On the Rock & in the Rock

As I walked to chapel one evening, I passed a couple of old gateposts that the farmer had seen to remove, while he widened the gateway into his field. I was struck by how long they were; to prevent them rocking or falling, the farmer’s ancestors had buried them deep in the ground. Much of the post could not be seen while it stood, for it lay buried.

In the seventh of Matthew, Jesus tells the parable of the house on the rock:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (ESV)

Simply resting floorboards on a foundation of rock will not prevent the structure from blowing away. One must dig into the rock and have the house’s base beneath the surface. The bedrock is not merely a hard bed upon which the house rests, but the two join, though unseen by the eye. That is why the Christian, though hell and high water come against him, might flinch and tremble but is never swept away. There is a hidden union between him and Christ. The latter is not just some intellectual idea upon which the believer rests; rather, he is ‘in Christ’, for there is union between the two. 

The farmer might tire of the old gatepost, but the Lord Jesus will never tire of His old people.