Skyscrapers are magnificent architectural marvels extending upwards high into the sky. A good foundation is needed to build skyscrapers right. Long piles made of sturdy material (wood, concrete or steel) driven deep into the ground form the foundation for these super tall structures. Some skyscrapers are set upon piles that extended over two-hundred feet below the ground surface.
The good foundations necessary for modern skyscrapers bring to mind Jesus Christ’s parable of the two houses:
Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great (Lk. 6:47-49).[1]
The house with foundations set upon a solid rock endures the storms of life but the house with foundations set upon shifting sands collapses during the storms of life.[2] The point is clear: “Hearing Jesus’s words without obeying them is like building a house with no foundation. On the day of judgment that person will experience destruction. Those who hear and obey the words of Jesus are compared to one who builds a house on a secure foundation; the day of judgment holds no fear for the wise builder.”[3]
Jesus’ bidding goes beyond a simple acknowledgement or mere words. So, the rhetorical question: Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Lk. 6:46). The declaration “Lord, Lord” signified a verbal respect to the Teacher, but the failure to follow through on His instructions exposed duplicity. This inconsistency is characteristic of practical atheists. Those who are “Christian” in name only.
Christians are called to be grounded in Christ’s teachings. Christ’s teachings must sink deep down into the depths of the soul. The Word of God is to be heard and put into practice.
What the Lord says about hearing and obeying His message is audacious as “no Jewish teacher apart from Jesus claimed so much authority for his own words; such authority was reserved for the law itself.”[4]
Now the exceptional status given to Jesus’ teachings is grounded in His divine identity. This divine identity of Jesus is cleverly unveiled throughout the Gospel of Luke. So, the evangelist tells of angels pronouncing Jesus to be the Son of God (Lk. 1:35-37). Jesus is the “Son” in the sense of sharing with the “Father” the same divine nature.[5] Demons likewise confess Him to be the Son of God (Lk. 4:40-41). The foul creatures are sort of like hostile witnesses testifying in a law court. Luke tells us that the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick (Lk. 5:17). Moreover, the evangelist recalls multiple occasions of Jesus predicting His own death, burial and resurrection on the third day (Lk. 9:22; 18:31-33). Upon the third day, the first followers of Christ beheld their resurrected Lord (Lk. 24:1-27).[6] Our encounter with Jesus in the Gospel of Luke is really an encounter with God.
Perilous times are certain in this fallen world and “for everyone, including every hearer of the gospel, the test or crisis is coming. It comes in various forms and shapes: trial, temptation, bereavement, death, the final judgment. It often arrives with dramatic suddenness.”[7] Yes, eerie dark clouds are gathering upon the horizon, but all who take refuge in the teachings of Christ enter a trustworthy shelter with deep unshakable foundations. Those apart from Christ are but dwellers in homes built upon dangerously shifting sands that will be flattened when the wind and rain hit. But the Lord’s teachings are a shelter built upon a sturdy foundation.
Jesus redeems sinners. The redeemed love because God first loved them (1 Jn. 4:19; Rm. 5:8). Jesus’ followers are then recognized because of their love (Jn. 13:34-35).
Wherever Jesus’ teachings are put into practice, people find themselves inside the protection of a shelter built upon a sturdy foundation. Christians deeply influenced and transformed by Jesus’ teachings then have been a pillar of social stability planted upon a firm foundation. They are at the forefront of positive social transformation. For example, Christians were vital in moving their communities to “established schools for children, planting the seeds of public education and giving us the ability to read and write today,”[8] and “one of the laws that early American Christians put into place was called the ‘Ye Ole Deluder Satan Act’ of 1647. It required that any village with more than fifty households had to start a school and begin teaching their children how to read.”[9] Illiteracy needed addressing because “they believed that Satan kept humanity in the darkness by ignorance, and so if people were trained to read the Bible, they would make their way into the light.”[10]
Even the first nine universities in North America were founded by Christian groups, namely Harvard University (Puritan Congregationalism), College of William & Mary (Church of England), Yale University (Puritan Congregationalism) Princeton University (Church of England), University of Pennsylvania (Church of England), Brown University (Baptists), Rutgers University (Dutch Reformed), and Dartmouth University (Puritan Congregationalism).[11]
Christians played a key role in the development of modern science. One such Christian influencer of modern science was Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Newton was an astronomer, inventor, writer, physicist, mathematician and creator of calculus. In Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), Newton stated, “The most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being…he is wont to be called ‘Lord, God.’”[12] Christians who influenced the Scientific Revolution thus “believed Jesus to be a God who is good and who works with order and predictability.”[13]
Christians were instrumental in seeking the manumission of slaves throughout history and played significant roles in social movements for the abolition of slavery. Elements of the Lord’s own vocation was “to proclaim liberty to the captives” and “to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Lk. 4:18). Since Christ set free those captives to sin, naturally the Christian ought to see the value of setting free those in the bondage of slavery. Paul wrote to the slave owner Philemon concerning the runaway slave Onesimus. All three of them came to know Christ as Lord and Savior, thus it was only right for Philemon to take Onesimus “no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord” (Philem. 16). The best move forward for Philemon was freeing Onesimus. As for the application of the principle, it is worth point out that “long before the Civil War, anti-slavery Christians made and distributed coins in the United States and England that bore the same Bible verse from Philemon 16.”[14] There were many Christians throughout history that stood for abolition of slavery.[15]
Wherever Jesus’ teachings are absent, people find themselves unprotected in flimsy structures resting upon shifting sands unable to withstand the storms of life. Harsh as it may sound but “had the followers of Jesus remained an obscure Jewish sect, most of you would not have learned to read and the rest of you would be reading from hand copied scrolls.”[16] Subtract Christ from history, we would all be in “a world with many astrologers and alchemist but not scientists. A world of despots, lacking universities, banks, factories, eyeglasses, chimneys, and pianos. A world where most infants do not live to the age of five and many women die in childbirth — a world truly living in ‘dark ages.’”[17] Jesus’ teachings provide spiritual power for the social stability and strength of nations.
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
— WGN
[1] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
[2] Matthew preserves a parallel saying from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it” (Matt. 7:24-27).
[3] Thomas R. Schreiner, The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary, ed. Gary M. Burge and Andrew E. Hill (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 1074.
[4] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Lk 6:46–49.
[5] Christianity affirms Christ is begotten of the Father not made. For further reading, see my post “What Does the Baptism of Jesus Reveal?”
[6] The same predictions about the death, burial and resurrection present Jesus self-identifying as the enthroned Son of Man from Daniel 7.
[7] William Hendriksen and Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke, vol. 11, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953–2001), 367.
[8] John S. Dickerson, Jesus Skeptic: A Journalist Explores the Credibility and Impact of Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2019), 162.
[9] Ibid., 164.
[10] Ibid., 164.
[11] Ibid., 99.
[12] Isaac Newton, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) (1687),as cited in Dickerson, 53. Cf. The Newton Project, “’General Scholium’ from the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1729),” https://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/NATP00056
[13] Dickerson., 53
[14] Ibid., 136-137.
[15] See Jeffrey B. Russell, “Christianity and Black Slavery,” Christian Research Journal, 36, 1 [2013]: https://www.equip.org/articles/christianity-black-slavery/
[16] Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (New York: Random House, 2005), 233.
[17] Ibid., 233.
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