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As the believers in Christ, we need to see that God wants to have a building as His eternal dwelling place. For this purpose He is transforming us all into stones for His building.

This was Peter’s experience; after the Father showed him the vision of who Jesus was, and Peter confessed Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord showed Peter a vision who he, Peter, now was: a stone for God’s building (Matt. 16:16-18). Then, in his first epistle, Peter made it clear that all the believers in Christ need to have this very same experience (1 Peter 2:4-8).

To appreciate what all this means, we need to see Christ as the Stone for God’s building in three aspects: Toward the unbelievers, especially the Jews, He is the Stumbling Stone, and to the rebellious nations, He is the Smiting Stone; but to the believers,

“Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone,
chosen and precious,
And he who believes on Him
Will by no means be
put to shame.”
— 1 Peter 2:6

Finally, this all becomes real to us in our experience when we come directly to Christ to contact Him as the Living Stone (1 Peter 2:4), to allow Him to impart His divine life into our being.

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PREVIOUS EPISODES REFERRED TO IN THIS EPISODE

4. Jesus & the Bible: Inclusive and Exclusive; What Is Transformation? (1)

5. What Is Transformation? (2)

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 BIBLE VERSES CITED IN THIS EPISODE

Daniel 2:34-35,44: The Great Image struck by Christ as the Stone.
Matthew 16:16-18: Peter’s vision of Christ, and of himself as a stone for God’s building.
1 Peter 2:4-5: As we come to Christ as the Living Stone, we are also becoming stones for God’s building.
1 Peter 1:8: We love Christ without seeing Him.
Matthew 21:33-46, esp. vv. 42-44; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19: The Parable of the Vineyard.
Isaiah 8:14-15: Christ as the Stumbling Stone.
Romans 9:31-33: The Jews stumbled at the Stumbling Stone.
Isaiah 28:16: Christ as the Foundation Stone and the precious Cornerstone.
1 Peter 2:6-8: Christ is precious to the believers, but an offense to the unbelievers.
2 Corinthians 2:15-16: We are a fragrance of Christ.
Matthew 26:64, Daniel 7:13-14: Christ will come on the clouds of heaven.
Revelation 21:1-2: The ultimate goal of God’s building work, the New Jerusalem.
Ephesians 2:20: Christ as the cornerstone to join the Jews and Gentiles.
Zechariah 4:10: Christ as the topstone.

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RECORDING
This edition of the program was recorded in segments beginning on Wednesday, 12 April 2023.