By Caleb Faires
Rudyard Kipling, inspired by Samuel Stone’s “The Church’s One Foundation,” wrote a hymn of his own called “Hymn Before Action.” It can be sung to the same tune, but I must warn you that its content is radically different from Stone’s. Kipling invokes God’s aid to support blatantly imperial aims.
Kipling’s message may hit a little closer to home than we’d like to admit. Have you ever sought God’s help for something that was really just a selfish wish? I have. We are naturally inclined to think opportunistically of our relationship with God. We have our own ideas about what we want and how God should help us fulfill our wishes. I am grateful that God is both faithful and gracious, dealing patiently even with my presumptuous and petty ways.
Unlike Kipling, Stone’s theme is not about the imperial aims of man, but the kingdom of God. It is part of a series of hymns which expound on the declarations of the Apostle’s Creed. In this hymn, Stone addresses the theme of the Church universal, and the communion of the saints.
This hymn is a reminder of what our forgetful hearts need to hear again and again: Christ is our all. He is the one foundation.
How often we build our lives on false hopes, false foundations, and the lure of worldly success. We seek to build the church on false visions of success—like size, numbers, facilities, and programs—while neglecting the preeminence of Christ. Our hearts are inclined to supplant Jesus and replace Him with our own designs.
It is precisely this “do-it-yourself” kind of faith that Christ confounds. Psalm 127:1 says, “Except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.” I think I read this verse over a thousand times before I noticed that God Himself was the builder. Somehow, I always read this and thought it meant that I should build on my own, after getting some architectural direction from God.
That’s not what the verse says. God is the builder. He has established the church. He builds it. And my communion with Him and with the saints is not rooted in what I have done, but in what He has done. Indeed, Peter declares that we are “living Stones” (1 Peter 2:5). Our chief duty is to rest in Christ and rest upon the foundation He has laid.
Any activity we invest in that is not fixed upon Christ is vanity. Any program we concoct, any relationship we foster, any prayer we utter is vain labor apart from Him.
Stone reminds us that only in Christ do we find peace, sustenance, hope, joy, life, beauty, glory, reconciliation, love, salvation, identity, comfort, endurance, strength, and grace. Christ alone fills all in all (Ephesians 1:23).
Written By Caleb Faires
The Church’s One Foundation
Samuel J. Stone, 1866
The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her
And for her life He died.
She is from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.
’Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.
Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won,
With all her sons and daughters
Who, by the Master’s hand
Led through the deathly waters,
Repose in Eden land.
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee:
There, past the border mountains,
Where in sweet vales the Bride
With Thee by living fountains
Forever shall abide!
For an added layer of worship during reading plan, we’ve created a Spotify playlist for Hymns! You can find the complete HRT Hymns Playlist here, or listen to the first track on the player below. Enjoy!
145 thoughts on "The Church’s One Foundation"
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Isaac Jones says:
The gospel is the foundation, of which Jesus is the corner stone. We, as citizen sons, are being built up by God as a Holy temple. God is faithful to finish the great work He has started in us.
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I will respond by seeking Him. Instead of finding identity and purpose, and life style from the current popular culture, I will seek God and His Word for the sake of my growth; I will come to God who is the faithful builder.
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Jesus Christ is the corner stone of the Christian. God is the builder.
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God; Father; King,
Please help me by building me up into your creation. May I not be my own, but yours. Thank you for the sanctification given to me so far. I know you are faithful to complete a work you started, but please Lord build me up with haste and compassion that I may give compassion to others and stand starting when they lean on me. In Jesus name, amen.
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Nathan Rutman says:
He has laid everything necessary on this “one foundation” for salvation and life. The church isn’t a once-per-week gathering, but the foretaste of the next life.
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I want to be someone who speaks often and freely of this foundation—this kingdom. And yet I so often get wrapped up in other, worldly pursuits: being productive at work, leisure, my to-do list, etc. But Christ did not die (nor secure everlasting joy) through any of those things. He died to lay the foundation of grace for His church. May I be more taken today by that good news than anything else!
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It definitely shows man’s need of God’s work—that such a foundation should be laid. We need the complete grace of God through Jesus…a “side dish” of grace on top of worldly desires won’t cut it. Jesus’ work cannot be a sun porch or addition, it must be the foundation—both of the church and of our lives.
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The gospel contains all that is necessary to live as a member of the kingdom of God. That vibrant community is purchased, forgiven, reconciled, and redeemed by one simple message: Christ died for my sins.
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Help me prize you, Jesus, as my one true glorious King. Let me see your greatness, beauty, holiness, and love in ways that keep my heart close to yours, allow my eyes to see what you see, and prompt my mouth to speak your words. In this is true happiness and joy everlasting.
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Matt Rouse says:
The gospel begins and ends with Jesus! Our works don’t factor in at all. The more we strive the more burden we take on ourselves. It’s pretty crazy that our attitude for good works dictate their effectiveness in our hearts! Good works done to earn the gospel/forgiveness work to oppress us while the exact same good work done in response to Jesus’ love brings about peace and joy!
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Christ is the cornerstone! He is the only reason the church has been able to stand through the persecutions and attempts to silence it over the centuries! Without Christ we have nothing and all is lost.
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Man is weak and frail even the strongest among us are diseased, destined for failure and sinful. If man were the cornerstone of the Church the gospel would not have persevered. Thanks Hod for Jesus and the cross!
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Nathan Seibt says:
God, let all my actions be by Christ and for Christ.
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Craig says:
Man can not create. We can let the Lord work through us, but our foundation is Christ and our internal structure, our spiritual house, is built by Him.
From then, all we create is allowing the Lord’s design to move through us.
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That he is a builder. My drive to create, to bring about newness, is something that stems from Him. He has designed me to want to design things in His image. And I can only do that when I allow him to move through me. An assembly line can only create what it is designed tondo when it is being maintained and inspected and kept up to top notch quality.
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Will Givens says:
I am quick to attempt to justify my existence with my work. I would rather reside in makeshift lean-two’s than mansions of luxury as long as I was able to build it for myself. We trade a holiday by the sea for muddies in the slums.
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He is not passive. He is building. Even when it seems like nothing is being constructed, He is at work nonetheless. He rarely works in the visible medium for our eyes are too weak to see the temples He is building. He is our sure foundation.
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I will respond in faithful rest. I will lay down the 7 power tools I am attempting to wield all at once and recognize my own inability. Even on my best day, at my most spiritual “high” I am wholly unable to complete the task at hand. So I will rest and work expectantly that He as at work in the synapse of my efforts and the outcome. For nothing I can produce will ever be of any worth, only to the extent that my work can be so transparent as to show Christ in it.
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The gospel does not require my best efforts in the equation for salvation and furthermore my best works are not sufficient to even garner me interest or affection from the Father. In fact it is not my strength that turns his heart toward me but my weakness. He opposes the proud but is near to the broken hearted.
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Christ, teach my wandering heart these things. Set me like flint after you. Guide me Jesus for without you I am hopelessly blind. Lead me beside still waters and fill my cup. Jesus be my portion, my strength, and my foundation. Strip me of nothing but yourself and give me more and more of you.
Amen
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