1Pet 2:4 Coming to Him [Christ], a living stone, rejected by men but with God chosen and precious, 5 You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house... 2Cor 3:18 But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.
[Part 1 of 2]In verse 5 Peter indicates that the believers are living stones. 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 growth in us transforms us into living stones. At Peter's conversion the Lord gave him a new name, Peter--a stone (John 1:42). When Peter received the revelation concerning Christ, the Lord revealed further that He also was the rock--a stone (Matt. 16:16-18). Peter was impressed by these two incidents that both Christ and His believers are stones for God's building. No doubt, these two incidents, the one recorded in John 1 and the other in Matthew 16, were deeply impressed into Peter's being. He could never forget those events. It must have been from these experiences that Peter obtained the concept of living stones for the building of the spiritual house, which is the church. When Peter wrote this portion of 1 Peter, he wrote it according to the impression these events made upon him. By our natural birth we are clay, not stones. Do you realize that you were made of clay? Genesis 2:7 says that man was made from the dust of the ground. Romans 9 reveals that we are vessels of clay. How, then, can we become stones? We become stones through the process of transformation. (c) 2007 Living Stream Ministry.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of First Peter, pp. 149-151. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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