Jesus: The Cornerstone

Have you ever thought about how useful stones and rocks are? Entire roads and streets are composed of stone. Beautiful buildings often are made of marble or other costly stones. Elegant jewelry that contains precious stones such as rubies, diamonds, and emeralds are sold for thousands of dollars. Rocks and stones help us, protect us from storms, and make our physical lives more enjoyable in many ways.

One of the most useful aspects of stones is how they can be put together to make strong, sturdy buildings. In the Bible, we read that the temple foundation was made of large, costly stones (1 Kings 5:17). Did you know that there is one stone that is more important than any other stone in a building? It is called the cornerstone. It usually is a very large stone that is covered with beautiful carvings or important writing. Some cornerstones weigh as much as 9,000 or more pounds. The cornerstone is laid down at the corner of two walls of a building. It is the foundation on which the entire building is built. If the cornerstone is weak, the whole building will be weak. If the cornerstone is placed incorrectly, the building will not be level and straight. The cornerstone is usually the biggest, most expensive, most beautiful, most important stone in the building.

In the Bible, we are told that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the temple of God (Ephesians 2:20). That might sound odd. How can Jesus be a stone? The Bible explains that, under the Christian system, the temple of God is not a literal building made out of real stones in Jerusalem anymore. Rather, it is a spiritual building that is made out of all the faithful Christians who are "built" into it. Jesus is the cornerstone of the spiritual temple because He is the most important part of it. He lived a perfect life and left a perfect example. In a sense, He is the perfectly straight cornerstone that helps keep His church standing straight, tall, and strong against temptation and the sinful world.

The next time you see a huge, impressive building made of stone, look for the cornerstone and remember that Jesus is our cornerstone.

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