The Church’s Foundation is Still God’s Word 

You have probably encountered the advertisements of those companies that help resolve foundations issues in houses. Cracked walls, leaky basements, doors that don’t close properly, and unlevel floors may be signs of a problem with the foundation. It is an important matter which can have serious effects and can be costly to repair.

 I am concerned that the church has foundation issues these days. It is not only vital to be built upon a good foundation but also the correct foundation. What is our foundation? In one sense, we can rightly declare it to be Jesus. The Bible states that He is the chief cornerstone of His one true church. He is the key component in the foundation. If we deny Jesus’ divinity or His self-declared purpose of coming to give His life as the sacrifice for our sins, then we are moving off our one foundation. We have no right to call ourselves the church.

While Jesus is the cornerstone, the Bible further suggests that His Word is our foundation. In the familiar parable about the houses built on the sand and on the rock, one of those structures stands because it is built on the proper foundation. Jesus indicated that what He was talking about is hearing and doing His Word.

The Apostle Paul also makes this connection in a passage where he is picturing the church as a building. He says that it had “been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Ephesians 2:20). I don’t believe he was simply pointing to those individuals as the founding fathers of our faith, much like people might point to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and others as the founders of the United States of America. Anything built upon the foundation of fallen human beings, no matter who they are, is going to be unstable. I believe Paul was referring to the special revelation those apostles and prophets had received from God. It seems to be saying that the scriptures, what we have come to refer to as both the Old Testament and the New Testament, are the foundation on which the church is built. Both the living Word – Jesus - and the written Word compose that all-important foundation of the church.

There are specific churches that have forsaken God’s Word as their foundation. Their beliefs are based more on popular thinking, common morals, and on man’s ideas about what is good or right instead of trusting in what God says about those matters. Instead of declaring with divine authority, “thus says the Lord”, they tenuously talk about “your truth and my truth”, “follow your heart”, and “we know better today.” The true church is not founded on philosophy, sociology, religious traditions, the vacillating values of our culture, or personal feelings. The church is based on God’s truth – what He has revealed to us in Jesus and His Word.

If a church has left its foundation, it is merely an organization of man, not the Body of Christ. That is not to say that there may not be some individuals in those particular churches who are still part of the true church. They may still be clinging to that firm foundation, or the Lord may still be clinging to them to keep them from falling. However, we need to realize how serious it is when churches or individuals leave their foundation. Picture a house being knocked off its foundation by a flood or storm. It is so unstable, it usually can’t be salvaged.

Let’s stand firm on God’s Word and the truths about Jesus and the significance of His death and resurrection. Let’s not fall away as too many others are doing today. If we compromise on God’s Word, we are dangerously forsaking the very foundation of the church that we profess to be part of.