2.03.17. "On either side one; and Jesus in the midst"
XVII. “ON EITHER SIDE ONE; AND JESUS IN THE MIDST.”
“ Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief comer stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the comer, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stimible at the word, being disobedient: whereimto also they were appointed.” — 1 Peter 2:6-8.
HE Scriptures did not determine the provisions and character of the covenant of grace: rather, the provisions and character of the covenant, arranged in the Divine counsel before time began, gave shape to the promises and ordinances of Scripture. Because matters were so ordered in the plan of salvation, therefore also that same ordering was given in the Scriptures. In particular, because, in the purpose of God, the eternal Son undertook to redeem his people, the promises of his coming were given in the prophets, to keep the eye of faith from the beginning ever looking unto Jesus. The eternal God has laid this foundation: we need not fear to trust it. He hath done all things well. It was laid in Zion: it pleased God to select one family, and constitute them the custodiers of his oracles, for distribution through the world in the fulness of time. The chief corner stone is chosen and precious. The word means dear, as in the case of the centurion’s servant, who was dear unto his master. The well-beloved of the Father was chosen for this service, and sent into the world. Much of the power which the gospel exercises on stony hearts to break and melt them lies here. God spared not his own Son: the gift was, in human language, unspeakable. It is the preciousness of his gift that imparts power to his invitation. As soon as an anxious inquirer realizes that Gk)d, in order to save a soul from death, gave up his Well-beloved, the melting begins, and the hard stony heart flows down like water. It is not that God was hard and unforgiving until Christ, by his suffering in our stead, propitiated his favour. This conception grasps even the glorious gospel by the wrong end, and turns it upside down, — turns the truth into a lie. The opposite is the truth. Such was the love of the Father to the lost, that he spared not his dear Son, but gave him up to die, the just for the unjust. The mercy of God to sinners is the cause, not the effect, of the incarnation and sacrifice of the Son.
“ He that believeth on him shall not be confounded.” It seems to point to the flutter and confusion that must overtake the guilty at the appearing of the Judge. Those guests who wore the wedding garment were not put about when the footfall of the king was heard approaching. They were adorned with the robe that the king himself had chosen, prescribed, and bestowed. They knew that he would be well pleased with his own. This is the shadow of that confidence which calms and keeps the hearts of believers when they have put on Christ. They know that God is well pleased with his own beloved. There is no confusion of face for those who are found in him. “ There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”
It was well for Paul that he cast away with loathing the long array of merits in which he formerly trusted. For if he had been placed before the great white throne with those filthy rags for covering — his birth and baptism, his orthodoxy and his zeal — he would certainly have been confounded in the presence of the Judge. He learned in time to loathe these filthy rags, and he passionately put them off, counting them loss for Christ, his new portion, — his only and sufficient righteousness. Nor is it merely a confidence in the gre t day; it is also a firm footing and a glad song at every stage of the pilgrimage on earth. Alas, the life -course of a sinner unforgiven is like the flutter and fright of a painful dream, where the feet sink in mire at every step, — where the opening is so narrow that you cannot pass through, and you experience a sense of suffocation as you vainly repeat the effort.
I observe with glad gratitude that no other condition is attached to this confidence than the one — believe on him. The Spirit has not said. If you belong to this or that ecclesiastical corporation, or have received ordinances at the hands of self-styled successors of the apostles, you shall not be confounded. I admire the liberty wherewith the Son has made his people free. He that believeth on him — this condition, and none other! In presence of this divine decision, seen like the sun in its own light, how can a puny, ignorant, sinful man, strutting about in an authority derived only from equally puny, ignorant, and sinful men who lived before him, dare to set up other conditions of peace with God!
“ Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.” He is now summing up the results of the preceding argument. The term here is not the same as that which is rendered “ precious “ in verse 4tlL There it is the adjective; here it is the corresponding noun, and means ’’ the price.” It is the word employed to designate the thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 27:6); “ it is the price of blood.” It is true that Christ is “ precious “ to them that believe; but more than that lies in the word. He is their price — the price paid for them, and by which they were redeemed. They were, according to Luther’s rendering, “bought dear;” and he who became their ransom is, in the other and cognate sense of the term, ’’ dear “ to their hearts.
It is eminently worthy of notice that over against “believe” in 1 Peter 2:6 stands, not its exact correlative “ unbelieving,” but “ disobedient.” They who receive Christ believe: you would expect to read conversely, they who reject him are unbelieving; but instead, you read that they are disobedient. People raise a great debate upon the question whether a man is responsible for his belief, and whethet he can be condemned for not believing. Quietly this debate is all quashed here by the representation that unbelief is disobedience. Unbelief is indeed the root, but the outgrowth is disobedience. As you can more easily push over a tree by applying force to its lofty head, than by acting on its stem near the ground, so the matter is more easily settled by reckoning unbelief as disobedience. This is a matter which we must leave with the conscience of the individual. Sincere inquirers after truth, God will hear and guide; those who cannot believe, because they have in their hearts a foregone conclusion that they will not obey, God will judge. Every man is his brother’s keeper, for loving, patient eflPort to lead him into truth; but no man is his neighbour’s judge. To his own master he standeth or falleth. In regard to the expression, “Whereunto they were appointed,” all that I can suggest towards its interpretation is, that it corresponds with and balances the clause in 1 Peter 2:6, “ I lay in Sion a chief corner stone.” The same word is employed in both clauses. “ Appoint “ here is not the word which signifies choose, or determine. It is simply place, or lay down. The two clauses are the complements of each other. He who lays down the corner stone, also lays down these men in their lives before it. He places them in each other’s way. Whatever may be taught elsewhere in Scripture on cognate topics, as far as I can see, all this passage teaches is, that the comer stone, and these rejecters, were by God placed reciprocally in each other’s path. The stone is set before them, and they are set before it. There is no possibility of evading a decision. This stone must be to them one of two — must be either the foimdation on which a believer’s hope shall securely rest, or the stone that in judgment will fall upon them and crush them as enemies. “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve: as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”