Every building requires a solid foundation. Paul used this common-sense metaphor when writing to the Corinthians. His application was unequivocal: There is only one foundation, and it is the one already laid. That foundation is Jesus.
Notice what he didn’t say. He didn’t say that Jesus is a preferred foundation, the best available. He was emphatic. Jesus is the only foundation. In other words, nothing else is a foundation in any ultimate sense at all. Other passages of Scripture attest to this. All things were created by and for Jesus, and all things find their place in Him. In the broadest sense, when all is said and done, everything that can be shaken will have been shaken. Only that built on the unshakable foundation of Christ’s perfect work will remain. Christ and His redemptive work alone will stand.
“In righteousness you shall be established”, promised Isaiah as he expounded on the benefits of the New Covenant. The righteousness in question is not our own, but Christ’s. It is His right standing with God in which we are established. That is the unshakable foundation into which the Holy Spirit embedded us when we believed. This truth lies at the heart of the Gospel, for in it a righteousness is revealed that is by grace alone, through faith alone, and because of Christ alone.
This is Christianity’s bottom line, no ifs or buts. In the instant that we placed our trust in Jesus, a cluster of extraordinary things happened. His story became our story as Holy Spirit united us with Him in His crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection. From that moment onward we were no longer dead, entombed in our trespasses and sins. From then on we’ve been alive to God and in Christ, and seated in heavenly places in Him. In that same instant we were also born again of the Spirit of God, and Holy Spirit literally took up residence in us. This was possible because our unrighteousness had been removed from us, and Christ’s own righteousness imputed to us. Right then and there our lives were immovably and irrevocably secured into that one unshakable foundation. This is true of every single Christian. There are no exceptions.
Let’s say it again. Each and every believer is in irrevocable right standing with God. We are all righteous with the perfect right standing of Jesus Himself. That is the Gospel, and deserves belabouring at every opportunity. Enlist your imagination and look down using the eyes of your spirit. What do you see beneath your feet? More solid than rock, the right standing of Jesus, unshakable beneath your feet.
Extract from “Living in the Will of God”. Coming soon to a computer near you!
So encouraging and exciting as it cements more and more in my heart. Thanks for faithfully sharing the Gospel with us every Sunday.