We were talking about Isaiah 28 at the mission yesterday.
Isaiah 28:16 (HCSB)
Therefore the Lord God said: “Look, I have laid a stone in Zion,a tested stone,a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will be unshakable.”
In ancient times when they built buildings, it was very difficult to make a large stone perfectly square. SO they would spend all of their time on one perfect stone, making it completely square, and then line up all the rest according to its edges. The other stones needed to be flat, they couldn’t be big round boulders, but they didn’t have to be flattened into perfect square because the cornerstone was perfect. As long as they were lined up correctly with the cornerstone, the building would be built correctly.
It’s the same way with us and Jesus. HE is our righteousness; HE is our correct standing before God, and as long as we are aligned with Him correctly, our obtuse corners don’t cause any problem in the building of the building, which is us: His Church.
This opens up a bunch of questions about how we should live. Should we preach all about how you should be square like the cornerstone? Should we make ourselves the judge of what square is? Should we be the square police? Should we be the dictators of which sides need to be square and which sides can pass?
All of the answers to that are of course, obvious in our words but not so much in our actions. The fact is, if the stone next to you is a little rougher or a little rounder, you might end up holding a little more weight on that wall.
But as you bear that weight, you can shut up about that round boulder, because at the end of the wall there is a perfect cornerstone that bore ALL of the weight of perfection for you.