Today

When I picture the ancient stone masons at work on a foundation, I can see them tossing an awkward, rough-hewn block into the weeds because it did not fit their plans. Yet the Lord Jesus looked straight at the religious rulers of His day and asked, “Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?” What men counted worthless and cast aside, God made the chief cornerstone of eternity.

Sitting quietly by my wife’s side as she recovers from surgery, away from my usual routines, my mind keeps returning to how great this work of salvation really is. When life gets stripped down to the essentials, you quickly see what truly holds. Jesus Christ left the glories of Heaven, was despised and rejected of men, bore my sin upon Himself at Calvary, and gave me everlasting life. I did not earn a single scrap of it, and neither did you.

I need this truth deep in my soul today, and perhaps you do too. As John Gill noted, this scripture speaks directly of the rejection of our Messiah, yet God took that cross and made it our redemption. Salvation is not a project you and I must maintain by our own frail strength. It is the Lord’s doing from start to finish, and it is marvellous indeed.