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glorious! We thus have access to His very presence. Then it
says, “ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but ye are
fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God”.
How encouraging these things are! They belong to us. Let us
realize that Paul is writing to us. We should always read the
Scriptures as if they were directly addressed to you or me.
There is great benefit in that. You read this verse and you say,
‘I am no longer a stranger, but I do not deserve to be brought
into this. Look at my history. Look at my failings. Look at all the
things that are against me. How can this be?’ Yet Paul says,
“Ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but ye are fellow-
citizens of the saints”—Oh, what a beautiful expression that is!
“And of the household of God”, brought into the liberty of the
divine family.
How precious these things are! They all relate to the wonder of
what Christ has done to bring us into this, to stabilize us, and
strengthen us, and build us up. Paul adds, “being built upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ”—
Oh, that name again!—“Jesus Christ himself being the corner-
stone”. I think “the foundation of the apostles and prophets”
would allude to what our brother mentioned earlier as to
quality. It brings out the kind of foundation it is, and the
preciousness of the work of God shining in persons. What He
did in those men! And that
is the foundation here, “Jesus Christ himself being the corner-
stone in whom all the building fitted together increases ...”.
How precious! Not ‘by whom’, not ‘through whom’, but “in
whom”. We are in wonderful nearness to the Lord Jesus; it
involves the power and influence of Christ to hold us together,
to give the whole building cohesion and character. That is the
idea, I think, of the corner-stone. According to Isaiah 28: 16 it
is related to the foundation, and it is precious, and it is tried. It
is Christ in the great binding power and influence of His love. It
binds us, not only with the brethren locally, but with the saints