How do we believe in Jesus Christ? Now, we have not to go a single inch to find an instructive illustration of what faith in Jesus is. The verse before us is connected with building. “Wherefore also it is contained in the Scriptures, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious: and he that believes on Him shall not be confounded.” Now, if we were to carry out the figure it would run thus, “He that is built upon Him shall not be removed.” So I take it that we can most naturally understand the laying of a stone upon the foundation to be suggested as a description of faith. If, then, you want to know what it is to believe on Jesus, it is to lie upon Him as a stone lies upon a foundation when the mason puts it there. There is the foundation, firm and strong, a precious cornerstone, tried and sure. Here is a smaller stone, quarried from the pit and the builder places it upon the foundation. Its lying on the foundation represents faith. Our souls’ eternal interests are laid on Christ. The foundation bears up the stone and holds it in its place, so Christ bears up our souls and holds them in their position so that they do not fall to the ground. The stone presses with all its weight upon the foundation and that is what the believer does with His Lord. He casts all his cares upon Him. Faith is leaning, depending, relying. As the key hangs on the nail, so we hang on Jesus. Faith is the giving up of self-reliance and self-dependence, and resting of the soul upon Him whom God has laid in Zion for a Foundation. A stone thrown about from hand to hand is self-contained and independent, but when the mason puts it on the foundation it is dependent, it leans on the cornerstone upon which it is placed. Poor tempted soul. That is just what you have to do. You must not be a loose stone resting on yourself and tossed here and there upon the earth, but you must lie still upon Christ and let Him bear your whole weight upon Himself.

Charles Spurgeon, Faith’s Sure Foundation, A Sermon Delivered on Lord’s Day Morning, August 18, 1878