Foundation Stones

Since I'm apparently in an apologetic textually critical mood again today, (laughing here) I took a look at a familiar passage in Matthew 16. In verses 17-18, Jesus says to Peter, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." 17 "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it."

Peter had just said that Jesus was, "the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Jesus commended Peter for saying that, and said that he was blessed because that knowledge had been revealed to him by God. Jesus went on to talk about the tremendous blessing that would be brought into Peter's life because Peter had agreed in his heart to this divinely inspired knowledge.

At their first meeting, Jesus looked at Peter and said "You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter). John 1:42. Cephas, (Peter) in Aramaic means "rock". In Matthew 16, Peter was living up to the nickname that Jesus had given him. Peter's revelation from God is a masterful demonstration of the Lord's timing in that Peter makes a declaration about who Jesus is as the Messiah, and Jesus uses the opportunity to declare his intended plan.

Petros, in the Greek, is a masculine pronoun that refers to a small stone or a rock. Jesus says that Peter is a petros, a stone, but then uses careful wording to emphasize precisely how he would structure His church on earth. He in essence says that Peter is strong like a stone, but added that upon this rock,-- "petra," He would build His church. Having switched to the feminine noun petra, He was now referring to a decidedly larger stone.

This abrupt change in Greek words from "petros" to "petra" moves me to believe that Jesus was indeed identifying Himself to be the foundation, the Chief Cornerstone upon which His church would be built. Some might disagree with me, saying that a plain reading of the text in English shows that the church is built on Peter and his fellow Apostles as the foundation stones, or upon Peter's testimony, but I would say to be sure to take a couple of other Bible passages into account.

"For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1st Corinthians 3:11 Here Paul is talking to believers, still in their spiritual infancy, about what the spiritual church is laid upon, Jesus Christ. He always comes first, and we come after. If the church was not first built upon Him and His work for us upon the Cross, it could not survive.

"19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner {stone,} 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." Ephesians 2:19-22

It seems plain that the notion that Jesus was declaring Peter to be the foundation stone of the church, separate from the other Apostles is in conflict with these verses, particularly with Ephesians 2:20. This verse teaches plainly that Jesus' church is built on the foundation of each and every one of the Apostles and prophets, and that Jesus Himself is the Chief Cornerstone.

To some folks, what seems to some a minor event, with Jesus and the Apostles stating what might be obvious to us now, bears closer study, as does all the Word of the Lord, and demonstrates the importance of placing what is said into the greater context of the whole of Scripture.

The Bible tells us that one day, whatever crowns that we receive in heaven, we will all be casting at His feet, because He did the work anyway. He will graciously give us crowns that we will not deserve, and we will know that they belong to Him, because His is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.