What is the only foundation for our salvation?
Scripture declares that the only foundation for our salvation is Jesus Christ. No other foundation can be laid than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. He is the foundation of all church-age doctrine and practice, and the hope of our salvation—not Paul or any other basis.
Les explains that Paul is not the basis of our salvation; the foundation is Jesus Christ. In verse 11, the other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. When He laid the foundation—the foundation of everything concerning the church age, doctrines, practice, and everything else—other apostles built upon it, and the Old Testament prophets added to it, because everything fits together like a hand in glove for the eternal purposes of God. Paul makes it plain that we are part and parcel of building on the foundation that is Christ, and the hope of our salvation. Then verse 12 brings it down to the nitty gritty of everyday Christian experience: if anyone builds on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble—six materials. Three are indestructible; three can go up in a puff of smoke. Yet all are potential materials for the Christian to use in daily experience. So the only foundation for salvation is Christ Himself.
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
More Questions
According to 1 Corinthians 3, what foundation must our faith rest on?
Paul's building analogy means that unless our faith rests on the foundation he laid—Christ crucified, buried, and risen from the dead—we are hopelessly lost.