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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Anson Sexton says:
This reaffirms my understanding of God’s great love for people, and the ultimate price He paid as He demonstrated His love in order to redeem His church.
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This helps me realize that many times my efforts to craft sermons, curate setlists & promotes services for our church shouldn’t stem from my own strength. As I continue to carry out those tasks, I must recognize God working in/thru my life according to His strength & purposes instilled within me — and others. I can find rest in the fact that it’s ultimately God’s will which plays out in my life — and the lives of those around me.
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We often focus on our own strength & efforts to determine success. It is challenging to consider the work God is doing in/thru us — rather than just gone in on our own determination.
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As I continue to carry out the tasks ahead of me, I need to rely upon God to be my all in all. He is at work & He is on the move. May my awareness of this be more prevalent, and may I find rest upon His foundation.
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Caleb Troy says:
Especially today the church is in distress. I feel the struggle to see where we as a church fit in to current events and the tragedies and changes going on every day. And in that it is easy to get caught up in our own performance. It’s natural to make plans based on what we think would be the best role for the church to play. It’s comforting to be reminded that Jesus has laid the foundation. And that our victory as his bride is found solely in him. It simplifies our strategies and decisions as the church in this world. We should be sharing the love, grace, comfort, strength and peace we know we have from Christ. And trust our Heavenly Father is in control of the rest.
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My response is a prayer for humility and trust to build my life on the foundation Christ has set before me. And each time I let my pride get in the way and cloud my judgement, to ask Jesus to help me rely on him.
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The gospel is the foundation of my life and the foundation of the church. Forgetting about that in an attempt to perform, and progress our own success will leave us short as a church every time.
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Zach Lyons says:
Man is no architect. Our plans are but foolishness to God; when we give ourselves to him and allow him to do his work in our lives, it is only then that our lives become something beautiful.
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That he is the “master builder”, and that the master builder is the only one with blueprints truly worth building.
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andrew says:
Lord, teach me to appreciate your body. teach me to love the church as i should, because of the way you love the church. i pray i will be convicted, and that conviction would lead me to change, so that the church will become more precious to me, as You become more precious to me. perfect me in Your love and grow me in your grace, with continual sanctification.
amen.
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God is an unchanging and firm foundation. in Him and His Spirit and His Son, we grow and are sanctified and we have the ability to have fellowship with one another because of His perfect love and salvation which He has granted us, and He has adopted us through.
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we do not take the opportunity to grow in Christ like we should. Christ has called His people and has given them a way to grow with each other. i, personally, do not take fellowship as seriously as i know i should.
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Benjamin McKnight says:
To God that I will forget the wishes of my flesh by putting on Jesus and not showing Benjamin, but God who’s image I was made in.
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God wants us to focus not on success on earth, but success in the church and success that is not tangible the same way that a business is.
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Jordan Koschei says:
God does all the work, and so I can rest in Him. In fact, I have to – it is presumptuous and incorrect for me to do otherwise.
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I will seek moments throughout the day to remember that God is in control, my salvation is already won, and Christ has already ransomed me. There is nothing I can do to add to my salvation.
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Man’s inclination is to try to do the work himself, and we have to constantly remind ourselves and reorient ourselves towards resting in Christ.
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Lord, give me the gratitude and memory to rest in You without trying to usurp your role as my Savior. Help me to rest in You. Help me to rest, period, and free me from the anxiety that my restlessness often leads to. Thank you for saving me. Help me to live in freedom!
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The Gospel understands my inclination to try to earn favor with God, and spends so much time reminding me to do otherwise and rest in Christ alone.
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Christopher Nicolas says:
Once a church is build Jesus is the only way the church will stand the test of time. The love of GOD needs to be in the church.
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