The True Foundation

“For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 3:9-11 NIV)

“When I came to college, I thought I was a Christian.”  In my years of campus ministry, I have heard this statement many times.  It comes from students who have grown up in the church and pretty much accepted whatever they have been taught by parents, Sunday School teachers, and youth ministers as true; yet have never embraced it personally as their own.  They have a lot of knowledge, but little or no personal faith that is lived out in daily life.  

We are all created in the image of God; we are, as Paul says, His building.  It is, however, our choice as to what will serve as our foundation.  The danger for many who have been raised in the church is their foundation is the faith and practices of their parents, not Jesus Himself.  They consider themselves Christians because they have grown up believing and doing things that are consistent with what Christians do, but they do not understand that faith and practice which does not have Jesus Christ as its foundation is eternally worthless.  It is like the Pharisees, whom Jesus described as “white-washed tombs.”  There is the appearance of life, but, in reality, there is none.  

The Christian life can only be built on the foundation of Jesus as Lord of our lives.  Complete surrender to Him is a necessity; it cannot be substituted with intellectual beliefs and religious activities. Students who I have heard make the statement, “When I came to college, I thought I was a Christian,” came to realize this and surrendered their lives to Jesus. They made Him the foundation of their lives, and then took much of what they had learned and incorporated it into their “building” as Christians. They realized there is no other true foundation on which to build their lives.

Today, consider on what foundation you are building your life.  Is it truly Jesus, or have you mistakenly substituted it with something else?  A true Christian is one who builds his life on Jesus Christ as Lord and nothing else.

© Jim Musser 2013