Jesus Our Cornerstone

Written by Karen Bleay

I live next door to a building site. It’s now not as noisy as you’d think especially as we’re at the bricks and tiles stage. But the worst bit was preparing for the foundations to go in – digging so deep down it made me wonder if they were building underground homes?! Then came the stage of packing in the hardcore – it made our home physically shake. For a long time, it seemed that nothing was happening as lorries and trucks went by, but no houses could be seen. Yet this makes sense. Anyone who has had subsidence knows how important foundations are. Here on the coast of Suffolk in recent months, houses are being lost to the sea as their foundations are literally washed away by the sea and so the house collapses.

Jesus is given so many names. Chief cornerstone is one.

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

— Ephesians 2:19-22 (NIV)

Cornerstones are part of the foundations.

Here are some definitions:

1. an important quality or feature on which a particular thing depends or is based.

2. a stone that forms the base of a corner of a building, joining two walls.

So, a cornerstone is functional, an essential part of the foundations of a building and without it, the building will not stand. Where I work here at Finborough Court Care Home, we have a cornerstone laid that everyone who comes to us can see. It says on the cornerstone: ‘to the glory of God’.  What a message for all to see, what a foundation to have! 

As Christians, Jesus is our Chief Cornerstone.

A house built on Him will stand firm. Building the foundations has been costly and perhaps disruptive. But it will be upright and true and withstand any storm of life. And these verses from Ephesians remind us that we form a part of this wonderful building with Christ as the cornerstone and where the Holy Spirit dwells. 

So delight in knowing that your life is built on solid foundations and that Christ is your cornerstone ‘to the glory of God’!

Take a listen to this beautiful song called Cornerstone by Hillsong: