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Scripture Reading: Matt. 13:44-46; 1 Cor. 3:12; John 17:26b; Eph. 3:9-10; 1:9; Rev. 21:1-3, 9-23
IV. The consummation of the transformation in the building up of the Body of Christ:
А. Constituting the believers, who grow and mature in Christ’s life, into precious materials for the building of God — Matt. 13:44-46; 1 Cor. 3:12:
1. Supplying the believers with the element of the all-inclusive Christ.
2. Applying the cross of Christ to the believers’ peculiarity, individuality, independence, seclusion, self-deception, pretension, self-seeking, personal preference and taste, localism in church practice, and all kinds of divisive factors.
3. Supporting the believers with the power of Christ’s resurrection in long-suffering, in the uniting bond of peace, and in all the positive needs for joining together and knitting together and for the rich supply of every joint and the operation in the measure of each one part.
B. Issuing in the practical building of God:
1. Locally in every local church in the harmony of the one accord stimulated by the one Spirit in the one Body of Christ.
2. Universally in the oneness of the Divine Trinity, prayed for by the Lord (John 17) and accomplished by His lovers (v. 26b) for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy according to His good pleasure (Eph. 3:9-10; 1:9).
V. The ultimate consummation of the transformation for the composition and constitution of the New Jerusalem — Rev. 21:1-3, 9-23:
А. Purely of the originating God:
1. In His divine nature.
2. Signified by the pure gold of the base of the city — vv. 18b, 21b.
B. Exclusively of the redeeming Christ:
1. In the work of His all-inclusive death and His life-supplying resurrection.
2. Signified by the element of the pearls of the gates — v. 21a:
а. The pearls signifying the regenerated believers.
b. Produced by Christ’s death and resurrection.
C. Absolutely of the consummating Spirit:
1. In His transformation work.
2. Signified by the essence of the precious stones of the wall and its foundations — vv. 11, 18a, 19-20:
а. The precious stones signifying the transformed believers — 1 Pet. 2:5a.
b. Renewed by the Spirit’s transforming work — Titus 3:5; Rom. 12:2a.
D. With the regenerated, transformed, and glorified human beings — Rev. 21:12b, 14b.
E. No dust of humanity.
F. No plant of the human life.
G. No leaven of the enemy — Matt. 13:33; 1 Cor. 5:6-8.
H. As the pure, exclusive, and absolute expression in the corporate manifestation (Rev. 21:11) of the processed and consummated Triune God (vv. 22-23) mingled with the regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite men for eternity.
My burden in these days is with this fellowship concerning the constitution and the building up of the Body of Christ. This book is a continuation of the burden in the two books we have published entitled The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation and The Overcomers.
In the previous chapter, we saw the complete salvation of God, the vital importance of transformation in the complete salvation of God, and the significance of transformation. I hope that through the fellowship in this book, we will see a vision concerning God’s economy. We have seen that God’s economy is accomplished in us in three steps: regeneration, transformation, and glorification. In this chapter we want to see something further concerning the building up of the Body of Christ by the transformation in life.
Now we want to see the consummation of the transformation in the building up of the Body of Christ. We need to pay attention to the words consummation and transformation, since they are not common but very particular. Transformation cannot be consummated at once, so it must have a process. At the end of the process of transformation, there will be a consummation.
This transformation in its consummation constitutes the believers, who grow and mature in Christ’s life, into precious materials for the building of God (Matt. 13:44-46; 1 Cor. 3:12). Constituting is also a particular word. A physical building is not built by constitution but by pieces of material being added and joined together. With a physical building nothing is organic; it does not depend upon growth. A tree, however, is something organic that grows. It is not built up by the addition of materials. A tree can only grow up, and that growing up is a kind of constituting. The tree grows by taking in some life element. We may fertilize, water, and trim the tree, but it grows by itself according to its constitution with the life element. How can a small green sprout eventually become a tall tree? It becomes such a tall tree by being constituted with the life element, which causes it to grow.
The essence of the seed of the tree spontaneously mingles itself with the earth, not the whole earth but just the essence of the earth. The essence of the earth with the essence of the seed grow together, and these two essences are the very materials for the constituting of this tree. This picture is very meaningful. When the Lord Jesus sowed Himself as the life seed into our heart as the soil, as the earth, the seed began to grow. Christ as the divine life seed and the believers as the human growing earth become one to produce the organic element for the constitution of the church (Eph. 1:22).
The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3 that we are God’s farm, God’s cultivated land (v. 9), to grow Christ. This concept fits in with the Lord’s word in Matthew 13. He said that He sowed Himself as the seed and that we are the earth. When the essence of the seed and the essence of the earth come together and are mingled together, some constituting work is going on. Then we grow up to become “Christ-trees.”
In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul tells us not only that we are God’s farm to grow Christ but also that we are God’s building (v. 9). God’s building is not of the plant life but is solely of minerals. Look at the New Jerusalem. What will be there? The New Jerusalem is built with gold, pearls, and precious stones (Rev. 21:18-21). The city has twelve foundations and these foundations are twelve layers of precious stones (vv. 14, 19-20). Furthermore, the first foundation is jasper (v. 19), the wall of the city is jasper (v. 18), and the light of the entire city is like a jasper stone (v. 11). God’s appearance is like jasper (4:3), so the entire New Jerusalem bears the appearance of God and expresses God by her shining. God sitting on the throne looks like jasper, and we, the entire city, bear His appearance, so we are His enlargement. The New Jerusalem also has twelve pearls as its twelve gates (21:21), and the city itself is pure gold (v. 18). Nothing in the New Jerusalem can be burned, because it is not of the plant life, but it is built with gold, pearls, and precious stones.
The Bible first uses plants to illustrate the believers in Christ. The seed sown into the earth grows, but by itself it cannot grow. It needs some essence from the earth to match its essence. These two essences then grow together to enlarge the seed into a tree. This is a picture of our growth in life. While we are growing in life, we are also being transformed in life. Petrified wood is a good illustration of plant life that has been transformed into stone. Precious stones are actually transformed materials produced through tremendous heat and pressure.
When we were saved, we were like green, tender sprouts, but gradually we will become precious stones through being transformed. The garden of Eden, at the beginning of the Bible, eventually becomes a city, at the end of the Bible. We are on the way from being a garden to being a city through the process of transformation. This way is a long way, and this long way is actually Christ Himself. Christ told us that He is the way (John 14:6a). When we received Christ, we became one with Him. Then we began to follow Him, and He became our way. Today we are still on the way, and our destination, or our destiny, is the New Jerusalem. This is the divine revelation in the Bible. Today we are still mostly plants, but we are being transformed into precious stones for God’s building. How much the church has been built up all depends upon how much we grow. While we are growing, we are being transformed from plants into minerals, that is, into precious stones for God’s building. This is the clear vision in the Bible.
In Matthew 13 there are seven parables. The first four parables are concerning the plant life. The first parable is concerning the sower coming out to sow (vv. 1-23); the second is concerning the enemy coming to sow the tares (vv. 24-30, 36-43); the third is concerning the mustard seed (vv. 31-32); and the fourth is concerning the woman taking the leaven and putting it into the fine flour made of the wheat (vv. 33-35). All these four parables are concerning the plant life. If we just remain in the plant stage, we will have trouble. We will be troubled by the wayside, the birds, the hidden rocks, and the thorns, signifying the anxiety of this age and the deceitfulness of riches. We will also be troubled by the mustard seed being changed in its nature into a big tree and by all kinds of leaven.
All kinds of “isms,” such as Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, socialism, nationalism, racialism, and liberalism, are different kinds of leaven. A number of years ago, a medical doctor told me that we should set up some hospitals. This is liberalism. Another person came to me and said that the church in his locality was thinking about opening a school and using the church meeting hall for this purpose. We need to realize that if we get in the realm of setting up hospitals or schools, we will have all kinds of troubles, and all kinds of “germs” will creep into the church life. I saw this happen in mainland China. The missionaries set up hospitals and schools, and these became a part of the big tree with big branches, good for lodging the birds. The thought of having hospitals or schools is something of liberalism. This is why the Lord said that the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life (Matt. 7:14). We need to beware of any kind of leaven, such as liberal thinking, coming into the church life. A little leaven leavens and corrupts the whole lump, the whole church (1 Cor. 5:6).
The fifth and sixth parables in Matthew 13 do not speak concerning the plant life. The fifth parable is concerning the treasure (v. 44), and the sixth is concerning the pearl (vv. 45-46). Can you leaven a treasure? A large diamond could never be leavened. Can you leaven a pearl? Even if you bury the pearl with leaven, the pearl can never be leavened.
Matthew 13 shows us that while the Lord is working, His enemy is also working. When we remain in the stage of the plant life, we can easily get germs. But when we are transformed from the plants to the precious treasures and even become the New Jerusalem, there will be no possibility of our getting any germs. By that time we will all have been transformed into precious stones, which the enemy has no way to leaven.
We need to be on guard against any kind of leaven coming into the church life. Some in the church life may desire to be in a certain position. This is the leaven of ambition. Our opinions are another kind of leaven that can corrupt the church life. If no one takes our opinion, we may be offended. Opinions and the ambition for position or rank kill the church life. These things can be among us because we are still fleshly, natural, and in the old creation.
Many years ago I observed one brother who was seeking to be in the eldership. He thought that he should be one of the elders, but he never became an elder. Because of his unfulfilled ambition, he gave up the church life and set up a meeting in his home. He also hired a preacher to be his home pastor. Eventually, from the division that he set up, some negative writings were put out that defamed Brother Watchman Nee. This is an illustration of the leaven of ambition. Today there are all kinds of leaven, but one day we will be in the holy city, the New Jerusalem, which is impossible to be leavened.
Through transformation we are being constituted with the all-inclusive Christ as the life element. We are also being supplied with the element of the all-inclusive Christ. We have seen that the all-inclusive Christ, the Triune God embodied in humanity as the source of life, is signified by the tree of life (Gen. 2:9; Rev. 2:7; 22:2). After God created the heavens, the earth, and man, God put man before a tree called the tree of life. Man was created by God in God’s image and according to God’s likeness (Gen. 1:26), but this man did not have God’s life. Thus, we see a tree signifying God as life and a man who did not have God’s life.
God said that every tree in the garden was pleasant to the sight and good for food, including the tree of life (2:9). God’s desire is to mingle Himself with man, and the way for man to be mingled with Him is by eating. In God’s wisdom He made Himself eatable (John 6:57). Many Christians have never heard that God is eatable. How could Adam be mingled with that life tree? How could that life tree get into Adam? The only way was by Adam’s eating. It is interesting to note that God created man with a stomach. If we did not have a stomach, we would never feel hungry; we would never sense that we need to eat. In certain senses our stomach can be troublesome to us. Many sicknesses and diseases come from the wrong kind of eating. But the tree of life is something that is altogether and purely good. If we eat this tree, we will get life and be healthy. By eating the tree of life (Rev. 2:7b), we can be mingled with God, and this mingling is the constitution.
Our physical body is being constituted with the life supply every day. When food is added into our stomach, the constituting work is going on. Then we are growing up in life. In this constituting process, there is a kind of transformation. In the morning we eat breakfast, and during the day what we have eaten is being digested and assimilated into our being. The life element is constituting our being. The food we eat does a constituting work within us. This is a picture of our Christian life. We need to eat Christ as the living bread from heaven embodied in His words of eternal life (John 6:57b-58a, 51, 68), as the tree of life (Rev. 2:7b), and as the hidden manna (v. 17b). By eating Christ, we can be constituted and supplied with Him as our life element so that we can grow in life and be transformed in life.
In order to be transformed, we need to apply the cross of Christ to our peculiarity, individuality, independence, seclusion, self-deception, pretension, self-seeking, personal preference and taste, localism in church practice, and all kinds of divisive factors.
The cross of Christ needs to be applied to all our peculiar traits. When I entered into the ministry with Brother Nee in 1933, he told me that there was a brother among us who had a certain peculiar trait. Whatever you asked him to do, he would do the opposite. If you asked him to go to the east, he would go to the west. Thus, if you wanted him to go to the east, you had to tell him to go to the west. The divorces and separations between husbands and wives today are mostly due to their peculiarities. In order to have the one accord in the church life, all our peculiarities must be dealt with by the cross.
We also need to apply the cross to any localism in church practice. Some may have the attitude that their local church is independent and autonomous and should not be interfered with. This is localism. An independent local church is actually a local sect. We need to deal with any localism in church practice and with all kinds of divisive factors.
We may know something about Christ’s Body, but if we do not accept the cross to crucify our natural life, to break us, and to consume us, and if we do not know the cross, we will always have problems. The co-workers and the elders need to apply the cross in their fellowship with one another. Instead of having a thorough fellowship with one another, they may like to keep things secret. Sometimes we call a meeting for the co-workers to come together to fellowship about the Lord’s work, but in the meeting they say very little. Their thought is that the more one says, the more mistakes he makes, and the less he says, the less mistakes he makes. Anything concerning the work, however, should be fellowshipped among the co-workers. Surely, if we are too open, we can cause trouble. But if we do not have open fellowship with one another and if we keep secrets, anything of the Lord that is under our hand will be killed.
The co-workers and elders must learn not to conceal or hide things from one another. The elders and the co-workers need to come together, to pray together, to open to one another, and to discuss the needs and problems in the church in a frank and open way. This is the best way to get things solved. To conceal things and to think that we have the way to take care of them without fellowship are wrong. We need to apply the cross to our individuality and independence.
We also need to apply the cross to our personal preference and taste. We have our taste and our choice, which are damaging to the one accord. We need to receive the supply of Christ, and we also have to receive His cross all the time. Eventually, we have to realize that everyone and everything is a cross to us. Our relatives, our children, the saints, and our close co-workers all become the cross to put us to death. This is our destiny. The Lord Jesus is the “cross-giver,” who assigns all kinds of crosses to us. Only the Lord knows the right one for us to marry. The Lord’s intention actually is not to give us a spouse. The Lord’s intention is to give us the cross. The single sisters may have the desire to get the best husband, someone who is a hero, who is very capable, and who has the highest education. But eventually, such a husband, instead of being a hero, may become like a “Pharaoh” to them. Their intention is to get the best husband, but the Lord’s intention is to give them the cross. We all need to realize that the cross of Christ goes along with the supply of Christ. Without the supply, we cannot bear the cross. But without the cross, the Lord’s supply is merely terminology to us.
The believers are supported with the power of Christ’s resurrection in long-suffering, in the uniting bond of peace, and in all the positive needs for joining together and knitting together and for the rich supply of every joint and the operation in the measure of each one part. This means that in the church life, we have to be one. You have to be joined to me, and I have to be joined to you. In the Lord’s recovery all the races with all the different colors — white, black, yellow, brown, and red — are blended together. The peoples of the earth are all so different. How could all these peoples be one Body? There is one Body in the universe, and we express it here on earth for all to see (see chorus of Hymns, #1107). We do not want people to see divisions or opinions. This is why we need to be joined together and knit together.
The only way that we can be really one is by the application of the cross and the power of Christ’s resurrection. His power of resurrection is sufficient for us. He gives us the cross to bear, but He also supports us with the power of His resurrection. It is in this way that we are transformed. Paul said that he desired to know Christ and the power of His resurrection that he might be conformed to Christ’s death (Phil. 3:10). We should live and serve not by our natural power but by the power of Christ’s resurrection.
The constituting of the believers into precious materials through transformation issues in the practical building of God.
The practical building of God is locally in every local church in the harmony of the one accord stimulated by the one Spirit in the one Body of Christ.
This practical building is also universally in the oneness of the Divine Trinity, prayed for by the Lord (John 17) and accomplished by His lovers (v. 26b) for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy according to His good pleasure (Eph. 3:9-10; 1:9). There is the possibility of having the one accord in the local church and of enjoying the oneness universally in the Body of Christ. This all depends upon how much we love the Lord, how much we receive the Lord, how much we love His cross, and how much we live not by our energy, power, strength, and might but by the power of His resurrection. The death of His cross and the power of His resurrection both are compounded in the compound Spirit (cf. Exo. 30:23-25). When we live by the Spirit and follow the Spirit, we have the cross and the power of Christ’s resurrection.
Now we want to see the ultimate consummation of the transformation for the composition and constitution of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:1-3, 9-23). The conclusion of the sixty-six books of the Bible is a divine building, the New Jerusalem. This building is a gold mountain, constituted with precious stones and twelve gates of pearl. This is the issue, the consummation, of the entire revelation of the whole Bible. Surely this must be very meaningful. This is why we purposely wrote a number of hymns related to and concerning the New Jerusalem when we were composing our hymnal (see Hymns, #971, #972, #975, #976, #978, #979, #980, #981, #984). I hope that we would learn to sing all these hymns.
The New Jerusalem is purely of the originating God in His divine nature, signified by the pure gold of the base of the city (vv. 18b, 21b). The New Jerusalem is built on a gold mountain, and that gold is the base of the New Jerusalem. The city’s being of pure gold signifies that the New Jerusalem is altogether of God’s divine nature and takes God’s divine nature as its element. All of us have God in His divine nature within us as a base according to our spiritual birth (2 Pet. 1:4).
The New Jerusalem in its composition and constitution is exclusively of the redeeming Christ.
The holy city is exclusively of the redeeming Christ in the work of His all-inclusive death and His life-supplying resurrection. His death is all-inclusive to solve all the problems, and His resurrection is supplying us with life all the time.
The work of the redeeming Christ in His overcoming death and life-supplying resurrection is signified by the element of the pearls of the gates (Rev. 21:21a). The pearls signify the regenerated believers produced by Christ’s death and resurrection. Pearls are produced by oysters in the waters of death. When an oyster is wounded by a grain of sand, it secretes its life-juice around the grain of sand and makes it into a precious pearl. This depicts Christ as the living One coming into the death waters, being wounded by us, and secreting His life over us to make us into precious pearls for the building of God’s eternal expression.
The twelve gates of the city are twelve pearls, signifying that regeneration through the death-overcoming and life-secreting Christ is the entrance into the city. This also indicates that Christ’s death plus His resurrection will produce us to be the very entrance for people to come into the holy city. Today in the local churches there are some brothers who are like gates, through which people can enter into the realities of the holy city.
Paul says that we should build the church today with gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12a). In the New Jerusalem there will be gold and precious stones but no silver. Silver is in the church today, but it will be replaced by pearl in the New Jerusalem. In 1 Corinthians 3 we have silver because in typology silver represents redemption. Redemption deals with sin. For eternity in the New Jerusalem sin will be banished and eliminated. Therefore, in eternity there will be no need for redemption, for silver. The need there is not for silver, for redemption, but for pearl, for regeneration. Redemption is to take away sin; regeneration is to bring in the divine life.
The composition and constitution of the New Jerusalem is absolutely of the consummated Spirit in His transformation work, signified by the essence of the precious stones of the wall and its foundations (Rev. 21:11, 18a, 19-20). These precious stones signify the transformed believers (1 Pet. 2:5a) renewed by the Spirit’s transforming work (Titus 3:5; Rom. 12:2a).
The New Jerusalem is purely of God the Father, exclusively of Christ, absolutely of the Spirit, and with the regenerated, transformed, and glorified human beings (Rev. 21:12b, 14b). We have been regenerated, we are on the way of transformation, and we will reach the goal of glorification. The Triune God will be fully mingled with us as transformed and glorified persons.
In the New Jerusalem there will be no dust of humanity. We were created by God of the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7). We are dusty persons, because we were made of dust. It is not a matter of whether we are good or bad but of whether we are dusty or transformed. The brothers may pretend to be gentlemen, and the sisters to be ladies, but actually they are dusty. This is why the more we stay in the church life, the more we are exposed. When we first come into the church life, this is our church life “honeymoon.” But after this honeymoon time in the church life, everything may become unpleasant because all the dust comes out. Then everyone knows that we are dusty. We are neither good nor bad, but we are all dusty. But there will be no dust in the New Jerusalem.
In the New Jerusalem there will be no plant of the human life. There will just be gold, pearls, and precious stones. In the New Jerusalem there will be no plants or trees of the plant life to shade us, but Christ Himself will be our canopy in the New Jerusalem. This is clearly prophesied in the book of Isaiah (4:5-6).
In the New Jerusalem there will be no leaven of the enemy (Matt. 13:33; 1 Cor. 5:6-8), because we will all be transformed into pearls and precious stones, which cannot be leavened. My burden is to show all the saints that if we mean business to keep the oneness for the Lord’s recovery, we must learn to be transformed. We must not remain in the plant stage. We have to be transformed from dust into plants, and from plants into transformed, precious materials. Then there will be no leaven. When there is no leaven, everything will be pure, there will be no trouble, and the church will be built up in peace with the transformed saints.
The New Jerusalem will be the pure, exclusive, and absolute expression in the corporate manifestation (Rev. 21:11) of the processed and consummated Triune God (vv. 22-23) mingled with the regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite men for eternity. We have to read and study the outlines with the verses in this book so that we can see how we should live and behave in the church life (cf. 1 Tim. 3:15). Then the church can be built up with the mature saints and even built up to the uttermost with the transformed saints.
We need to spend some time to read the Scripture references, the outlines, and the fellowship in this book with prayer. Then the Lord will have a way to lead us into a realization of the deeper significance of all these points.
