Our text for today is an appropriate companion to last week’s. As that referred to the hope of the nations in their call to worship the Lord of glory, this relates to the foundation upon which that hope rests.
The idea of the “head stone of the corner” as used in scripture appears to have a two-fold significance. Sometimes it infers a key foundation stone, architecturally or symbolically. Again it seems occasionally to refer to the “capstone” or keystone of an arch, for example, by which the structure is held in place. In our language the term has acquired the figurative meaning, “An indispensable and fundamental basis.” Christ is both the foundation and the capstone of our hope of eternal life. All begins and ends with Him.
That the prophetic reference here is to the Lord Jesus Christ, the New Testament makes indisputably clear. In a passage too extensive to include in our brief meditation, when the chief priests and elders of Israel challenged Jesus’ authority, near the conclusion of an extended discourse in reply the Savior quoted this very passage: “Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?” And He added, significantly, “And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to a powder.” (Mt. 21:42,44. See the whole passage, Mt. 21:23-44.)
The apostle Paul draws upon the figure when he declares to the Ephesians, “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone [Eph. 2:20].” It is in Christ that the ages long conflict between Jew and Gentile is ended in a common entity, the church.
And the apostle Peter employs the same illustration:
“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed [I Pet. 2:2-8].”
Christ is both the foundation and the finish, the beginning and the end of God’s redemptive program. But note; it is “the stone which the builders rejected, refused, disallowed.” The prophet Isaiah said of the Messiah, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not [Isa. 53:3].” Jesus said, “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed… [Mark 8:31].” The saddest thing is not that He was rejected of men, as Isaiah predicted, but that He was rejected of “the builders,” clearly referring to the religious leadership. It is not the pagan world that is here accused of rejecting the CornerStone, but the “builders” of Israel. And Spurgeon remarked in his day, "Still do the builders refuse him: even to this day the professional teachers of the gospel are far too apt to fly to any and every new philosophy sooner than maintain the simple gospel, which is the essence of Christ" It was so then; sadly it is still so today in the vast majority of churches.
Nevertheless, by His death and resurrection Christ has become “the head of the corner,” the chief cornerstone,” and those who put their trust in Him are joined with Him as “living stones, built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God.” This is, indeed, the Lord’s doing and is marvelous in our eyes.
Have you made Him the foundation and capstone of your life?
For His glory and our good,
"Pastor" Frasier
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