Jesus Christ Our Complete Foundation
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
The testing, corner, and foundation stone
Because so many rocks were common in the environment in ancient times, the rocks became ready metaphors for different things in their everyday speech. Rocks were used to build houses, walls, and fences. With few trees to provide shade, Eastern people would sit in the shade of a rock. Rocks were a symbol of shade or protection.
Roads were made out of rocks. You could stumble over rocks as you walked.
Deuteronomy 32:4 KJV:
He [God] is the Rock [sur], his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth [faithfulness] and without iniquity, just and right is he.
It doesn’t say God is like a rock, it says He is the Rock.
During Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the people were singing from Psalm 118. This is interesting because there is a portion of Psalm 118 that is quoted six different times in the New Testament.
Psalm 118:21–24 KJV:
21 I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation [similar to Jesus’s name, Yeshua]. 22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. 23 This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. 24 This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
The part that’s often quoted is verse 22. This whole passage is about the Messiah.
The stone has to do with the Messiah. There are three very interesting characteristics of this stone. The three characteristics together make up the complete foundation.
Sometimes Christ is called the foundation stone. In other places, He’s called the head of the corner or the cornerstone.
Isaiah 28:16 KJV:
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste [be disturbed].
The foundation stone is:
- A tried stone, a stone of trying, a testing stone.
- A precious cornerstone, the head of the corner.
- A sure or solid foundation stone.
Jesus Christ passed all the trials. Because He was the epitome of what a man would have to do to obey God, He became the testing stone.
1 Peter 2:6 APNT:
For it is told in the scripture: Behold, I lay in Zion an approved and precious stone in the head of the corner and he who believes on him will not be ashamed.
Jesus is the whole or sure foundation
“Sure” means firmly placed or well laid.
Acts 4:11–12 KJV:
11 This is the stone which was set at nought [rejected] of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
How can he be a foundation and the head of the corner?
Ephesians 2:20–22 KJV:
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone [the head of the corner of the building]; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Jesus is the foundation. The apostles and prophets are built on that. Then the temple is built on that.
Jesus is the cornerstone
The shape and size of the cornerstone sets the dimensions for the rest of the building. Sometimes in Greek and Roman architecture, if you were building an arch (for instance), the keystone would be the central stone in the arch, and it sets the dimensions for the entire arch.
How did Jesus Christ set the dimensions for the whole body? We get:
- His mind.
- His peace.
- His faith.
- The full measure of the spirit that was upon him.
He set the dimensions of everything that’s within us.
Everyone is fitted together in the temple; everyone has their own place.
There’s a great play on words here. The Hebrew word for “stone” is eben. The Hebrew word for “to build” is bna (bana). The Hebrew word for “son” is ben.
The temple, God’s house, is transferred via a figure of speech to mean “God’s family.” God wanted sons, children.
1 Peter 2:5–7 KJV:
5 Ye also, as lively [living] stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. 7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
In the phrase “a spiritual house,” the house is put for the household, the family that occupies it. Because it’s a household of living people, it becomes a sanctuary.
1 Peter 2:9–10 KJV:
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: 10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Jesus is the tried stone, the stone of testing
1 Peter 2:8 KJV:
And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
1 Peter 2:8 APNT:
he is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And they stumbled at him, in that they were not persuaded by the word to which they were appointed.
The reason anyone who comes up against the testing stone is that they won’t be persuaded by the Word.
There are three quotations of that verse from Isaiah in the gospels. We’ll just look at the one in Matthew 21.
Matthew 21:42–46 KJV:
42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? 43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. 45 And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. 46 But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.
When someone refuses to believe the Word, they get scattered.
Romans 9:31–33 KJV:
31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; 33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Romans 10:9–10 KJV:
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Daniel 2:34–45 KJV:
34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. 35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. 36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. 37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. 38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. 39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. 40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. 41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. 43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. 44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands [not manufactured by man], and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was a portrayal of what would happen to the kingdoms of the world throughout history.
The gold represented Babylon, over which Nebuchadnezzar ruled. He would be replaced by silver, which was the Medes and Persians. The bronze is Greece; Alexander the Great took over from the Medes and Persians. The legs of iron would be the Roman Empire, which would be split into two legs, east and west. The feet and the ten toes with clay and iron mixed together—but they can never mix successfully.
The stone that is Christ will become a mighty mountain with a kingdom that will stand forever. That’s Christ, the complete foundation!
This teaching is also available on the Acts Now Fellowship website.
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