Jesus My Cornerstone

I have been teaching through the book of Ephesians on Wednesday nightS for weeks now. I cannot speak for those who attend but I have found Ephesians to be a spiritually sumptuous feast of truth. Week after week I study and teach in awe of Jesus Christ. The first two chapters are filled with references to Him and what He has done for us.

Far too many churches paint Jesus as the life coach who will help all your dreams come true if you just believe. This is not the picture Paul paints of Jesus. Check out these references to Jesus. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. [Eph 1:3] We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless. [Eph 1:4] Through Jesus Christ we were adopted as sons and daughters. [Eph 1:5] God's grace was bestowed on us in the Beloved (Jesus). [Eph 1:6] In Jesus we have redemption, the forgiveness of our trespasses, through His shed blood. [Eph 1:7] We are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Christ. [Eph 1:10] We who were formerly dead in sins have made alive through Christ. [Eph 2:5] We have been raised and seated with Christ in heavenly places. [Eph 2:6]

Before Jesus we were all dead in our sin and destined to be children of wrath. [Eph 2:3] Because of Jesus' death on the cross we have been made spiritually alive through faith. We have been raised with Christ and seated in heavenly places with Him. For the saved, we have a seat at God's table. This astounds me.

I remember my former life, when I was an alien and a stranger to God's grace, and I had no seat at His table. I recall living in enmity against God. O, but Jesus changed everything. He preached peace to my distant and rebelliously remote heart. Through Jesus I was granted access to an awesome and otherwise unapproachable God. I could never have earned this access any other way except through Jesus. His sacrifice made me acceptable to God and again gave me a seat at His table.

This is amazing. In the Old Testament we see God over and over again as holy and unapproachable. People revered God. They served Him with fear. There were times when God warned the people not to approach him to draw near. Take for example when Moses climbed up the mountain to receive the law from God. God warned the nation not to even touch the mountain or they would die.Yet God chose to come and dwell among men in Jesus.

This all powerful, holy, just, sovereign, and perfect God has given you and I access to Him through Jesus. The wrath of God has been satisfied through what Jesus did on the cross. This is amazing. And yet I wonder how many people in the pews in churches across America have an accurate view of this.

Pastors pilfer with Bible and gospel truth using pop psychology more than adhering to the truth of scripture and exalting the magnificence of Jesus Christ. I just read a book review for a new book America's pastor, Joel Olsteen, just wrote. In twenty five chapters in the book there is no mention of the word sin and no mention of Jesus redemptive work on the cross. We are damning people to hell if all we preach is "How to Have Your Best Life Now."

My best life is reserved for eternity. I can live a full and abundant life here but I must be allured into the delusion this world is ultimately where I belong. This world is not my home. I am just passing through. My treasure is Jesus Christ.  My seat is reserved through Jesus Christ at God's table in eternity. That is the spiritual blessing Paul referred to in [Eph 1:3]. God is more than a genie in the sky to be at our beckoning call. He is the Creator and we are the creation. He is the Master and we are the servants. He is the Potter and we are the clay. Jesus is the chief cornerstone, the foundation, and our all in all.

This is not the Jesus preached at youth camps, retreats, and in many popular pulpits. This is not the Jesus written about in many best selling books. The Jesus Paul wrote about in Ephesians died a bloody death to appease the wrath of God for lost humanity. When I pull up my chair to the person of Christ I am humbled and awed. Perfection died for our imperfection. Holiness suffered for our filthiness.  Righteousness sacrificing for unrighteousness. All of this is undeserved but freely bestowed on those who repent of sin and trust Christ for salvation. AMAZING!

The Old Testament prophets pointed to Christ. The apostles gave witness and verbal testimony to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. JESUS CHRIST IS THE CORNERSTONE. HE IS THE FOUNDATION. HE IS THE MESSAGE OF THE BIBLE. HE IS THE PREEMINENT, GLORIOUS, AND PERFECT REPRESENTATION OF GOD THE FATHER.

And yet Jesus and His work are not the central message of many churches anymore. In our vain pursuit of happiness through the American Dream people perish eternally. While churches are consumed with church growth many are not captivated by the glory of Jesus Christ. He is not the cornerstone for individuals, families, or churches.

I fear that so many people who prayed a sinner's prayer and were run through baptismal waters were never truly saved. They recited the formula but did not have an encounter with Jesus. I praise the Lord I had an encounter with Jesus Christ the Savior on a chilly night back in October of 1983. That encounter with Jesus changed everything. I went from being a child of disobedience destined for wrath to a child of God through Jesus. Through Jesus I was forgiven, redeemed, adopted, chosen, and declared righteous. JESUS IS MY CORNERSTONE. HE IS THE FOUNDATION OF MY LIFE AND FAMILY. Everything revolves around Him, His desires, and His purposes. My best life now is to follow Him. My desire is to submit to Him.

Why? Because Jesus gave me access to God the Father by paying the penalty for my sin debt. I sit awed this morning. AWED! And now, the Sovereign, Holy, Perfect, Omnipotent God dwells in me through the Holy Spirit all because of Jesus. Whereas God used to dwell in the temple between the cherubim on the mercy seat in the holy of holies, now He dwells inside of me because Jesus is my Cornerstone.

I have served as a pastor in various churches for seventeen years now. I can tell you that many of the people I have met do not get this truth. Jesus is not the cornerstone they have built their lives on. The foundation of their lives is making money, building a family, and accumulating the prized possessions of the American dream. Jesus never comes up in their conversations. He is not the most important and pressing reality in their lives. He is not always on the forefront of their minds or agenda. He is not their cornerstone.

You see, when you truly love someone you want to please them. Churches are filled with members who like Jesus but do not truly love Him. Some of these have no intention to ever serve Him or adjust their lives to Him. Faithful pastors preach their hearts trying to motivate to serve Christ faithfully. These pastors fail to realize they are preaching to dead and spiritually bankrupt who have not made Jesus the cornerstone of their lives or eternity. Such people will never be able to serve God faithfully. For such people I question the reality of their salvation.

When a person truly sees their sinful status standing before a holy and just God, and their inability to do one single thing to help themselves become acceptable to Him, Jesus Christ becomes all important. I am reminded of [Rom 5:8] God demonstrated His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. It all comes back to Jesus. We needed someone to appease the wrath of God for our sin and were helpless to do it ourselves. God took the initiative to send Jesus to take our punishment.

When we repent of sin Jesus becomes our cornerstone. The foundation of our salvation, the reason for existence, and the hope for our eternity. There is no way I could convey the depths of my love, humility, gratitude, and devotion to Jesus for what He has done for me. Should I write 10,000 pages I could not adequately express how awed I am at the person of Jesus Christ. To sum it all up, JESUS CHRIST IS MY CORNERSTONE.