I PETER ii. 4, 5.
THE Apostle Peter, in the opening words of his first Epistle, intimates that he writes to “the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia,” and other parts of Asia Minor. These strangers were in all probability Jews of the dispersion who were long resident in those distant places, and had been converted to Christianity. Peter was the apostle of “the circumcision,” and it is not surprising that he should explicitly address the Christian seed of Abraham. It may be gathered, however, from the Epistle that he has in view Gentile Christians also, all indeed in those parts of Asia who were spiritually “strangers and pilgrims” in the world, and were looking forward at the end of the day to the glorious revelation of Jesus Christ. The Epistle, while it contains many solemn exhortations of a practical kind bearing upon the life of holiness, is suffused throughout with a spirit of tender sympathy and love, and embodies passages of marked beauty, eminently charged with encouragement and consolation. For example, at the beginning of it, he reminds them that, according to God’s abundant mercy, they were “begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven” for them who were “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” If their earthly inheritances were insecure through manifold trials and persecutions, he assures them that they possessed an unfading inheritance for which they were effectually kept, and of which, therefore, no foe in earth or hell could deprive them. Then, in the passage, which we desire briefly to notice on this occasion, he presents chaste thoughts of great spiritual beauty that are encouraging and stimulating in no ordinary degree. It runs as follows:—”To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” He unfolds to view here a mystical, spiritual house, a holy temple, in which all who are made alive unto God have a definite place and service, and he reminds those to whom he writes of their high and blessed privileges in this respect. If the Jewish “strangers” had any sense of disappointment from the fact that they were severed for ever, both as to locality and dispensation, from the ancient temple where the Lord Jehovah had been worshipped for centuries at Jerusalem, and if the Gentile “strangers” had any painful sensations at their separation from the magnificent temples of heathenism to worship God in private houses, and obscure places, which were contemptible in the eyes of their fellows, the Apostle consoles them all with the precious and glorious thought that they were “lively stones and an holy priesthood” in connection with a living temple, of which the Son of God was foundation, and in vital association with which they would never be “confounded.” All earthly temples will one day pass away never to return, but this spiritual house, built upon the Rock, Jesus Christ, will endure for ever and ever. Let us now observe three things in the passage—first, the living temple; secondly, the holy priesthood; and thirdly, the spiritual sacrifices.
I.—Let us notice The living temple.
There are two things to be observed in connection with it: (1) the foundation; and (2) the superstructure.
(1) The Foundation.
This is declared to be a Person who is described as “a living stone,” and when we examine the context, we can see plainly that the person is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the “Son of the Father in truth and in love.” How appropriately this statement appears as an inspired exposition by Peter of the words which the Lord used in the days of His flesh with reference to the foundation on which the true Church was to be built. After Peter bore the memorable testimony, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus congratulated him as a blessed man to whom this truth was revealed by the Father, and then added, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The Papists for their own purposes misinterpret the Rock as Peter himself, but the Apostle, as inspired by the Holy Ghost, manifestly expounds the Rock in the present passage as the Lord Jesus Christ, under the designation of the “living stone” on which the “spiritual house” is built.
This house, which was to consist of elect sinners of mankind, saved by grace, required a personal foundation of acceptance and life before the Most High. All had sinned and come short of the glory of God, and none had any righteous standing ground or source of spiritual vitality before the Judge of all. God Himself, in the riches of His mercy and love, provided the necessary foundation for the spiritual temple He purposed to erect, and that foundation was His own eternal Son in human nature in the capacity of a mediator between God and men. He is the “living stone” and the immutable Rock of ages.
Observe, first, then, that the Lord Jesus is “a living stone” in a high personal sense. “As the Father hath life in himself, so he hath given to the Son to have life in himself” (John v. 26). The Son, who is equal with the Father in the ever-blessed Godhead, possesses life in virtue of a mysterious, eternal generation, the same uncreated self-existent life as the Father has. The Apostle John by the Holy Ghost describes Him as “that eternal life who was with the Father and was manifested unto us.” There is in Him, therefore, a divine, boundless, and inexhaustible fulness of life that cannot be overcome or destroyed by any opposing forces of sin and death, and that brings those who are vitally united to Him into personal fellowship with the measureless ocean of blessedness that is in God.
Observe, secondly, that the Lord Jesus is a “living” foundation in an official sense as mediator. He came into the world at His incarnation in order that He might do two things, namely, deliver His people from eternal death and secure to them eternal life. These great blessings could not be obtained in a righteous manner—in a way satisfactory to God’s just government and law—except through substitutionary obedience and sufferings unto death. God is just as well as gracious, righteous as well as loving, and the Son is one with the Father in these glorious perfections. Thus it came to pass that the Son suffered for His people unto death, the accursed death of the cross, that they might be saved from the death, spiritual and eternal, that their sins justly deserved. By His vicarious death in their room and stead, He thus made an end in righteousness of their death. So also by His positive obedience to the precepts of the divine law, He procured for them in righteousness an interest in eternal life. He kept the law to perfection in all respects in which they had broken it, and thus obtained by His meritorious obedience the fulfilment of the promise of life which they in the first Adam failed to secure. By the first man came sin and death; by the second man, who is the Lord from heaven, came righteousness and life.
The Apostle takes notice, however, of the kind of treatment this “living stone” received at the hand of man, when the Father laid it in Zion. He adds the words, “disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious.” Men, high and low, religious and profane, disallowed the Son of God when He appeared in the flesh; they, in their blindness, saw no beauty or desirableness in Him. They did not consider Him as suitable or sufficient to be the foundation on which God’s house could be built. He was despised and rejected of men; He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. The religious leaders and teachers of the people, who should have known best, disallowed him as Messiah and Redeemer, to their everlasting discredit. “But for all that,” says the Apostle in effect, “He was the chosen of God and precious.” God the Father, as representing the infinite dignity, love and wisdom of the Godhead, chose Him from everlasting to be the suitable and sufficient foundation of the spiritual house and living temple. “Behold (says the Father) my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth.” Viewed in this divine light, He was “precious,” precious “in an infinite degree, beyond all human calculation. The Apostle could add the word “precious” from his own personal experience. He might have said, “Where would I have been, if it were not for this ‘precious’ foundation, I so ready to stumble and fall; who have been held up so many times when near to destruction?” Precious, then, is this “living stone” as the medium through which the glory and grace of God shine forth; and precious as the upholder from eternal death, and the giver of eternal life unto a countless multitude. “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.”
(2) The Superstructure.
This consists of “lively (or living) stones.” These, as already indicated, are sinners of mankind who are to make up the spiritual house. They were not always spiritually alive, but were like the rest of the world, “dead in trespasses and sins” by the Fall. There is no difference in this respect between the elect and others. Every stone that forms the superstructure of this living temple was first found in the quarry of a corrupt and ruined state, and those who are not quickened into newness of life until they come to years of intelligence are made to understand this in a very real way in their consciences and hearts, when the Lord is about to raise them up. They are made to believe and feel that they are dead sinners, under the sentence of eternal death, and that they need to be brought out of their spiritual graves, by a power not their own. Their cry then becomes, “O Lord, save and quicken me, according to thy word,” and they are led to see the suitableness of Christ as a Saviour. His voice to such is, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live; and he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” And it is when they are enabled to believe this with special application to themselves, and trust in Him as the giver of righteousness, life and all things, that they are made “living stones” in the spiritual house. “He that hath the Son, hath life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” They now possess a new life of thought, desire and action in harmony with the preceptive will of God, and they possess something of the stability of the stone that maintains a fixity of front and position, in face of adverse influences, as distinguished from the sand or mud that can be readily driven hither and thither. “To whom coming.” These “living stones” are described by the Apostle as comers to the foundation which is Jesus Christ. This is a characteristic of the spiritually alive at the beginning of their spiritual history. They are all comers to Christ as the foundation of their acceptance in the presence of God, and the spring of life and strength, and they continue to come all their days to the end. Christ says, “Him that cometh unto me, I will in nowise cast out.”
The living temple, then, consisting of the Son of God as the foundation and chief corner stone, and His children as the superstructure, is the “spiritual house”—the house of the Spirit—where God dwells and is worshipped upon earth. The Holy Spirit, who abides without measure in the Son, as the foundation, inhabits with His presence all the living stones who are built thereon, and binds them to Christ and to one another with a tie of infinite strength that can never be broken. It is with a view to keep in close touch with the living temple that we desire to hold fast the truth in its purity and fulness, “in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.”
III.—The holy priesthood.
The Apostle passes from the consideration of the Lord’s children as living stones in the spiritual house to view them as a holy priesthood doing service in this divine building. They are called effectually, not only to spiritual life and stability of character as living stones, and to union and rest in relation to the foundation, Jesus Christ, but also to activity of service. “His servants shall serve him.” “This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise.”
Under the old economy, the tribe of Levi was devoted by God to the priestly office, and they served Him in a special way in His temple, offering up sacrifices of atonement and purification as well as those of thanksgiving and praise. Under the new economy, the Levitical priesthood has passed away with its peculiar services of atonement; they were only shadows of Christ, the great high priest, and of His priestly work. He is the abiding substance of that ancient order, and the only sacerdotal priest under the new dispensation. He offered the one sacrifice for sins for ever, and has now entered into the holiest of all above, where He makes continual intercession for His people. But there is a general priesthood still remaining upon earth, which consists of all God’s children: they are called priests, because they are set apart by divine grace to the Lord’s service. They are called to do all, whatsoever they do, to His glory.
And they are described as a “holy priesthood.” The Levitical priests were spoken of as holy unto the Lord, because they were set apart outwardly for the work of worship. But it did not follow that they were inwardly and spiritually holy. Many of them were vile and wicked men. Not so in the present case. None form a part of the holy priesthood of the Gospel dispensation but those who are “born again,” and put in possession of a holy nature. All unregenerate sinners are outside this priesthood. It is they who are washed in the blood of Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, who are now made a royal priesthood unto God, and serve Him with a measure of acceptance all the days of their life.
IV.—The spiritual sacrifices.
What are the sacrifices of this priesthood? They are just the services they render with a view to the glory of God, whether it be in matters purely religious, or in things to a certain extent secular. Such things as prayer, praise, speaking the Word, giving Christian counsel, helping the cause of Christ, and doing good to one’s neighbour in the common things of life, all come within this category. All these and other actions should be performed with the highest end, and thus partake of the character of sacrifices.
The Apostle, however, lays emphasis on “spiritual sacrifices.” These are sacrifices given by the Spirit. The sacrifices of multitudes of professors of Christianity are not of this character, though they may imagine them to be so. The Spirit of God never moved them to offer their unscriptural and carnal sacrifices. And even God’s children do not always offer up “spiritual sacrifices.” As fallen creatures, they are liable to err, unless divinely preserved, and the Lord may say even to them, “Who hath required this at your hands?” Sacrifices in order to be “spiritual” in the Apostle’s sense must, in the first place, be in accordance with the mind of the Spirit as expressed in the infallible Word of truth. It is not man’s wisdom that must regulate us in our services to God, but His own matchless wisdom. Then, in the next place, they must be done with a view to His glory, and lastly, they must be performed under the influence of His Spirit. The Word as the rule, the glory of God as the end, and the Spirit as the power of accomplishment, these are the things that are necessary to constitute “spiritual sacrifices.” We can quite conceive that God’s people may often fear that their sacrifices are sadly deficient in the latter two elements, even when they are sure they are acting in accordance with the Word as their rule. Such sense of defect will keep them needy and prayerful at God’s throne, and where this is so, the Lord will give grace to meet their special needs, though He may not always give them the full assurance of possession.
And then let not the last word be forgotten, “acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” Ah, the Apostle is fully conscious that the best spiritual sacrifices offered by the most eminent of God’s saints and servants are polluted with imperfection and sin. He gives them clearly to understand that their sacrifices are only acceptable by Jesus Christ, the mediator and intercessor with the veil. The glorious Mediator presents the sacrifices, that are in accordance with the Word of truth, unto the Father, purged from all imperfection through the merits of His perfect sacrifice, and perfumed with the incense of His intercession, and they then come up with sweet smelling savour and perfect acceptance before God.
It should be a matter of serious enquiry with each of our readers, “Am I a living stone in the spiritual house, resting upon Christ alone as the sure foundation, and endeavouring to serve Him to his glory, or, am I dead to everything spiritually good?”
No mere professional attachment to any denomination will avail us for eternity. The overwhelmingly important thing is to be alive unto God through Jesus Christ, and to be members of the living temple which will shine with the light and glory of the Lamb to all eternity. Everything short of membership in this spiritual house is less than nothing, and vanity. Woe be to those who are utterly careless about these great realities! May the Lord, in His infinite compassion, send forth His Word with power to quicken many who are dead in sins, and make them living stones in His mystical and living temple to His everlasting praise!