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Christ, the Chief Cornerstone

by Mike Van Meter on August 12, 2019

Christ, the Chief Cornerstone
 By Mike Van Meter

What do you think of when someone asks about your dream house? White trim, farm sinks, and classy décor? When you ask a person to describe their ideal home, they talk about what it looks like. Usually, they don’t think about how it’s built.

Despite the allure of the presentation, the truth is the most important part of a house is the part you can’t see: The foundation.

The Bible compares our lives to building a house. In Matthew 7 and Luke 6, Jesus says that people who obey His words are like a person who digs deep and builds on a solid rock. It’s the foolish man who builds his house on the sand – and houses built on the sand can look really cute and stylish, but they won’t survive the storm. They can’t endure or thrive.

The foundation sets the stage for the rest of the house. It defines it. Every brick, beam, and shingle is affected by the foundation.

It is the same with us, so it’s worth asking the question “What are you building your life on?”

Think about this honestly for a moment. Is your life built on having fun? On physical appearance? Trying to please your parents or your friends? Pursuing fame, money, or success? Your digital life?

Jesus the Chief Cornerstone

Therefore the Lord God said: “Look, I have laid a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will be unshakable.”
- Isaiah 28:16 CSB

God says He is going to lay a stone in Zion to be the foundation of everything that God is going to do. Christ is the stone by which every other stone should be laid. God’s plan is to redeem everything, and everything that is not currently submitted to Jesus will be brought into submission to Christ (Ephesians 1:22).

It’s interesting that the Bible says this stone is “precious” (or “costly” in most other translations). The Hebrew word is Yaqar, which means precious, glorious, costly, beautiful.

Precious

Jesus is precious. He is rare (there is no one else like Him), He is majestic, all together lovely, He is the first and the last, and the beginning and the end. On top of all of that, He is good to us when we are undeserving. The more you know Jesus the more you want to know Him.

 Costly

The word “costly” is similar to “precious,” but it bears a different connotation. You can go to the mall and see $2,000 suits or $4,000 handbags and notice that they are expensive. That isn’t the same thing as actually taking your money out and purchasing the thing.

So when the Bible says that God has placed a costly cornerstone, it’s saying that he paid dearly for it.

You see, to lay that cornerstone in Zion, Jesus had to go to the cross. It cost Him His life in an agonizing, shameful public execution.

The foundation that we have been given to build our lives on is precious and costly. And yet there is something else remarkable about this stone: The builders didn’t want it.

People Reject Christ Because He is Not What They Want

The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone.
Psalm 118:22

Human nature wants something other than Christ to be the chief cornerstone so we can base our lives off of what people say or our own opinions. And people want the stone to change, to conform to their preferences and shifting desires.

What they find, however, is that this rock won’t budge.

A cornerstone only has value if it is stable and unchanging. Otherwise the foundation is weak and in danger of collapse. We should be thankful that we don’t have a God who is just like us. His thoughts and ways are higher than our own (Isaiah 55:8-9).

We Must Be Fitted to Him

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to Him, the living Stone – rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to Him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:1-5 NIV

Jesus is what binds us together and establishes everything. He is the one piece that every other is conformed to. So if God is fitting us together, how does He do that?

The same way as stone masons have shaped stones for thousands of years: By taking a chisel and a hammer and removing parts of the stone that don’t belong.

There are things that you have in your life that shouldn’t be there. In order for you to fit properly into what God is patiently building, those things have to go.

Shaping takes three steps:

  • Conviction, which is God showing us what He wants us to do, what He wants us to get rid of. Then, we have a choice to allow God to chisel these things out of our lives or to run from Him.
  • Confession, which is just calling things by their proper names. If God says something in your life is sin, confession is you also calling it a sin. In fact, it’s a good habit to use the same name that the Bible does for your sins. Don’t call it exaggeration when it’s a lie. Don’t call it an indiscretion when it’s fornication. Confess what’s true.
  • Repentance, which is taking every step necessary to turn from your sin, selfishness, and pride, and to turn instead to God to walk with Him.

Jesus is the only true and right cornerstone. Let’s build our lives on Him, as God intended.