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As a child, I was told that the Bible is a record of God’s creation. In a sense, this is correct, for the first two chapters certainly contain a record of creation. The first verse of the Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” After I was saved, I was taught that the Bible is a book of salvation. This also is right, for Paul wrote to Timothy, “From a babe you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation” (2 Tim. 3:15). In all my years in Christianity, I heard many teachings concerning what the Bible is about, but I never heard that the Bible is a book of building. Yes, the Bible is a record of creation and salvation; however, the final word, Revelation 21 and 22, reveals that the Bible is about building.
When we visit someone, we usually begin by greeting the person. Then we may ask how the other person has been or talk about the weather or current events. This talk is merely our opening word. To learn what is on our heart, the other person must wait until our last word. Our closing word reveals our true heart’s desire. In the beginning the Bible is a record of creation, and later it reveals the matter of salvation. However, only with the ultimate word do we see a clear vision of God’s heart’s desire. God’s heart’s desire is neither creation nor salvation but a building.
God’s goal is revealed in the last two chapters of the Bible. His heart’s desire is a building, the holy city, the New Jerusalem. Revelation 21 and 22 are the consummate, closing word of the divine speaking of more than one thousand chapters. The Bible begins with “in the beginning,” but it ends with a holy city coming down out of heaven from God (21:10).
The New Jerusalem is a city that is built, or composed, of three categories of precious things. The city proper is of pure gold (v. 18), and the street of the city is also of gold (v. 21). The wall of the city is built upon twelve foundations (v. 14). On the twelve layers of the foundation are twelve precious stones, and the foundations bear the names of the twelve apostles (vv. 19-20, 14). The wall, which is built on the twelve-layer foundation, is composed entirely of jasper (v. 18). According to Revelation 4:3, God, who is sitting on the throne, is like a jasper stone in appearance. Hence, the whole city has the same appearance as God, indicating that the whole city is the expression of God. The city bears the divine image—it expresses, manifests, and shines out God and all that He is.
We need to see the consummate and closing word of the divine revelation in the Bible. Many people have read the Bible for many years, yet they do not know the closing word of the Bible. Every Christian knows that the Bible opens with creation, but very few realize that the Bible consummates with a building. We need to be clear that our destination after being saved is not heaven but the New Jerusalem. Our destiny is not to go up to heaven but to come down as the New Jerusalem. This is not my thought—it is the revelation of the Bible.
There is indeed a physical heaven where Christ the Son is with God the Father, but heaven is not God’s goal or our destination. Our destination is something much better, higher, and more glorious than heaven; our destination is the New Jerusalem. Revelation 22:14 says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.” According to this verse, we will enter not into heaven but into the city, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven.
There are many traditional teachings among Christians today. The Lord Jesus told the Pharisees, “You nicely set aside the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition... You deprive the word of God of its authority by your tradition which you have handed down” (Mark 7:9, 13). In the Lord’s recovery today, we do not care for traditions; rather, we come back to the pure Word. We probably do not realize the degree to which we are still under the influence of traditional teachings. There is no verse that says that we will go to heaven after we die. However, the Bible clearly reveals that there is something glorious called the holy city and the New Jerusalem that will descend out of heaven (Rev. 21:2). Our blessed entrance is not into heaven but into the holy city (22:14).
We all need to see that the closing word, the ultimate word, of the revelation of the Holy Scriptures concerns building. The opening word concerns creation, and the word of God’s process concerns salvation, but the closing and consummate word concerns building. We are all certainly part of God’s creation, and as believers, we also participate in God’s salvation. However, the goal is God’s building.
Some may admit that the consummate word in the Bible concerns God’s building, but they may point out that the New Jerusalem is in the future and argue that in order to be practical, we need to focus on something that exists today. However, God’s building is not something that exists only in the future; it is here today.
When the Lord first called Peter, the Lord immediately gave him a new name. In John 1:42 the Lord said, “You are Simon, the son of John; you shall be called Cephas (which is interpreted, Peter).” The name Peter means “a stone.” Two or three years later the Lord took the disciples to the border of the Holy Land and asked them, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matt. 16:15). Peter took the lead to say, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). Jesus appreciated his answer and said, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in the heavens. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church” (vv. 17-18). The Lord said, “I also say to you,” to indicate that He would reveal something further. He seemed to be saying, “To know Me as the Christ and the Son of God is not sufficient. You need to know something more—the church. To know Me as the Christ is only a partial revelation. The complete revelation includes both Christ and the church.”
The Lord said that He would build His church not upon a doctrine or a teaching but upon “this rock.” To build the church, we do not need a teaching; we need a rock. When the Lord called Peter, He first revealed that Peter was a stone. Later, the Lord revealed that He Himself was the rock upon which the church would be built and that Peter was a stone for the building of the church.
The great mystery is Christ and the church, the Head and the Body (Eph. 5:32). We cannot separate the Head from the Body. Regarding this, the Lord seemed to be telling Peter, “You are blessed to know that Jesus is the Son of God, the very Christ appointed and anointed by God to fulfill His purpose, but I also say to you that I will build My church.”
In Matthew 16:18 the Lord said, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” The gates of Hades cannot prevail against the builded church. It is easy for Satan to prevail against something that is not built up. If a stronghold is built up, the enemy’s goal will surely be to attack it. The church needs to be a builded stronghold.
In Matthew 16 Peter received a complete vision of Christ and the church. We know this to be true because he later preached the gospel in an astonishing way, declaring, “Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified and whom God has raised from the dead,...this is the stone which was considered as nothing by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner” (Acts 4:10-11). Peter preached that Christ is not only the Savior but also the cornerstone to connect the two walls of God’s building. Christ as the cornerstone was disowned by the Jews yet honored and treasured by God because God’s desire is not only to save us but also to regenerate and transform us into precious stones to build up the church.
From his days as a young disciple, Peter never forgot that he was a stone or that Christ was the rock on which the church is built. Hence, when Peter had grown old, he wrote in his first Epistle, “Coming to Him, a living stone, rejected by men but with God chosen and precious, you yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (2:4-5). We are living stones not for exhibition but to be built up as a spiritual house. There is no need for us to wait for the next age; God’s house is being built on earth in this age.
People today often speak about serving God. Verse 5 reveals that the real service, the service God desires, is not something separate from the building. Service needs to be based upon the building. We first need to be built together; then we can serve.
Paul also wrote concerning the building. In 1 Corinthians he wrote that he fed the saints (3:2). He also wrote, “We...were all given to drink one Spirit” (12:13). We need to eat of Jesus and drink the Spirit for our spiritual growth. Growth brings in transformation, and transformation prepares the proper materials for building. Thus, in 3:9 Paul wrote, “You are God’s cultivated land, God’s building.” God’s farm is for growth, and God’s building comes out of the growth of God’s farm. We all need to eat and drink so that we may grow and be transformed, and then the building will be realized.
There is an apparent disconnect in the thought in 1 Corinthians 3:9. A farm is for growing plants, but a building is built with stones. Spiritually speaking, plant materials, such as wood, grass, and stubble, are not suitable for God’s building (v. 12). Although we are plants on God’s farm, we are becoming precious stones through the process of petrification. When we allow the water of life to flow through us, this water brings in all the divine, heavenly minerals, which are all that God is. The flow of the divine life brings the divine element into us and discharges our old element. In this way we are transformed from plants into precious stones. Today we are plants, but we are in the process of petrification. We are growing as plants on God’s farm to be transformed into the precious stones for the building.
Paul spoke strongly concerning the building. “According to the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds upon it. But let each man take heed how he builds upon it. For another foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if anyone builds upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, stubble, the work of each will become manifest; for the day will declare it, because it is revealed by fire, and the fire itself will prove each one’s work, of what sort it is” (vv. 10-13). We must not add wood, grass, or stubble to God’s precious building. In the New Jerusalem there will be nothing natural, only precious materials.
In Ephesians 2:20 Paul wrote that Christ is both the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets and the cornerstone of the building. The cornerstone is placed to join two walls of a building. The Jewish believers and the Gentile believers represent different walls in God’s building, and Christ stands as the connecting cornerstone. The foundation stone lies horizontally to support the whole building, and the cornerstone stands vertically to connect the walls of the building. In Zechariah 4:7 Christ is also revealed as the topstone to cover God’s building. The foundation stone supports the building, the cornerstone connects the building, and the topstone completes the building. Christ is the foundation stone, the cornerstone, and the topstone of God’s building, and we are precious stones to be built into this building.
In Ephesians 2:21 Paul says, “In whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord.” The phrase all the building in this verse refers to the universal church. However, in verse 22 Paul goes on, “In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” In this verse you also refers to the local saints. In each local church we are in the process of being built together. If we wait until the next age to be built, we will miss the mark. We need to be built today. We need growth, transformation, and building. We are being transformed not to be beautiful precious stones to be displayed individually; rather, as precious stones, we are good only for the building. We should not merely be piled together. According to verse 21, we need to be fitted together, that is, made suitable for the condition and situation of the building.
Once we are built together with the saints in the church, we cannot separate ourselves from the building. If we decide that we do not want to be in the building because we desire more freedom, it is too late. Once we have been built into the church, we cannot leave the church. What a blessing this is! What a glory it is to be built into God’s building!
Today the Lord is building the Body-Christ. The main burden in this book is the Body-Christ, which is the individual Christ built with all His members. In the Body-Christ, Christ is wrought into all His members, and all Christ’s members are wrought into Him. The entire New Jerusalem will be the consummation of the Body-Christ. Today the church, the Body-Christ, is a miniature of the New Jerusalem.
First Corinthians 12:12 says, “All the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.” The Christ in this verse is not the individual Christ but the corporate Christ—Christ Himself incorporated with all His members. We are incorporated in Christ by the growth in life. The more we grow in life, the more we are wrought into Christ and the more Christ is wrought into us. Growth in life results in transformation, and transformation is for something corporate and mutual. As we are transformed, Christ is wrought into us, and we are wrought into Christ. Our old element is discharged, and Christ’s element is wrought into us. This issues in the Body-Christ, which today is the proper church life, expressing Christ and satisfying God’s desire.
We need to see the vision of God’s goal in the Bible. At the beginning, in Genesis, there is a record of creation. This record shows that God planted a garden (2:8). Among the many trees in the garden was the tree of life (v. 9). Near the tree of life, there was also a river flowing to water the garden (v. 10), and the flow of the river issued in three precious materials: gold, bdellium, and onyx stone (v. 12). Bdellium is a pearl-like material produced from the sap of a tree. When the sap of a certain tree flows out, it congeals into a kind of gum, or resin, which becomes bdellium. Onyx is a precious stone. In this picture we see not only the heavens and the earth formed by God but also the garden planted by God with the tree of life and a flowing river, which watered the garden and issued in gold, bdellium, and precious stone.
To see the full meaning of the picture in Genesis 2:8-12, we need to go to Revelation 21 and 22. The completion of this picture shows that the garden eventually becomes a city. A garden is something natural, but a city is something built, or constructed. In this constructed unit, the building of the New Jerusalem, there is the tree of life, a flowing river, and gold, pearls, and precious stones. However, these materials are no longer scattered about; rather, they have been built up into a city for eternity. This is the completed picture of the whole divine revelation. The whole divine revelation is for this wonderful building, which is the Body-Christ. The Body-Christ is Christ with the church, the Head with the Body, and it is produced by our eating Christ, drinking the Spirit, growing, being transformed, and being built together.
At the consummation of the Bible there is a call and a promise. The call is in Revelation 22:17: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely.” This is a call to come to drink of the water of life that proceeds out of the throne of the Lamb-God, the redeeming God (v. 1). This flow is the flow of the living God. The living Lamb-God flows Himself out as the river of water of life. When Jesus was on this earth, He sounded the same call. “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). The Bible ends with this eternal call and also with a promise. “Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city” (Rev. 22:14). The call at the end of the Bible is for us to come and drink, and the promise is that we will have right to eat the tree of life and to enter into God’s building.
Today in the church life we are drinking, eating, and being built. We enter into the holy city not by walking in but by being built in. Peter did not walk into the New Jerusalem; he entered into the New Jerusalem by being built in. We need to be built in today. We need to begin not by trying to build others in but by being built in ourselves. The way to be built in is not by praying for the Lord to cut off our sharp corners and rough edges so that we will fit into the building. The more we pray in this way, the less we will be fit for the building. Dietitians know that it is the proper food that can change us. The proper spiritual food can regulate our disposition and our temper. Instead of trying to improve our character or disposition outwardly, we need to change our diet by eating the word and calling on the Lord in order to eat Christ and drink the Spirit. The proper diet is Jesus and His living word. If we eat Jesus, we will be the same as Jesus, and if we drink the Spirit, we will be spiritual.
We need to eat Christ as the tree of life and drink the Spirit as the river of water of life. As we eat Christ and drink the Spirit, we will be constituted with Christ and will corporately become the Body-Christ. Today the Body-Christ is the church life as a miniature of the New Jerusalem. If we are in the Body-Christ today, we can be sure that the New Jerusalem will be our destiny.
