The mystery of the Stone, as I may call it, is found in all parts of scripture. Something is said of it here and there from beginning to end; in Genesis, in the Psalms, in the Prophets, in the Evangelists, in the Epistles, and in the Apocalypse.
In the words of Jacob to his twelve sons, in Gen. 49 we begin to hear of it. The patriarch had been speaking of the sons of Joseph and the honor that had followed them; and in these things, the Spirit leads him to see a type or foreshadowing of Christ. He says, “From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel.” That is, he prophesied that by death and resurrection, the Lord Christ would be made a shepherd and a stone to Israel; everything, as I may say, to His people.
This prophetic word, therefore, tells of the quarry where this wondrous Stone was to be found; how it was, that the Lord would become a help to His people, and surely we know this is so. No help for us, even in Jesus Himself, but through His precious death and glorious resurrection.
Isaiah takes up this thought, surely under the same Spirit, and speaks of Christ as a “tried stone,” and also as a “foundation;” (chap. 28:16,) thus adding a second thought, or bringing this Stone out of the quarry where it was found, to use it as a foundation-stone, and Peter quotes this of Isaiah. 1 Pet. 2:6.
The Psalmist then instructs us farther; telling us that this Stone was disallowed by the people of Israel, to whom God offered it as a foundation. (Psalm 118:22.) And this is referred to by the Lord Himself in Matt. 21:42, and by the Holy Ghost in Acts 4:11.
The Psalmist, the Lord, and the Holy Ghost, in the same places, thus tell us that this wondrous Stone, thus rejected and disallowed by Israel on the earth, has been taken to heaven, and there seated in the chief place of dignity and strength, or as “the head stone of the corner.”
Isaiah, the preaching of Peter, and Peter in his epistle, then concur in teaching us further, that this Stone, thus exalted to heaven after its rejection by the builders here, that is, Christ in resurrection and glory, in His ascension after His death, is still a sure foundation to all poor sinners who will but lean on Him and trust in Him—a sanctuary to them, life and salvation to them. Isa. 8:14, Acts 5:12, 1 Pet. 2:6.
The Lord Himself farther tells us, that this exalted Stone, now the head of the corner in heaven, shall, by and bye, fall on all who now disallow it, refusing to use it as a foundation, or stumble over it, and thus grind them to powder. Matt. 21:44.
Daniel tells us, in company with this, but in a larger, or national form, that this judgment shall indeed be executed—and then further instructs us, that when this Stone has thus exercised itself in judicial power, it will display itself in kingdom-glory, or, like a great mountain, a universal monarchy, as we speak, fill the whole earth. Dan. 2:35.
This is the great, final destiny of this mysterious Stone. And thus, scripture after scripture, detached in all parts of the wondrous, divine volume, completes, in a great sense, the story of this Stone. “We first see it as in the quarry, formed there for future use, according to settled counsels. We then see it offered as a foundation to Israel, and refused by them. We next see it lifted up to heaven, and again offered as a foundation, the secret of life and salvation to sinners all the world over. We then follow it in its course as returning or falling from heaven, to crush its rejecters and its adversaries. And at the last, we see it, in its glory, as a mountain or a kingdom filling the whole earth.
This is a wondrous sight afforded us by the one Spirit through Patriarchs, Prophets, Evangelists and Apostles.
We have, however, a little more to learn of it. That is, we learn what this Stone does with those who use it as their foundation. Peter teaches us that the Lord, as this Stone, imparts Himself fully to those who believe on Him or come to Him. He is a living Stone, and they become living stones. He is a precious Stone, and they become precious stones. (1 Pet. 2:4-7.) And these things we see and read—for the same Lord in another place says, “because I live ye shall live also.”—and we see, as in the holy Jerusalem, the symbol of saints as the Bride of the Lamb, stones in their varied preciousness, as jasper, chalcedony, emerald, and the like; thus verifying, in that form, the word of Peter, that Christ imparts His preciousness as well as His life to His saints; and thus also bringing in the Apocalypse to bear its testimony, with all scripture, to this mysterious Stone, at which I am now looking. Rev. 21.
It is indeed a theme of wondrous value. But if I have now dismissed my subject, I would ask a question.
Is there not something of an allusion in 1 Pet. 2:4-8, to Matt. 16:16?
In Matthew, Peter confessed to Jesus that He was “The Son of the living God.” The Lord then recognized that fact, that truth, His own Person as “the Son of the living God,” as the Rock on which the Church was to be built.
Here, in his Epistle, Peter, according to this, speaks of the Lord as “a living stone,” to whom we must come, and on whom we must build—teaching us moreover, that thus we become “a spiritual house, a holy priesthood,” conducting the service that is acceptable to God. And in this teaching, he leads us somewhat beyond the point, up to which the Lord had instructed us in Matt. 16 for he shows us something of the ways of that church, the building of which the Lord had but just anticipated.
So that I judge I may answer my own inquiry, and say, that there is a connection between Matt. 16 and 1 Pet. 2.
But what an answer does all this afford, to those who speak of Peter as being the rock on which the church is built! Peter himself being witness, we boldly say, that Christ is that Rock, the living Stone, to whom we must come, and on whom we must build, in order to be the church of the living God, or the spiritual house of His present dispensation. Surely, surely, this is so.
But again, as to the connection between Matt. 16 and 1 Pet. 2.
In Matthew, Peter had resented the thought of his Master being rejected in this world. When He spoke of His going to Jerusalem, and of His there being put to death by the wicked of the world, a martyr at the hand of man, Peter said, “Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee.” But now, in the day of his Epistle, he has so thoroughly learned the lesson which he then refused to sit at, that he teaches us, that now there is no spiritual house, no church, that is not built on Christ as disallowed of man.
This is to me very striking indeed. Most satisfactory and confirming it is, to see the Peter of Matt. 16 thus reappearing in 1 Pet. 2; but reappearing in such advanced condition of soul; able now, not only to seal the word which he had himself there uttered, that Christ was the living one, but to carry on our knowledge of His ways as the living one beyond what He Himself had then taught us; and ready now, not only to seal the word which the Lord had there uttered, that He was to be disallowed and cast out, but to carry out that fact to some of its weighty consequences as to the house or church of this dispensation.
“On Christ, salvation rests secure;
The Rock of Ages must endure;
Nor can that faith be overthrown
Which rests upon the ‘Living Stone.’”