1 Peter 2:5 continues with the metaphor of living stones as a description of the believers being addressed. In the previous verse Christ is the living stone, a foundation offering life and hope. Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, those who have trusted in Him have life and purpose.
1 Peter 2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
A spiritual house is quite different than a stone temple. The temple had been the center of worship and had offered a symbolic righteousness before God through elaborate sacrifices performed by priests. It was made of material which could be destroyed. A spiritual house is made of living persons, souls belonging to Christ. It is the church of God, built of living stones, upon the living foundation of Jesus. Stone upon stone a temple is built; Christ’s church is built with the souls which are alive in Him.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
Read the encouragement from Paul to the church at Ephesus, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner [stone], in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord”, Ephesians 2:19-21.
A holy priesthood refers back to those men held in high esteem which offered sacrifices in the temple grounds. However, with Christ’s finished work for the atonement for sin, He is our great high priest and “every Christian is in fact a priest, and is engaged in offering an acceptable sacrifice to God”, (ref. Albert Barnes’ NT Commentary).
Hebrews 4:14, Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
The intercession of Old Testament priests is no longer needed, the ultimate sacrifice has been offered and our transgressions paid in full.
Hebrews 9:12, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
Now each person who stands on the righteousness of Christ is in a sense a priest, offering daily sacrifices of worship.
Revelation 1:6, and He has made us [to be] a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; to Him [be] the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Spiritual sacrifices, rather than the blood of animals, are now offered to God through Jesus, with a heart of thanksgiving and worship. Christ’s death and resurrection were the ultimate sacrifice, no other atonement for sin is needed. A believer is part of God’s family, his spiritual house, and is to live according to God’s word, offering all to Him as worship.
“The proper idea of a priest is one who offers sacrifice; but the ministers of the New Testament have no sacrifices to offer--the one great and perfect oblation for the sins of the world having been made by the Redeemer on the cross”, Albert Barnes’ NT Commentary. Our sacrifice is not one of atonement for sin as it was in the Old Testament, since the full price has been paid in Christ. Instead, we offer sacrifice of worship, only acceptable through Christ as our intercessor, in living a holy life. Those who believe in Him have been created for a purpose – to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Those under Old Testament Law offered physical sacrifices for atonement of their sins; we now offer spiritual sacrifices of worship out of gratitude for the life we have in Christ.
Romans 12:1 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.
1Corinthians 3:9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
Hebrews 13:15-16 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
We are to ‘offer up’ <anaphero>, to take up, to bear, to bring, to give our lives as a sacrifice of praise to God. Our greatest example is Christ. The Apostle explains this further along in 1 Peter 2:21-24, For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting [Himself] to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
Look again at Hebrews 13:15-16. A spiritual sacrifice, instead of being an outward act, begins from within. Our entire self is to be surrendered to God. This means our will is given up for His; God is on the throne as we live for Him. We push sin away and resist the pull of our fleshly passions. With our lips we offer praise – words of thanksgiving to God. I wonder how many of us are quite willing to speak of God at church, in a Bible study, or with those we know are like minded. But our lips close to the things of God when there might be a price to pay, when we fear what others may think of us. We readily talk of our interests, our families, and our work. We often boldly share our opinions and our thoughts, but when it comes to speaking Truth publicly, we remain silent.
Do you confess your hope of Christ?
What is the fruit of your lips?
Are you willing to loudly sing your praise to God in a worship service or alone at home but then leave your worship where it is comfortable?
The KJV of Hebrews 13:16 is rendered, “But to do good and to communicate forget not”. We are to meet the needs of the ‘one-another’s’. We are to speak of God’s praise continually. In Alexander Maclaren’s Expositions of Holy Scripture for 1 Peter 2:5, he makes these statements worthy of thought – “your praying and singing praises are worse than useless unless you go out into the world an embodiment and an imitation of the love which you hymn”, … “Do not talk about being the priests of the Most High God unless you are doing the priestly office of representing God to men, and carrying to them the blessings that they need. Your service to God is worthless unless it is followed by diligent, fraternal, wise, self-sacrificing service for men”, (biblehub.com).
1Peter 4:11 Whoever speaks, [let him speak,] as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, [let him do so] as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Do you serve Christ in holiness and righteousness?
Do you offer the spiritual sacrifices of a broken heart and contrite spirit? Of thanksgiving and praise?
Do you daily come to Christ, in faith, seeking to serve Him for His glory?
A priest is one who is engaged in the holy service of God. A priest offers worship to God. Today, we think of priests as those who have the authority to perform religious rituals and fulfill the duties of a particular religion. However, all those who have bowed before Jesus as their Lord and Savior are engaged in the holy service of God and are set apart to offer their lives as worship to Him.
1Peter 2:9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR [God's] OWN POSSESSION, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
Psalm 51:15-17 O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Thy praise. For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.
Look again at 1 Peter 2:4. Christ was rejected by men but choice and precious in the sight of God. If you know Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you have been chosen by the God of the universe, the God of all things created, visible and invisible, to bring glory to His name.
John 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.
Ephesians 1:4-6, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
We are inexpressibly precious and valuable because we were created to bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. This is difficult to comprehend, knowing our weakness to sin, yet it is true. The words of the hymn “And Can it Be” by Charles Wesley, come to mind:
“And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior’s blood? Died He for me who caused His pain – For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be, that Thou, my God, shouldst die for Me?”
Ephesians 2:4-10 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly [places], in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
It is all too easy to answer the questions asked previously with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. I can personally slide my way out of total honesty by doing so. In order to avoid this, I have to answer questions that require a heartfelt explanation on my part. If I answer yes, then I must be able to explain how. If I answer no, then I must be willing to consider change.
How do you serve Christ in holiness and righteousness?
How do you offer the spiritual sacrifices of a broken heart and contrite spirit? Of thanksgiving and praise?
How do you daily come to Christ, in faith, seeking to serve Him for His glory?
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
