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I. The first aspect of the incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers is the house of the Father — John 14:2:
А. The Father’s house was typified by the temple — 2:16-21.
B. The Father’s house is a divine and human incorporation of the processed and consummated God constituted with His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed elect.
C. All the believers in Christ, redeemed through His blood, regenerated with His life by His Spirit, and transformed with the divine element by the life-giving Spirit, are the “abodes” in the Father’s house.
D. This Father’s house is built up by the constant visitation to the redeemed elect of the Father and the Son with the Spirit who indwells the redeemed elect to be the mutual dwelling place of the consummated Triune God and His redeemed elect — 14:23:
1. Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ as the cornerstone, growing into the holy temple of the Lord, the dwelling place of God in the believers’ spirit — Eph. 2:19-22.
2. In this building, Christ is making His home in the hearts of the believers strengthened into their inner man by the Father according to the riches of His glory with power through His Spirit unto the fullness (expression) of the consummated Triune God — 3:16-19.
E. The Father’s house is both:
1. The household of God, constituted by the children of God, the species of God, with His divine life for their growth in life and His manifestation — 2:19.
2. The kingdom of God, composed of the believers in Christ as the citizens (John 3:3, 5; Rev. 1:4, 6; Eph. 2:19; Matt. 16:18-19; Acts 1:3; 28:31), in two aspects:
а. The kingdom of God as the church life in this age — Rom. 14:17:
1) For the believers’ exercise and equipping in the divine authority through the endurance of sufferings — Rev. 1:9; Acts 14:22; Matt. 18:18.
2) For the believers to learn how to reign in life — Rom. 5:17.
b. The kingdom of Christ in the kingdom age — Rev. 11:15; 2 Pet. 1:11:
1) For the overcoming saints to reign with Christ — Rev. 20:4, 6; 2 Tim. 2:12.
2) To rule over all the nations — Rev. 2:26; 12:5.
F. The purpose of the Father’s house:
1. For the invisible and mysterious Triune God to have a visible and solid manifestation — the church — among men on the earth — 1 Tim. 3:15-16.
2. For the satisfaction and rest of the processed and consummated Triune God.
3. For the eternal and purposeful Triune God to carry out His eternal economy to consummate the New Jerusalem as His eternal goal for His eternal expansion and expression.
Prayer: Lord, we thank You that You are training us. We confess that we are still in the natural life that we received through birth. Our concepts and our understanding of the Bible are very natural. Lord, deliver us from being natural. You have regenerated us so that we would no longer be natural, but we remain in our natural life, and we are natural even in seeking You. Lord, we need You to speak a new word to us once again. Lord, have mercy upon us and be our High Priest, the One who is easily touched by the feeling of our infirmities. Lord, speak a word according to Your high priesthood and shepherd us and take care of us, especially of the co-workers who have been speaking for years in a natural way without any real understanding. Lord, be merciful to us and bless us under Your mercy. Amen.
In the Lord’s recovery we need to learn how to know the Bible in its intrinsic significance. If we know the Bible in this way, we will have a proper theology. The theology of today’s Christianity is wrong or inadequate in many ways. We have been raised up, taught, and trained under the influence of this theology, and we are still under its influence. Either consciously or subconsciously, the influence of the theology of Christianity remains in our being. We need to uproot this influence and not follow the way of the old theology in presenting messages.
In the previous chapter we saw that the issue of Christ’s being glorified is an incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers. Before we begin to consider the three aspects of this incorporation, I would like to say a further word about the universal incorporation as the issue of Christ’s glorification.
I have spent more than seventy years studying the Bible, but only very recently did I see that the Bible actually unveils just one thing — the universal incorporation. The purposeful God has an economy, and in His economy He intends to have a universal incorporation. Deep within Himself, God has the purpose to produce a universal incorporation. Eventually, for eternity in the new heaven and new earth, there will be the New Jerusalem, the unique goal of God in His economy.
Although we have seen that the New Jerusalem is the goal of God’s economy, we did not see that the New Jerusalem is an incorporation. In Revelation 21:2 the apostle John says, “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,” and in the next verse he speaks of the New Jerusalem as “the tabernacle of God.” As the tabernacle of God, the New Jerusalem is God’s dwelling place. We are quite familiar with this aspect of the New Jerusalem; it has become old knowledge to us. Now we need to learn something new and see that as the tabernacle of God the New Jerusalem is the universal incorporation.
At this juncture we need to consider the Lord’s word to the church in Pergamos (2:12-17), the third of the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3. Pergamos in Greek means “marriage,” implying union. As a sign, the church in Pergamos prefigures the church that entered into a marriage union with the world to be one with the world. As part of His promise to the overcomer in Pergamos, the Lord Jesus said, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna” (v. 17). The hidden manna refers to Christ. Manna is a type of Christ as the heavenly food that enables God’s people to go His way. A portion of manna was preserved in a golden pot concealed in the Ark (Exo. 16:32-34; Heb. 9:4). This hidden manna, signifying the hidden Christ, is a special portion reserved for His overcoming believers, who overcome the degradation of the worldly church. While the church goes the way of the world, these overcomers come forward to abide in the Holy of Holies, where they enjoy the hidden Christ as a special portion for their daily supply.
Now we come to a crucial matter: To eat the hidden manna is to be incorporated into the tabernacle. The tabernacle in the Old Testament is a sign of the universal incorporation. Christ as the hidden manna is the center of the tabernacle. The hidden manna is in the golden pot; the golden pot is in the Ark, made of acacia wood overlaid with gold; and this Ark is in the Holy of Holies. The hidden manna, which signifies Christ, is in the golden pot, which refers to God. The manna in the golden pot indicates that Christ is in the Father (John 14:10a, 11a). The Ark is in the Holy of Holies, and the Holy of Holies is our spirit. Today our spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit is the Holy of Holies. From this we can see that Christ as the hidden manna is in God the Father as the golden pot; that the Father is in Christ as the Ark with His two natures, divinity and humanity; and that this Christ as the indwelling Spirit lives in our regenerated spirit to be the reality of the Holy of Holies. This means that the Son is in the Father, that the Father is in the Son, and that the Son as the Spirit is the reality of the Holy of Holies. This implies and corresponds to the four ins in John 14:16-20. Verse 20 says, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you,” and verse 17 says, “The Spirit of reality...shall be in you.” The Son is in the Father, we are in the Son, the Son is in us, and we are indwelt by the Spirit of reality. This is the incorporation of the processed God with the regenerated believers.
The way to be incorporated into the tabernacle is to eat the hidden manna. The more we eat Christ, the more we are incorporated into the Triune God as a universal incorporation. By eating the hidden manna we are incorporated into the tabernacle. The tabernacle in the Old Testament is a figure of the New Jerusalem, which is called the tabernacle of God. As the tabernacle of God, the New Jerusalem is the universal incorporation. This universal incorporation is God’s eternal goal. The New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God, and the center of this tabernacle is Christ as the hidden manna for us to eat. The way to be in the New Jerusalem is to eat Christ. The more we eat Christ, the more we are incorporated into this universal incorporation.
We have pointed out that the church in Pergamos signifies the worldly church, the church that has married the world to be in union with the world. The world will perish in the lake of fire. Are you a part of the world, or are you a part of the New Jerusalem as God’s tabernacle, the universal incorporation? The Lord promised the overcomers in the church in Pergamos that if they ate Him, they would be incorporated into the universal incorporation, the consummated New Jerusalem. We should not be joined to the world; we should be incorporated into the New Jerusalem by eating Christ as the hidden manna.
Let us now begin to consider the three aspects of the incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers.
The first aspect of the incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers is the house of the Father (John 14:2). Chapters 14, 15, and 16 of John are a long message given by the Lord Jesus shortly before He was arrested. Each of these three chapters covers one of three aspects of the universal incorporation. In John 14 we have the Father’s house; in John 15, the Son’s vine; and in John 16, the child born of the Spirit. The house of the Father, the true vine of the Son, and the child of the Spirit are the three different aspects of the universal incorporation as the issue of Christ’s glorification.
The Father’s house is typified by the temple of God in 2:16-21.
The Father’s house is a divine and human incorporation of the processed and consummated God constituted with His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed elect. The Father’s house is not only a constitution; it is an incorporation.
In 14:2a the Lord Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many abodes.” All the believers in Christ, redeemed through His blood, regenerated with His life by His Spirit, and transformed with the divine element by the life-giving Spirit, are the “abodes” in the Father’s house. In our houses we have rooms. As believers in Christ and members of the Body of Christ, we all are rooms, abodes, in the Father’s house.
The Father’s house is built up by the constant visitation to the redeemed elect of the Father and the Son with the Spirit who indwells the redeemed elect to be the mutual dwelling place of the consummated Triune God and His redeemed elect. In 14:23 the Lord Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” Verse 2 tells us that in the Father’s house there are many abodes, and in verse 23 we see that these abodes are built up by the Father and the Son’s visitation to those who love Him. The Spirit is not explicitly mentioned in verse 23 but rather is implied, for the Spirit dwells in the regenerated spirit of all those who love the Lord Jesus.
From our experience we know that the Father and the Son pay us a constant visitation. In our daily life the Father and the Son often come to visit us. We may be at home, at school, or at work, but wherever we may be, the Father and the Son come to visit us to do a building work in us, making an abode that will be a mutual dwelling place for the Triune God and for us. This is the building up of the Father’s house through the constant visitation of the Triune God.
The Father’s house is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ as the cornerstone, and it is growing into the holy temple of the Lord, the dwelling place of God in the believers’ spirit (Eph. 2:19-22).
In this building, Christ is making His home in the hearts of the believers strengthened into their inner man by the Father according to the riches of His glory with power through His Spirit unto the fullness (the expression) of the consummated Triune God (3:16-19).
The Father’s house is both the household of God and the kingdom of God.
As the household of God, the Father’s house is constituted by the children of God, the species of God, with His divine life for their growth in life and for His manifestation (2:19). This life is for our growth in life and also for God’s manifestation.
The Father’s house is also the kingdom of God, which is composed of the believers in Christ as the citizens (John 3:3, 5; Rev. 1:4, 6; Eph. 2:19; Matt. 16:18-19; Acts 1:3; 28:31), in two aspects.
The first aspect of the Father’s house as the kingdom of God is the kingdom of God as the church life in this age (Rom. 14:17). The church life today is the kingdom of God for the believers’ exercise and equipping in the divine authority through the endurance of sufferings (Rev. 1:9; Acts 14:22; Matt. 18:18) and for the believers to learn how to reign in life (Rom. 5:17).
The second aspect of the Father’s house as the kingdom of God is the kingdom of Christ in the kingdom age, that is, in the millennium, the thousand-year kingdom (Rev. 11:15; 2 Pet. 1:11). This aspect of the kingdom is for the overcoming saints to reign with Christ (Rev. 20:4, 6; 2 Tim. 2:12) and to rule over all the nations (Rev. 2:26; 12:5).
The purpose of the Father’s house is first for the invisible and mysterious Triune God to have a visible and solid manifestation — the church — among men on the earth (1 Tim. 3:15-16).
Second, the purpose of the Father’s house is for the satisfaction and rest of the processed and consummated Triune God.
The purpose of the Father’s house is also for the eternal and purposeful Triune God to carry out His eternal economy to consummate the New Jerusalem as His eternal goal for His eternal expansion and expression. The house of God, which is God’s dwelling place, eventually will be the New Jerusalem, God’s eternal goal for His eternal expansion and expression.
