30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 20 9-18 THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE 13 Luke 20 16-18 Man’s salvation is in Jesus, the Chief Cornerstone
📖 Luke 20:9-18
01Mar2021 - *Man’s salvation is in Jesus, the Chief Cornerstone* - _Luke 20:9-18_ - THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE 13 – Bible reading: _Acts 4:10-12_
_Luke 20:16-18 He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others." And when they heard it they said, "Certainly not!" (17) Then He looked at them and said, "What then is this that is written: 'THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED HAS BECOME THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE’? (18) Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder."_
_Then He looked at them…_
He looked at them as those, who were deliberately denying and rejecting the things of God. They knew that they were the chosen vine-growers of God but they were not willing to be submitted to God but wanted to hold the rights and rule over the vineyard in their own command. He looked at them both with anger as well as with grief.
We remember this look of the Lord when the man with the withered hand was healed on the Sabbath.
_Mark 3:3-5 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, "Step forward." (4) Then He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they kept silent. (5) And when *He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts*, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other._
There was both anger and grief in the look of God at these leaders and this is the same look that we can see happening here.
I wonder…how He would look at the church today? Are we those, who know what is expected of us but yet continue to live as though life just revolves around us, with God meeting our needs, or are we those seeking to complete His purpose?
Then, the Lord quoted from the Psalms. _Psalm 118:22-23 The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. (23) This was the LORD's doing; It is marvelous in our eyes._
The Lord’s purpose is to reconcile all things to Himself.
_Colossians 1:19-20 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, (20) and *by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross*._
All fullness dwells in Christ. He is our refuge. He is our shelter. He is our habitat. God is reconciling all things and bringing all things into the habitat of God of which Christ is the Chief Cornerstone. This was the experience that the Lord gave to Israel. He was their refuge and the one in whom they lived and moved and had their being.
In being in the habitat of God they had life and that life was the Shalom of God. This was the life that they not only enjoyed but of which they were to be the light to the Gentiles, who were alienated from God.
We, Gentiles, were dead (alienated from God, the source of life) in our trespasses and sins. _Ephesians 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,_
Jesus was the Chief Cornerstone of the habitation of God. Peter and John made this known to the Jewish people and their leaders when they were questioned about their teaching of the good news of Jesus after the healing of the man born lame.
_Acts 4:10-12 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. (11) This is the 'STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED BY YOU BUILDERS, WHICH HAS BECOME THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE.' (12) Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."_
The wholeness that the lame man experienced was in him coming to Christ, the Chief Cornerstone of the habitat of God. Peter and John made the leaders recognize that they had executed their evil plan of eliminating Christ by crucifying Him but God raised Jesus from the dead and has brought all things under Christ.
_Colossians 1:15-19 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (16) For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. (17) And He is before all things, and *in Him all things consist*. (18) And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. (19) For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,_
Now in Jesus, the Chief Cornerstone, there was salvation. Salvation was not only in the realm of our sins being forgiven but salvation (wholeness) for man and for all of creation, both in heaven and on earth, was in Jesus, the Chief Cornerstone. This is the good news.
*Thought to ponder*
```Consider, the emptiness that man has chosen to experience, when the fullness of life is being offered, in the habitat of God, with Jesus as the Chief Cornerstone.```