Unfinished Business

6    For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

The first mention of a cornerstone is in Job 38. The Lord sees the Land as the foundation of His Temple. The entire structure reflects the Covenantal nature of the act of Creation.

Then the LORD (Transcendence)
…..answered Job (Hierarchy)
……….out of the whirlwind,
……….and said: (Ethics 1 – Law given)
……………“Who is this who darkens counsel
……………(Ethics 2 – Law opened)
……….By words without [wisdom]?
……….(Ethics 3 – Law received)
…..Now [gird] yourself like a man; (Sanctions – Adam)
I will question [, and instruct]. (Day of God)

Where were you (Creation – Genesis)
…..when I laid the foundations (Division – Exodus)
……….of the [Land]? (Ascension – Leviticus)
……………[Divulge] (Testing – Numbers)
……….if you have understanding. (Maturity – Deuteronomy)
…..Who determined its measurements? (Conquest/Joshua)
Surely you know! (Glorification – Wise Judges)

Or who stretched the line upon it? (Day 1 – Ark)
…..To what were its foundations fastened? (Day 2 – Veil)
……….Or who laid its cornerstone?” (Day 3 – Altar)
……………When the morning stars (Day 4 – Lamps)
……….sang together, (Day 5 – Incense)
…..And all the sons of God (Day 6 – Mediators)
shouted for joy? (Day 7 – Rest)

Notice the cornerstone is the third line of the third stanza. Jesus is the true Land upon which everything rests.

This cornerstone is not only precious but the “choice” stone of the quarry. The permanent house of God is made of cut stones, like Solomon’s Temple. This means it is not an Adamic house (like a bloody altar) but an Evian house, where the sacrifice is praise. It is not a house of Knife but of Fire. It is a house of music. The sound of the chisel will not be heard in it.

“And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel [or] any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.” 1 Kings 6:7

7    Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”

Peter now quotes the second use of “cornerstone” in Scripture. We discussed that this stone was given to the Jews, who assessed it, and misclassified it. He was a precious stone, who required no cutting. But “men” has been replaced with “builders.” The reference is to the craftsmen of the Bible, like Aholiab and Bezalel, who could only successfully build the house of God according to the heavenly pattern if they were filled with the Spirit of God. It takes the Spirit to open our eyes to the quality of Jesus. He restores our sight, our judgment, and we recognise that He is righteous and we are sinners. Only by the Spirit can we be workmen who are not ashamed. [1]

8    and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”

The reference here is from Isaiah, and it is two-fold. There is a stone of stumbling and a rock that causes a fall.

Firstly, an altar is “raised up.” It has to do with the raising up of the Land, the Firstfruits and the Ascension Offering. These rites bring Man close to God. But instead of providing sanctuary, a covering for sin, an altar stone that raises the humble Man, it would bring proud Man down. The humble are exalted, but the proud are thrown down.

According to Isaiah 8, the source of Peter’s quote, this fall is due to a misplaced fear, a fear of men and their conspiracies instead of the fear of a holy God.

The LORD Almighty
is the one you are to regard as holy,
he is the one you are to fear,
he is the one you are to dread.

The passage refers to the Temple sanctuary, but makes a distinction between the man-made Temple and the true Temple, which is God Himself.

He will be a holy place;
for both Israel and Judah he will be
a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
a trap and a snare.
Many of them will stumble;
they will fall and be broken,
they will be snared and captured.”

Secondly, a stone that causes people to stumble is a stone on the ground. Adam is unable to stand. His heel is bruised and he limps like Jacob. But what is a rock that makes him fall? It may just be a bigger stone on the ground, but rocks were thrown by the ministers of God’s justice to atone for murder or adultery. The sound of a stoning was the sound of God’s chisel cutting an individual or family out of history. And the blood of the slain was atoned for by the blood of the slayer.

Perhaps the thought here is that the ground cursed by the unatoned sins of God’s people would bring about their fall, even if men failed to pick up stones and administer justice. God Himself can raise up stones to bring us down.

Israel often failed to administer such justice against the serpent and his offspring. When the Day of the Lord arrived, the “Day of Coverings,” God Himself turned up to administer the justice miscarried by unfaithful Adams. Men were suddenly face to face with the Lawgiver, and they actually called on the rocks and hills to cover them.

Those who stumble at God’s holy Law will fall under its curses, even when God’s ministers fail to carry out the Law. Of course, this Law has been slain and resurrected in Christ as the gospel, as Spirit-Law, yet curses remain, and they are eternal. But for those who believe, there is no further business, no further “trade” required. It is finished. There is still justice, but there is also justification.

Cut stones are holy. They are silent witnesses to the Law of God, whether they are the tablets of Moses or the Temple of Solomon, a reason for praise. But unfinished stones demand blood. They are the ground crying out as a witness against Cain.

Christ, as a stone cut out by God, was thrown at the feet of the edifice of the Gentile kingdoms and He brought them crashing down. He founded a fifth empire. His kingdom is growing into a great mountain, not a burning mountain like Sinai, but a bridal mountain like Zion. There are two mountains in Revelation: the burning mountain was thrown into the Sea. Jesus commanded His disciples to dismantle Moses by fulfilling Moses. God raised up children to Abraham from barren stones, [2] and the ministry of the apostles was both more life-giving, and more damning, to Israel than any stones raised up under Moses.

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

Peter here refers to Paul’s words in Romans 6 concerning Herodian worship as a new Egypt, the Herods as Pharaohs. It was the unfaithful Jews who were destined to disobey the Law and be cursed–as high-handed sinners–that the blessing might come to the Gentiles. Israel’s destiny was always to sacrifice, to die as a nearbringing, for the life of the world. Since Abraham, as a substitute for the world, the altar of Israel was always the object of God’s wrath, that the nations might be the objects of His mercy. [3]

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden… What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

9    But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

This verse follows the Feasts of Israel. There is much talk about “replacement theology.” But did the Church replace Israel? No more than the Temple replaced the Tabernacle, or the butterfly replaces the caterpillar — or Christ crucified was replaced by the resurrected Saviour. The Church is one new man, a body called not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles.

10    Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Peter now quotes Hosea, where God promises to restore Israel after the captivity. The condemned harlot would be redeemed and shown mercy. This supports the idea of transformation rather than replacement. Israel was slain under the Law and resurrected from Babylon, and the same process was happening in the first century.

John says that we are now the sons of God. Being a Jew was an office before God, in His holy court. That job has been transferred to the Church, the body of Christ. Anyone who thinks Jews are still God’s chosen people do not understand the Bible and how God works.

Israel was an unfaithful bride stoned to death — finished — under the perfect Law of the stony tablets of Moses. But she was also the daughter of a priest, whose remains, once stoned, were to be burnt with fire. This burning sounds hateful but it actually pictured a blessing, not a curse. It is Pentecostal. It pictured Spirit-filling and resurrection and ascension to God. The Herodian Temple became the altar of Baal. God slew the sorcerous, murderous Jezebel of Judaism and resurrected her in a new body — of Jews and Gentiles — as a holy Temple, a covering of fiery Pentecostal gemstones from the Land and shining pearls from the Sea.

Atonement by blood means justice is satisfied. Concerning the Law, the shedding of blood means business is finished. But with God, there is always a greater work to do. Business is not actually finished until the resurrection.

The final post will be an analysis of the structure of this passage.

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[1] See Unashamed Artisans.
[2] Yes, testicles are symbols of life-giving stones, hence the emphasis on their protection and rejection of eunuchs from the Old Covenant priesthood (Lev. 21:20; Deut. 23:1; 25:11-12). Priests had to be perfect offerings. Not only are there two stones in the Ark of the Covenant, there were “binary” stones in the ephod, the urim and thummim, black and white, X and Y, overshadowing Eve and deciding the future of the Land. See God’s G amble.
[3] Separating Israel from the nations as the focus of blessing and cursing avoided another “Creational” judgment like the flood. See World Stuff.

The great exchange means you are dealing with Jesus in that Christian who sinned against you.

So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self.

So writes Paul to Philemon about his runaway slave, Onesimus.

Notice the exchange that takes place.

First, Paul says that Onesimus is being sent back to Philemon as Paul’s representative. Philemon must regard this slave who has sinned against him as Paul.

Second, Paul says that Onesimus’ sin against Philemon must be held against Paul.

Get that? Paul became Onesimus’ sin so that Onesimus could become Paul’s righteousness — his standing before Philemon.

Is that not the Great Exchange? According to Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, we get Christ’s mission as the personification of the righteousness and faithfulness of God because Christ took our sin (Paul is speaking of Apostles here but I’m sure he would agree that the principle applies more widely):

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Onesimus the slave who sinned is, to Philemon, now an ambassador from Paul.

And this brings us to the sticking point.

Every Christian you know is sent to you by Jesus. Each one was commissioned in baptism to be Christ’s representative. And this calling is not destroyed by the ways they have sinned against you, much less annoy you.

You are supposed to receive them as you would receive Jesus. And any wrong they have done you, you are to charge to Christ’s account. He will repay it — to say nothing of your owing Him your very self.

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“Rend your heart, and not your garments.”

Doug Wilson writes:

True repentance is frequently expressed in a state of consternation. Repentance is not just a state of turning away from sin. It is what happens when someone is given a glimpse of what that sin is actually like. Repentance is not technically turning away from something that was technically wrong. Repentance is actually turning away, with revulsion, from something that is now seen in its true colors. This is why repentance is expressed in consternation.

This is what it means in Scripture to rend your hearts, and not just your garments. This is what heartfelt repentance looks like. If the inside of the cup is cleansed, then the outside will be also. But if we reserve to ourselves the right to our central hypocrisies, then our public worship will simply be the very careful activity of daubing around the outside of the cup.

But repentance does not just see the sin. Repentance sees, at that same moment, that God sees the sin also, and that He sees it in the same way—without Himself being guilty of any of it. His hatred of it is holy, while ours is filled with revulsion and self-loathing. Now self-loathing may seem like an odd thing for us to address in this great age of preening, but self-loathing is part of this. It should not be a permanent state for those who have come to forgiveness, and who have been declared justified by a sovereign God. But it is a very necessary part of the process for those who are being called out of their twistedness—seeing just how twisted they have been. This too is grace.

“…Regarding Cephas’ segregation from Gentile believers, Paul says that this is not walking according to the truth of the gospel. That means either separation or gospel, but it can’t be both; (2) In Rom. 3.28-29, Paul says that we reckon that a man is justified by faith without works of law, and he asks in return, “or is God the God of the Jews only?” Notice “or”! In other words, justification by faith and ethnocentrism are mutual exclusives.

Now let me ask, can a person believe in racial segregation and believe in the gospel and justification at the same time? I will say “no”. Now let me say that it is not that such a person has failed to grasp an “implication” of the gospel or of justification. The language is much stronger than that in the NT. Such a stance is a perversion of the gospel and a competing alternative to justification. A person can believe in the gospel partially and grasp justification fallibly. But a person who believes in racial segregation or cultural hegemony does not believe in the true gospel and does not grasp the true meaning of justification.

I will never forget Mark Seifrid telling me that 11.00 a.m. on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week in America. Now let me ask, is there a reason why some of the most rancorous and acidic critiques of the New Perspective derive from certain leaders in certain Southern denominations in the USA? Is it because they are happy to use justification as a stick to bash Catholics for works-righteousness, but object when that same stick is used to bash them for driving for 40 minutes across town to attend a white middle-class church when a perfectly good evangelical black church is 5 minutes around the corner?…”

Michael F. Bird, http://euangelizomai.blogspot.com/2009/01/justification-and-race.html

The Friday night before my nineteenth birthday Mrs. Finucane sends me for the sherry. When I return she is dead in the chair, her eyes wide open, and her purse on the floor wide open. I can’t look at her but I help myself to a roll of money. I take the key to the trunk upstairs. I take forty of the hundred pounds in the trunk and the ledger. I’ll add this to what I have in the post office and I have enough to go to America. On my way out I take the sherry bottle to save it from being wasted.

I sit by the River Shannon near the dry docks sipping Mrs. Finucane’s sherry. Aunt Aggie’s name is in the ledger. She owes nine pounds. It might have been the money she spent on my clothes a long time ago but now she’ll never have to pay it because I heave the ledger into the river. I’m sorry I wrote threatening letters to the poor people in the lanes of Lamerick, my own people, but the ledger is gone, no one will ever know what they owe and they won’t have to pay their balances.

From Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed
our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12