Week 13 The Experience of Life
LESSON THIRTEEN
THE GROWTH OF LIFE FOR THE BUILDING
Hymn 840
Scripture Reading:
Eph. 4:16 Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.
1 Pet. 2:2-5 As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation, If you have tasted that the Lord is good. Coming to Him, a living stone, rejected by men but with God chosen and precious, You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
GROWING UNTO SALVATION FOR THE BUILDING
In this message we shall consider 2:5, 9 and 10. Verse 5 says, “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, into a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” In reading this verse we need to take care of grammar. Verse 4 is a modifier of the subject of the sentence in verse 5. The main part of the sentence in verse 5 is this: “You…are being built up a spiritual house.” Hence, the main thought here is that of the building. This thought continues the thought in verse 2 of growing unto salvation. This means that following salvation we have the building. Growing unto salvation is for the building. This indicates that here salvation involves not only transformation, but also includes being built up. As a totality, salvation in 1 Peter 2 indicates transformation for building up.
Salvation at the end of verse 2 is related to transformation for the building. Notice that at the end of verse 2 there is a comma, not a period. In verse 3 we have a condition related to drinking the milk of the word: “If you have tasted that the Lord is good.” Verse 3 concludes with a semicolon, and verse 4 ends with a comma. Therefore, the punctuation indicates that the main clause in the second part of the sentence is in verse 5. Actually, verse 5 is the direct continuation of verse 2. Verse 2 ends with the thought of growing unto salvation, which implies that salvation includes transformation. Then verse 5 continues by indicating that this transformation is for the building. For this reason we say that salvation in verse 2 is a matter of transformation for building.
HUNGERING AND THIRSTING FOR THE MILK IN THE WORD
SO THAT YOU MAY GROW
I believe that we have touched the thought in Peter’s mind and heart as he was writing. In these verses Peter seems to be saying, “You believers have all been regenerated, and now you are as newborn babes. As newborn babes, you should hunger and thirst for the milk in the word so that you may grow unto salvation. This salvation is transformation for building up.” These must have been Peter’s thoughts as he was writing this Epistle.
Whenever we write a letter or article, we first have certain thoughts within us. Then gradually we write according to these thoughts. This was Peter’s situation when he wrote this Epistle. He had the thought that the believers had been regenerated to become newborn babes. Now they should long for the milk in the word. By the guileless milk in the word they could grow unto a salvation that was transformation for their building up. Having these thoughts within him, Peter went on to compose this Epistle.
Praise the Lord that regeneration has made us newborn babes! As newborn babes, we all should long for the guileless milk of the word. Then by this milk we shall grow unto salvation. This salvation is transformation, and transformation is the building. Feeding on Christ by the nourishing milk in the Word of God is not only for growing in life; it is also for building up. Growing is for building up.
TRANSFORMED INTO LIVING STONES
In verse 5 Peter indicates that the believers are living stones. We, the believers in Christ, are living stones, like Christ, through regeneration and transformation. We were created of clay (Rom. 9:21). But at regeneration we received the seed of the divine life, which by its growth in us transforms us into living stones. At Peter’s conversion the Lord gave him a new name, Peter—a stone (John 1:42). When Peter received the revelation concerning Christ, the Lord revealed further that. He also was the rock—a stone (Matt. 16:16-18). Peter was impressed by these two incidents that both Christ and His believers are stones for God’s building.
By our natural birth we are clay, not stones. Do you realize that you were made of clay? Genesis 2:7 says that man was made from the dust of the ground. Romans 9 reveals that we are vessels of clay. How, then, can we become stones? We become stones through the process of transformation.
First Peter 2:5 says that we, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house. However, we all are clay. How can we he built up? In order to be built up a spiritual house, we need to become stones. But how can we actually become living stones? We become living stones by coming to Christ as the living stone (v. 4).
PETRIFIED WOOD AS AN ILLUSTRATION OF TRANSFORMATION
We may use petrified wood as an illustration of transformation. In Arizona there is a place called the petrified forest, an area that contains much petrified wood. Petrified wood is wood that has been changed into stone. Over a long period of time, water has been flowing over wood and through it. By means of this flow of water, the substance of the wood is changed into stone. On the one hand, the element of wood is carried away; on the other hand, the element of stone is brought in to replace the element of wood. In this way the wood becomes stone.
The principle is the same with our experience of transformation. If we long for the milk of the word, this milk will be like a current of living water flowing within us. As we stay in this flow, the current will carry away our natural substance and replace it with heavenly, divine minerals. These minerals are actually Christ. Gradually, over a period of time, we shall be transformed or “petrified”; that is, we shall become precious stones.
If we would be transformed, every day we need to come to the Lord as milk. We have pointed out that the way to come to Christ as the living stone is to drink the guileless milk of the word. This means that we come to Christ by drinking Him. As we daily drink in the milk of the word, we shall be transformed.
Transformation cannot take place overnight. The petrified wood in Arizona required a very long time to be changed from wood into stone. If the petrified wood could speak, it might say, “It has taken me a long time of being in the current of water to be transformed from mere wood into petrified wood.” As one who has been in the Lord for more than fifty years, I can testify that transformation takes time. I assure you that you cannot be transformed in a few months or even in a few years. (Life-study of 1 Peter, pp. 149–153)
Reference: Life-study of 1 Peter, msg. 18.
