Keep the Cornerstone in Spiritual Context

A stumbling block on the Roman's Road

Lo, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone: choice and precious. And He who is believing on Him may not be put to shame.

To you ... who are believing [is] the preciousness.

To the unbelieving, a stone that the builders disapproved of,
this one did become for the head of a corner [this became the cornerstone] and
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence; [they] are stumbling at the word, being unbelieving ... .

1 Peter 2:6-8, Young's Literal Translation, edited

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great;
for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:11-12, New American Standard Bible

When reaching the lost, some people go to scriptures in the book of Romans: scriptures that ministers used to call "the Romans Road."

The scriptures assure us that our heavenly Savior was crucified for our sins, died a physical death, physically rose again, and spiritually broke the chains of death, ascending to our home in Heaven, in order to make the way for us as believers: "For all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God," and all need the Savior we have in Jesus.

"When he died, he died once, to break the power of sin." (Romans 6:10, New Living Translation) "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God [in Heaven] raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved." (10:9-10, NLT) [editorial added]

Jesus died and rose again for all who will believe. (Hebrews 10:10) In Christ, we have eternal life, a life that begins, so to speak, when all believers cross the threshold to Heaven one day.

That's precious.

But do you know that there are those, now, who are offended by the call to our earthly and our forever life in Jesus?

In an age when at least one funeral home routinely brands obituaries with the tag "eternal rest" instead of "eternal life," it's so important we reach those who may be led to live and believe something other than the Holy Spirit.

The truth that we find in Jesus sometimes becomes a stumbling stone, an offense, to far too many now. And, when an abundance or counselors makes other difficult to understand parts of the New Testament more plain — when ministers or teachers make the unrefined, diamond-in-the-rough places plain — some souls seem all the more offended.

That's one reason why, in the 40 days leading up to Easter this year, I'm making notes "in the Spirit," translating scriptures into 40 promises that we can find in some of the rough places of the New Testament word. Each promise that I write out is like a stepping stone for each day.

One stone on the road to Easter for me, this year, is Romans 5:12-21.

In Romans 5:12-21, Heaven promises that the gift of grace has not been given as if by a man who sinned. The longhand of this Bible study is this:

Heaven promises that the gift of grace has not been given as if by a man who sinned.
That can be confusing, if we're seeking Jesus in passages like Romans 5:16 of the King James translation, where someone inserted the word "so" into a scripture that really is telling us this: 

"Not as if by one who sinned is the gift of grace; for the judgment that condemns men was brought into being through the sin of one man, but the free gift of grace to our many offences was brought unto us [by Jesus] to make us right or repentant and forgiven."

It also can be a challenge to find Jesus in verses like Romans 5:20 of the King James and some other versions of the Bible. But with the Holy Spirit in heart, we grow to understand that 5:20 is saying, "The law has entered in wherever offences have abounded. But where sin has abounded, grace has abounded much more," like when wheat outgrows the tares that Jesus speaks of in a parable.

Then, we can better understand Romans 5:13-14 to really mean, "For until the law came into being, sin was throughout the world; because sin is not held to an account when there is no law. So death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned like Adam ... ." 

Thank Heaven there's both law and grace today: the law where there's lawlessness, and the grace that has come to us through our Savior, Jesus, who grants us the promise of Heaven and blesses us to want to live repentant, forgiven, justified, made right, and able to show others the way.

Jesus isn't a passed-away idol. And no one has to make elaborate, digital art to say that He lives.

But it's the simplest of things that we do that bless us to understand that He's still with each one of us as Christians, living through the Holy Spirit in our hearts, and waiting on high in the one and only Heaven that will endure forever. That's a matter of fact that causes some people to stumble in disbelief.