Beloved Names of God..series... Chief Cornerstone

 

Chief Cornerstone

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone."

Ephesians 2:19-20 kjv

 

Name of God the Son

 

Jesus is referred to as the "chief cornerstone" twice in the KJV.

 

The cornerstone was traditionally the first stone laid in any new building and was associated with sacrifices and prayers for stability and prosperity.

 

Paul told the Gentiles (through the Ephesians) that in Christ's death the Jews and Gentiles were brought together as one body.

 

When bricklayers raise a building up above its foundation, they generally start with the corners. Only when the corners are several rows high do they start building up the walls in between. The walls, being at right angles and all on the same level, then help support each other.

 

In creating what came to be the modern church, Paul, the Jewish apostle to the Gentiles, brought together Christians from both the Jewish and Gentile worlds. Often separated by thousands of miles and brought up in very different cultures, these people needed something special to bind them together. What Paul needed was a cornerstone- something every man and woman, no matter what their ethnic heritage, could have in common. Something that would support them all.

 

Of course, he already knew what that was. In Jesus, Paul had found a cornerstone not only big enough to build the church on, but big enough to rest the whole world on.  

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Come back next week when we will look at "Light of the World"