Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; 2 Cor. 3:17-18
In this message I would like to give an additional word on 2 Samuel 7:12-14a. Many readers of the Bible do not understand the significance of these verses. As we will see, these verses refer to the very thing that God intends to build up in His elect. Thus, my burden in this message is to point out that, as a prophecy given in the way of typology, these verses speak of God's building Himself in Christ into our being through the metabolic process of transformation.
The New Testament clearly reveals that there are two periods in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. First, He ministered on the earth until He died on the cross for our sins to terminate the old creation. Then He rose in resurrection and ascended to the heavens. There He became and still is the Minister of all the heavenly things to us. As such a Minister, He is not in the flesh, for in resurrection He as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Now He is not only our Redeemer and Savior; He is also the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. For this reason, 2 Corinthians 3:17 declares, "The Lord is the Spirit."
Because Christ is the Spirit, He can dwell in us, and we can fellowship with Him in our spirit. We should look to Him, behold Him, and reflect Him, opening to Him the three layers of our being — our spirit, our heart, and our mouth. Then we will spontaneously reflect Him as a mirror and gradually be transformed into His glorious image from glory to glory. As a result, we will have the same image that He has. This is altogether from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).
In this way the Lord Jesus makes us like Him and even makes us Him. When we look unto Him, He impresses Himself into our being. Then we become His reflection. What we reflect is nothing less than the Lord Himself. This is what the New Testament calls transformation.
Transformation is a metabolic process that changes us by adding some new element into our being and discharging the old element. This is illustrated by one's having a healthy complexion through the proper, daily eating, digesting, and assimilating of food. This healthy appearance is the result not of cosmetics but of nourishment. This nourishment causes a metabolic process in which a new element is brought in and the old element is discharged. In like manner, we need to receive spiritual nourishment day by day. This nourishment will supply a new element and then cause the old things to be carried away. Gradually, we will grow, change, and mature. This is transformation. God's economy is just to work Himself into us that we may experience such a metabolic process of spiritual digestion and assimilation that produces a gradual, intrinsic change in life.
God's building Himself into our being is altogether an organic matter. In order for such a building to take place, we need to receive, digest, and assimilate an organic element. Our spiritual food and drink is the organic, pneumatic Christ (John 6:51, 57; 7:37-39), the Christ who is the life-giving Spirit.
This Christ is not merely the Christ of history in an objective sense. A Christ who is only an objective, historical Savior, the One whose story is recorded in the Bible, would not be related to us organically. It is a tragedy that many Christians know Christ only in an objective way. The Bible reveals that Christ came and stayed with His disciples for a period of time. Then He passed through death and entered into resurrection, and through this process He became the life-giving Spirit. Today as the Spirit He is real, genuine, living, and present. Thus, we may say that He is the "now" Christ.
When we enjoy the "now" Christ by eating, drinking, and breathing Him, a metabolic process, a spiritual digestion and metabolism, takes place within us. Through this metabolic process Christ is constituted into our being. This constitution is the building. Christ, therefore, is building Himself into us as our inner constitution. The issue of such a building is that we become a very particular class of people — the members of the Body of Christ. Whenever we gather together we are the church of God.
In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus said, "I will build My church." Now we can see by what way Christ builds the church. He is building His church by supplying us with spiritual drink and by feeding us with spiritual food, which are uniquely Himself as the Spirit. The more we enjoy Him by eating, drinking, and breathing Him, the more He builds His church.
Concerning the building up of the church, we do not trust in outward organization; rather, we pay our full attention to the inward transformation, that is, to the inner constituting by the spiritual metabolism. In different kinds of meetings, we endeavor to minister Christ into the saints as their spiritual food and drink. The more we receive Christ in this way, the more we will experience the inner, spiritual metabolism. This metabolism is transformation, and transformation is the building.
Just as every member of our physical body is organic, so every member of the Body of Christ is organic. The church is a group of transformed people who have grown into one organism, the organic Body of Christ. The way to be built up as this organism is to grow, and the way to grow is to eat, drink, and breathe Christ. No matter what our race or nationality may be, we are all undergoing the same metabolic process that day by day produces transformation, which equals building. This is the spiritual growth and also the spiritual building.
Every member of our physical body is not only organic but also inseparably connected to our body, for all the members have grown together organically to be one body. The principle is the same with the Body of Christ. As one who has been in the church for over sixty years, I can testify that I cannot be separated from the church. Without the church I could not live, for apart from the church, life would have no meaning.
This organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ through the process of spiritual metabolism is actually what Jehovah prophesied to David in the way of typology in 2 Samuel 7:12-14a. It is only through this process that human beings can be transformed into sons of God. It is only through this process that something human — the human seed — can become divine — the sons of God. In typology God prophesied to David regarding this when He told David that his seed would be God's son. This indicates that a human seed would become a divine son. This is what we are experiencing today. Therefore, we, the believers in Christ, are a very particular and peculiar people. We are a precious treasure in the eyes of God.
We need to have the proper understanding of the building up of the Body of Christ. First, according to Matthew 16:18, the Lord builds. Then He builds through the gifted persons, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers (Eph. 4:11). He then builds the church through us, the perfected saints (v. 12). These are three layers of building. Eventually, the Body builds itself up (v. 16). This is the fourth layer. This is all by ministering Christ as the daily supply, as food, water, and breath.
We cannot build the church. We can only minister Christ to others. When they are nourished with Christ as their supply, a spiritual metabolism within them transforms them into His image and makes them just Him. Such a metabolic transformation is both the growth and the building up. This is the way the Lord Jesus builds us into the church.
This is the proper teaching of the New Testament; this is the proper way to build the proper church; and this is the very thing that Jehovah prophesied to David in typology in 2 Samuel 7 when He said that He would build David a house. This house is the seed of David. Humanly speaking, we cannot explain how David's house could become David's seed. The only way David's house could become his seed was by God in Christ becoming a man, the God-man. Christ is the house, the seed, the life, and the food. He is everything. Today we are cooperating with Him to build up God's habitation and David's habitation, a mutual abode.
