Covenant Presbyterian Church

The Precious Cornerstone (vv. 6-8)

When the world runs wild in rebellion against God and the church seems weak beyond all hope of recovery, we must hold tightly to God’s promises. In such times, we may find great comfort in Isaiah 28:16, which Peter now brings forward. This promise was originally given in the midst of that holy prophet’s condemnation of Israel. The nation had turned away from God’s covenant, persecuted the prophets God sent to warn it, and was destined for imminent judgment. Surrounded by such unbelief and upheaval, God’s people were tempted to despair and fear. When the wicked appear to be having their own way and are destroying everything in their determined fury not to submit to God, especially when they turn their fury and frustration against God’s church, nothing is more common than for us to desire “to flee as a bird to your mountain” (Ps. 11:1). But we must not, for God “sits as King above the flood” and so works through the wickedness of men that his purposes are infallibly accomplished and his church purified and built (Ps. 29:10-11). When men reject him and the only foundation for men and nations in Jesus Christ, we are to expect God to judge his enemies, to expose human folly, and to defend the kingdom of his Son in fulfillment of his promises. Thus, our eyes must be fixed upon Zion, God’s church, for herein alone is light and wisdom, strength and endurance. No matter how madly men rush headlong into folly and destruction, we must ever remember our Father’s promise to his Son and, through him, to us. In quoting this precious promise, Peter does not follow exactly either the Hebrew or the Septuagint, ending verse six with “confounded” rather than “make haste.” Even so, he prefaces these words with “as it is written.” It would seem, then, that the meaning of the word of God is the word of God, that its true sense, even when written in other words, is his holy word. Thus, while we must firmly hold that the Scriptures are “Spirit-produced thoughts in Spirit-produced words” (1 Cor. 2:13), that they are inspired down to individual letters (Gal. 3:16), Peter shows us that the sense of Scripture is Scripture. Otherwise, it would be difficult if not impossible to make translations in other languages or authoritative application of Scripture to our present needs in our prayers, songs, and Christian writings. As long as we stick closely to the singular intent of God’s words, which are our only safe and sure guide, we have his word near to us.

The line from Isaiah is quoted to fill our hearts with faith and encourage. However much men may despise and reject Jesus Christ, God has laid him as the cornerstone of our faith, indeed, of true knowledge, purity, and wisdom. God’s response to human folly is to “set his king upon his holy hill in Zion” (Ps. 2:6). Let men wreck their lives upon the jagged rocks of human wisdom ever so dreadfully, God has done a marvelous work in setting his church upon a lasting, eternal, unbreakable foundation. And whenever we think the church poised to fall, let us ever remember that God has done what men think impossible; he has confirmed his infallible truth and brought in everlasting righteousness in the face of man’s unbelief. He will cause his church to grow into his holy mountain that rises above all the other shaky ramparts of man’s imitation wisdom and power. Though fear, skepticism, and unbelief ever dominate the fallen family of men, our merciful Father has not left us in our pitiable and lost condition, to be thrown here and there by our sin and blindness, but has set up a sure stone upon which if we build our lives, we shall surely endure and overcome all the troubles of life and wrath of man. This stone is Jesus Christ, upon whose powerful shoulders rest the government of God’s kingdom and church (Isa. 9:6). Truly, all our righteousness and salvation, peace and strength lie in coming to him and building upon his wisdom and power.

“Zion” ought not to trouble us, as if God is forever establishing physical Jerusalem as the resting place of his kingdom. It is true that God had the first temple built there, but it was a type of the greater and spiritual house of God that would replace it and be a light to all the nations.  Thus, by faith in Jesus Christ we “are now come to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22). Our Savior’s church and kingdom are not now tied to the earthly Jerusalem, as evidenced by its destruction for rejecting the Lord’s Christ and loss of their place and kingdom (Matt. 21:43). Nevertheless, since “from Jerusalem the word of the Lord went out” (Isa. 2:3), we hereby learn that we only come to Jesus Christ and truly build upon him if he abide by the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship (Acts 2:42). The lasting Zion was built upon the true seed of faith God planted and sustained through the old covenant and temple, to which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came in the flesh and from which the good news of salvation went forth into the whole world. But it is not the old Jerusalem that is the “mother of us all,” but God’s everlasting city and temple, to which even in the old days the faithful ever looked, (Heb. 11:10). In Jesus Christ, the old has passed away and given rise to God’s new covenant, church, and the Jerusalem above, which enjoys glorious liberty in the Lord (Gal. 4:26).

By calling him the “chief cornerstone,” Peter directs all our faith to the Son of God as the support and guide of our faith. The cornerstone anchors and supports the structure, ties all the walls together so that they are square. As the cornerstone, he directs and upholds the whole building by his word and quickens it by his Spirit so that it may be straight and true. If we swerve from his word one inch, we shall be crooked in our doctrine and piety. Unless we are joined to him and supported by him, we shall come crashing down under the storms of life. That we may be utterly persuaded to come to him alone, Peter reminds us again that God chose him to this office, for except we know for certain that he has been marked out and appointed by the Father as our Mediator, we shall lack strong confidence to come unto him (Isa. 42:1; Heb. 5:4-5). But hearing that he is God’s chosen foundation, we may have immovable assurance that he is indeed the “prophet that should come into the world” (John 6:14), “Lord and Christ” by his resurrection and ascension to the Father’s right hand (Acts 2:33-36), and the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice that makes us righteous before the Father and reconciles us him (Heb. 10:11-14). Thus, we esteem and honor him, holding him to be precious beyond measure, and the more so since so many men rush stubbornly into eternal ruin, as well as bring upon themselves untold hardship and misery in this life because they will not come to him as the only Savior of sinners and King of men.

This is the reason, moreover, that there is so much confusion and shame in the world. The lives, philosophies, and schemes that men undertake apart from faith and submission toward Jesus Christ are the more inexcusable and dangerous now that he has come into the world and his word spread far and near. We should never be surprised when calamities – whether the economic collapses we witness around the world, the moral blindness and unbelievable perversion, the broken homes and marriages, not to mention the increased brigandage and violence, legal and illegal – engulf those who attempt to build upon a different foundation. Only in Christ will we not “make haste,” as the original says, madly making decisions and walking upon crooked paths that bring shame to us, expose and overthrow our delusions of finding life and peace apart from God, and drown us in sorrow. There is only clarity of thought, soundness of soul, and peace of conscience in Jesus Christ. He is God’s tried and true stone; all other foundations are shifting sand, destined to crack and crumble when God brings the measuring line of his judgment against them (Isa. 28:17).

Here we must perk up our ears and encourage our flagging faith. Because our foundation cannot be seen with human eyes, many even who confess him have a lingering sense that Christ and faith are ethereal, less real than the world of sense and suffering, or its pleasures and thrills. This is the reason many in the church try to hammer the world’s dead philosophies onto the foundation of Jesus Christ: having the best of both worlds. It will not work; it never has and never will. The Son of God, our only Savior, will have us for himself alone. In a letter containing so many warnings and encouragements about persecution, we ought to note at the outset that our whole security and stability lies in fleeing the world and building upon Jesus Christ alone. If we try to serve him and the world, we shall lose both, be utterly disappointed, and have our unbelief severely rebuked. Moreover, if we would have confidence in turbulent times, strong hope that leads to thankfulness and joy for God’s goodness to us, we must give more earnest thought to the strong foundation of our faith. Nothing can move it. It withstands the hottest fires of men’s wrath, the most dangerous heresies, the most harrowing circumstances, and the strongest temptations. Why? Jesus Christ is a living foundation, our living, reigning Savior. The government rests upon his shoulders, which means that he will build his church against all the ridicule of the world and even in the face of our unbelief. This building – or body, tree, mountain, seed, or river, depending upon which metaphor the Holy Spirit chooses to use in a specific context – is destined to grow and fill the world with its light and wisdom, cast down every thought raised in opposition to Jesus Christ, and stand fast against the worst furies Satan can hurl against it. Those who build upon Jesus Christ and continue coming to him are beyond any danger of falling (2 Pet. 1:10).
And therefore, Jesus Christ is very precious and honorable to us (v. 7). In a very real sense, though this is often obscured by the artificial securities and worldly confidences we heap up around us, we have forsaken all to follow him. By faith in Jesus Christ, we confess before the whole world that we hold all else in contempt but the Son of God and his gospel, that we repudiate the world, “counting all but loss except for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord” (Phil. 3:8). Faith alone, God’s heavenly gift, teaches us this: to consider Jesus Christ as precious beyond comparison or words. Is he to us? Has the preciousness, loveliness, and surpassing excellence of Jesus Christ retained its grip upon our soul, or have life’s cares and burdens caused our love to grow cold? That love’s flame may blaze brighter and the soul’s rapture rise higher, let us consider afresh the preciousness of our Savior. The eternal Son of God took upon himself our fallen, weak flesh for the sole purpose of bearing our curse, being viciously and undeservedly tempted, condemned, and scorned by sinful men, forsaken by his professing friends, and finally crucified as sin for us – he who was and is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and higher than the heavens (Heb. 7:26)! Jesus Christ is the eternal “I am” tabernacling with men (John 1:14), enduring our sufferings and carrying our burdens, showing compassion to miserable sinners like us, and providing through his own life of active obedience and untold agonies of soul and body a substitutionary sacrifice for our salvation. Was there ever anyone like him: gentle and meek toward us in our weakness and sorrow, patient and longsuffering beyond compare in our struggles against sin, kind and merciful, pitying us, as we see set forth in the Gospels as a living, enduring memorial, helping us, praying for us, teaching us, securing admission to heaven for us so that we may call upon the Father at any time with confidence, correcting our sins in such a way that we are humbled without being crushed? Have we not found him our daily support? If we are recovered from a dark time of waywardness and sin, he has done it. If the church has been bereft of gospel preaching for a long period, he rekindles the light of the gospel so that his truth regains its supremacy over us. If we have so compromised with the world spirit that our recovery requires the destruction of the tempters and tormentors in whose hand we have been ensnared, he delivers us while overthrowing them. If we are sick, lose our means of livelihood, do not know from where our next meal will come, or if it is so meager that we seem barely to have daily bread, is not he always with us, cheering, guiding, and providing for us. What a Friend we have in Jesus!

And then to think that this rich, divine treasury – his person and work, tender relations toward us, his saving sacrifice, and the way he daily bears us and supports his church so that she does not fall – is all prompted by his love. He suffered so deeply because his love for us, as well as for his Father, is deeper than the deepest sea and higher than the highest heavens. When he bore our weakness and endured our temptations, it was holy love that quickened and carried him. His temptations at Satan’s evil hand, his torments in the garden, and his taking the sword of divine justice for us on the cross were all prompted and inspired by love. His ongoing intercession as our advocate and mediator, the way he makes a way for us out of temptation, bears our infirmities with tenderness, heals our illness and turns them to good ends, hears our prayers and answers them, wards off countless, unknown, and unseen foes that threaten to harm us every second, fills us with his Spirit so that we hear his voice – nothing is so precious in the entire universe as the love of God in Christ. This is the reason Paul directs us to pray for illumination and understanding: the love of Christ is far, far beyond our capacity to understand it without light from God himself (Eph. 3:18-19). Our Savior’s love cannot be exhausted; it is too high for us, but also too low, broad, and wide. It is measureless, sustaining, invigorating. His love will bring us to heaven, for he has pledged himself, as filthy and undeserving as we are, to be the Captain of our salvation, overcome all his and our enemies, subdue our sinful nature, work holiness in us, and secure us against all the assaults of the evil one. Yes, if we believe, he is precious, and his preciousness increases with each new spark of understanding that falls upon our hearts and minds as we come unto him, look unto him, and consider him as our only treasure. If we will but labor to recover some sense of the preciousness of our Savior, if we will continue coming to him, if we will consider him as our greatest privilege – to know, love, and serve – then we shall learn just how immovable is the cornerstone that our Father has laid for our faith. Then, we shall give ourselves more to his promises, his excellent word, and the building of his house.
Now, if we think the world will commend us for our faith, we are miserably deluded. When the Son of God is declared to be the resurrected Lord and Christ of all men – not the illusory Christ of faith, of wispy pietism, of scientifically respectable liberalism – he creates division (Luke 12:51-53). His claims are comprehensive, confrontational, and historical; his gospel is all-or-nothing, casts human pride into the dust, and brings men beneath the foot of the cross, there to behold the true consequences of sin and the only Redeemer. Thus, Peter brings forward that clinging to the preciousness of our Lord is truly a declaration of war against the world. At the same time, holding him precious is not simply a private feeling, as if Jesus is nothing more than an individual religious experience, with little if any consequences to those who choose a different path or love. Rejecting him, for whatever reason, brings judgment and destruction from his hand, for whether or not men believe him to be the resurrected Lord, he is in fact the enthroned King of every man and nation. Let us, then, be done once and for all with the silly notion that individual belief defines reality, as if because I do not believe something, it does not exist and has no bearing upon me. Consider the Jewish leaders. As prophesied (Ps. 118:22), when the Messiah came into his own, his own received him not (John 1:11). The Jewish leaders rejected the cornerstone, the sum and substance of the entire old covenant revelation. They refused to believe his claims, though verified by his works, his words, and their own unwilling testimony (John 6:63; 7:46; 10:37-38). They stumbled over him (v. 8), being already disobedient to the word of God and by their rejection of the Jesus Christ “filling up the measure of their fathers” (Matt. 23:32). Our Savior exposed their false religion, their tyrannous abuse of God’s people, and their wholesale departure from God’s word and covenant. He confronted their pride, utterly overturned their feverish desire for a political kingdom, and proclaimed himself their only Savior from sin. What happened to them? After crucifying him, they were destroyed. They rejected the heir, killed him, and were themselves killed, crushed by that stone (Matt. 21:38). Men cannot overcome the power of God. They cannot escape their creation by God and accountability to him. And especially when their rebellion is against clear light, the Son of God whom they reject, this stone then falls upon them, grinding them to powder (Matt. 21:44-45; Luke 20:18-19). This is the Jesus Christ and gospel that confronts men, either unto life or death (2 Cor. 2:16). If we hold Jesus Christ honorable, holding him to be “exalted, extolled, and very high” (Isa. 52:13), we must expect to share in his reproach. We must also expect his hand to judge his enemies.

It is very shocking to read: “whereunto also they were appointed” (v. 8). It will do no good to water this down, as if Peter merely says that “those who of their own will reject Jesus Christ will go to hell.” While true, it is irrelevant in the context of Peter’s argument. He is explaining to these believers why the whole world does not flock after him who has done so much for us, as well as laying a foundation for courage to endure persecution. Men are disobedient to God’s word, stumble over Jesus Christ, make war against him, and are eventually crushed by him due to God’s sovereign will. Surely, the fault is their own; they deserve all they receive from him. This would be our destiny had not our Father shown undeserved grace and mercy to us (Rom. 9:14). But Peter is calling us to rely on God’s eternal will and purposes, finding all our security and peace, as well as encouragement to persevere in dark times, in the unfolding purposes of God. As for those who vehemently reject the notion that God appoints some men to unbelief and judgment, their desire to preserve man’s will and God’s holiness destroys both. For if our destiny is to be attributed primarily to our will, then God’s decree is a response to man’s decision, thus exalting man’s will. Yet, if God does not “work all things according to the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11), expect perhaps the general motion of things, then we are left with a human will that is set against the backdrop of pure contingency, which makes our choices contingent, and thus irrelevant. We need not exalt man’s will, moreover, to avoid making God the author of sin. We have his clear and abundant testimony, which ought to be enough for us (James 1:13); all sin in the world is of man’s origination and depravity (Eccl. 7:29). We exalt God only by maintaining that his wisdom, which is unsearchable, and his will, which must ever be considered the cause of all things, are so united in his unfathomable perfection and glory that his sovereign and eternal choice includes the free and unconstrained choices of men, which he ordained and for which we are completely responsible. That we cannot put these together in such a way that satisfies man’s fallen reason simply proves that we are not God.

Peter, however, does not intend for us to soar to dangerous heights of speculation. The sovereignty of God’s will over all things, including some men’s rejection of Jesus Christ and their judgment by him, is revealed to us so that we might not think that this world is tossed around willy-nilly, like a ball in the air, with men’s will being the determining factor. When we read of God’s horrible decree unto unbelief and judgment, both in history and in eternity, we are to tremble and come to Jesus Christ. For some say that if God so ordains all events, then it does not matter what we choose. Let this one line from the Holy Spirit forever silence such dangerous cavils: “As many as were ordained unto eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). Instead of speculating, come to the living stone, Jesus Christ. Instead of becoming hopelessly lost in the maze of worthless human reason, hold him precious. Believe on him, and you will never be put to shame. And when you face the wrath of man for your choice, do not be surprised, but rejoice that the wrath of man is so ordained, constrained, and directed by God’s providence that it can only tend toward the greater glory and building of Christ’s kingdom, your own holiness and enjoyment of our Savior, and the destruction of those who dare spurn God’s word and trample the cross of the Son of God. Look to the Lamb of God, hold tightly to him; he is holding to you.