25. The Centrality of Jesus_Chosen by God and Precious

The Centrality of Jesus: Chosen by God and Precious

We are now in our third installment of our series in 1 Peter of the centrality of Jesus. We have seen previously His centrality in the believer’s life and His centrality as the chief corner stone of the church. This morning we will look, before we go further at why Jesus is central in every way.

When we think of something that is central to an operation, we mean that it is essential. The operation cannot be run without it. With any operation there may be several essential parts. At my place of work we have several different departments all of which are essential to the functioning of the business as a whole. With the church, Jesus alone is necessarily the only essential part in the beginning of the church, the members of it, He establishes to governance of the church, and its service of worship. As we read the text I want to you pay close attention to the words describing His relation to God and His relation to us.

1Pe 2:4-10  Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,  (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.  (9)  But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;  (10)  who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

There are two points this morning

Chosen and Precious with God v4

Precious to God’s People

I. Chosen and Precious with God v4. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,

As we have said before, many times those translating Greek into English in our Bibles will make decisions in translating based on readability. Word for word translation often will render sentences that make no sense to us. But sometimes the emphasis of the writer of the letter is lost for the sake of readability. In the Greek it literally read ‘but with God chosen and precious. God stands as the final judge in the matter of Jesus the living stone. He is despised and rejected by mankind but God’s judgement He is chosen and precious.

First question is: Is Jesus chosen as the chief cornerstone because He is precious or is He precious because He is chosen as the chief cornerstone?

Objectively

One has to do with intrinsic value and the other is value acquired or bestowed. For example, gold has intrinsic value. It is considered a precious metal all over the world. Diamonds, likewise, have intrinsic value. They are considered precious all over the world. But when gold is fashioned into a ring and given to a bride on her wedding day by her husband it becomes precious on a different level. So the answer to our questions is yes.

His Intrinsic Value is as infinite as He Himself is infinite. He is the 2nd person in the Trinity, God the Son and every attribute ascribed to God is His.

Joh 1:1-3  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  (2)  He was in the beginning with God.  (3)  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

In this text we see the eternal existence of the Word, who we know is the pre-incarnate Jesus. co-existence with God, and identified as God, Creator of all things. He is the manifestation of God in the OT. Every time the angel of Lord appears in the OT to people, they say behold I have seen God and yet I live. The people were not rebuked when they worshipped or offered sacrifices.

We have read the texts before in Col 1:18 and Heb. 1:1-3 that Jesus is the exact representation of God, Creator of all things, upholder and sustainer of all things. He receives they worship of the angelic realm. Isa 6:1-3  In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.  (2)  Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  (3)  And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!"

Rev 5:11-14  Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,  (12)  saying with a loud voice: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!"  (13)  And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: "Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!"  (14)  Then the four living creatures said, "Amen!" And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.

Objectively He is precious because He is God.

Subjectively He is precious to God the Father as God the Son. From all eternity God the Father and God the Son enjoyed perfect unity and fellowship. That did not change with Christ’s incarnation.

In Matthew 17 Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up on a high mountain. When they are all alone something utterly astonishing happens. All of a sudden God gives Jesus an appearance of glory. Mat 17:2  and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.

Then in verse 5 a bright cloud overshadows them and God speaks from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

First, God gives the disciples a brief glimpse of the true heavenly glory of Jesus. This is what Peter says in 2 Peter 1:17: “He [Christ] received honor and glory from God the Father.” Then God reveals his heart for the Son and says two things: “I love my Son” (“This is my beloved Son”), and “I take pleasure in my Son” (“with whom I am well pleased”).

He says this on one other occasion: at Jesus’s baptism, as the Holy Spirit comes down and anoints Jesus for his ministry. — “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

“When God looks at his Son, He enjoys, admires, cherishes, prizes, and relishes what he sees.”

And in the gospel of John, Jesus speaks several times about the Father’s love for him: for example, John 3:35, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.” John 5:20: “The Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is doing.” (See also Matthew 12:18 where Matthew quotes Isaiah 42:1 in reference to Jesus: “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.” The Hebrew word behind “well pleased” is ratsah, and means “delights in.”)

Subjectively we Jesus is precious. God the Father loves the Son, not with any self-denying, sacrificial mercy, but with the love of delight and pleasure. He is well-pleased with his Son. His soul delights in the Son! When he looks at his Son, he enjoys and admires and cherishes and prizes and relishes what he sees.

Because Jesus is objectively and subjectively precious only HE could be chosen as the Chief cornerstone. Only He Could fulfill all His Father’s decree. What did the Father decree? Before the foundation of the world, sometime in eternity past God chose people for salvation and adoption into the family of God.

Eph 1:4-5  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,  (5)  having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

That means that their sins would be forgiven, reconciliation would take place, we would be justified and also glorified.

Rom 8:30  Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

God the Father enters into an agreement with God the Son to fulfill the Father’s decree. Theologians call this the Covenant of Redemption. The definition of a covenant can be as simple as an oath bound promise, but a covenant is also a voluntary agreement entered into by two parties with conditions and promises made. No where in the Scripture is the covenant of redemption mentioned but from Scripture we can see that an agreement was made between the Father and the Son and the purpose of that was for the redemption of God’s people who stood under the same sentence of judgment and condemnation as the rest. We are not adding to the Scripture something that isn’t there. Labeling the agreement as the covenant of redemption is only a term of explanation just like the term Trinity. Trinity is not found in the Bible, but we see the doctrine throughout Scripture. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, three persons in the Godhead.

Php 2:5-11  Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,  (6)  who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,  (7)  but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  (8)  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  (9)  Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,  (10)  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,  (11)  and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This passage reveals many things. It speaks of the willingness of the Son to undertake a mission of redemption at the behest of the Father. That Jesus was about doing the will of the Father is testified throughout His life. As a young boy in the temple He reminded His earthly parents that He must be about His Father’s business. His meat and drink was to do the will of His Father. It was zeal for His Father’s house that consumed Him. Repeatedly He declared that He spoke not on His own authority but on the authority of the One who sent Him.

Jesus is the primary missionary. As the word suggests, a missionary is one who is “sent.” The eternal Word did not decide on His own to come to this planet for its redemption. He was sent here. In the plan of salvation the Son comes to do the Father’s bidding.

The point of the covenant of redemption is that the Son comes willingly. He is not coerced by the Father to relinquish His glory and be subjected to humiliation. Rather, He willingly “made Himself of no reputation.” The Father did not strip the Son of His eternal glory but the Son agreed to lay it aside temporarily for the sake of our salvation.

Listen to Jesus as He prays to the Father at the end of His ministry: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You; And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:1–5 NKJV). The covenant of redemption was a transaction that involved both obligation and reward. The Son entered into a sacred agreement with the Father. He submitted Himself to the obligations of that covenantal agreement. An obligation was likewise assumed by the Father — to give His Son a reward for doing the work of redemption. The reward was not only the glory He once had but the people He had redeemed. Joh 10:29-30  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.  (30)  I and My Father are one."

It is Jesus that is the center piece of the covenants of God with men. From the covenant of grace to being the surety of the new covenant. Jesus is that seed of the woman who crushed the serpent’s head. (Gen 3:15) He is the seed through whom all the nations would be blessed in the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 22:18) Jesus is the promised prophet of the Mosaic Cov. in Duet 16. He is the seed of David to sit forever of the throne. And it is this precious Jesus that is the guarantor of the new covenant. Heb 9:13-15  For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,  (14)  how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?  (15)  And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

II. Precious to God’s People

V6,7 For this is contained in Scripture: "BEHOLD I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED." (7) This precious value, then, is for you who believe.

Peter is not pointing to the preciousness of salvation, he is pointing to the preciousness of the Savior. He has redeemed us from our futile way of life inherited from our forefathers. This futile way of life is ineffective in finding God and finding salvation. We could not live enough perfect lifetimes to earn our salvation because of the stain of present and previous sins committed. We could not, cannot bargain our way out of our slavery to sin. But Jesus paid the ransom price in His blood. He is the sacrificial lamb of all the ages. He is, as John the Baptist testifies, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Paul states the satisfaction of Christ atonement clearly in Rom 8:31-34  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  (32)  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  (33)  Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.  (34)  Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.  

This Jesus chosen and precious represents God before men and He represents men before God. Jesus is the forever testimony of God’s love, grace, compassion, and mercy to His people.

Rom 5:8  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Heb 12:2  looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Think about what the verse is saying for a moment. What was the joy? The joy was redeeming God’s people. Remember what we have read before that Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. So the Son’s joy is the Father’s joy.

Jesus represents God before men and what a testimony of the love of God to His people it is!

Rom 5:19  For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.

Jesus represents us before God as the second Adam who has fulfilled all the requirements of the Law in His perfect obedience and in His suffering the just and righteous judgement of God on our behalf. He is in heaven now before God as the forever sacrificed lamb for us. Rev 5:5-6  But one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals."  (6)  And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

There even now after all He has already done lives to make intercession for us.

I was going to save this for the next in the series, but I can’t. There are too many weighed down in sorrow at their own weakness. Look at the first two words in verse 5. They are in most translations ‘You also’ this points to their being living stones like Jesus. But what this also means is that you, believer are choice and precious in the sight of God. With the same love the Father has for the Son, He has for all the children of God. Jesus did not come so that God would love us, He was sent by God the Father, because of the Father’s love for us.

Application:

You may be thinking, ‘Jesus is precious. But He should be more precious to me than He is. How can Jesus be more precious to me?’ Think on the number and magnitude of your sins. Jesus was in the house of Simon the Pharisee.

Luk 7:36-47  Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee's house, and sat down to eat.  (37)  And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil,  (38)  and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.  (39)  Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, "This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner."  (40)  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." So he said, "Teacher, say it."  (41)  "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  (42)  And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?"  (43)  Simon answered and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more." And He said to him, "You have rightly judged."  (44)  Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.  (45)  You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in.  (46)  You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil.  (47)  Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little."

When we judge ourselves rightly before the Law of God and understand that sin is not just a physical action but an attitude of the heart then we begin to understand the scope of our sin before God. If we are those who justify our sin by circumstance or excuse, we certainly have little use for the shed blood of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and we will certainly nor esteem Him as precious.

This does not mean that we continually bear the weight of our sins in guilt. Jesus has done all of that for us. Rather we should love, and praise and wonder at our glorious Jesus Christ. John Newton wrote a hymn to that effect in 1774. The words are as follow:

Let us love, and sing, and wonder,

Let us praise the Saviour's name!

He has hushed the law's loud thunder,

He has quenched Mount Sinai's flame;

He has washed us with his blood,

He has brought us nigh to God.

Let us love the Lord who bought us,

Pitied us when enemies,

Called us by his grace, and taught us,

Gave us ears and gave us eyes:

He has washed us with his blood,

He presents our souls to God.

Let us sing, though fierce temptation

Threaten hard to bear us down!

For the Lord, our strong salvation,

Holds in view the conqueror's crown,

He who washed us with his blood,

Soon will bring us home to God.

Let us wonder; grace and justice

Join, and point to mercy's store;

When through grace in Christ our trust is,

Justice smiles, and asks no more:

He who washed us with his blood,

Has secured our way to God.

Let us praise, and join the chorus

Of the saints enthroned on high;

Here they trusted him before us,

Now their praises fill the sky:

"Thou hast washed us with thy blood;

Thou art worthy, Lamb of God!"

How precious is this Jesus to you?