The Cornerstone

In biblical times, construction engineers used several specialised components and tools. Jesus of Nazareth would have been familiar with these because he was a carpenter by trade, and in those days, a carpenter was a master construction worker and not just someone who made wooden furniture.  We, too, need to be at least familiar with key construction elements because they have become incorporated into the scriptures as symbols of truth concerning both Jesus, the church of which he is the head, and our Christian lives.

Isaiah 28:16-19 mentions three of these symbolic construction elements: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed. I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line”’

The Measuring Line was a thin rope giving the workers a true horizontal line on which to build. You see this today when a bricklayer stretches out a measuring line for every row of bricks he needs to lay. This rope can be marked with precise units of measurement so that the wall built can be to the exact length required. The Plumb Line is a thin rope with a weight at one end used to give the construction a true vertical dimension. The Cornerstone is the most important component of all. It is a large rectangular rock cut with great precision and served as the foundational corner of the construction. The first two walls start from the cornerstone and, using the measuring and plumb lines, form the accurate and sound basis for the whole building.

Old Testament Symbolic Applications

Although not explicitly stated, most scholars accept that King David wrote Psalm 118. Verses 22 and 23 of this Psalm read, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This came from the Lord; it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it’. HCSB Now this adds a significant detail – the cornerstone selected by God was rejected by his entrusted builders, but later became the foundation of the Messianic kingdom. Then, almost exactly 1,000 years later, Jesus Christ, God the Son, stood before the errant builders of the kingdom, the Pharisees, and said: ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This came from the Lord and is wonderful in our eyes?‘ (Matthew 21:42). The Pharisees understood full well that Jesus was referring to himself as the chosen cornerstone and themselves as the faithless builders.

A New Understanding of the Symbolism of the Cornerstone

The Apostle Paul understood this when he wrote in Romans 9:31-33; “Israel, pursuing the law for righteousness, has not achieved the law. Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written: Look! I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over, and a rock to trip over, yet the one who believes on Him will not be put to shame.”  Here Paul was saying that the Jews tried to find salvation (righteousness) by obeying the law rather than by accepting Jesus as saviour and Lord. He was drawing a contrast between works and faith. To do this he blended Isaiah’s words of Isaiah 28 with what the prophet wrote in verse 14 of chapter 8; ‘For both houses of Israel he (God) will be a stone that causes men to stumble.’

God, himself, is either a cornerstone on which to build or a rock over which people stumble!

The Apostle Peter also made use of Isaiah’s words when he wrote, ‘Coming to Him, a living stone – rejected by men but chosen and valuable to God – you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: Look! I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and valuable cornerstone, and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame!  So the honour is for you who believe; but for the unbelieving, The stone that the builders rejected – this One has become the cornerstone, and A stone that causes men to stumble, and a rock that trips them up.’  1 Peter 2:4-8 HCSB

Building or Stumbling in Modern Days

All major world religions, including Judaism, are based on the foundational concept that right standing with God and humanity is achieved either through meritorious works or adherence to a religious system of law, or both.

True Christianity, on the other hand, is based on the foundational belief that spiritual life and right-living is in and through Jesus Christ. Not law, and not good works, but by faith in Jesus as God incarnate and the only way into the eternal kingdom of God.

Now this is offensive to religions of all kinds. This why Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:23, ‘We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.’ Jews cannot accept that the promised Kingdom of God is built not on law, ritual, and right living, but on the person of God incarnate himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. The very thought that Jesus is God has always been a blasphemous offence to them, an offence worthy of death … even death on a cross! To the Greeks, it was just a foolish idea that did not conform to their norms of philosophy and humanistic logic.

Things haven’t changed much. In today’s society, where truth is subjective and personal at best, speaking about ‘god’ is marginally acceptable, but speaking of Jesus is seen as judgmental, narrow, and prejudiced.  Speaking about religious things is generally regarded as acceptable if boring and irrelevant. Speak about Jesus as the way, the truth, the life and the only way to the Father, however, and you get a very different reaction. Just to strengthen my point, my language checker picked up the following words from the previous paragraph ‘now this is offensive to religions of all kinds’ and tried with bold purple underlines to convince me to change it to ‘Now this isn’t very respectful of religions of all kinds.’ Say no more!

The Depth of the Cornerstone

In ancient times, the cornerstone of a building lay on a flat foundation, but the metaphorical cornerstone contemplated in this article starts under the surface. At its deepest level lies the radical recreative act of the Holy Spirit that Jesus referred to as the New Birth. Without this, ‘salvation’ is nothing more than a religious term for a realignment of certain values.

At the next level of the cornerstone is Jesus-centred biblical interpretation. For Jesus to be the cornerstone of our lives, we need to correctly understand the bible’s revelation of who he is, what he said and did, and what he reveals of the character and nature of the Godhead.  Further, we need to interpret all of scripture through the lens of this revelation of Jesus Christ.

Amazingly, so many Jesus-followers do not understand the importance of this foundational level of our Faith.

Almost all accept the inspiration and authority of the bible yet feel free to interpret it any way they like. I have written a lot on this, and HERE is the most complete.

The metaphoric cornerstone breaks the surface where Jesus provides the model for how to live and minister. At a moral and ethical level, the Lord Jesus is our example of right living. However, he also acts as our model of how to minister to others in the power of the Holy Spirit. Sadly, this aspect is often ignored by Christians other than those who self-describe as Pentecostal or Charismatic. I have written much about this, too, and you can find one such article HERE.

The Church Built upon the Rock

A final aspect of Jesus as the cornerstone I would like to touch on is how this relates to the church. Jesus is the cornerstone of eternal life (salvation), of the scriptures, of moral, ethical, and ministry life, and also of the church.

This says it all!

A One-passage Summary

I have already quoted 1 Peter 2:4-8, but I repeat it here as a wonderful summary of what I have been discussing in this article.

Coming to Him, a living stone- rejected by men but chosen and valuable to God – you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: Look! I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and valuable cornerstone, and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame!  So the honour is for you who believe; but for the unbelieving, The stone that the builders rejected – this One has become the cornerstone, and A stone that causes men to stumble, and a rock that trips them up.’