The Chief Cornerstone

By Pastor Trent

(The church) built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone. Ephesians 2:20

Everything has consequences! Intuitively we understand this to be true. Every choice, every thought, every word, every action…all have specific consequences in our lives. In Ephesians 2:11-18 the Apostle Paul tells us that before Christ saved us we were “separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenant of promise, without hope and without God in the world.” (verse 12). That is a bleak picture of the reality that we all lived with before we met Jesus. Then, in verse 13 Paul shifts gears dramatically and declares, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.” Those are tremendously positive consequences. Then in verses 19-22 Paul shares three more positive consequences we get to enjoy because of Jesus’ blood:

• God has made me part of a new kingdom. (verse 19a)
• God has made me part of a new family. (verse 19b)
• God has made me part of a new building. (verses 20-22)

In verse 20 Jesus is described chief cornerstone. Paul was undoubtedly thinking of the cornerstone which formed the base of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem. It was the size of a railroad box car, weighing 570 tons. That cornerstone was the most important stone in the building. It established the point from which the rest of the building would be constructed and in a sense it held the whole building together.

But Jesus is more than just the cornerstone. He is the means by which all of the individual stones are being joined together in this building. Peter also described this process when he wrote, “As you come to him, the living Stone - rejected by men 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 2:4, 5 (NIV)

It’s interesting that Peter uses passive verbs to describe this process. In other words, we can’t make ourselves into a building. It is Jesus who is doing all the work. Peter and Paul also use a present tense verb to describe the process – “we are being built” into a spiritual temple.

Look at any brick building. The individual brick, alone, are not that impressive. I can take one brick and kick it up and down the street without much effort. The individual bricks are only strong and secure as they are “connected” with all of the other bricks in the building.

That’s exactly what Jesus does when He builds His church. He takes a bunch of blocks that aren’t much good on their own and he fits them together as a master builder. Although Jesus is concerned with the individual blocks, His overall purpose is to create a building that will bring glory to himself. That is what makes the church beautiful and strong!

Read 1 Corinthians 3:1-15.