The Cornerstone

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

THE CORNERSTONE

Acts 4:8-12

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 He is "'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.'   12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

NIV

They asked and Peter had the answer, of course he was filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit and it was pouring out all over those rulers, elders and teachers of the Law. Although it is true these men may have been among those who incited the crowd to crucify Jesus and release Barabbas, in all reality it was their sin, as it is ours that crucified Jesus. This may well have been the point Peter was making as he declared that salvation is in no one else other than Jesus. Salvation is not from the single act of inciting that crowd, but from a life of sin. These men had rejected Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, the one they in fact had been waiting for, but their own selfish ambition and need for power and influence over others superseded all else. They were blinded by their sin. They were a great example of suppressing the truth about God which he had put within them by they own evil deeds. We will even see in their response their evil deeds continued to suppress the truth, which Peter told them. But we can see this truth, our eyes, the eyes of our heart, have been opened and we see that it was indeed our sin which crucified Jesus.  It was this act of kindness shown to us, a cripple person, which healed us. Once we were indeed crippled, lame unable to walk with God, but because of his act of kindness, sending Jesus to die for us, we have been healed. We have not rejected the corner stone, as he is the very foundation on which our life is built, without him we could not be who we are, as we are indeed living stones being built into the temple of God, with Christ as the cornerstone. All things about our life are based on this cornerstone. It is when we move in our own direction, insisting on our own will, our own path, our own desires in life, we reject Jesus as our cornerstone. We may have found salvation in Christ, as we have rejected all other names, all other gods, all other means, including ourselves, but we must continue to use him as the cornerstone of our life.