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Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:27; 2:9-12, 22; Matt. 16:18a; Eph. 2:20-22; 1 Cor. 3:9b, 11-12a; 1 Pet. 2:5; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 John 3:2; Phil. 3:21; Rev. 4:2-3; 21:11-13, 16-21
In these chapters we have clearly seen that the revelation of the Scriptures is progressive and consistent. It starts from Genesis and goes through sixty-six books, ending with Revelation. In Genesis 1, after God finished the work of His creation, He created man. Zechariah 12:1 says that the Lord stretched forth the heavens, laid the foundations of the earth, and formed the spirit of man. The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, and man is for God. But for man to be for God, he must have an organ to contact God and take God in. This organ is the human spirit. Therefore, Zechariah says that God created the heavens and the earth and the spirit of man.
The whole universe serves God’s purpose. His purpose is to have a group of human beings that He may work Himself into so that they might bear His image. In this way God would become their life and content. God would be one with them, and they would be His expression, filled with all that He is.
For this purpose, God had to create man. For man to exist there is the need of the earth, and the earth needs the heavens. The sunshine, the rain, and even the air are all required for life. Without these things, no life can exist. The heavens are for the earth, and the earth’s existence is for man. If the earth were a little closer to the sun, everything on the earth would be burned up, including man. If the earth were a little farther from the sun, everything on the earth would be frozen. Praise the Lord that the distance between the earth and the sun is just right! Therefore, the heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, and man is for God.
John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.” God made a spirit for man that man might worship Him. The way God made man was unique. He did not make anything in His own image but man. A glove is made in the image of a hand that the hand might enter into the glove. When it does, the glove is no longer empty but has a content that is expressed by the glove. If we remove the hand from the glove, the glove becomes empty and useless. Its usefulness is just to contain the hand. In the same way, God made man in His image that He Himself might come into this man.
All containers are made in the form of the content. A round item has a round container. A square item has a square container. God made man in His image that man might contain God. Hence, Paul tells us in Romans 9:23 that man is God’s vessel: “In order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory.” Man was made as a vessel to contain God. This vessel as the container of God was made exactly in the form of God. We human beings are not good for anything but God. Anything else does not fit. Whatever else we have tried to fill ourselves with can never satisfy. When we called on the Lord Jesus, He came into us. Then we all testified that we had found the purpose for living. To put anything but a hand into a glove is awkward and meaningless. A pencil or a book does not fit. Only a hand fits. Paul says in Galatians 4:19, “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.” Many Christians have Christ in them, but He is not formed in them.
God created man in His image that He might become the very content of man. To have the image is one thing, but to have God’s life and nature is another. A wax man is made in the image of man but does not have man’s life. Our parents not only gave us man’s image but also man’s life, but God in His creation only gave man His image, not His life. Therefore, after man was created, God placed him before the tree of life. This indicated that man had God’s image, but he still did not have God’s life. In Genesis 1 we see the image of God, and in Genesis 2 we see the life of God. God gave us His image in creation, but until we take in the tree of life, we do not have His life.
Praise the Lord for the day we received the Lord Jesus! He is the tree of life. “In Him was life” (John 1:4). The tree of life is good for food, and Jesus as the bread of life is also good for food. The best way to receive Jesus as the bread of life into us is by eating. We are a living container. We received Jesus into us by eating Him. I have been eating for about seventy years, but I never really understood the right meaning of eating. Recently, I have learned something about eating in a scientific way. When anything is eaten, it is digested and assimilated into the blood system. Eventually, what is eaten becomes the very cells and organic tissues of our being. It simply becomes us. The dieticians tell us that we are what we eat. We are composed of all the elements we eat. It is the same spiritually. If we eat Jesus all the time, we will be composed with Jesus. God made man as His container with His image, and then He put this living container before a tree symbolizing Himself as life. There man was to take God in by the way of eating. The Word tells us that the tree of life was good for food (Gen. 2:9). The only way to take anything into us in order that it might become us is by eating. God is good for eating. God is edible. God presented Himself to man in the form of food.
God’s first attempt to cause man to take Him in as food was a failure because of man’s unfaithfulness in the garden of Eden. Man did not eat of the tree of life. Instead, he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and fell. For this cause God Himself became a man. He came to redeem man by putting Himself through a process. He has been processed for us to take Him in. God again came in the form of food to man.
In His first attempt God presented Himself to man in the form of food. In His second attempt He did the same. However, there was a difference between the first and second attempt. In a sense, the tree of life did not need any processing related to redemption, but the bread of life did. In Genesis 2 He was the tree of life, ready to eat. But in John 6 as the bread of life, a process was necessary, for man had fallen, and there was the need of redemption. Redemption involved a process. In the book of Exodus, the passover lamb had to be processed in a certain way before it could be eaten (12:9). The lamb was killed, and the blood was shed. Then the blood was struck on the doorpost, and the meat of the lamb eaten. God instructed that the lamb must be roasted with fire. This was a process of cooking. Through the cross Jesus has been processed that we might take Him in by eating. This eating includes redemption, for the processing includes the shedding of blood.
John 6 troubled me for many years, for Jesus first said that He was the bread of life (v. 35), but eventually He said that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood (v. 53). What kind of bread is this? Bread is something of the vegetable life, and blood is of the animal life. But today I am clear. Christ has many aspects. In one aspect He is the bread, and in another aspect He is the Lamb with the flesh and blood. So eventually He is the Lamb-bread. Praise the Lord! Christ is the Lamb-bread, processed and good for eating. When we eat this One, we receive the remission of sins and the imparting of life. His blood washes away all the negative things, and His life imparts into us everything positive. Hallelujah!
When we come to the end of the Bible, the tree of life appears again. The tree of life was there in the beginning and seemed to be taken away. But eventually it appears again. This time it is seen growing in a flow of living water that proceeds out of the throne of God and the Lamb: “He showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street. And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life” (Rev. 22:1-2a). Who is the Lamb? We know that this is the redeeming One. But in eternity, the blood does not flow. In this picture it is the living water that flows out of the Lamb. When the Lord was on the cross, two things flowed out of His side: blood and water (John 19:34). Blood is for redemption, and water is for imparting life. When we get into eternity, we will still see that Christ is the Lamb, but at that time we will not need the blood. We will only need the water. The blood came first to wash us, and the water followed to impart life into us. In eternity Christ is still the Lamb, but we do not need the blood any longer. Satan, and all the trouble he caused, for which we needed the blood, will then be in the lake of fire. All the negative and sinful things will be gone. We will not need the blood, but we will still need the water of life with the tree of life growing in it.
The beginning of the Bible and the end of the Bible are much alike. In Genesis 2 besides the tree, there is a river flowing in four directions (vv. 9-10). This is just like the New Jerusalem. There the one river from the throne flows until it eventually reaches all four directions of the twelve gates. In Genesis 2:12 we see that in the flow of the river there is gold, bdellium (or pearl), and onyx stone. Three kinds of precious materials are in the flow of the river. Eventually, a woman was builded as a bride for man. “Jehovah God built the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a woman and brought her to the man” (v. 22). This is a very meaningful picture.
As we read through the whole Bible, we begin to see that the tree of life is just God Himself presented to man in the form of food. When this life enters into man, it becomes a flowing river. When Jesus comes into us, we begin to feel something flowing within. While we are in the classroom, while we are at work, while we are at home, there is something flowing within us. This is Jesus as the water of life, flowing to transform us. It is by water flowing through a log that it becomes petrified wood. The flowing of the water brings in many minerals and discharges the old wooden essence. There is a replacement. Likewise, by the flowing of the living water within us, we are replaced. This is transformation.
Romans 9 tells us that we are vessels of clay. But God’s intention is to transform these muddy vessels into precious stones. Precious stones are not created by God naturally. They were originally something else, but under the proper conditions they were transformed into precious stones. Originally, we were all made vessels of clay. Sooner or later God will transform us into precious stones. He is very patient. To Him, one day is equal to a thousand years. He will not hurry. We may look at ourselves after three years in the church life and feel that we are about the same. But to God this is just a few minutes.
All the precious materials are for a building. In Genesis 2 God did not create a woman; He built a woman. It is the same at the end of the Bible. The New Jerusalem is built with exactly the same materials that were in the flow of the river in Genesis. There is the tree of life growing in the river, and a city is built up with gold, pearl, and precious stones. And this city is a woman, a bride. This bride was not produced but builded with the transformed items. Now we can see the consistency of the Bible. What was in the beginning in Genesis is eventually in Revelation. But there is a big difference. In Genesis these three precious materials were only lying there. They were not built together. But in Revelation all three precious items are fitly framed and compacted together as a building. This is the Bible’s consistent and progressive revelation.
From Genesis we come to Matthew, the first book in the New Testament. In chapter 16 Jesus asked the disciples who the people thought He was. Peter answered boldly, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). Then the Lord answered Peter, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (v. 18). When Peter answered the Lord, he was right, but he was only half right. We need to underline the little word also in verse 18. “I also say to you that you are Peter.” The name Peter means “a stone.” When Andrew first brought Peter to the Lord, the Lord changed his name from Simon to Cephas, which means “a stone” (John 1:42). Therefore, the Lord was telling Peter that he was a stone to be built upon Himself as the rock for the producing of the church. “Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” This little verse covers the whole New Testament.
Peter could never forget these words. When he was speaking to the Jewish leaders in Acts 4, he told them that they had not simply rejected a little man from Nazareth but the stone which God had made the head of the corner for His building: “This is the stone which was considered as nothing by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner. And there is salvation in no other, for neither is there another name under heaven given among men in which we must be saved” (vv. 11-12). Many Christians preach this word concerning the name of Jesus, but they never touch the previous verse about the stone. Peter told the Jews that they had not only rejected the Savior but also the stone for God’s building. Salvation is not for going to heaven; salvation is for building. To be saved is not merely to go to heaven some day. To be saved is to be built into God’s building. Jesus saves us with the purpose of making us a stone for God’s building.
Later, Peter wrote in his first Epistle, “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” (2:5). We are not made living stones for an exhibition in the heavens. It is not like this. Stones are not for exhibition; they are for building. “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house.”
Then Paul tells us that we are “being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone; in whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit” (Eph. 2:20-22). In these verses we see that all Christians are fitly framed together to grow into a holy temple in the Lord. This is the universal aspect. But Paul also practically covers the local aspect. He says that we also are being built together locally into a dwelling place of God in spirit. This local building is now under the process. “You also are being built together.”
Many teachers in Christianity say that it is impossible to have the building now. They say that this will be in the future. But I cannot find such a teaching in the Bible. The church is not to be built in the future. The next age will be the dispensation of the kingdom. That will not be the church age. The church age is today! You also as local saints in your locality are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit. This is something in our spirit. It is not through the Holy Spirit as translated by the King James Version. The Holy Spirit is the Dweller, not the dwelling place. Our spirit is the dwelling place, and the Holy Spirit is the Dweller.
Paul continues to tell us in 1 Corinthians 3 that we are God’s cultivated land to grow Christ, and we are God’s building. “You are God’s cultivated land, God’s building” (v. 9b). Whatever is grown on God’s cultivated land is for God’s building. Christ is the foundation, and we are not only the materials but also the builders. Therefore, we must be careful which materials we use for the building. “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” (vv. 11-12). We must build with gold, silver, and precious stones. This is the same as in Genesis 2. God’s intention from Genesis to Revelation is to obtain such a building.
In the book of Revelation, John gives us the full consummation of the Bible. It is the harvest of all the seeds in the divine Word. The seed of the tree of life was sown in Genesis, but the harvest of the tree of life is at the end of Revelation. Gold, pearl, and precious stones are sown in Genesis as a seed, but they are reaped in a city built up with these precious materials at the end of Revelation. Revelation is the reaping of all the things sown in the Bible. Jesus, Peter, and Paul all spoke about the building, but what they spoke was not the harvest. John reaped the building in the book of Revelation. How marvelous is the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and 22! This is not a heavenly mansion as poor Christianity teaches. It is the consummation of God’s building!
Now we must see something in detail concerning the New Jerusalem. The city proper is a mountain. Its height is twelve thousand stadia (21:16). The number is meaningful. This is one thousand times twelve. We have seen that twelve is the mingling of three and four, which means the mingling of God and man. So the New Jerusalem is the mingling of God with man one thousand times. The length and the breadth and the height are equal (v. 16). They are all twelve thousand stadia. The city is a big mountain with God’s throne on the top. Out of the throne the living water is flowing. At the bottom of the mountain a wall is built, which is one hundred forty-four cubits high (v. 17). This is twelve times twelve. The height of the wall is not too high, but the height of the city proper is twelve thousand stadia. This mountain is all of gold, the ultimate consummation of all the golden lampstands. The seven lampstands are local, and this golden lampstand is universal. The New Jerusalem is a universal golden lampstand, holding the Lamb as the lamp shining out the glory of God (v. 23). God as the light is in Christ as the lamp, shining out from the top of this universal golden lampstand.
Around the New Jerusalem a wall is built with twelve foundations. These twelve foundations are twelve different kinds of precious stones (vv. 19-20). The wall is all of jasper, and the first foundation of the wall is also of jasper (vv. 18-19). On the twelve foundations of the wall of the city are the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (v. 14). I read an article which said that the colors of these precious stones are exactly the same as the colors of a rainbow. In Revelation 4:2-3 John saw God on the throne, and He looked like jasper: “Immediately I was in spirit; and behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and upon the throne there was One sitting; and He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance.” God on the throne appears like jasper, and the expression of the New Jerusalem also appears like jasper: “Having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, as clear as crystal” (21:11). This shows that the New Jerusalem is the very expression of God. We also see that around the throne there is a rainbow (4:3). This corresponds with the foundations of the wall of the city, which also look like a rainbow. A rainbow signifies God’s faithfulness. The foundation of this city is based upon God’s faithfulness. The rainbow around God’s throne also speaks of His faithfulness.
Now we have seen the harvest and consummation of the Bible. Revelation 21 and 22 are the full harvest of the whole Bible. Everything that is sown in the Scriptures is reaped in these two chapters. The tree of life, the flowing river, and the precious materials are all harvested here. This consummation is God’s complete building. It should not be considered as a physical place. This picture of the New Jerusalem symbolizes that God in eternity will have a great living habitation composed of all the Old Testament and New Testament saints. The names of the twelve tribes are written on the twelve gates (21:12). This signifies that all the Old Testament saints are there. The names of the twelve apostles on the twelve foundations of the wall represent the New Testament saints.
In Revelation 3:12 we have a good illustration: “He who overcomes, him I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall by no means go out anymore, and I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” This verse reveals that the New Jerusalem, God’s temple, is not a physical building. We are God’s temple, and this temple is eventually enlarged into a city. In the Old Testament the temple was God’s habitation, and now this city-temple will be God’s habitation for eternity. The overcomers who have been built into God’s temple will all be part of God’s eternal habitation. In this way we can see that the New Jerusalem is not a physical building but a living composition composed of all God’s chosen people. Hallelujah!
For centuries these last two chapters of the Bible have not been opened up to the church as they are today. Peter is a layer of the foundation, and John is a layer of the foundation. I do believe that we will all be the wall. In eternity we will all look like jasper stones. There will be no white face, no black face, no yellow face, but all jasper faces! We will not express American, Spanish, Chinese, or Japanese, but we will express the unique God. God on the throne looks like jasper, and we will be there for eternity looking also like jasper. Satan did his best to damage us, but God purged away all our negative elements into the lake of fire. Everything of Satan that came into us in the garden of Eden is now in the lake of fire. Now we are the same as God. Every saint in eternity will lose his identification, but this does not mean that we will lose our personality. We will all look like jasper stone in the appearance of God.
Precious stones are not created but are formed under the earth mainly by heat and pressure. I have been told that there are some manufacturers today who produce diamonds by using high heat and pressure. There is no other way. God knows how to surround us with just the right heat and pressure. All the brothers realize that their wives are good heaters, and their children produce much pressure. For the sisters, their husbands and children produce the same. It sometimes seems that we cannot stand it any longer, but after a few years a precious stone is produced. If we are not married, there are still many good heaters in our big family, the church life. Some members will press us to the uttermost. They will press us out of our strength and out of our measure. I have been a Christian with two families for many years. One is small, and the other is larger. I have many pressures from my small family. But in the big family, the church life, I could not remain for one day without the Lord’s mercy and grace. Sometimes I am in a big oven during the day with all the brothers, and at night I go home to be in the little oven. I am happy for so many pressures. They will produce precious stones for God’s habitation. Today this habitation is just the church life. In the midst of all the heat and pressure we have the life supply. Praise the Lord! We have the tree of life and the water of life. In this way God is building His eternal habitation.
