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Through the Lord's speaking in John 1:42 and Matthew 16:18, Peter received the revelation that both Christ and the believers are living stones for God's building and eventually realized that God's goal is to have a spiritual house built up with living stones (1 Pet. 2:4-8):
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First Peter 2:4 speaks of Christ as a living stone:
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A living stone is one that not only possesses life but also grows in life; this is Christ for God's building.
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As life to us, Christ is the seed; for God's building, He is the stone.
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After receiving Him as the seed of life, we need to grow so that we may experience Him as the stone living in us (1:23; 2:2, 4).
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In this way He makes us living stones, transformed with His divine nature, so that we may be built up together with others as a spiritual house upon Him as both the foundation and the cornerstone (1 Cor. 3:10; Eph. 2:20).
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In Christ and through Christ we, as believers, become living stones to be built up as a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5):
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We are living stones through regeneration and transformation (John 3:6; 2 Cor. 3:18).
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We were created of clay (Rom. 9:21), but at regeneration we received the seed of life, which by its growth in us transforms us into living stones (1 Pet. 2:2, 5).
Morning Nourishment
1 Pet. 2:4-5 Coming to Him, a living stone, rejected by men but with God chosen and precious, you yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.Due to the influence of tradition, some say that we should not use new terms to express what Christ is....We should not trust in traditional theology, for it restricts us and even misleads us. We need to see in the Word all the aspects of Christ. In particular, our Christ has the aspect of being a stone for God's building.
Christ is not only the stone for God's building; He is also the stumbling stone and the smiting stone. Concerning Himself as the stumbling stone and smiting stone, the Lord Jesus said, "He who falls on this stone shall be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it shall crush him to powder and scatter him like chaff" (Matt. 21:44). To the believers, Christ is the foundation stone in whom we trust (Isa. 28:16). But to the unbelieving Jews, He is the stumbling stone (Isa. 8:14-15; Rom. 9:32-33), and to the nations He will be the smiting stone. According to Daniel 2:34 and 35, Christ as the stone will smite the nations at His coming back. (Life-study of Acts, pp. 130-131)
Today's Reading
For us as believers, Christ is neither the stumbling stone nor the smiting stone—He is the building stone, even the propagating stone. For us, He has become the building stone. First, we became His propagation, and now He is building us up together into God's dwelling place. He is both the Builder and the material for God's building. He is the Stone-Savior. In God's economy He is building His eternal habitation. For the Jews and the nations respectively, He is the stumbling stone and the smiting stone. But to us He is the propagating stone and the building stone.In the Bible stone is a major item....The first man was a clay-man [cf. Gen. 2:7]. Then God Himself came to be a man, and this man was a stone-man. At the end of the Bible, in the book of Revelation, we have a stone-city, a city built of stone. Therefore, the Bible begins with a clay-man, continues with a stone-man, and consummates in a stone-city. This is God's economy.
In the Bible there is a line concerning stone from Genesis 2 through Revelation 22. In Genesis 2 we have the onyx stone at the beginning, and then in Revelation 21 and 22 we have the jasper city as the consummation. The appearance, the wall, and the first foundation of this city are all of jasper. How much truth, therefore, is indicated and implied by Peter's referring to Christ as the stone rejected by the builders but made by God the cornerstone in resurrection! (Life-study of Acts, pp. 131, 133-134)
A living stone is one that not only possesses life but also grows in life. This is Christ for God's building. Here Peter changed his metaphor from a seed, which is of the vegetable life (1 Pet. 1:23-24), to a stone, which is of the minerals. The seed is for life-planting; the stone is for building (2:5). Peter's thought went on from life-planting to God's building. As life to us, Christ is the seed; for God's building, He is the stone. After receiving Him as the seed of life, we need to grow that we may experience Him as the stone living in us. Thus He will make us also living stones, transformed with His stone nature, that we may be built together with others as a spiritual house upon Him as both the foundation and the cornerstone (Isa. 28:16). (1 Pet. 2:4, footnote 1)
We, the believers in Christ, are living stones, like Christ, through regeneration and transformation. We were created of clay (Rom. 9:21). But at regeneration we received the seed of the divine life, which by its growing in us transforms us into living stones. At Peter's conversion the Lord gave him a new name, Peter—a stone (John 1:42); and when Peter received the revelation concerning Christ, the Lord revealed further that He was the rock—a stone (Matt. 16:16-18). By these two incidents Peter received the impression that both Christ and His believers are stones for God's building. (1 Pet. 2:5, footnote 1)
Further Reading: Life-study of 1 Peter, msgs. 16-17