July 21, 2017
Luke 20:17, 18
(All Scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated)
Here is our featured Scripture – Luke 20:17 and 18:
“The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”
Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will
grind him to powder.
I showed in the last blog that Jesus is the Rock! (See Isaiah 28:16; I Peter 2:6; Ephesians 2:19-22; I Corinthians 3:11). And to be crushed Under The Rock is to experience the final judgment of the unsaved – to be cast into “…the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second [eternal] death.” (Revelation 21:8). But that is not the only option in Luke 20:18! We can also be On The Rock – and the choice is ours!
You see, Whoever falls on that stone is not an accident that happens, it is a deliberate choice! It means “I choose to be broken on the stone, the Rock, Jesus Christ! ” Broken – that is what usually happens when something fragile meets a stone! And we are in many ways very fragile! We are told in…
• …Psalm 103:13 through 16 – “…the LORD…knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.”
• …James 4:14 – “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
And we need to be broken! Why? Because our very nature – inherited from our ancestors (see Romans 5:12) – is a sin nature, in rebellion against God! (See Romans 3:10-18; 8:7; Colossians 1:21). We need to be broken so God can remold us into the image of Christ! (See Romans 8:29; II Corinthians 3:18; Colossians 3:10). So, cast yourself upon the Rock Christ Jesus and be broken! Come to the foot of the cross and confess you are a sinner in need of the only Savior! As the Lord said in John 6:37, “The one who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.”
But, according to the title of these two blogs – The Rock – Under, On, In – we have yet to explore the In part. Luke 20:17 and 18 does not explain this, so we will consider John 1:12 and 13:
But as many as received Him [the Lord Jesus Christ], to them He gave the
right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name:
who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God.
I chose this Scripture because of how it reads in the original Greek. The preposition in (who believe in His name) in the Greek is εἰς (pronounced ice). It actually means into. So the above Scripture could read, “…to those who believe into His name…He gave the right to become the children of God….” It is far more than a mental assent that Jesus Christ is the Savior! It is putting yourself into Him – committing whole-heartedly to His promise to rescue you from hell (see Psalm 116:8; John 5:24; Colossians 1:12-14; James 5:20), cleanse you from sin (see Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 1:18; Colossians 2:13), begin the transformation into His image (see I Corinthians 3:18), and give you eternal life (see I John 5:11-13)! This being In The Rock is prefigured in Exodus 33:18-33:
And…[Moses] said [to God] “Please, show me Your glory.” Then He [God]
said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the
name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” But He said,
“You cannot see My face, for no man shall see Me and live.” And the LORD
said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be,
while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and will
cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and
you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”
We are told in I Timothy 6:15 and 16: “…the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords…alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see….” God is so glorious that to see Him ‘head-on’ would instantly kill mortal man! That’s why Jesus came as a human being. Our mortality would not be destroyed by looking upon Him. But, as Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father…” (John 14:9). So to save Moses from destruction, God hid him in the cleft of the rock and covered him with His hand ! We are hidden in (into) Jesus, and so are saved from the destruction of judgment that results in eternal damnation!
One more point: The rock in which Moses was hidden was cleft, or split! That was why Moses could enter the rock and be hidden! Jesus is the Rock! And He was certainly cleft for us! It says in Isaiah 52:14 (Easy-to-Read Version): “It is true that many were shocked when they saw Him. He was beaten so badly that He no longer looked like a man.” We could say, He was split open by the beatings, the whipping, the crucifixion He took in our place – so much so that we can enter the cleft in Himself that He underwent for us, and we are saved from destruction!
In 1890 the blind teacher Fanny Crosby wrote the hymn “He Hideth My Soul”. The refrain captures beautifully the truth of Moses’ experience before the glory of God, and our experience when we, by faith, enter the eternal safety of Jesus Christ:
He hideth my soul in cleft of the rock
That shadows a dry thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depth of His love,
And covers me there with His hand.
Be sure you are In The Rock Christ Jesus!