Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Rom. 1:3-4; Eph. 3:17; John 14:23
In this message I have the burden to give a further word on 2 Samuel 7.
In 2 Samuel 7:12-14a Jehovah said to David, "When your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which will come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. It is he who will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he will be My son." The word concerning "your seed" and "My son" indicates that the seed of David would become the Son of God, that the seed of a man would become God's Son.
This thought is continued very strongly in the New Testament, particularly in Romans 1:3 and 4. Here Paul says, "Concerning His Son, who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord." Here we have the same thought as in 2 Samuel 7:12-14a — that the seed of David becomes the Son of God. These verses reveal, on the one hand, that Christ is the seed of David and, on the other hand, that He, the seed of David, has been designated the Son of God. When we compare these two portions of the Word, we see that both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament we have the matter of the seed of David becoming the Son of God.
In 2 Samuel 7 we see that David had a good heart toward God and wanted to build a house for God. However, God intervened and did not permit David to do this, because David did not have an adequate and thorough view of God's economy. After stopping David from building Him a house, God went on to reveal something further concerning His economy. In this chapter, therefore, the divine revelation took a great step forward.
The Bible tells us that David was a man according to God's heart (1 Sam. 13:14). Under the influence of this word, many Bible students have estimated David too highly. Yes, David was a man according to the heart of God, but, as the remainder of 2 Samuel and the book of Psalms show us, he was still a man in life, in nature, and in constitution. He was a man according to God, but he was not God in life and in nature. David could not say, "To me, to live is Christ" or "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me" (Phil. 1:21a; Gal. 2:20). At the most, David was a "photograph" of God's heart, but he was not God in life and in nature.
This brings us to the matter of deification — God's intention to make the believers God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. Athanasius referred to deification when at the council of Nicea in A.D. 325 he said, "He [Christ] was made man that we might be made God." Although the term deification is familiar to many theologians and Christian teachers, during the past sixteen centuries only a small number have dared to teach regarding the deification of the believers in Christ.
I have not been influenced by any teaching about deification, but I have learned from my study of the Bible that God does intend to make the believers God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. For instance, 1 John 3:2 says, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been manifested what we will be. We know that if He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him even as He is." This verse clearly reveals that we will be like God.
God makes us like Him by imparting His life and nature into us. Second Peter 1:4 says that we have become "partakers of the divine nature." John 1:12-13 says that we were born, regenerated, by God with His life. As God's children we are "baby gods," having God's life and nature but not His Godhead. The Godhead is unique; He is the only One who should be worshipped.
We have been born of God and today, having God's life and nature, we are partially like Him. One day, when He comes, we will be wholly and entirely like Him.
It was wonderful for David to be a man according to God's heart, but it was not sufficient. God wants those who can say, "I am not just a person according to God's heart. I am God in life and in nature but not in His Godhead." On the one hand, the New Testament reveals that the Godhead is unique and that only God, who alone has the Godhead, should be worshipped. On the other hand, the New Testament reveals that we, the believers in Christ, have God's life and nature and that we are becoming God in life and in nature but will never have His Godhead.
David had the heart to build a house for God, but God indicated to David that this was neither what he needed nor what God needed. God told David that He would build One to be David's seed and that this seed would be called God's Son. This seed would be both divine and human. Hebrews 1:5 indicates that this refers to Christ as God's firstborn Son. Furthermore, as we have seen, Romans 1:3-4, which corresponds to 2 Samuel 7:12-14a, tells us that in resurrection the seed of David was designated the Son of God. In their intrinsic significance, 2 Samuel 7:12-14a and Romans 1:3-4 reveal to us a human and divine person.
Just as the photograph of a person does not have the life and nature of that person, so David, a photograph of God's heart, did not have the life and nature of God. Even though he was a man whose heart was according to God, he did not have anything related to God organically. What David needed is what we need today. We need God to build Himself in Christ into our humanity. This means that we need God to work Himself in Christ into us as our life, our nature, and our constitution. As a result, we are not simply a man according to God's heart — we are God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. We today are not outwardly as high as David was, but we can declare that we have God's life, nature, and constitution.
In order to accomplish this, God in Christ became a man and went through some processes that this man could be designated something divine. In resurrection He was designated the firstborn Son of God. In and through resurrection Christ, the firstborn Son of God, became the life-giving Spirit, who now enters into us to impart, to dispense, Himself as life into our being to be our inner constitution, to make us a God-man just like Him. He was God becoming man, and we are man becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
Many Christians are still trying merely to have a behaving, a living, and a being that are according to God's heart, but they do not have the concept that God desires to build Himself in Christ into our being. What He is building into us will be His abode, which will be our abode also. Hence, it becomes a mutual abode. The New Jerusalem is this mutual abode. On the one hand, the New Jerusalem is the dwelling place of God; on the other hand, it is also our eternal dwelling place (Rev. 21:3, 22). For eternity the New Jerusalem will be the fulfillment of the Lord's brief word in John 15:4: "Abide in Me and I in you."
Ephesians 3:17 tells us that Christ is now within us doing the work of building Himself into us to produce this mutual abode. We often say that Christ is living in us and working in us. Now we need to ask this question: What is Christ wanting to accomplish by His working in us? The answer is that Christ is working in us to build up God's habitation by building Himself into us.
David wanted to build God a house of cedar, but God wanted to build Himself in Christ into David. What God would build into David would be both God's house and David's house. This mutual abode is also unveiled in John 14:23: "If anyone loves Me,..My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him." This abode will be not only for the Triune God but also for us. What God builds up in us is both God's habitation and our habitation.
We need to realize that God will have a habitation not by our doing or working but by His building. Christ builds the church (Matt. 16:18) by coming into our spirit and spreading Himself from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will to occupy our entire soul. This church will become His habitation and our habitation. This is what we need, and our burden is to emphasize this one thing.
There is no need for us to build anything for God. Rather, God needs to build Himself in Christ into us as our life, nature, and essence. Eventually, the Triune God will become our intrinsic constitution. We will be constituted with the Triune God. That will be the seed of David and the Son of God — something divine and human satisfying God's need and our need for a mutual abode. The New Jerusalem is the consummation of this mutual abode, and we will all be there.
