“Yes, you who trust him recognise the honour God has given him. But for those who reject him, “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.” And, “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.”
1 Peter 2:7-8 NLT
The context is that, as prophesied by the Old Testament prophets, the Messiah is to become the “cornerstone”, the “rock that makes them fall”. But when Peter wrote these verses, the Messiah had already come, and His coming produced a dichotomy that has been with us ever since. The choice is dramatic and stark – people either choose to follow God or they reject Him. They are either obedient to His Word, or they are not. There are consequences to both choices; eternal life or eternal death. Heaven or hell. There is no middle ground. No grey area between them.
When it comes to obeying God, there are those who truly and diligently search the Scriptures and sincerely do their best to follow Him, applying His Word to their lives. Such obedience is based on our love for God. “Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them” (John 14:23). Then there are those who go through the motions, claiming to be Christians, but who do not have a heart to follow Him. Jesus spoke about such people in Luke 6:46, “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?” The Pharisees fell into this group of people who externally claimed they were obedient to God. They diligently obeyed the Law, and claimed that because of that they would get to Heaven. Their self-righteousness was what Isaiah warned about in Isaiah 64:6, “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind”.
The disobedient, those who have rejected God and His Word, are in a perilous place. As Peter wrote, “they [will] meet the fate that was planned for them”. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son” (John 3:17-18). Judgement is the consequence for all those who fail to believe in Jesus and follow His ways, for those who are disobedient.
So what is the consequence of the judgment Jesus warned of? For the answer to that we turn to Revelation. The Apostle John wrote what he saw in his vision. “I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. … And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12-13,15). That was what Peter was referring to when he wrote “the fate that was planned for them”. A daunting thought but strangely one that most people I know in my community have apparently disregarded.
So what do we pilgrims think? It’s not altogether healthy to live under a mantra of fear, fear of what might happen to us. But we are in a relationship with our loving Heavenly Father. John wrote in his first letter, “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them” (1 John 4:16). A couple of verses further on John wrote, “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love” (1 John 4:18). As we live and move in obedience to God and His Word we have nothing to be afraid of.
Dear Father God. Thank You for Your love and grace. We worship You today. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 