1 PETER 2 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 239] 1 PETER 2 (NOTES OF A READING)
Ques What is the characteristic as to “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God”? In what do they consist? They would contrast with sacrifices of the old order.
CAC Yes, those of this dispensation are a contrast to the thought of the material house and the sacrifices of animals. I suppose the object of the Spirit of God was to show that these things of God introduced in the Old Testament have not been given up, but have taken on a new character of greater value. The thought of the common centre of worship was not new, was it? There was a centre which God chose and where He put His name, and all sacrifices were to be offered there, and it would have been an offence otherwise, showing God would bring His people into unity in their approach to Him. So the offering up of spiritual sacrifices is a collective thought, is it not? All the clean animals were types of Christ in different ways. I suppose every animal offered in sacrifice presented some thought of Christ.
The thought in offering was that God would be pleased with what was offered. So it says here, “Acceptable to God”. It is a bringing of that to God which is pleasing to Him. In the Old Testament the offerer brought his offering because the sin question was not settled. It is not acceptable that we come to God under the burden of sins, because that question has been settled permanently, but we come as having a purged conscience, and we are on the footing of Christ before Him. We are never on any other footing. So now we can bring sacrifices of a spiritual order; we can speak to Him of Christ. What follows here confirms that. The cornerstone is elect, precious. “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness”. God has given us the knowledge of One who is infinitely precious to Him. We were singing this morning of knowing ‘His preciousness to Thee’. Whatever [p. 240] we can say truthfully of Christ to God is acceptable.
Ques Offering “the sacrifice of praise continually to God” (Hebrews 13: 15), is that a spiritual sacrifice?
CAC Yes; clearly. “Confessing his name”, it says. Peter does not go into great depths in connection with this matter; he limits his teaching to what the Jews of the dispersion would be able to understand.
Rem The Lord speaks of “in my name”. There is wonderful access to God, but never apart from Christ (cf. Ephesians 2: 18).
CAC That is most important, and we approach through Him: “Acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”. All we know of God has come to us through Christ, He has brought it to us in a mediatorial way. And on the other hand, He is the Medium by whom we approach God; so everything is made of Christ. Everything we bring is enhanced and goes to God by Him.
Ques The thoughts of the house and priesthood seem very closely linked together, and then he quotes a scripture referring back to the house again. Do the two thoughts run concurrently?
CAC Yes, I think they do. The difference now is that they blend; it is the same persons here that compose both. The persons have that which is precious; they cannot say, ‘Nothing in my hand I bring’. God does not want that sort of worshipper, though it is all right for sinners to say it. “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness”; the preciousness of Christ comes to those who believe. It becomes theirs, so they are not empty-handed, they are consecrated, every one that has believed the gospel. “Consecrated” means he has his hands full of what is most acceptable to God — Christ.
Rem This fits in with the revelation to Peter in Matthew 16.
CAC But he reasons from their own Scriptures. He does not write exactly as an apostle but as a teacher, showing that things in the Old Testament now take on a different [p. 241] character of reality. The offerers did not understand in the Old Testament. They really had not the Person of Christ before them in a definite way, or His work or preciousness.
We can all sit down together as a company of worshippers and feel we are much more capable of understanding than Moses or Abraham or any of the Old Testament worthies, even the feeblest of us. It would be good if we thought more of that. None of the Old Testament saints knew a glorified Man in heaven. They laid hold by faith of God’s promises but probably did not have any idea how He would work them out. I suppose God loves to hear from us how He has worked things out in Christ, and we are sure He is pleased with every true word that we can say to Him about Christ.
Ques What would be the meaning of “elect” in relation to Christ?
CAC Is He not the One whom God has chosen out of all other men? He says, “I have ... exalted one chosen out of the people” (Psalm 89: 19), as though God has cast His eye over all the people, and has chosen Christ. He answers perfectly to everything that delights the heart of God. He is God’s chosen One. It was the great lesson learnt on the mount. In the mind of the disciples, Moses and Elias were quite worthy to be put along with Christ, and I suppose it is easy for us to get excellent men in mind, so that the excellent glory of Christ is not seen. But then every other man disappears when God comes in, the cloud overshadowed and then they saw no man.
We do not contribute to what we believe; it comes to us from outside us in all its worthlessness or value. But in believing on Christ and what God says of Him, we have the real substance of everything that is precious, and the longer we live the more convinced we are of that. I am more convinced than ever that there is nothing of value but what has come to me from God, and that is precious. We have to learn it. Sometimes there is a reserve, there is something I take credit for that is not Christ. It is really a millstone round [p. 242] my neck — a hindrance to myself and the service. J.N.D. said he had a sense of his utter vileness from the beginning, and had been thankful for it.
Rem Romans 7 helps on that line.
CAC And that is the foundation of solid peace. From the very outset Christ was in God’s mind, before ever He made Adam; and it is the wonder of creation that there should be a creature form that He intended Christ to take. When Adam fell, there was nothing that could fulfil God’s mind.
So in the woman’s seed and in all the patterns, God was unfolding that everything depended on Christ. Now faith believes that, and it is happy.
Rem The corner-stone is in Zion.
CAC It stands over against Sinai, because it was the testing of the fallen man. So God gave men fifteen hundred years (until Christ) and a very simple rule; it could all be stated in ten words. He had been talking to Moses on the mount before ever the law came down. The law only condemned; it leaves no standing, but cuts it entirely from under my feet. We must be blessed in and through Another, so in grace God has laid this Corner-stone. It is just a question of believing. “He that believes on him shall not be ashamed” (Romans 9: 33). If I believe on myself or any other man I shall be put to shame, but believing on Christ, no man will ever be put to shame. So that all this is wonderfully establishing in grace and sets our souls free. To be able to tell God I have not anything but what has come from Himself, and I do not want anything else, that is really liberty, and sets me free to serve in the holy priesthood. It is contrasted with the refuge of lies in Isaiah 28, which is of man. But what is resting on the Corner-stone abides. God is not looking for anything from me as a natural man, He is seeking to confer something upon me in a Person, so that He risen and glorified might be everything to me. It is like Israel’s having to learn they were disowned by God, so that He pronounced upon them no mercy, and all was over for them. “Who once were not a people” and “not enjoying mercy” — that was Israel; but He says that they would be a people, because when Christ comes in, that changes everything. God has peculiar pleasure in having a people on this footing; that is, it is a peculiar satisfaction to have a people who think nothing of themselves and everything of God. They become a pleasure to God; as He says in the prophets, “This people have I formed for myself: they shall shew forth my praise” (Isaiah 43: 21). That is very much this scripture.
Ques We get the kingly priesthood here. Would it be right to say that the holy priesthood is Godward and the royal priesthood is manward?
CAC I should think it is something like the morning meeting and the gospel preaching. When together in assembly, in principle we offer Godward; then we set forth in the gospel what God is for man — His excellencies — that is the gospel. The preacher was once in the dark and has been illuminated. We were once dark, and now light in the Lord, and have been called into the light in pure grace and mercy.