July 4 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"Therefore thus says the LORD God, "Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation" (Isa. 28:16).

Devotional

"A precious cornerstone." Of whom does the prophet say this but of Jesus? Compared with him, nothing is precious! He alone is worthy of the term. He alone can smooth life's rugged path. Jesus alone can sweeten life's bitter trials. He alone can lighten life's heavy burdens. And he does all this by daily and hourly imparting his own life, grace, and preciousness.

Oh, how precious—what language can express?—is this precious stone to one who, conscious of his vileness, poverty, and nothingness, or with a spirit oppressed with deep trial, or bleeding from painful bereavement, wades to it through the billows, exclaiming, "When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I" (Ps. 61:2). Precious in his all-atoning blood, precious in his all-justifying righteousness, precious in his infinite fullness, precious in every office that he fills, in every work that he performs, in every promise that he makes, is Christ to him who, finding all other foundations but as sliding sand, builds his hope of glory upon the incarnate God. "To you, therefore, who believe, he is precious" (1 Pet. 2:7).

Our glorious Redeemer is a "cornerstone," too. The important position which this occupies in the spiritual building—its essential relation to the compactness, strength, and durability of the whole fabric—we fear, is not duly considered by many who are professedly "living stones" in the "spiritual house" (1 Pet. 2:5). And yet how momentous and how holy is the instruction it conveys! The corner stone is that which unites the parts of the edifice. It is to the building what the keystone is to the arch. It imparts unity, symmetry, and strength.

The Lord Jesus has been the uniting stone of the church in all ages. The saints of the patriarchal, Levitical, and new covenant churches all meet and form, in him, one glorious temple of the living God. "No longer strangers and aliens, but fellow-citizens with the saints and members of the household of God," they are "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord," and thus becomes "a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (Eph. 2:19–22).

That there are visible and painful divisions in the church of God is a truth too glaring to conceal. That the one body is sadly dismembered and the seamless robe rudely torn and disfigured is a fact almost too painful and humiliating to acknowledge. Alas, that it should be! Oh, how much is the unity of the church lost sight of in the din of religious controversy and the heat of party zeal! How coldly brother looks upon blood-bought brother! How suspiciously minister glances at minister! How aloof church stands from church! Ought this so to be? And to what may it in a great degree be traced? We believe to a forgetfulness of the truth that all true believers are "one in Christ Jesus;" that the blood of the Lamb is the bond of union of the saints; that he is the "cornerstone," uniting all the parts of the one edifice; and that, if built upon him, we are one with that church, and that church is one with Christ.

Christ is made the sure foundation,
Christ the Head and Cornerstone,
chosen of the Lord and precious,
binding all the church in one;
holy Zion's help for ever
and her confidence alone.

(Anon., Latin, 7th cent.;
tr. by John Mason Neale, 1851;
alt. in Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1861)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2011.