1 Peter 2:4-5 ‘As you come to him, the living Stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him, you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ’.
First Reflection
Have you seen those gravity-defying, creative little stone pillars where a large stone balances on the point of a small stone, and then a succession of variously shaped stones continues upwards? Well, Peter’s use of the stone analogy is the very top of a biblical word-pillar. King David laid the foundational stone in Psalm 118:22 when he wrote that the coming Messiah would be ‘the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’. The prophet Isaiah expanded on this with ‘for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall’ (Isaiah 8:14). Then he added to this in Isaiah 28:16 ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed’. Much later, Jesus quoted Psalm 118:22, and then Paul cited Isaiah in Romans 9:33. And then came Peter’s analogy in 1 Peter 2:4-5
The older I get, the more I realise how the Lord Jesus Christ is either a stumbling stone that people trip over to their eternal detriment or the foundation stone of a life-pillar that reaches to Heaven. Jesus said to the disbelievers of his day that “he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces…” (Matthew 21:4). Most unbelievers seem quite happy to listen to Christians talking about ‘God’, but their toes get bruised when we talk about salvation only in and through Jesus. Their toes get bruised because they stumble over the idea that Jesus is the only foundation of God-given spiritual life. Equally, Christians who try to build their faith-pillar on anything other than Jesus and his revelation of the Godhead run the risk of toppling their tenuous tower.
Second Reflection
Peter adds something important to the analogy when he adds the word ‘living’… Jesus is THE living stone, and we are living stones built into a spiritual temple. So the analogy expands from a stone to a stone temple, a living stone temple made of eternally alive beings and with the source of life, Jesus Christ, as its foundation stone. In an inspired leap of understanding, Peter expands the analogy into a temple full of priests offering spiritual sacrifices. The stone Temple of Jerusalem was a physical model of the spiritual reality, the church. The sacrificial system was a physical depiction of the true spiritual substitution and atonement of Jesus, the lamb of God. The priests and their praises and service stood for Jesus-followers of all ages right through into eternity. It says something about our personal value, calling and destiny. It also says something about the church throughout time, continent and community.
1 Peter 2:24 ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.’
Third Reflection
I am sure you will have noted the strange use of the word ‘tree’ when the cross is so obviously presented. In the book of Acts Luke also uses the word tree instead of cross. Why is this?
During one of my visits to Jerusalem, I visited a place where some of the original objects referenced in scripture were on display. They showed us an ancient threshing machine that had been excavated, a stone disk used to seal an ancient tomb, and so on. They also showed us how in biblical times, men were sometimes crucified on an actual tree and not a constructed wooden cross. It is unlikely that this would have been applied to Jesus because the Romans routinely used a vertical pillar to which a cross beam was attached. Furthermore, we know that Jesus was made to carry that cross beam all the way to Golgotha. No, the use of the word tree in reference to the cross of crucifixion must go deeper than that.
In Galatians 3:13, Paul referred to Jesus’ death on the cross as the act that broke the curse of sin and death. He wrote, ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit’. He referenced Deuteronomy 21:3, but the tree goes back in time to the very source of the curse, the tree in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge and thus lost the right to eat from the Tree of Life. They relied on the word of Satan instead of the word of God, rebelled against the Most High, and in their actions declared that they wanted to be gods. This was the source of the curse that separated all men and women from the presence, life, and knowledge of God.
Now, in Jesus and his atoning death, all who repent of rebellion, take God at his word once again, and confess Jesus as Lord, can request and receive a new spiritual life (New birth). The curse of death is broken and the blessing of eternal life imparted. Thus, in the book of Revelation, there is a symbolic depiction of the New Jerusalem (Heaven come to Earth), which reads:
‘Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever’ (Revelation 22:1-5).
Fourth Reflection
Oh how the words ‘by his wounds you have been healed’ have been abused in our times.
This is a reference to Isaiah 53:5-6 ‘But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all’. The context of both Peter and Isaiah is the penalty borne by the Messiah Jesus for our sin of rebellion and disobedience. Despite this, a large portion of the modern church has interpreted the texts as a warrant for healing on demand. They claim that physical healing is in the atonement and therefore ours to enjoy in the same way that we enjoy our ‘saved’ status. “By his stripes I am healed!” has become an often-heard mantra in much of the Pentecostal and Charismatic world. But since when are we permitted to lift texts out of their inspired context, and since when may we claim or demand our salvation as if we had a right to it?!
However, and it might surprise you hearing me say this, in a sense bodily healing is ‘in the atonement’. Here is how I see it. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God and aspired to his status, they died spiritually. God’s warning to them was clear and unambiguous (Genesis 3:3). They were cast out of the Garden of Eden and thus out of God’s presence. This is why Paul reminded his followers that before receiving the grace of God in Christ Jesus, they ’were dead in your transgressions and sins’ (Ephesians 2:1). When we are born again of the Holy Spirit, we are made alive spiritually. The original death/spiritual separation from God was instant and affected the whole human race, and the new birth is also instant. Once born again, we are then transformed over time into the likeness of Jesus, and this takes the rest of our lives on this planet. In the Resurrection, we will be restored to full physical functionality.
Salvation is thus instant spiritually, progressive mentally, and eventual physically. In this sense, then, physical healing is part of our salvation, but it is only guaranteed when we enter the New HeavenEarth of resurrection glory. Healing in this life is a gift of grace and not a right. We ask to be healed and we ask for others to be healed (Gift of the Spirit), and the Lord manifests his grace as he sees fit.
