March 13
“Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a Stone for a foundation, a tried Stone, a precious Cornerstone, a sure Foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily,” Isaiah 28:16.
The prophet Isaiah directs us to the true foundation of our Christian faith. The holy Christian Church is built and rests securely upon a Stone for a foundation. From the New Testament, we learn that this Stone refers to Jesus. The evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke quote Jesus saying to the religious leaders, “The Stone which the builders rejected has become the Chief Cornerstone,” Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17. Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah and Savior of the world, was rejected by the religious leaders, who should have been directing the people to Him as the Promised Savior. The evangelist John reports, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him,” John 1:11. A thousand years before Jesus was born, the psalmist wrote, “The Stone which the builders rejected has become the Chief Cornerstone,” Psalm 118:22.
Jesus was rejected when He was born and He was rejected when He appeared before the Roman ruler Pontius Pilate. Persuaded by the religious leaders, the multitude cried out, “‘Crucify Him, crucify Him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.’ The Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God,’” John 19:6-7.
Jesus did not ‘make’ Himself the Son of God. From eternity, He was and is the Son of God. When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would become the mother of the promised Savior, the angel said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God,” Luke 1:35.
In the early Church, the religious leaders objected to the apostles’ preaching. After Peter and John had healed a lame man at the temple, Peter told the religious leaders, “If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the ‘Stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the Chief Cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,” Acts 4:9-12. In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul quoted the psalmist, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling Stone and Rock of offense. And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame,” Romans 9:33.
To the Ephesians, Paul wrote that we are, “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone,” Ephesians 2:20. In his First Epistle, the apostle Peter wrote, ”(We come) to Him as to a living Stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious . . . Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a Chief Cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.’ Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious, but to those who are disobedient, ‘The Stone which the builders rejected has become the Chief Cornerstone,’ and ‘A Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense,’” 1 Peter 2:4, 6-8. Yes, whoever believes in Jesus as God’s Son and the Savior from sin, death, and the devil will never be ashamed!
Ashamed of Jesus? Yes, I may, When I’ve no guilt to wash away;
No tear to wipe, no good to crave, No fear to quell, no soul to save.
Till then — nor is my boasting vain — Till then, I boast a Savior slain;
And oh, may this my glory be, That Christ is not ashamed of me! Amen.