Living Stones Built on the Chosen Cornerstone

The newborn imagery continues: believers are to crave pure spiritual milk and grow, because they have tasted that the Lord is good. Peter then shifts from nourishment to architecture. Jesus is the living stone rejected by people but chosen and precious to God; those who come to him become living stones in a spiritual house and a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices. Peter weaves together Psalm 34, Isaiah 28, Psalm 118, and Isaiah 8. The rejected stone becomes the cornerstone for believers and a stumbling stone for the disobedient. The church’s identity is therefore temple-shaped, priestly, and entirely dependent on the chosen Stone.