Get Real November 3 Devotional

1 PETER 2:4 | ⁴ Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight.

ISAIAH 28:16 | ¹⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord God, See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: ‘One who trusts will not panic.’

PSALM 118:22 | ²² The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

Peter alludes to two famous verses, one from the Psalms and one from the prophet Isaiah, to introduce the image of Jesus as a cornerstone on which God is developing a living sanctuary. True Christian community is present when people come to Jesus, rejected and crucified, but now alive and foundational for the community that God is building.

Peter finds this sequence in Isaiah who tells of God laying “a precious sure cornerstone in Zion,” and in the Psalmist, who tells us that the “stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” A cornerstone bears a significant portion of a structure’s weight and it gives an orientation and starting point for the laying of all the subsequent stones. It is the first and most vital part of building a foundation.

How is a church different from a club?

Gracious God,

Form Your church not based on performance or affinity or taste, but on the solid rock, the sure foundation, of Your precious Son and those who came to Him.

Amen.