who in time past were no people, but now are God's people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

 (i) The Christian is likened to a living stone and the Church to a living edifice into which he is built ( 1 Peter 2:5). Clearly that means that Christianity is community; the individual Christian finds his true place only when he is built into that edifice. "Solitary religion" is ruled out as an impossibility. C. E. B. Cranfield writes: "The free-lance Christian, who would be a Christian but is too superior to belong to the visible Church upon earth in one of its forms, is simply a contradiction in terms." 