Who Are The Believers? It Is An Impressive Resume

1 Peter 2:9

⁹But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Peter switches perspectives once again.  From the stumbling block that Jesus presents to the unbeliever, we come now to the place and purpose of the believer once more.  Peter indeed wants us to understand that we are set apart in our roles as believers, drawing together entitlements named and developed out of the Old Testament as they are fulfilled in the New through the work and power of Jesus Christ.  We are then reminded who we work for and why we work for him!

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,--four ways to refer to the believers, each one complementary to the rest, but also carrying a distinctiveness that we shall explore more.

in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him—there is a reason why exist, a job that we are called to do, a mission we are called to achieve.   

who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.—and a reminder of what it is that Jesus did for us in the first place.

Faith is not a static thing, neither is the work of Jesus.  It is ongoing in us and it is called to be ongoing out from who we are.  In Jesus, we have achieved something remarkable, but not something that is for us, but for the world.  And Jesus has chosen us to share it with them.

Destiny is a fickle Mistress...No Destiny is a freaking IDOL!

1 Peter 2: 8b

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

“They” are the unbelievers.  They were destined to stumble for their disobedience to God’s work by the passages that Peter has related from the Old Testament.  This sentence is of a single piece, to be dealt with as a whole, as far as I am concerned.

They disobey the word, because they are unbelievers.  Perhaps they have heard the word as shared about Jesus, but they have not fallen under its power, or perhaps they have not yet heard the word as Peter has shared it to those to whom he is writing the letter.  The result is the same.  Unbelievers stumble because of it. 

What did he say before?  That Jesus is the stone they rejected, the stone that they have stumbled over.  Such is their destiny.  But destiny is a funny word that we have to take with a grain of salt in this context.  Destiny is a word that, in the modern culture, can easily be fixated upon with almost magical powers.  Somebody ends up badly, they did something bad, it caught up with them.  It was their destiny.  Some say it was karma coming around to get them.

But we know better.  Destiny is not some kind of Godly power that creeps up on people and drags them off to heaven or hell because of some fore ordained series of unfortunate events.  There are far too many bad people who get off well in life and too many good people who burn out in poverty or brokenness or whatever to play with some kind of ‘destiny’ based on our lives spent.

We have another word for that in the Christian faith.  We call it idolatry, worshiping another god before God, calling that god ‘destiny’.  It’s in the top ten laws, see Exodus 20 for more details.

Besides which, Peter writes for a greater reason.  They were destined, the unbelievers, to stumble because they disobey the word, not for punishment, but for possibility.

They stumble over the words because they have not yet found the one who will guide them safely through the words, and in the words, someone who will show them the way, the truth, and the life.  (Hint hint…Jesus).  That is what Peter is taking us through in his argument, step by step, that which is precious to God, precious to the believer, a stumbling block to the unbeliever, is ultimately the cornerstone on which their faith shall be built.

So is the hope for all who do not believe…yet.

Unbelievers, Tripping Over the Jesus-Stone...

1 Peter 2: 7-8a

⁷To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner’, and ‘A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.’

Again, this is for the unbeliever, Jesus, the stone, makes them stumble and is a rock that makes them fall.  This piece is quoted from the prophet Isaiah, 8:14.  The context is that Israel and Judah are both about to assaulted and overrun by Assyria.  The result is the loss of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, to history, and the near conquest of Judah, the Southern Kingdom.  In this passage in Isaiah, the idea that God is actually behind the invasion and conquest, that is the stone that makes the Jews stumble and the rock that makes them fall.  How are they to understand the presence of God in their conquest?

Does this tie directly into the lives of the unbelievers?  That they will stumble and fall because of Jesus, that is pretty clear.  Jesus has a pretty amazing way of invading life and turning it on its ear. 

I think Peter chose this passage because it would have been known to his readers.  God’s claiming to use the Assyrians as His instrument in the conquest of Israel and Judah?  Imagine if there was a writing in the Christian faith that claimed God used the Nazis to conquer Europe as part of His greater plan?  It would be one of those passages that stuck in our heads, as I believe this one was.

That may help us in our understanding.  Understand what Peter's audience was going through.  Their land was overrun, not by the Assyrians, but by the Romans.  Peter is telling them that the presence of Jesus is as radical in the lives of unbelievers as the presence of Roman soldiers is in the lives of the people living in Judea.

It is NOT what one might call politically correct by any stretch of the imagination.  But it is radical...

The design is intentional, Jesus causes radical things to change in the lives of people, for believers, as we have already read, Jesus becomes precious in their sight, as Jesus is precious in the sight of God.

For unbelievers, Jesus can take everything they think they know and flip it on its head.

Rejected By Mortals...Only To Save The Mortals...That Is What I Call Ironic!

1 Peter 2: 7-8a

⁷To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner’, and ‘A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.’

The architectural metaphor has been built, Jesus is the rock (and he rolls my blues away, shebop, shebop-fun song).  But that stone, that living stone, rejected by mortals but accepted by God, is coming around again, this time into the realm of the unbeliever. 

This quote comes from the Psalms, 118:22, another descriptor of God’s power.  Here, Peter integrates it into his sentence.  It does not seem to be an illustration of his point, but rather to be read directly,

‘for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected (Jesus-just referenced in the last sentence); the stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner.  I think it is safe to assume that Peter would agree that the unbelievers and the builders have both rejected the stone (Jesus).  Jesus, the stone, comes right into the paths of the unbeliever. That which was rejected is now something that gets in the way of those who do not believe.

Peter is not speculating that Jesus simply converts people in this description.  Rather, for those who do not believe, Jesus is not someone they can simply dismiss out of hand.  Jesus stands in their way.  Mahatma Gandhi was a great proponent of Jesus, knew his life and his process very well.  It was integral to the campaign of non-violence he waged against the British. 

Yet he never came into the Christian faith in a formal way because of his experiences with the White South African churches under apartheid. 

Jesus gets in the way.  His unconditional love, his total sacrifice, his giving all, yet his ability to stand up to the leaders of the day, even to the point of anger and violence in defending his Father’s house, that is hard to reject.  I remember an interview with, of all people, John Cleese of Monty Python fame, condemnatory and rejecting of the Church of England, but Jesus was another matter.

To Cheer and To Teach-Jesus is Precious!

 1 Peter 2: 7-8a

⁷To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner’, and ‘A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.’

Peter began in verse 4, calling on his readers to come to Jesus, ‘precious in God’s sight’.  That feeling, that emotion, that reaction to Jesus is now passed along to the believer as Peter changes direction once again.  God did what God did with Jesus.  The first call was for those who believe to commit themselves afresh to the process, to understand more fully how it is that God has worked Jesus into the history of salvation.

It seems that this discussion has two purposes, instruction and exhortation.  On the one hand, Peter is teaching them how to understand Jesus, and themselves, in the metaphor of the priesthood of all believers.  These are Jews he is writing to, they will understand the priestly caste of the House of Levi, of their devoted service to God.  The comparison to themselves will not be lost.

That is the instructive portion.  The exhortation, the praising, the uplifting, is the shorter, choppier style, piece by piece, building the picture for them.  But ultimately, the believers finding Jesus to be precious is not the climax of the piece.  That comes in the next turn, toward the unbeliever.

So Jesus Is Intended to Mess With The Unbelievers...

1 Peter 2: 7-8a

⁷To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner’, and ‘A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.’

So Peter opened with a call to understand Jesus as the cornerstone, that Jesus is precious in the sight of God.  Now Jesus connects that to those who believe, and then makes the case for what happens with those do not believe.

⁷To you then who believe, he is precious;-- Peter here echoes the sentiment just expressed.

but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner’,-- Reference #1 for the unbeliever is offered here, what has happened to that which they have rejected.

and ‘A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.’—Reference #2 for the unbeliever now leads to what happens to them in the process of Jesus.

There is a deliberate arc to this story, believer to unbeliever.  The ultimate object for Peter is not to stump the unbeliever.  Rather, he is seeking to impart his wisdom of understanding their plight and place, with an eye to what can be done to seek their conversion.