One of the most crucial matters among all the major items of the Lord’s recovery is Christ – the supreme preciousness of the all-inclusive Christ. God’s focus is on Christ; He doesn’t want us to pay attention to anything or anyone else but Christ, and to God and man Christ is everything.
However, we as human beings many times focus on other things, and even our way of thinking and concept of values is not focused on Christ. We need to ask the Lord to grant us the light to have a thorough change in our concept of value so that we would continually choose Christ and all that He is!
If we see that Christ is our super-excelling portion allotted by God to the saints in the light, we will choose Him. When we know Christ, enjoy Christ, and see Christ, we will appreciate Him more, and He will become precious to us.
Christ is preciousness to the believers (1 Pet. 2:7), and He can be found in His word; whenever we come to God’s word with a heart turned to the Lord and a spirit exercised before Him, we receive precious things, which are the many riches of the all-inclusive Christ.
As we enjoy Christ in the Word, we will bring out the precious from the worthless, and we will be as God’s mouth, speaking the precious things of God’s economy and desire to people (Jer. 15:19). What a wonderful Person our Lord Jesus is!
In our previous sharing, we enjoyed how Christ is the captivating and attracting One; He doesn’t reason with us or put us down but rather, even though we may fail Him and go away from Him, He still comes to us to attract us, bring us back, and draw us to Himself.
He didn’t only captivate and attract people with His inner beauty and preciousness when He was on the earth, but even today, Christ is the immense magnet drawing men to Himself in and through His Body and His word. Hallelujah!
Today we want to see a further aspect of Christ as the most precious and excelling One: Christ is the tested foundation stone and the precious cornerstone for God’s building!
Christ Himself is the Precious Stone for God’s Building
Peter saw the Lord’s preciousness, and in his epistles, he speaks of five precious things: the precious stone, which is the Lord Himself (1 Pet. 2:4, 6-7); the precious blood of Christ (1:19); the precious promises (2 Pet. 1:4); the precious faith (1:1); and the precious proving of our faith (1 Pet. 1:7). Christ as the living stone for God’s building not only possesses life but also grows in life.
In 1 Pet. 1:23-24 Peter spoke of Christ being the seed (vegetable life) for life-planting, but here in 2:4 he spoke of a stone (a mineral) for God’s building. Christ came into us as the seed of life, and He needs to grow in us as we experience Him until He becomes in us a solid stone for God’s building.
When we come to Christ as the living stone, He makes us also living stones, transforming us with His “stone-nature” to make us solid, firm, and suitable for God’s building. Oh, let us come to Christ as the living stone so that we may be transformed into living stones and be built up together with others as a spiritual house upon Christ as the foundation and with Christ as the cornerstone!
In God’s New Testament economy, Christ as God’s chosen and precious cornerstone saves us to make us living stones and transforms us for the building up of God’s spiritual house, His dwelling place!
This Christ who is the stone rejected by the Jewish builders is considered by God as precious, and He was made the cornerstone of God’s building to join together the Jews and the Gentiles into one for God’s corporate expression (Acts 4:11-12; Eph. 2:20-22).
We need to have the realisation of what the Lord did: through His death He joined together both the Jews and the Gentiles together into one, thus becoming the cornerstone for God’s building. This cornerstone makes us also living stones and transforms us for God’s building, God’s spiritual house.
Man despised Him, but He is most precious to God, He is preciousness to the believers, and He makes us living stones to be built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood (1 Pet. 2:5-7).
We need to grow in life and come to Christ as a living stone so that we also may be made living stones suitable for the building of God. Christ is the stone chosen by God to bring us into salvation. We need to have the realisation of what the Lord did, and praise Him as the cornerstone for God’s building!
Lord Jesus, we praise You as the cornerstone for God’s building! Man rejected You but God considered You as precious and made You the cornerstone to join the Jews and the Gentiles together into God’s spiritual house, God’s building! Praise the Lord, our cornerstone! In Christ and through Christ we are one for God’s building! Lord, we come to You, a living stone, so that we may be transformed into precious stones for God’s building, God’s corporate expression on earth!
Christ is the Tested Foundation Stone and Precious Cornerstone for God’s Building
In Isa. 28:16 (quoted by Peter in 1 Pet. 2:5-7) the Lord Jehovah laid Christ as a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone as a foundation firmly established for God’s building.
Christ is the tested stone for God’s building; He has been tried and tested during His human life on earth, from His birth to His death on the cross, and He was found sinless, perfect, complete, solid, and strong. From the time He became a man, Christ was tested every day of His life, and He had no fault, failure, or defect; He is the trustworthy One, the foundation stone firmly established by God.
When we go through trials, problems, tests, and sufferings, we can trust in the Lord – He has gone before us and has been tested in every way, and He was found without failure or defect to be the solid, complete, perfect, and strong foundation stone. Christ is our foundation; He is trustworthy, and we put our trust in Him.
We shouldn’t do things in haste, in panic; haste is from the devil, and doing things quickly, in haste, and with anxiousness is not from the Lord. We simply need to rely on the Lord, trust in Him, and remain in Him – He is the tested stone, the foundation stone.
As the all-inclusive living and precious stone, Christ is the centrality (the foundation stone) and the universality (the cornerstone and the living stone) of God’s move for the building up of His eternal habitation (see Matt. 21:42, 44; Acts 4:10-12; Isa. 28:16; Eph. 2:19-22; Zech. 3:9; 4:6-7; Dan. 2:34-35).
Christ is the precious cornerstone for the joint of God’s building; the foundation stone holds the entire building, and the cornerstone joins two parts of the building. Christ is the chief cornerstone (Psalm 118:22-24; Rom. 9:33; Matt. 21:42; Acts 4:11-12; Eph. 2:20), joining us as believers from different backgrounds and nationalities together to be one in Him for God’s building.
On the one hand, Christ is the tested and trustworthy foundation stone in which we can trust and rely, and on the other hand, Christ is the precious cornerstone joining us together in God’s building. Christ as the precious stone is both holding us and joining us together for God’s building, the Body of Christ.
He is the most precious One, and we need to pay attention to Him, hold Him, remain in Him, take Him as our foundation, trust in Him, focus on Him, and allow Him to simply join us and hold us together in His Body. Our Savior Jesus Christ is the precious cornerstone joining for God’s building and the tested foundation stone holding us for God’s building.
So many things could happen, and so many things are urgent; it is easy for us to act in haste, but we need to trust in the Lord, rely on Him, and take Him as our foundation stone. We don’t have to be in haste or do things in a panic because Christ as our foundation stone holds us and as the cornerstone joins us together.
Hallelujah, our Savior as the cornerstone saves us and joins us into God’s building, and as our foundation stone, He holds us in the Body of Christ!
Lord Jesus, we trust in You as the tested and trustworthy foundation stone for God’s building. You are the perfect, solid, strong, and trustworthy One, and we trust in You. Remind us not to do things in haste but to rely on You and trust in You as the foundation stone holding God’s building. Lord, You are the precious cornerstone joining us together for the building up of God’s habitation. We praise You, Lord, for Your preciousness! Thank You for holding us and for joining us into God’s building as God’s all-inclusive, living, precious stone!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Albert Lim’s sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Isaiah, msg. 43 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Crucial Points of the Major Items of the Lord’s Recovery Today (ITERO 2015 fall), week 3 / msg 3, The Supreme Preciousness of the All-inclusive Christ.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# The chief Cornerstone Thou art, Lord, / Jewish builders did despise; / God by resurrection placed Thee, / Thou art precious in His eyes. / Through Thee we receive salvation, / And, together built by Thee, / Jews and Gentiles are Thy dwelling, / One new man, in harmony. (Hymns #834)
# On Christ, salvation rests secure; / The Rock of Ages must endure; / Nor can that faith be overthrown / Which rests upon the “Living Stone.” (Hymns #835)
# Lord, for God’s spiritual building, / Thou art the Chief Cornerstone; / Both of the Jews and the Gentiles / By Thee are built into one. / Lord, Thou art also the Topstone, / Brought forth in measureless grace; / Thou art our cover and glory, / Moving our hearts in Thy praise. (Hymns #199)
About aGodMan
We should not forget that we are believers in Christ. Christ is our foundation, and this foundation has been tested. He is trustworthy, so we should put our trust in Him. We should not be in haste, in panic. In my study of this portion of the Word, one reference book quoted a proverb which said that haste is of the devil. When we are in haste, in panic, we should not forget that this is of the devil. We do not have to be in haste because we have Christ as a tested stone to be our foundation.
This stone is also a precious cornerstone for the joint of God’s building. Whereas the foundation stone holds the entire building, the cornerstone joins two parts of the building. The New Testament tells us, based upon Psalm 118:22-24, that Christ is the chief cornerstone (Rom. 9:33; Matt. 21:42; Acts 4:11-12; Eph. 2:20). According to the New Testament, Christ as the cornerstone joins together the two walls, one of the Jewish believers and the other of the Gentile believers. Because Christ took the lead to join together the Jews and the Gentiles, He is the first cornerstone. Even today we are not only held by Him as our foundation stone but also joined together by Him as our cornerstone….We need to experience Christ as the tested, trustworthy stone to be the firmly established foundation holding us and the cornerstone joining us together. This issues in God’s building, the Body of Christ. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Isaiah, pp. 301-305)