Jehovah as saying: “ Behold I lay in Zion for a foun- dation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste.” Isaiah 28, 16. Ps. 118, 22. Matt. 21, 49. Acts 4,11. 1 Cor. 3,11. 1 Pet. 2, 6-8.
V. 21. Christ being the corner stone, every thing depends on union with him. Therefore the apostle adds, “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord.” Christ is the principle at once of support and of growth. He not only sustains the building, but carries it on to its con- summation. The words ἐν 6 are not to be rendered, on which, referring to the foundation, but, in whom, refer- ring to Christ. Union with him is the sole essential condition of our being parts of that living temple of which he is the corner stone.
The words πᾶσα ἡ οἰκοδομή, even without the article, which, because wanting in the oldest manuscripts, many critics omit, must here mean “the whole,” and not “every building.” It would destroy the whole con- sistency of the figure to represent “every congrega- tion,” as a temple by itself resting on Christ as the corner stone. Christ has but one body, and there is but one temple composed of Jews and Gentiles, in which God dwells by his Spirit.
All the parts of this temple are “fitly framed together,” συναρμολογουμένη. Intimate union by faith with Christ is the necessary condition of the increase spoken of immediately afterwards. The building how- ever is not only thus united with the corner stone, but