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Building With Lasting Materials

by Jerry Ousley  
4/13/2018 / Christian Living

            We all know the story of the three little pigs.  I tell it to my grandchildren often.  However, one of my grandsons is a big Mickey Mouse fan so he always has me tell it with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy instead of the three little pigs – same story just different characters.  The object lesson of the three little pigs is a simple one; that of using correct building materials when constructing a house, and ultimately doing things right when it comes to life’s decisions.

 

            The same holds true when building our life-house and ultimately living toward our goal of Heaven.  We have already established that our foundation should be built on good solid ground or a rock rather than on the loose and sandy soil.  That rock is none other than Jesus Christ and our faith in Him as our Savior.  Building the foundation on a rock speaks of our salvation.  It must rest securely on the rock or we have no hope of everlasting life with our Lord.

 

            Building our house with the correct materials is another matter.  Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it.  But let each one take heed how he builds on it.  For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.  If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.  If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”  Now that says a lot!

 

            The point Paul makes in this scripture is that first our foundation must be on the Rock – Jesus Christ.  When that is the fact as long as we are upon the Rock we will not be lost.  Building our house speaks of our life for Christ.  Many mistakenly base their salvation on building the house but this is only the result of our Christian life after establishing our firm foundation on the Rock.

 

            There are two sets of building materials listed.  The first set consists on wood, hay and straw (is the story of the three pigs beginning to apply here?).  Many choose to loosely build their lives.  They have come to Christ in salvation and, not to over emphasize the point, this makes them a Christian.  But then they spend their lives using wood, hay and straw.  They may be good parents, good people, good workers in their employment, but they spend their money and time on entertainment and other things that are not wrong in their place but when over-emphasized become the sum of our lives.  When tested in the fire these building materials are quickly consumed.  Paul says that basically our reward has been in these consumables and when gone we have nothing left except that our foundation is still on the rock.  Paul further says that these will suffer loss but will still be saved.

            Then there are those who use the second set of building materials, namely, gold, silver and precious stones; when the fire comes these will endure it.  They may be a bit smoky and may have changed shape, but they will come through it okay.  This is representative of those who have spent their lives working for Christ.  These works do not save them.  That is the work of the foundation.  But it will define them.  This act will determine reward in Heaven. 

 

            Yes it is true that it is better to get to Heaven without a reward than to not make it at all.  I wholeheartedly agree with that.  However, making it to Heaven with a reward is much more fulfilling.  We dealt briefly with the question of eternal security before in this series.  But now let’s look at it another way.  Rather than argue the doctrine of eternal security or the possibility of losing our salvation, isn’t it better to just determine that we are going to build with gold, silver and precious stones on our salvation?  Isn’t it better to live fully for Christ rather than see how much we can get away with?  If we do then we don’t have to worry about whether we can lose our salvation or not because we want to be as close to Christ as we can possibly be.  When we do this we don’t have to be concerned about it at all.  And that is the better way.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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