Christ The Cornerstone

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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Do you know what a cornerstone is? It is a stone that is laid at a corner of a building to bind two walls together. It strengthens them. Spiritually speaking it is used symbolically as a sign of strength and prominence throughout the Bible.

Speaking of Jesus, Psalm 118:22-24 says, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD's doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”

That cornerstone is also seen as the foundation and Christ is the foundation of our faith. Peter quoted the passage in Psalms in Acts 4:11, and added in the next verse, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Jesus Christ is our foundation, the cornerstone of the spiritual building which is the church. Paul mentions this in Ephesians 2:19-22.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Notice the imagery there. No longer are we on the outside, but now we are in the household of God. This house has been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets and Jesus is the chief cornerstone. He is the point at which the entire building draws together, fitting one into another, and becomes the temple of the Lord.

The church is not only depicted as the temple of the Lord, but also as a living organism, a body. 1 Corinthians 12 deals with this is some detail, even to the point where some body members were jealous of others. And Paul gives more insight into the workings of the body in Ephesians 4:11-16.

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Christ is the chief cornerstone of the building, the temple of the Lord. He is also the head of the body, the church. All that we do within the body of Christ is to be done so as to help that body to grow and perform.

Notice that God has engineered this spiritual body to be self-sustaining and self-supportive. The whole body is joined and knit together. Every joint supplies the needs of the body. Every part does its share effectively and the body is caused to grow and to enjoy the encouraging benefits of love. And all of this is possible only with Christ as the head of the body, the chief cornerstone of the temple of the Lord.

In 1 Peter 2:4-8, Peter calls upon believers to be as living stones and build up our spiritual houses by our holy actions. He also refers to the cornerstone that the people had rejected. To those unbelievers he said that Jesus had become a “stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” But to the believers, “He is precious.”

Psalm 118:22-24 says, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD's doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”

On Our Daily Walk today, may we think of ways that we can be more effective in “doing our share” so the body of Christ may increase.

Our thought for the day: “What you are is God’s gift to you. What you make of yourself is your gift to God.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.