Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. Ephesians 2:19–20
The parsonage where Debb and I lived as newlyweds in Tualatin, Oregon, where we lived when Jacob and Ellie were born, was a house built in the twenties that had no footing for its foundation. Just four inches of concrete separated our house from the ground. I learned a very significant lesson from our home in Tualatin about what happens when dirt and wood come too close together for too many years: Wood rot.
It didn’t help that our bed sat in the corner where there was the least clearance between the house and the ground. Nor did it help that this is a heavy bed! As a wedding gift for Debbie, I built our first bed. That bed is solid, constructed with 4X4s on each corner and 2X10’s and 2X12’s for the headboard and footboard. It is heavy—far too heavy to be held by rotten floorboards. So, over time, they gave way so that you could actually see the ground from under our bed.
However, it wasn’t until small visitors arrived that we actually realized we had a problem. Thanks to a combination of scratching and squeaking, we found out that we had mice entering our house through the opening created by the heavy bed and the rotten floor. As a result, the church ended up having a work party where we cut back the rotten boards and dug out a large quantity of dirt. It was a strange sight…shoveling dirt out our bedroom window. But that is what we needed to do to compensate for a poorly constructed foundation.
In truth, having a good foundation is prerequisite to having a sound structure. And what Paul communicates in the verses above is that the church is sound because we DO have a good foundation—the apostles and prophets with Christ, Himself, as our chief cornerstone. Certainly, the apostles and prophets, of which Paul is apart, are foundational to Christ’s church. And we are blessed to have their writings, inspired by God, in the form of the New Testament.
However, it is Christ who is our chief cornerstone, the foundation stone, the measure by which the rest of the building is built. We see this not only in Ephesians, but also in 1 Corinthians 3:9-11…
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
As the hymn so powerfully puts it, “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand!”
At our annual meeting, as we were giving thanks for the way God has blessed and preserved Renton Bible Church for more than 80 years, Rick Porter offered thanks that our church continues to preach Christ as the center, the core, the foundation of our ministry. And he indicated that if we do nothing else, we must continue to do this. I couldn’t agree more! For Jesus is our foundation. It isn’t Jesus and church tradition, Jesus and my favorites Bible translation, Jesus and my style of worship, Jesus and my pet theology. It is Jesus Messiah alone who is the cornerstone of the church. It is His life, death and resurrection which serves as the foundation for the building that is the church.
In my life, I have had the privilege of experiencing some amazing buildings. I have seen the grand stone structure in the center of Paris known as Notre Dame. I have craned my neck to see the matchless art on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel (all the while listening to the guards yelling, “no photo, no photo”). I have walked inside what is considered the world’s oldest standing church, the Roman Pantheon. Each of these buildings is magnificent in its own right. But you know what? Paul is describing a structure more magnificent than Notre Dame, the Sistine Chapel and the Pantheon put together. What is this grand structure Paul is describing? The church. Not a building built by man’s hands, but a building built by God, founded upon Christ.
As we look to a new year of ministry at Renton Bible Church, may we continue to keep Christ at the forefront of all that we do, not only in terms of the content of our message, but also as the motivation and source of all our ministry. And may the magnificence of our foundation move us beyond our comfort zones to a more faith-stretching pursuit of God’s will as individuals and as His body!
In Christ, Pastor Dan