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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Wilder Adkins says:
Without a firm foundation of truth to rest upon, man does a lot of wavering and moral reasoning based on his own desires.
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Ryan Brooksbank says:
While other religions seek to reach God by great or perfect actions, our God came to us, did what we could not and brought us to Him. All actions we do are just (imperfect but divinely requested) reactions to the already performed Action. Praise God for doing what we could not and for loving us.
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Oh how blessed it is. Christ brought me close to him and close to my brother. Peace (true peace) is only available through Christ.
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Live my life in response to what He has done. Live my life as one huge and an infinitesimal number of mini thank you(s) to God by loving and living for Him as He wills
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We can toil all we want. But if we do this in order to make ourselves great, or known, or saved, then we toil in cane. God sent Christ as our foundation and salvation
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Pray that I would be humble and seek God’s will. That I would seek peace with my brothers and sisters and ultimately that I would rest and act in the knowledge of the gospel
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Erik says:
We need to be focused more on Jesus Christ instead of our denominational goals and plans.
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His plans have always been to save his bride, the Church. Through all turmoil and chaos, He presses on.
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It maps out the story of redemption, how God from the beginning has built the Church, and will continue to do so until the day that Jesus comes down to meet his bride.
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Focus less on the success of church programs, and not getting caught in a cramp when things don’t go my way. Seek unity: When Jesus returns He will want to meet his Bride, not a harem of churches!
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Jesus, help me to focus on what is inportant and on the things that give You glory. Let me pursue the well-being of the Church as a whole and seek unity, rather than complaining about things that don’t go according to my personal vision.
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Dalton Beaty says:
The Gospel is of God’s doing only, no man other than Jesus himself could have any significant impact in the completion, it is God only.
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In man’s greed and longing to be recognized, we get lost in trying to bring into light our doings that we think have grown the church. That is not what righteous fruit in a church looks like. It is the recognition of God’s preeminence that is what keeps a church in healthy state and provides fruit in it’s body and surrounding community.
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I must allow God’s all-knowing, all-creating power to reign more in my life. All too often I allow the human inclination of self-promotion to enter into my thought process. God alone is responsible for our being and all that involves it.
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God is the pioneer, the builder, the architect, the contractor, the cornerstone, and all of the above of his Church. We have done nothing to build his Church. God’s preeminence must be what we endlessly remind ourselves when we consider any doings of His bride, the Church.
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I must ask for grace and forgiveness for my neglecting of God’s building and creating ability. God alone is responsible for all that I could ever see or do. I fail to allow that understanding remain in my heart. God alone.
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Dereck says:
God is our one and ONLY foundation! We should build up our stores in Him and Him alone. Building in our design is putting God second, instead, we should only rest in knowing that God is building for us. He is the Master Builder and we are his servants. Everything we do should be focused to him and In accordance to His will. God loves us unconditionally but if we take the focus off of Him, we are acting in vain.
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The Gospel is truth. We can trust it 100%. The Gospel is God-breathed and helps us to understand God’s purpose for us.
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Man has a self centered view that is built into his flesh. Sin has twisted man’s image and let’s us easily put our wants and wishes before God’s plan. We need to be guarded to that sense of flesh desire and always strive to put God’s will first and rest in Him knowing that He will build us up and empower us for His purpose.
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I will strive to rest in God and build on His foundation with Christ as my cornerstone. He is the only way to build a solid and structured form. I will rest peacefully knowing that God has my best interest in mind and is building me up for His purpose.
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