected”].
They looked only at his lowly appearance and his calls for repentance, and to
his promise of suffering, and to a call to a narrow way and found it completely
unappealing and not consistent with their preconceived notion of life. They saw
him only as dead as a stone and thus failed to grasp the power of his
redemption from sin and his resurrection to true and eternal life for those
that believe.
·
The truly egregious
character of their rejection is seen in this contrast—to God he is “chosen and
precious.” Men reject him, but God, who knows the true intrinsic value and
worth of all things has chosen him—the pre-ordained messianic person [see
1:20-21] and sees him as precious [cf precious
blood].
B. Verse 5: Those
that believe partake of the nature of the life that resides in the crucified
and risen saviour, they are living stones being constructed into a Spiritual
house. In the same way that Christ’s death burial and resurrection shows the
incontrovertible justice of God and is a manifestation of his infinite mercy,
so those that have believed will sing and shout the worthiness of God
throughout eternity. They are being built into just such a “spiritual house”
and can offer the fitting “spiritual sacrifices.” Paul wrote that in viewing
God’s mercies we offer a spiritual worship by submitting our bodies as “living
sacrifices.” The writer of Hebrews points to the reception of an unshakeable
kingdom as motivation to
“offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe”
[Hebrews 12:28]. In the same book, the
author points to Jesus’ humiliating sacrifice outside the city gates as
preparing us for an eternal dwelling for which we should “continually offer up
a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his
name.” [Hebrews 13:12-15]. Here in 1 Peter the swelling chorus of praise to God
is a confession of indebtedness to grace poured out in a gift of one that was
precious [dear, of peculiarly intimate value] to God as the author of
salvation.
C. verse 6,
7a. Peter quotes Isaiah 28:16. The
prophetic Isaiah looked at the massive apostasy around him, the aggressive
hostility of the covenant nation of
III. A Rejected Stone – Peter now quotes Psalm 118:22 as the negative corollary to Isaiah 28. Jesus quoted this verse as an application of his parable of the murderous tenants Luke 29 [see Matthew 21 and Mark 11 also] If this stone is the only one that can give stability, security, and blessing when the wrath of God comes, than those that reject it will have no refuge and will be crushed.
A. The
Builders Rejected – Teachers of
·
His own witness – Jesus, in his interview with Nicodemus< pointed
out that the teachers of Israel did not understand something as fundamental as
the new birth, spelled out with clarity in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, then
neither would they grasp his teaching on the necessity of redemptive suffering
for the forgiveness of sins.
·
John the Baptist – John the Baptist bore witness to him but they
refused to hear his message, even thought John the Baptist himself was a
fulfillment of prophecy [Malachi 3:1, 4:5]
·
Works – John 5:36 Jesus own works bore irrefutable testimony to his
status as Messiah
·
Father – John 5:37 - cf. Mt.11:25-27; 16:17; John 6:44, 45
·
Scripture- John 5:39
B. Verse 7b - The Very Corner Stone –Everything else depends on Him Psalm 118:22. Nothing in the edifice of salvation can be maintained without the blessings procured in the atoning work of Christ.
·
Knowledge of God
·
Forgiveness and righteousness
·
Adoption and the gift of the Spirit
·
Restoration to the divine image
·
Eternal life
C. Verse 8a - Stone of Stumbling, Rock of offense
·
Jesus Himself is the clearest evidence of a heart of unbelief – John
16:8, 9 “Concerning
sin because they do not believe in me.” A spirit of unbelief resident in the fallen human heart no
where is more evident than in the rejection of Christ as a complete redeemer.
This, of course, is not the only sin for which sinners will be condemned [Ephesian 5:6, Colossians 3:6] but poses the premier
instance of the depth of human unbelief, from which all sin flows.
·
Rejection of Him is the chief work and highest manifestation of
unbelief. In him true humility, meekness, and submission to perfect authority
and justice are embodied. To reject him is to show our hatred of these traits.
In him also is unsullied honor, reverence, respect,
and love. To reject him is to sneer at these traits of character. In him and
his teaching about the Father we find a clear perception of the justice of God
in providential chastening as well as eternal condemnation without any
questioning of the rightness and goodness of God in these manifestations. To
reject him is to reject the justification of God in his dealing with sin.
·
Rejection of Him shows a misuse of the Law – text “because they are
disobedient to the word.” Cf. Romans
9:30-33, where Paul quotes Isaiah 28:16 after referencing the text in Psalm
118. Also Romans 10:3 continues Paul’s assignment of the Jews’ rejection of the Law to
their unbelief.
IV. The Appointment of God – The idea of divine appointment must not escape us in this passage. Even as Jesus is chosen and precious, appointed by God the Father to this task, so the responses to him come from divine appointment. Some the Father will appoint to stumbling by leaving them to their “free will” that is their natural inclination of sinful resistance to all that is holy and good and excellent in the divine wisdom.
A. Unto which they were appointed
·
The just rejection of God is the same as the appointment of God –
Romans 9:22
v
Mt 11: “Hid”
v
No love of truth>”deluding influence. 2 Thessalonians indicates that
God leaves unbelievers to their own natural disposition of a refusal to love
the truth and then justifiably aggravates their hostility to the truth by
sending them strong delusion, giving further evidence of their willingness to
believe a lie, no matter how destructive, vicious, and absurd, rather than the
truth about human sin and divine redemption.
v
John 10:26- “Not my sheep” – Jesus indicated clearly that some that
were in his presence even as he spoke would continue in their unbelief because
they were not his sheep; They were outside, therefore, of the special provision
of divine grace necessary for the cordial reception of saving truth.
· All the while, Scripture treats those that are appointed to punishment through continued unbelief as responsible moral agents, choosing exactly what they want to choose. God is neither the proper nor the immediate cause of their sin, but appoints it as a means to demonstrate his holiness and wrath in them in particular.
B. But You are chosen – The contrast, even a in 2 Thessalonians 2:12, 13, shows that believers are such, not because their intrinsic nature is different, but because God has specific designs of grace for them, that the contrast between his justice and mercy would be the cause of an eternal manifestation of the excellence of his moral attributes.
·
Exalted status – As the prophecies of Isaiah 27 and 28 indicate, in the
context of just judgment, some are appointed as vessels of mercy and they
constitute the true recipients of the blessings of the covenant, the true
v
Chosen race – Ps 33:12; Isaiah 43:20-44:5
v
A royal priesthood – Ex. 19:5, 6
v
Holy Nation
v
Peculiar People “God’s own possession” Titus 2:14
·
Excellent task – “Proclaim the excellencies
of Him who called you out of darkness into
his marvelous light” Cf. Col 1:12, 13
·
Amazing contrast
v
Not a People, People of God
v
Not received mercy, received m--
V. Application
A. Engage the task to which we are appointed
v Excellencies of Him –Learn
now to think about the majesty of God’s justice and wrath and how that presents
such a striking contrast to his redemptive work. That in turn shows the
ineffable wisdom of God in devising a way in which some can receive displays of
grace without any loss of his necessarily unrelenting justice. This then cause us to see the “cornerstone” in a light that give some true
representation to the infinite glory of a Christ on the cross and now seated at
the right had of the Father interceding for us on the basis of his shed blood.
v Throw aside everything that
is inconsistent with your being the people of God. God sanctifies us through
his word. Admonitions, exhortations, threats, warnings etc play their essential
part in this. But also an enlarged and ever-enlarging view of the mercies of
God, the new longing for pure truth, the initial taste of the unalloyed
goodness of God drives us positively, not just to avoid God’s displeasure, but
to enjoy his love.