The Stone The Builders Rejected: “This is the Heir. Let Us Kill Him, so that the Inheritance May be Ours.”

What is God Like? – How Can We Know for Sure? – Part 14

By Richard Allen – October 5, 2026

With the Advent of God’s ‘only begotten Son,’ the full revelation of God concerning His Son Jesus Christ was fully displayed. No other figure in human history has ever commanded such attention as this carpenter from Nazareth!  As Simeon, a righteous man who had “waited for the consolation of Israel” prophesied in Luke 2: “He was set for the rise and fall of many in Israel” (Luke 2:34), not just for the Jews – but the rise and fall of all humanity. You would think that after centuries of ‘groping in the darkness of unbelief and ignorance,’ mankind would be clamoring to be ‘enlightened’ by this Holy man coming into the world. But such was not the case. In the Gospel of John, we read those ‘fateful words’ recorded by the Apostle – explaining the ‘human response’ to the Savior of mankind:

“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:9-13).

In many ways, this passage reads much like the Parable of the Soils, showing that ‘not everywhere the seed landed was fertile ground.’ This was true – especially of the Jewish people to whom Jesus came – and yet they rejected Him completely without a second thought. It should be apparent that the response of Simeon – the righteous man quoted above, who was waiting for a savior, spending his time serving in the temple – was the exception and not the rule. Most people, even among First Century Jews – were not interested in God’s ‘full revelation of Himself through the Promised Son!’ Man’s depravity rendered poor sinners ‘completely disinterested in the things of God.’ We’re not just indifferent, we are actually hostile toward God and ‘repelled by the light of His Revelation.’ The dialogue in John Chapter 3 between Jesus and Nicodemus, is meant to explain the contrast between ‘light and darkness.’ For unregenerate men, that is, men in the flesh – a Holy God calling them to repent and believe will only bring out their hatred of God.

“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God” (John 3:19-21).

While God worked for centuries to ‘Reveal Himself fully through His Son,’ fallen mankind was busy resisting that revelation and seeking to suppress any knowledge of God that might come through His Son! The nations were ‘in abject blindness,’ believing falsehoods about the true God who is Spirit. Like ‘blind men’ clamoring in the darkness, fallen men were completely ‘duped’ by the Evil One and his deceptions. This is the history of the nations surrounding Israel, the only nation who received God’s revelation through the Scriptures by the ‘Prophets of old.’  These Prophets, repeatedly sent by God to call Israel to ‘repentance,’ even on occasion ‘called Gentiles back to God.’ The story of Jonah – sent by God to Ninevah, was one such occasion. God mightily worked through the Prophet, warning men and women “yet 40 days and Ninevah will be cast down” (Jonah 3:4). A reasonable question can still be asked: ‘Why didn’t God send other Prophets to Egypt? Babylon? Assyria or Persia?  An even more pointed question that needs to be asked and answered is: ‘Why did the Old Testament Prophets, sent to Israel over centuries of warning, have so little impact on Israel or her response to God?’ And ultimately, ‘why did Jesus, God’s own Son – preaching to ‘the lost sheep of the House of Israel’ not make a bigger impact – especially when compared to the ‘revival’ that broke out during the ministry of Jesus’ Apostles from Pentecost onward?

The answer is actually quite simple: ‘Only after Jesus atoned for sin’ – allowing God to ‘pour out His Spirit upon all flesh’ (Joel 2:28), drastically changed God’s relationship to sinners.  From Pentecost onward, mankind was thrust into the ‘Age of the Spirit!’  Whether it was an Old Testament Prophet, Judge or King – preaching to fallen men ‘in the flesh’ did not yield ‘changed hearts’ or ‘open men’s eyes and ears to the truth!’ Sending Prophets to fallen men, calling on them to ‘Repent from sin and turn back to God in Faith,’ was destined to be a ‘fruitless endeavor.’ God had repeatedly foretold of a coming day when He would write His Laws – “not on Tables of Stone, but on the Fleshy Tables of the Heart, by His Spirit’  (2 Corinthians 3:3). Those on whom God poured out His Spirit had their ‘eyes opened and ears unstopped.’ God called upon men to ‘repent and believe,’ just as He commanded Pharaoh to ‘Let My People Go.’ But neither would be accomplished without the Spirit’s work of Regeneration, bringing men from death to life, and ‘opening their hearts that they might pay heed to God’s command,’ like Lydia in the Book of Acts:

“There was a woman there named Lydia from the city of Thyatira. Her job was selling purple cloth. She was a worshiper of the true God. Lydia was listening to Paul, and the Lord opened her heart to accept what Paul was saying” (Acts 16:14).

A most amazing passage, it clearly attributes Lydia’s conversion to the Lord ‘opening her heart.’ In truth, except the Lord’s opening our hearts through the ‘New Birth,’ none of us would be saved. Men left to their own fallen thinking and wills ‘hate God’ and are ‘repulsed by His Holiness.’ Such was the case in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew:

“Hear another parable. There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. When the season of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants, to get his fruit; and the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did the same to them. Afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.’ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.  But when they tried to arrest him, they feared the multitudes, because they held him to be a prophet” (Matthew 21:33-46).

This must have been a hard teaching for the Chief Priests and Pharisees to hear. Even though from Father Abraham until their day – they had been the ‘lawful tenants’ of God’s vineyard, that is, the Kingdom of God – their only concern was to ‘kill the rightful heir, Jesus the Son of God,’ and take His inheritance for themselves!  Talk about hutzpah, they just didn’t grasp why God had chosen Abraham in the first place. It was through God’s Revelation to that ‘One Man’ that He purposed to ‘rekindle knowledge’ of Himself to all mankind.  From the start, God’s purpose for Abraham’s Seed was to ‘bless all nations,' giving light and knowledge of Himself, drawing men to have Faith like Abraham:

“By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice” (Genesis 22:16-18). 

And the Apostolic authority of Paul in the New Testament makes it clear that ‘It Was Not Physical Israel,’ but ‘Jesus the Son of God’ – who was the offspring the Angel proclaimed to Father Abraham:

“Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ. This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise” (Galatians 3:16-18).

It's no accident that the Wicked Tenants in the parable above, wanted to have the ‘inheritance’ without the ‘True Heir,” Jesus Christ!  As descendants of Father Abraham, the Jewish people were recipients of ‘God’s full revelation’ through His Son. To receive and believe the Son was to receive the ‘owner of the vineyard,’ giving Him His rightful ‘fruit in season.’ What’s so ironic is: These Tenants weren’t ignorant Gentiles, steeped in idolatry and blindness. Not at all, these Jews had received the very ‘Oracles’ of God,  His very Word had been proclaimed and entrusted to them (Romans 3:1-2). And for centuries God had patiently ministered to Abraham’s descendants – proclaiming the ‘coming one who would redeem Israel, and be a light to the Gentiles!’

To be clear, these Wicked Tenants, that is Physical Israel – were no different than all the rest of fallen mankind. All of us, like Israel, still somehow imagine we can enjoy God’s blessings and bounty – ‘without Him!’ Like the Fool in Psalm 14, all fallen men ‘say in their hearts:’ “There is No God” (Psalm 14:1). The translation is partly accurate, but what it’s really denying is not ‘God’s existence,’ but rather in our sinful natures we are saying: ‘No thank you, I really don’t want anything to do with you God.’ These Wicked Tenants, just like all of us – before God draws us to Himself – need God’s gracious ‘Regeneration by the Spirit’ to be awakened to God’s Splendor and Glory. Apart from God’s gracious work in revealing Himself to us, we’ll be just like those ‘builders who rejected the Chief Cornerstone, Jesus Christ the Lord.’ Undoing the hard-hearted blindness and hatred from the Fall of Adam and Eve only comes by God’s drawing us to Himself by His Spirit, causing us, like Lydia, to accept and believe the Gospel and be saved!

Soli Deo Gloria!