The Chief Cornerstone

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     First Corinthians 15:1=4 says, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;  By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

     We were going to have a new house in Indiana when I was about 12 years old.  A bulldozer came and dug the hole and then my Dad began to prepare the foundation.  He accurately measured and used level to make sure everything was right and then poured the footer.  Every block and board would depend on the accuracy of the foundation.  One mistake and it would be detected in every thing placed upon it.  Every cement block was leveled with chalk lines going from one end of the house’s foundation to the other.

     Spiritually speaking, our foundation is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Everything depends on Him and there can be no greater foundation than Christ Himself.  The above passage if from one of the greatest chapters in the Bible as it speaks of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and at the beginning gives us the definition of the Gospel.  Paul stated that He declared unto them the gospel and then goes on to define he gospel in verses three and four.  We notice that it is necessary for three evens to take place in this gospel message.  Thee had to be a death, there had to be a burial and there had to be a resurrection.  First, Paul established the number of witnesses to the resurrection and how Christ appeared to each and every one of them.  Paul then goes on to state that without the resurrection, we would still be in our sins and in a hopeless situation.  It is obvious that if either the Jews or the Romans could have done so, they would have tried to disprove the resurrection, but the number of people that were witness to it was far greater then the enemies of the resurrection and therefore it could not be disproved.  It is in the very fact of the empty tomb that we can have a guarantee of heaven and strength and purpose on this earth.  Christ is often referred to as the Chief Cornerstone on which the church is built.  As in the case of any cornerstone or footer or foundation, without it, you would have a building that would fall down in just a short matter of time.  Not so with the church as our Cornerstone is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself having been raised from the dead and who walked around for forty days afterwards appearing to many witnesses, one group being 500 people at one time.  He hs guaranteed our eternal life because of the resurrection and He has guaranteed His second coming which could be any day now.  Praise God today for the empty tomb.  He has risen indeed.