CAN THESE STONES LIVE? 

John the baptizer, said in Matthew 3:7-9, as he was rebuking the Pharisees and Sadducees who had come out to see him preaching and immersing folks, “Brood of vipers! Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham even from these stones.”

He said this to cut off their argument that they were God’s chosen people; that they, and no one else, were the children of Abraham. It was very insulting to those Jews to suggest that their religious heritage was equivalent to a few stones or rocks on the banks of the Jordan River where he was immersing.

Those Jews, and we today, regard stones or rocks as of no real value, except perhaps for massive rocks used as foundations. They are dead, inanimate; usually something we must avoid to keep from stubbing our toes. Yet, the apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:5; “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.” This is a paradox of Scripture. Stones are not ALIVE! Stones just lie on the ground. They do not live or move or do anything.  Stones are inert, cold and lifeless. That’s why John’s remarks to the Pharisees were so insulting. He was telling them their religion was cold and lifeless!

There is no such thing as a living stone, except in Jesus Christ. Without the Savior, Jesus Christ, we are dead as stone in our sins! We are worthless for righteousness. But in Christ we are made alive, “even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” Ephesians 3:5. This happens when one is “buried with Him in baptism” (Col.2: 12). It is then that a person is “made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Col.2: 13b).

Church buildings, synagogues, temples, or other types of buildings may be built of cold, lifeless stones or bricks. But God’s habitation on earth is different. God is not confined to “temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24). His church is built of human beings, men and women who have heard, believed and obeyed His gospel (Acts 8:12). We are “living stones” in Christ, with Christ Himself as the Chief cornerstone, holding us all together in Him. Peter wrote, “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious” (1 Peter 2:4). It is because of Him that we can become living stones, v.5. He is the Chief cornerstone that the Jews rejected; “the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” (1 Peter 2:7b).

It was prophesied in Isa. 28:16 that Jesus would be “A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation….”  Paul wrote “no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor.3: 11).

We are living stones in Jesus Christ, and love is the cement that binds us together in Him. The apostle wrote, “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love…” (Col.2: 2a). Stones are all different. They may be different in size; some have sharp edges, some are stronger than others, etc. But the love of God in Christ cements us all together and the process of edification (growing up in Him) smoothes off the rough edges and makes us a strong building in Christ. “In whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit” (Eph.2: 21-22). Christians are living stones!

lrdevore@sssnet.com (credit is given to Leroy Garrett for some thoughts used in this article. The applications and conclusions are mine. Lrd)