Who is Jesus? # 165

The Only Foundation

I Corinthians 3:11

What does a foundation do? Is it merely a solid surface on top of which you build a structure, perhaps a house? Jesus uses this metaphor concerning those who hear and obey his teachings (like building a house on a solid foundation) and those who hear and do not obey (like building a house without a foundation).

In Paul’s teaching in I Corinthians it is Jesus who is the foundation. Paul goes on to make a strong statement. This is the only foundation and another one cannot be laid in its place.

Now that doesn’t mean that we don’t try from time to time to build our lives on some other foundation; money, pride, family, etc. Even Christians have to grapple with this idea of building another foundation that tries to push Jesus out of the way. Satan is at work there.

But we can always come back to the original. We can get refocused. In our part of the country we have to tend to the foundation of our homes or it may develop some serious problems. Mostly that involves moistening the ground around it and keeping an eye on it.

I think those two strategies work in a spiritual sense, too. Keeping your eyes on Jesus helps us to stay on that foundation and continue to build our lives. We stay focused on Him not because we are looking for cracks in Him, but to keep the cracks in our lives at a minimum and once discovered, fix them. Staying focused on Jesus keeps us from being distracted by anyone or anything that might try to be the replacement foundation.

As we water around our foundation to allow the foundation to settle and not crack, we need to keep massaging our relationship with Jesus to get the most out of we can. Our foundation always has more to give.

           “The eye has not seen and the ear has not heard

            And the heart of man has not received

            All that God has prepared for those who love him.
           (I Cor. 2:9, NIV)”

In reality, we are not maintaining our foundation, but maintaining and growing our relationship to the foundation. We discover that more and more we depend on the foundation and we learn that it has been there all along. “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ, (NIV).”