Christ, the Building Stone, in Peter’s Theology

By Frederic R. Howe

Frederic R. Howe, Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology, Dallas Theological Seminary, resides in Cincinnati, Ohio.

This is article one in a four-part series, “Theological Themes in 1 and 2 Peter.”

The mention of Simon Peter’s name brings to mind a mixed reaction. Events in the lives of the disciples clearly forge the impression that Peter was viewed as the leader of the tight-knit band of the twelve apostles. He aggressively stepped out onto the surface of the turbulent waters, only to utter one of the most dramatic short prayers in the Bible: “Lord, save me!” (Matt. 14:30). He stated the majestic words of Matthew 16:16: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Yet on hearing the Lord Jesus Christ announce His suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection (v. 21), Peter began to rebuke the Lord. He heard the stinging words of judgment from Christ’s own lips: “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s” (v. 23). And Peter denied the Lord three times before His crucifixion and then was confronted three times by the risen Christ (John 21).

Yet this same Simon Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, preached with fearlessness and forthrightness on the Day of Pentecost. And later he wrote 1 and 2 Peter, guided by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration.[1]

Sources of Petrine Emphases

Remembrance

Granting the unique role of personal experience in Peter’s life and close association with Jesus Christ, memory no doubt played a major part in Peter’s writings. His sustained contact with Christ was bound to be a formative factor in his later life and ministry, both written and spoken. Explaining the gospel to Cornelius, Peter stated, “God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He should become visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us, who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead” (Acts 10:40–41). This interesting observation of Peter’s contact with the risen Christ points up the lasting impression the resurrected Savior made on Peter. Also, in clarifying the availability of God’s saving grace to Gentiles, Peter recalled, “And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit’ ” (11:16).

The recollection of a great event in the life of the Savior prompted this observation by Peter: “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty … and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain” (2 Pet. 1:16, 18). And when he exhorted elders, he referred to himself as a “witness of the sufferings of Christ” (1 Pet. 5:1).

Reflection

Through the long course of his apostolic leadership and ministry, Peter doubtlessly not only remembered key events from Christ’s life, but also reflected on them, meditated on them, allowing them to shape his thinking and his reactions to life. A probable result of Peter’s reflective pondering about the training and teaching given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ is stated in 1 Peter 5:1–5. The pivotal encounter between Peter and Christ recorded in John 21:15–22 assuredly shaped Peter’s entire approach to his ministry as an undershepherd and leader. Jesus’ command to Peter to care for and guide His sheep (vv. 15–17) must have reverberated through the apostle’s thoughts over the years of his ministry. When he wrote that elders are to “shepherd the flock of God” (1 Pet. 5:2), he used the verb ποιμαίνω, “to shepherd or guide,” the same word Christ used in John 21:16. Peter’s use of this term seems more than coincidental, given the seriousness of Christ’s reinstatement of Peter to a leadership role after his denial of Christ. Seemingly Peter was passing along the torch of truth in this challenge to church leaders, much as he himself had personally received that same type of challenge years earlier from the Lord Himself.

Consideration must be given also to another crisis in Peter’s life, recorded in Luke 22:31–32. Christ addressed Peter directly as follows: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” This direct confrontation with Peter was doubtless surprising to him and the other hearers, preceding as it did Peter’s strong affirmation that he would follow Christ to prison and death, which affirmation was followed by Christ’s prediction about Peter’s threefold denial. When Jesus said, “Strengthen your brothers,” He used the verb στηρίζω, which includes the ideas of supporting, establishing, confirming, and even fixing firmly.[2] Peter’s entire apostolic ministry was a record of his fulfilling this challenge Christ gave him. Again, it seems far more than mere coincidence that Peter chose this very word στηρίζω in his encouragement to believers in 1 Peter 5:10: “the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself … confirm [στηρίξει] … you.”

On another occasion when Christ dealt directly with Peter (the washing of the disciples’ feet as recorded in John 13), Jesus gave the disciple a lasting lesson, again one that doubtless Peter never forgot. In referring to Christ’s example of humility in washing the feet of the disciples and His very pointed words to Peter on that occasion, John noted that Jesus took a towel and girded Himself and performed the task of a servant in this menial work (vv. 1–5). In 1 Peter 5:5 Peter chose the word ἐγκομβόομαι (“to put or tie something on oneself”) in urging all his readers to practice true humility to each other: “All of you, clothe yourselves [ἐγκομβώσασθε] with humility toward one another.” Christ’s example of tying a towel on Himself would have made a lasting impression on Peter that day, an act that could easily have suggested the word picture of clothing oneself with humility.

Revelation

The third and most important source for Peter’s writings is the revelation of truth from God Himself. This principle of revelation blends perfectly with the other two sources. It involves the special work of the Holy Spirit in His teaching capacity for the apostle Peter (as well as, of course, for the other New Testament writers). Obviously when Peter made the great confession of Matthew 16:16, he was a recipient of specific divine revelation. Concerning the ultimate source of this striking statement, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus said it came by revelation from the Father who is in heaven (v. 17). Later the Lord Jesus said that after His resurrection the Holy Spirit would begin His unique ministry in conjunction with the apostolic preaching and teaching. “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come” (John 16:13). Hendriksen pointedly clarifies this promise as follows: “Thus, he guides into all the truth, that is, into the whole (with emphasis on this adjective) body of redemptive revelation.”[3]

This body of revealed truth was crystallized in the apostles’ preaching and teaching. Peter referred to this very body of truth in 1 Peter 1:22: “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.”

Peter’s Christology: Christ as a Building Stone

In Peter’s rich description of the Lord Jesus Christ in 1 Peter 2:4–8, he spoke of Christ as a rock or stone. This imagery has two facets. On the one hand Christ is seen as the foundation or basis for the building. On the other hand He is seen as having been rejected by the builders, yet approved by God, and ultimately in turn is viewed as a rock of offense or stumbling for those who reject Him. There are several aspects to this truth.

Communication of Life: The Living Stone

Peter said Christ is a “living stone” (λίθον ζῶντα, 1 Pet. 2:4). This is a striking picture, for stones are not living. Regarding this fact, Lenski aptly states, “Stones are dead; we even say ‘stone-dead.’ The fact makes the paradox of the living stone all the greater.”[4]

Peter had heard Christ’s great discourse recorded in John 6, with the unique words, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven” (v. 51). Peter had declared that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16). And on another occasion Peter had declared that Christ’s teaching ministry embodied “words of eternal life” (John 6:68). The connection is apparent: The living God imparted life-giving truth to His incarnate Son, and real spiritual life is found in Christ, the living Stone, who communicates life to those who are vitally related to Him.

Christ, the living Stone, communicates or imparts spiritual life to those who come to Him in faith. Peter wrote, “And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:4–5). Stibbs’s comments on this passage are enlightening:

Talking metaphorically, those who acknowledge Christ as the exalted stone themselves become, by reason of their relation to Him, as lively (RV “living”) stones to be built into God’s house. Here Peter is expounding truth to which his Christian name “Peter” (i.e., “a stone”) testified, and the truth which he had learnt from the Lord Himself. It was when Simon similarly acknowledged Jesus as God’s Christ, that Jesus in effect had said to him: “Now you are a stone; and I want many similar stones, because I intend with them to build a Church; and to build it upon, or in relation to, Myself, thus confessed as Christ, as the basic Rock or unifying chief cornerstone” (see Mt. xvi. 15–18).[5]

Peter makes it very clear that faith (belief in Christ) is the way by which spiritual life comes from the essence of life, the living Stone. He wrote of those who are “coming to Him” (1 Pet. 2:4), of the one “who believes in Him” (v. 6), and of “you who believe” (v. 7).

It is significant that Peter did not limit the rejection of the Christ, the living Stone, solely to the Jewish people. To be sure, he had stressed the fact of Israel’s rejection of Christ in his sermon recorded in Acts 3:14: “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you.” However, in 1 Peter 2:4 the apostle stated that the ultimate responsibility for turning away from the living Stone rests with the entire human race, not just the Jewish people: He was “rejected by men.”

Connection in Life: Precious Cornerstone

In his closely reasoned statement in 1 Peter 2:6–8, the apostle cited three Old Testament passages: Isaiah 28:16; Psalm 118:22; and Isaiah 8:14. In these verses Peter advanced his argument from the concept of the communication of spiritual life (the living Stone) to the concept of vital connection in life through dependence on Christ, the Cornerstone. The Cornerstone signifies the interconnectedness of the building stones to each other, and their vital relationship to the Cornerstone. “The cornerstone is the significant stone of the entire structure. Hence it is idealized, and we still lay it with a special ceremony as we lay no other stone. It governs all the angles and all the lines of both the foundation and the building and is thus placed at the head of the corner, i.e., to form the projecting (not the inner) angle.”[6]

Moses extolled the living God as “The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just” (Deut. 32:4). In the Psalms God is often referred to by this striking figure of speech. For example, Psalm 18:2 states, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge.” Bromiley says that the focus on God as the Rock includes messianic implications.

Several verses compare Jesus to a lithos, e.g., Mk. 12:10; Lk. 20:18; Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:4ff.; Rom. 9:32–33, and cf. Eph. 2:20; 1 Cor. 10:4–5; Jn. 7:37ff.; possibly Lk. 2:34; also the quotations from Is. 28:16 in Rom. 10:11 and 1 Tim. 1:16, though the image of the stone has faded from view in these verses…. The NT verses mentioned above come almost entirely from the OT. Many of the OT originals are also linked to the Messiah in later Judaism (cf. the LXX addition to Is. 28:16, rabbinic references to the stone of Dan. 2:34ff., and rabbinic interpretation of the stone of Gen. 28:18). The OT use of “Rock” for God prepares the ground for the messianic understanding of the OT lithos.[7]

Confrontation in Unbelief: Rejected Stone

Christ, the Cornerstone, is also depicted as a rejected Stone. When Christ confronted Israel’s religious leaders, Peter heard Him say, “Have you not even read this scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; this came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Mark 12:10–11). Lane discusses the meaning of this statement:

The passage refers to one of the building blocks gathered at the site of Solomon’s Temple which was rejected in the construction of the Sanctuary but which proved to be the keystone to the porch…. The citation is intended to sharpen the application of the parable to Jesus and his immediate listeners. It confirms the identification of Jesus as the son in the parable and contrasts his despised and rejected status with the glorious exaltation to which God has appointed him…. The text serves as a warning that God will reverse the judgment of men with regard to his final messenger in a startling display of his power, turning apparent defeat into triumph (cf. Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:7).[8]

The theme of rejection which is introduced in 1 Peter 2:4 (“rejected by men”) is now explained in verses 7–8. In his early apostolic preaching Peter had cited Psalm 118:22 in his proclamation before the Sanhedrin. “He is the Stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the very corner stone. And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11–12). Peter’s usage of this Old Testament passage is far more than coincidental. “The interdependent messianic exegesis of these passages in NT and early Christian literature in general is almost certainly a mark of that primitive collection of OT ‘testimonies’ which goes back, in its earliest form, to Christ Himself.”[9] Though Christ was rejected and crucified, great reversal occurred through His resurrection and ascension. He was vindicated in triumph, and is made the chief Cornerstone in the living structure of the church.

Crystallization of Rejection: Stone of Stumbling, Rock of Offense

Peter’s argument moves forward to its unalterable conclusion, as stated in 1 Peter 2:8: “and, ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense’; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.” The two terms “stone of stumbling” (λίθος προσκόμματος) and “rock of offense” (πέτρα σκανδάλου) converge in representing obdurate and final unbelief. The suffix -μα in the word πρόσκομμα suggests the result of action, not the action itself. For example, κήρυγμα, “preaching,” stresses the content of the preaching, what was proclaimed, and not the function or action of preaching. The κήρυγμα, the content of apostolic preaching, was clearly set forth by Peter in his early messages recorded in Acts. The κήρυγμα was the proclamation or heralding of the great facts of Jesus Christ’s life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and promised second coming.

The phrase “stone of stumbling” shifts from the building itself to the results of unbelief and rejection of the Messiah. The same stone that is foundational to the building is seen as a source or even cause for stumbling. These words express Peter’s meaning: “In 1 Peter the stone supports the building but is a danger to those who stumble over it, so that one must either be built into the divine building or fall on it by taking offense and failing to believe…. Christ has a two-fold effect. By means of God’s concealed revelation in him, with its justification of the sinner, the summons goes out which leads either to salvation in faith or to perdition in unbelief. God himself has laid the stone and given it this function.”[10]

In the phrase “rock of offense” the word “offense” (σκάνδαλον) was the same word Christ used in His decisive announcement to Peter in Matthew 16:23. In that context, Peter resisted the truth of the cross that Christ taught, that He as the Son of Man by divine necessity must suffer and die and be raised to life (v. 21). By Peter’s failure to believe the words of Christ on that occasion, he became a stumbling block, a source of offense to Christ. Indeed, Peter’s objection at that time reflected on the Jewish understanding of the role of the Messiah and the death of the cross. Paul used the same word σκάνδαλον in his statement in 1 Corinthians 1:23: “but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block [σκάνδαλον], and to Gentiles foolishness.”

For the Jewish people at that time, the scandal of the Cross was indeed a stumbling block to their receiving Christ. To them it was inconceivable that the Messiah, the Anointed One of God, the Deliverer and Ruler of His people Israel, would die the ignominious death of the cross. And the Gentiles expressed indifference and even hostility to the Messiah.

Peter concluded this portion of his argument with these words: “for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed” (1 Pet. 2:8). Those who reject Christ by their disobedience to the gospel will ultimately be separated from Him. The facts that they reject Him and that God “appointed” them to eternal judgment show the interrelationship of human responsibility and divine sovereignty. Earlier in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost Peter had cogently addressed the matter of the balance of divine sovereignty and human responsibility: “This Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23).

Conclusion

In depicting Christ as a building Stone, Peter drew on several Old Testament passages to establish the fact of the centrality of Christ. The vivid contrast of belief and unbelief is seen in 1 Peter 2:4–8. Believers, by faith, come to Christ, the living Stone, and through vital relationship to Him and contact with Him as the chief Cornerstone, are then built up to function as a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. However, another group is seen here also, those who disbelieve (v. 7). This disbelief is expressed in the decisive action of those who reject the living Stone, and this rejection is finalized by the fact that they stumble at the Cornerstone, thereby failing to make vital contact with the living Stone, Christ Himself. Ultimately, the same Stone, Christ, is then seen as the Rock of offense and Stone of stumbling.

Peter’s beautiful description of Christ as the building Stone elicits from believers heartfelt gratitude and the determination to honor Him with increasing devotion. Kistemaker summarizes this truth of Christ as the living Stone:

An anonymous poet of the seventh century captured the scriptural teaching on the stone in the form of a hymn. In the nineteenth century, John Mason Neale translated this hymn into English:

Christ is made the sure Foundation,
Christ the Head and Cornerstone,
Chosen of the Lord and precious,
Binding all the church in one;
Holy Zion’s help for ever,
And her confidence alone.

… The imagery of the stone describes Jesus, who calls upon every believer to trust in him. Jesus Christ, the object of our faith, will honor our dependence on him. He will never let us down.[11]

Notes

1. Several evangelical writers present evaluations of questions about Peter’s authorship of 1 Peter and 2 Peter: Wayne Grudem, 1 Peter, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 21–43; Michael Green, 2 Peter and Jude, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 13–39; Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of the Epistles of Peter and of the Epistle of Jude, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987); and Norman Hillyer, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude, New International Biblical Commentary (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1992), 1–16. Of particular interest is the fact that perhaps the most thorough recent exegetical commentary on 2 Peter, by Richard J. Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, Word Biblical Commentary (Waco, TX: Word, 1983), is written with the conviction that Peter did not write 2 Peter. Michael Green states carefully and irenically critical objections to Bauckham’s conclusions and maintains the Petrine authorship of 2 Peter (2 Peter and Jude, 34–39). On the Petrine authorship of 1 Peter, see the thorough discussion by J. Ramsey Michaels, 1 Peter, Word Biblical Commentary (Waco, TX: Word, 1988), lxii-lxvii. Michaels writes, “The traditional view that the living Peter was personally responsible for the letter as it stands has not been, and probably in the nature of the case cannot be, decisively shaken” (lxvi-lxvii).]
2. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), 1085.
3. William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel according to John, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1953), 328 (italics his).
4. R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John and St. Jude (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1966), 86 (italics his).
5. Alan M. Stibbs, The First Epistle General of Peter, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), 99 (italics his).
6. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John and St. Jude, 94.
7. Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume, 534.
8. William L. Lane, The Gospel according to Mark, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 420.
9. F. F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of the Acts, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1954), 100.
10. Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume, 947.
11. Kistemaker, Exposition of the Epistles of Peter and of the Epistle of Jude, 88.