So, Peter is not done with his temple metaphor, helping us to understand who Jesus is and helping us to understand who we are. Let me read these words:
For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become a cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense."
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
Peter begins with a quote from Isaiah 28:16, "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." (From 1 Peter) It's very clear from these words, this prophecy is not about the temple in Jerusalem, but it's about Jesus. He is the cornerstone of the great, eternal house of God. We are stones being fit in and together with all of the saints, together with all believers, now united as one in that temple.
And he says this, that there's "...honor...for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone...whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.'" Belief in Jesus, a life committed to follow Jesus will never put you to shame. Why does Peter say that?
Because, we have these moments where we think, "Is God, right? Is this really the best thing to do? Maybe I shouldn't speak kindly to this person who has mistreated me. Maybe I ought to go rip his face off. Maybe that would, that would be better. Is this really what I should do in my marriage?" I think there'll be moments where we wonder about God's will and God's way until we're on the other side. And so, Peter says, "Never, never, never, will God lead you in a bad direction! Never, never, never will He put you to shame!"
And then he makes this contrast. This stone that is the cornerstone is a stone of honor, and a stone of stumbling. It's honor for all of us who now understand that we are being built in this temple; we have the privilege of being part of this amazing thing that God is doing. But it's a stone of stumbling. The gospel is offensive to some; Jesus is offensive to some. They see His Messiahship as foolishness, His cross as meaningless, His resurrection as a myth, His Word as irrelevant; mockery of Jesus is quite regular. And isn't it amazing that it really is not abstract theology that's the dividing line. The fault line is Jesus.
There are only two ways to respond to Jesus. You recognize that this is the Son of God, and you surrender your life to Him; or you mock His existence, and you walk away from His work and live life however you want to live it. There's no in-between. The great fault line is Jesus.
But I want to talk about how this passage ends, very quickly. It says, "'A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.' They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do." Those are hard words for some of us to hear. But understand what Peter is saying. Peter is saying, "It's never right just to say, 'I don't have a chance because God ordained me to not have a chance.'" That's not what Peter is writing.
He's saying they stumble because they disobey the Word. Again, here's the theology of the Word of God. God exercises His sovereignty, His ultimate rule through the validity of the choices of the people He created. It's never the sovereignty of God or the responsibilities man. It's always both. And so ultimately, I have to say, I walked away because I chose to walk away. I can never say that it's all God's fault because God expresses His sovereignty through the validity of the choices that I make.
