-
The Perfect Example—ChristChoosing the Best Way of Life
-
-
and ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock-mass of offense.’ These are stumbling because they are disobedient to the word. To this very end they were also appointed.”—1 Peter 2:7b, 8.
10. How did Jesus Christ become “a stone of stumbling and a rock-mass of offense”?
10 Because the prominent Jewish religious leaders refused to accept the Son of God as their ideal and to build their hopes for everlasting life on him, they lost out on the grand privilege of being Kingdom heirs. Jesus Christ had warned them: “The [repentant] tax collectors and the [repentant] harlots are going ahead of you into the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 21:31)
-
-
The Perfect Example—ChristChoosing the Best Way of Life
-
-
Moreover, in treating Jesus Christ as a stone that was unsuitable for their building work, these men were at the same time still forced to reckon with him as a stone that stood in their way. They could not ignore God’s Son even after his death and resurrection, for his faithful disciples boldly continued witnessing about him. (Acts 5:28) Thus Jesus Christ became a rock over which all who persist in unbelief stumble to a calamitous fall. Just as those who show themselves to be genuine believers are appointed to salvation, so the ones who prove themselves to be unbelievers are appointed to experience loss. The Son of God even said with reference to himself: “Everyone falling upon that stone will be shattered. As for anyone upon whom it falls, it will pulverize him.”—Luke 20:18.
-