Insightful Musings on theScriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear people.

Becki and I did our little walk/jog routine earlier. Now we need to get on with a huge list. For me it will involve some signwork, some sawwork, some around-our-place work, and end in jail. Yup! I’ll be accompanying a friend, doing a little music and a Bible lesson at the Clackamas County Jail this evening. I guess it won’t really end there. When the meeting is over we’ll be released to come home.

Below is another original from this morning…kind of rare these hectic days.

Blessings on your day. Love, Dad/Ray.

These religious leaders were just that—leaders of a religion. They were very selective in choosing materials given them by God and, without really following the blueprints, used them for building an elaborate edifice of their own—one of rules and regulations where they were the rulers and regulators. And because the building was composed of so many godly parts, they were blinded to the fact that their building project was in conflict with God’s building project. Jesus points out in no uncertain terms that they were actually rejecting the culminating most important part of God’s building project—the “capstone.” They were vain builders—based on the principle that “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

Consider the significance and placement of a “capstone.” The dictionary defines it as, “The top stone of a wall or other structure. The final stroke: CULMINATION.” Where the Architect-Designer intended that the “capstone” be the most featured piece, they rejected it as the most undesirable. Where God’s building had it up high, they pushed it off to the side down low—in a place to be tripped over and offended by. Consider again Paul’s commentary—“What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel (and her religious leaders), who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame"” (Romans 9:30-33).

Our basic understanding of New Testament truth is that God’s building project is the collective fabrication of individual temples of God to form the great Temple of God with Christ as the uniting “capstone.” Let’s be awed with more from Paul—“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22). May it be so!

Did you catch that? Please notice that Jesus is both the “cornerstone”—the beginning foundational part of the structure—as well as the “capstone”—the ending of the structure—“the beginning and the end.” Wow!