“Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”
Luke 20:18
What does this verse speak to you? Jesus Christ is the Stone it is talking about. It reminds me of another verse: “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:25). Both of these verses, to me, are polarizing – that is, completely black and white, leaving no room at all for shades of grey because if we say we are believers, disciples of Christ, then all we are and all we have are His and for His glory. The revelation of who we are without Christ so breaks our heart that we cannot imagine life without Him. He consumes our thoughts and actions. Hence our life is lost in His, we have fallen on the stone and it has broken us.
On the other hand, if we do not believe, we live life not as He chooses but our own way instead. Our thoughts and lives are consumed with ourselves, our desires, our problems. It brings a third verse to mind: “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12), for when we die in this case, it is then that the stone then falls on us, and we are crushed by it due to the weight of our own choices.
I would much rather fall on the stone than have the stone fall on me. Being broken by it falling on me doesn’t mean life is suddenly no longer fun or that I no longer have desires, but it does mean that death does not have the final say over me. I can not only live this life to the fullest as I align myself to Him, but even though my physical body may die, my spirit then lives on. This life is then not only full but also joyful, fearless, filled with purpose and meaning.
So how do we fall on the Stone? Scripture tells us in John 3:6 that what is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit, and in John 3:5 that one has to be born of the Spirit in order to enter the Kingdom of God. This second birth (or being “born again”) is what it means to fall on the stone, because it is a recognition that God is God and you are not, and that there is nothing you can do in your own power to gain eternal life apart from Him. Simply acknowledging our need for a savior to reconcile us into a right relationship with the Most High God, and that savior is Jesus, and then accepting the free gift He is offering – that’s all it takes! What waits for you afterwards is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who will then guide you into all truth.
How does the Stone fall on us? Simply put, by rejecting the free gift of salvation, for in doing so the bible tells us in Revelation 20:12-15 that there is a second death that will forever separate us from the love of God and all He has offered. This second death is what people often refer to as “hell”.
In essence, we can be born twice and die only once, or we can be born once and sadly die a second death (a spiritual death in addition to our physical death). But the time for us to make this decision only exists in this life, as the physical body only dies once, and then the next step is judgement.
How will you respond?
Alabastersky 