4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,
“ Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”
7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
“ The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”
8 and
“ A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.”
They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. (1 Peter 2:4-8, NKJ)
It’s only as we believe that we can appreciate how precious Christ is. And it is then that we place Jesus as OUR Cornerstone to live our lives by.
The Greek work for precious means to be accounted as of great price, precious, costly. When we appreciate the true value of something, and we truly desire it, we are will to pay the price.
This reminds me of the stories Jesus told:
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.
“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!” (Matthew 13:44-46, NTL)
And we see another example in this story:
1 Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man he had raised from the dead. 2 A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate with him. 3 Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance.
4 But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said, 5 “That perfume was worth a year’s wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.” 6 Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself.
7 Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
9 When all the people heard of Jesus’ arrival, they flocked to see him and also to see Lazarus, the man Jesus had raised from the dead. 10 Then the leading priests decided to kill Lazarus, too, 11 for it was because of him that many of the people had deserted them and believed in Jesus. (John 12:1-11, NLT)
To one, He had become the most precious thing on earth, and, at the Scriptures indicate, to the others who refused to believe, He was the stumbling stone, and the rock of offense.
Oh, that we will continually be aware of the preciousness of Christ, and may that lead to an even deeper love and devotion! May we be eternally grateful!!
He paid the ultimate price for us!
Tags: chief cornerstone, chosen, chosen people, cornerstone, costly, despised, disobedience, rejecting, rejection, value, worth
