Built Upon the Chief Cornerstone

A building may look beautiful and may have been sold for a huge sum of money. But what really counts is not how big it is, or how neat and pleasant it looks to the eye. The main question is whether it has a good foundation. It will last long only if the foundation does not rot, crack, or by an earthquake or flood be broken or washed away.

That is why Paul wrote to the Ephesians  in chapter 2:20, these words: "And be built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone." The church of God gathered out of every nation, tongue, and tribe will be beautiful; and it will last forever because it has a doctrinal foundation that stands forever. Christ is the chief cornerstone on which that church rests. The apostles and prophets have presented Christ to us as that foundation. They are not the foundation, but they were used by God to tell us what the foundation is. It is built on the foundation which the apostles and prophets had presented in their preaching. The cornerstone, Christ, is that on which the church is founded.

And the preaching, which shows Christ to be that foundation as its cornerstone, does not plead with man to let Christ add him to the church, and let Him become the cornerstone. That untruth we must not accept but continually reject. Christ does not depend on us and on what we do. We depend upon Him, as every bit of a house depends, rests upon its foundation. He is not a weak foundation that gets stronger if we let Him save us.

The church stands firm and sure upon Christ, the Son of God, Who died for our sins, and by His Spirit implants in us spiritual life. Let us hold on to that truth. We do not decide how big that church is going to be. Jesus does not plead with us and ask us to let Him save us and add us to His church. We are given faith and a new spiritual life because of what God decided, not because we, when spiritually dead, wanted it. We come into this world spiritually dead and become living members in that church by God in His sovereign grace.

Read: Psalm 118 .

Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
1 Chronicles 26:12-32 ;   1 Chronicles 27:1-34 
Romans 4:13-25 ;   Romans 5:1-5 
Psalm 14:1-7 
Proverbs 19:17 
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Quote for Reflection:

"How entirely is the life of the Christian a hidden life; “hid with Christ in God;” hid from the world, as a spring shut up, so that they can neither see fully its excellence, nor reach it in such a way as to disturb or break it up at is source."
— George Burrowes, The Song of Solomon, p. 384 (commentary on 4:12)