The Firm Foundation

“According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.”  (I Corinthians 3:10-11)  Paul continues here the argument of the necessary diversity within Christ’s church.  The way in which we do ministry (“how to build”) will necessarily reflect our gifts and different perspectives.  But what is presupposed (and perhaps what we may be prone to forget) is the necessary unity which makes any subsequent diversity in ministry possible: there is only one foundation and “that foundation is Jesus Christ.”  Just as we saw last week that even as only God can give life, only Jesus is the sufficient beginning point for all else that we do.  Did you catch that?  Jesus alone is the only proper origin for anything else that will stand the test of time.  More often than not, where I have faced difficulty in ministry (and in all of life, for that matter) is when I have sought to build upon another foundation (which is usually me and my abilities).  How about you?  But the Good News is simply this: the firm Foundation really does exist and whatever is truly built upon Christ will stand!  When all else is not even a dim memory, what you and I do in the name of Jesus will last and grow.  Is it any wonder that the old hymn still has the power to stir us: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.  On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.”