being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the corner-stone,
Paul tells believers that they now stand on a foundation already laid, with Christ Himself set at the corner. Two questions come up here. Which prophets does Paul mean? And how can Christ be the corner stone when Scripture also calls Him the only foundation?
The order of the words matters, and Ephesians 3:5 settles the question:
This does not mean Old Testament "prophets" and New Testament "apostles." It means "apostles and prophets" of the New Testament. Ephesians 3:5 puts that beyond all doubt: "as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." It is a new work built on a new foundation. Jew and Gentile are now built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit, which was not the case in Old Testament times.
If the apostles themselves were the base, the church would rest on men:
"Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets" does not mean that the apostles are the foundation. The apostles are the foundation through their inspired teachings. As Paul wrote, "I laid a foundation." But he also adds, "For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:9-11). The Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine of Christ is the foundation. This the apostles taught.
You lay a foundation once, so this work does not repeat in every generation:
They laid the foundation. Once the foundation of a house is laid, you do not need to keep working at it. You then go on with the building. So you would not expect to have them, in their living ministry, in this day. They remain with us, but only in their writings, and in the unfolding of the truth that God has preserved for us in the holy Scriptures. That is where our faith rests.
Other gifts remain. The same letter names them, and they are of a different order:
We must always keep in mind the distinction this same letter makes here. The apostles and prophets are the foundation on which we are built. The evangelists, pastors, and teachers are the gifts that carry on the work.
The Greek word behind "corner stone" has two senses:
The Greek word translated chief corner stone is akrogōniaios. It means a corner FOUNDATION stone, and also a stone at the extreme angle. The first meaning gives us the thought of the church as God's masterpiece, taking its character from Christ as the chief corner stone. It also tells us that this glorious foundation stone was laid in the atoning sufferings of our Lord at Calvary's cross, sufferings beyond words.
The second sense — the stone at the sharp angle — fits a church made of Jews and Gentiles. The stone men threw away is where the two walls meet:
God has raised the One who was rejected and crucified from among the dead by His power, and has glorified Him at His right hand. Now the rejected Stone has become the Corner for those called out from the Jews and those called out from the Gentiles. There both meet and grow into one building in Him. Although rejected, He is the chosen of God. Israel stumbled at the Stumbling Stone. Man refused Him, but God glorified Him.
A corner stone does two things. It ties the building together, and it sets the lines the rest must follow.
Christ is also the corner stone of the house. He gives character to all the building and binds it together. He is not only the underlying foundation on which others build. In Him "the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord" (v.21). As it grows, every stage of the building stays joined to Him and depends on Him at all times.
Israel's temple had a stone that marked it complete. The church's picture has no such stone:
Israel's temple had a capstone (Zechariah 4:7), which seems to mark the completion of the building. As to the Church this does not appear to be mentioned, and there is surely a divine reason. Perhaps this is because the Church will not be displayed on earth as a completed building. As the temple it is not yet complete; it will keep growing until the Rapture, when the Church will be complete for ever.
- Foundation. The apostles and prophets here are New Testament ones; Ephesians 3:5 puts it past doubt. So this is a new work on a new foundation, not a carry-over from Old Testament times.
- Teaching. They are the foundation through their inspired teaching, not through their persons. What they taught is Christ, and no one can lay any other foundation.
- Finished. A foundation is laid once. Their living ministry has passed, but they remain with us in their writings, and that is where faith rests. Evangelists, pastors and teachers carry the work on.
- Corner. The corner stone was laid in the atoning sufferings of Calvary. The stone men rejected is now the angle where believing Jews and believing Gentiles meet in one building.
- Character. As the corner stone, Christ binds the building together and gives it its character. It is still growing, and every stage depends on Him.
in whom all [the] building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord;
Paul has just told the Ephesians they belong to a building that rests on Christ the corner stone. Now he says what that building is: one, joined together, and still growing. The writers below quote an older translation, which reads "all the building, fitly framed together."
Every stone in this building takes its line from Christ, and the work goes on without noise.
All the building is "fitly framed together" in the Chief Corner Stone; that is, every part of the building has reference to Him, and directs the eye to Him. And like Solomon's temple, this temple "grows." It is recorded of that house: "When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built" (1 Kings 6:7). In the same way, this holy temple grows silently, under the skilful eye of the divine builder, according to His own plan.
Some translations read "each several building," which would allow many separate buildings. One writer rejects that reading, on the grounds of what the whole letter argues.
In Ephesians 2:21 the temple is seen as growing; "it grows to a holy temple in the Lord." This takes in every believer of this present age. In this sense the temple is not complete until the Lord comes. "All the building" is the correct idea, not "each several building." That second reading goes against the whole teaching of the letter, which is the unity of those blessed in Christ.
Scripture also speaks of building that men do. One writer points to the phrase that marks the difference.
When Christ builds, He does not commit it to man at all, and no responsibility of man comes in. He dies and rises again, and what He builds on the imperishable foundation of faith in His person in resurrection is secured for ever! Ephesians 2:20-21 shows us this building. Christ builds it, and it is "fitly framed together" — mark those words strongly. This temple began when the Holy Spirit came down from heaven. It "grows" until all is in glory, right to the very end of the church's stay on earth. It is not yet complete. You will not find those words, "fitly framed together," where what man builds comes before us. In verse 21 he looks at the progressive work — the whole temple, which God purposes to be His sanctuary, the home of the brightest display of His glory for ever.
Buildings do not grow. This verb changes how we should think about the church's unfinished state.
The building "grows." Grow is a word that only applies to something that has life. A child grows, a plant grows. At every stage a child, or a plant, is complete. Growth may add size, and qualities hidden in the child or plant come into view. But we never think of either as incomplete at any stage. So God's temple is always seen as complete, yet growing. Yet the end is in view when the last stone is added.
Whatever the stones looked like at the quarry, the finished fit will be exact.
"In whom all the building, fitly framed together, grows up to a holy temple in the Lord." This is the grand future and sure result. The building grows to that. Never did the highly polished stones of Solomon's temple fit more perfectly, or lie more exactly, than these stones will rest together in that completed temple of beauty, grace and holiness. They were once so shapeless, so angular, so mismatched.
Paul changes the image here, and the word he picks carries more than the idea of shelter.
But in the verse before us we have Christians looked at as "a holy temple in the Lord." The figure is changed. This sets before us the great truth of God dwelling among His people on this earth. God dwells there, and there is more. The word temple carries the thought of a shrine — a dwelling place, yes, but joined with the thought of holiness, because of who dwells there. It becomes a sanctuary, a sphere of priestly activity, a place of worship — a place made by the persons who compose it, not by stones and mortar. "God … does not live in temples made by man" (Acts 17:24).
A Christian's place among other Christians is not his own choice.
One stone cannot make a building, and stones do not choose their own place. Each stone finds its place according to the mind of the Divine Architect.
- In Him — every part of the building points to Christ the corner stone, and He sets how it fits.
- All — one building, not many; the whole letter argues the unity of those blessed in Christ.
- Fitted — "fitly framed together" belongs to what Christ builds, never to what man builds, so it cannot fail.
- Growing — a word for living things: complete at every stage, yet still rising until the last stone goes in.
- Holy — the end is a sanctuary, a place of worship made of people, where God dwells among them.
in whom *ye* also are built together for a habitation of God in [the] Spirit.
This verse closes Paul's argument about Jews and Gentiles with a striking claim: God has a house on earth, and it is built out of people. How can God live with people at all, and what should that mean when we gather?
The word "also" points back to people who were once outsiders.
The Gentiles are no longer strangers. They are brought in, together with Jews, to be fellow-citizens with the saints and part of the household of God. Both are built on the same foundation — Christ, the chief corner-stone.
Verse 21 and verse 22 are not saying the same thing twice. One looks ahead; the other describes right now.
But note the difference between the temple of verse 21, and what you find in the last verse. First, in verse 21, he looks at the work still in progress — the whole temple. God's mind and purpose is that it should be His sanctuary, the home of the brightest display of His glory for ever. Second, in verse 22, he looks at the assembly as it is now: a habitation, or dwelling place, of God by the Spirit on earth — in other words, the "house of God."
God visited people long before He ever settled among them. What made the difference was not innocence.
Redemption is the foundation of the relationship. We never read of God dwelling with Adam in the garden of Eden, though he was in a state of innocence. He made a happy dwelling place for him and set him in it, and it seems that He visited him there, but He never dwelt with him. Creation could not furnish a suitable foundation for God's dwelling place on earth.
The material of God's house changed, and so did the effect of His presence.
But now men themselves made up the tabernacle where God did not refuse to dwell. The blood of Jesus had purified them, and made them fit to be the habitation of God through the Spirit. How beautiful is this divine fact! Such is the effect of the death and blood of Christ, and of our reconciliation and purification. His presence does not drive the priests away. Instead, God in grace makes us His habitation!
It would be easy to read this as a promise about our future home with God. The wording runs the other way. (These writers quote an older Bible translation: where it reads "a habitation of God through the Spirit," the ESV has "a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.")
There are two points in this expression, beloved friends. One is that we are the "habitation of God." The other is that this is "through the Spirit." He is not speaking of our dwelling with God (although that is true), but of our being "a habitation of God." Our having glory together with Him is one thing; God's dwelling in us is another. This, I repeat, is clearly a most unusual and special blessing.
Scripture speaks elsewhere of the Spirit living in a single believer. Here the subject is plural — the house is what believers form together.
Here, Paul is not speaking of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of adoption in believers. He says, "you are built together as a habitation of God through the Spirit." That is, together they formed the dwelling place of God. Paul tells us that "The house of God … is the Church of the living God" (1 Tim. 3:15). In 1 Cor. 6:19, we find the other truth, that the individual bodies of believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
This truth changes how believers gather. It also changes who they come to meet.
Beloved friends, when you come into the assembly, is this thought before your mind — I am in a place where God dwells? I think it is a wonderful thought that God has a house, and He comes and lives in it by His Spirit. What for? To make Himself known! He is not only the builder and owner of the house. It is a sweet thought that He also lives in it. There alone is He, as we say, at home in this world. It gives the assembly a character that nothing else could, and it should impress us with a sense of seriousness. When I go there, whom do I go to meet? My brothers and sisters? Yes, thank God — but not first of all. The blessed truth is that the Lord is there.
- Redemption first. God visited Adam but never lived with him. Redemption is the foundation for God dwelling with people.
- Then the dwelling. The blood of Christ purified people and made them fit to be God's house.
- Reaching both. The "you also" brings Gentiles in beside Jews. Both rest on the same foundation, Christ the corner-stone.
- Now, not later. Verse 21 shows a temple still growing toward glory. Verse 22 shows a house God lives in today.
- So, reverence. If the church is where God lives, we come first to meet Him — and His presence gives the gathering its character.