Holy Priesthood
Get Rid of These
Do These Things
Old Testament Imagery
God’s Dwelling Place
As you come to Him does not refer to the initial response of a sinner who comes to Christ for salvation. The participle’s tense and voice indicate that this coming is a personal, habitual approach. It is an intimate association of communion and fellowship between believers and their Lord.
By this expression Peter hints, in a theme to be made explicit later in the sentence, that all believers now enjoy the great privilege, reserved only for priests in the Old Testament, of ‘drawing near’ to God in worship. But rather than coming to the altar or even to the holy place in the Jerusalem temple, they now come ‘to him’ in whom ‘the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily’ (Col. 2:9).
Peter is about to quote three Old Testament ‘stone’ prophecies and apply them to Christ (Isa. 28:16 in v. 6; Ps. 118:22 in v. 7; Isa. 8:14 in v. 8), and his imagery here must be understood in the light of those verses. The fact that Christ is the living stone shows at once his superiority to an Old Testament temple made of dead stones, and reminds Christians that there can be no longing for that old way of approach to God, for this way is far better.
These ‘people-stones’ are being built into a spiritual house. The word ‘house’ (oikos) is often used to refer to God’s house, the Jerusalem temple (1 Kgs 5:5; Isa. 56:7; Matt. 12:4; 21:13; Mark 2:26; Luke 11:51; John 2:16), and the mentioning of priesthood, sacrifices, and ‘coming near’ (to God in worship; see note on v. 4), all in this sentence, make it almost certain that Peter has in mind the house where God dwells, the temple of God (cf. also 1 Tim. 3:15). Thus the NEB rightly translates this phrase, ‘built … into a spiritual temple’ (cf. Phillips, ‘into a spiritual House of God’). (See also Additional note below.)
The beauty of this new and living ‘temple made of people’ should no longer be expensive gold and precious jewels, but the imperishable beauty of holiness and faith in Christians’ lives, qualities which much more effectively reflect the glory of God (cf. 1 Pet. 3:4; 2 Cor. 3:18).
These varied examples encourage us to think that anything we do in service to God can be thought of as a ‘spiritual sacrifice’ acceptable to God, a continual sweet aroma that ascends to his throne and brings him delight.
They are also a royal priesthood, and a holy nation, two phrases quoted exactly from the LXX of Exodus 19:6 (and 23:22), where God promises this status to all in Israel who keep his covenant. (See note at 2:5 on this priestly status of believers.) Just as believers are a new spiritual race and a new spiritual priesthood, so they are a new spiritual nation which is based now neither on ethnic identity nor geographical boundaries but rather on allegiance to their heavenly King, Jesus Christ, who is truly King of kings and Lord of lords
So in verses 4 to 10 Peter says that God has bestowed on the church almost all the blessings promised to Israel in the Old Testament. The dwelling place of God is no longer the Jerusalem temple, for Christians are the new ‘temple’ of God (see notes on v. 5). The priesthood able to offer acceptable sacrifices to God is no longer descended from Aaron, for Christians are now the true ‘royal priesthood’ with access before God’s throne (vv. 4–5, 9). God’s chosen people are no longer said to be those physically descended from Abraham, for Christians are now the true ‘chosen race’ (v. 9). The nation blessed by God is no longer the nation of Israel, for Christians are now God’s true ‘holy nation’ (v. 9). The people of Israel are no longer said to be the people of God, for Christians—both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians—are now ‘God’s people’ (v. 10a) and those who have ‘received mercy’ (v. 10b). Moreover, Peter takes these quotations from contexts which repeatedly warn that God will reject his people who persist in rebellion against him, who reject the precious ‘cornerstone’ which he has established. What more could be needed in order to say with assurance that the church has now become the true Israel of God?
