Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Eph. 3:17; Rev. 21:2, 9
In this message I still have the burden to speak on 2 Samuel 7:12-14a.
The divine revelation in the Bible is progressive. At the very beginning, in Genesis, God created man with a good nature. This means that there was nothing sinful or evil in the man created by God. When God looked at what He had created, including man, He saw that it was "very good" (Gen. 1:31). At the beginning of man's history, God put man into a pleasant garden in front of the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God commanded Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, telling him that in the day that he ate thereof he would die (2:17). This indicates that God wanted man to partake of the tree of life. However, man fell. The conscience was activated, and fallen man thus feared God and worshipped Him, realizing that he should do good and abandon evil.
Eventually, Abel received the revelation of God's redemption. Redemption did not come at Abel's time. Rather, it was anticipated in God's foreknowledge, and this anticipated redemption was revealed to Abel. Later, a little more of the divine revelation was given to Enoch and to Noah.
During the time from Adam to Job, the divine revelation was somewhat ambiguous. Job was a person who feared God, who worshipped God, and who endeavored to build himself up to the uttermost in his integrity, uprightness, and perfection. Job tried his best to practice his integrity. However, God stripped Job of everything to show him that his need was not integrity nor perfection nor the highest standard of morality; his only need was God Himself. God seemed to be saying, "Job, I do not want you to build yourself up in your integrity or perfection. I want you to build yourself up with Me. You should not be a man of integrity or perfection — you should be a man of God. Job, you need to realize that what you lack is Me. You do not need perfection or integrity — you need Me."
At the time of Job, the divine revelation had not proceeded very far. What had been revealed was mainly that man needed God, that man had been created by God and for God, and that he needed to receive God as life. A man should be solely, wholly, and absolutely a man of God. Thus far, nothing had been revealed concerning God's building. If we stop with the book of Job, we may think that it is sufficient for us to have God. However, to have God is not adequate, for, as we will see, God wants a building.
After God gained Abraham, He gave him the promise of the good land and of a descendant to enjoy the land. Isaac, one who enjoyed the good land, was a type of Christ. The good land itself also was a type of Christ. The rich produce of the good land (Deut. 8:7-10) signifies Christ as our life supply. This life supply eventually becomes the life-giving Spirit, who is the reality of Christ. The blessing of the gospel that God promised to Abraham is actually Christ in reality as the Spirit (Gal. 3:14).
With David the revelation went further to show that man not only needs God but needs God to be built into him. God wants not only to be our life and our life supply; He wants to be built into us. God desires to build Himself into us and to build us into Him.
David wanted to build a house for God, but God stopped him and told him that He would build a house, a family, for David, and out of that building He would give him a seed. Here we see that God builds Himself into man to produce a house, and the issue of this building is a seed, which is Christ. After this Christ enters into us, He does a building work in us, making His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:17). Christ builds His home in our hearts with the elements of divinity and humanity.
This home is a mutual abode. In John 14:23 the Lord Jesus said, "If anyone loves Me,..My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him." To "make an abode" is to build a house. This house, this abode, is for mutual abiding. Hence, the Lord Jesus went on to say, "Abide in Me and I in you" (15:4a).
In the New Testament the divine revelation reached the highest standard. This revelation includes the goal which had been revealed to David in 2 Samuel 7.
God wants a building, and the consummate issue of the Bible is a building. This building is the New Jerusalem as a wife, a counterpart, to match Christ (Rev. 21:2, 9). The New Jerusalem as the corporate wife of Christ is composed of the Old Testament saints and the New Testament believers (vv. 12-14), who have been built together with the Triune God. This building will become the wife of the Lamb, Christ, and will be a mutual abode for God and His redeemed (vv. 3, 22).
We have pointed out that Job was mistaken in seeking to build up his integrity and perfection. Eventually, Job learned that what he needed was God. With Job, however, we cannot see the building. We need to realize, therefore, that it is not adequate simply to take God as our life and life supply. We today may say that Christ is everything to us: our life, our breath, our food and drink, our clothing, and our abode. Yet even to have Christ in all these aspects still is not adequate. We need Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, to be built into our being, to be constituted into us. This is what Christ is doing today.
Philippians 3:7-11 speaks of pursuing Christ and gaining Christ. When I was a youth I heard that we should pursue Christ and gain Him. Later I discovered that it is not adequate even to pursue and gain Christ. We need the Christ who is dwelling in our spirit to build Himself into our heart, making our heart, with our humanity, His home.
Are you pursuing Christ? Are you gaining Christ? It is wonderful to be a person who is pursuing and gaining Christ, but this is not adequate. John 14 and Ephesians 3 both reveal that Christ comes into us not just to dwell, or abide, in us but especially for the purpose of making a home for Himself in our inner being. This is building.
Genesis 2 reveals the tree of life with a river and precious materials of gold, bdellium, and onyx stone. These materials are for building, for after this, God built a woman, Eve. This corresponds to the entire Bible. Christ came into us as the Spirit to be life to us. On the one hand, He is working within us to transform us into precious stones; on the other hand, He is building with Himself (divinity) and with us (humanity) to produce a home, a dwelling place. Eventually, this dwelling place, which is a mutual abode, will issue in the New Jerusalem.
This view of God's building in the Bible indicates that God's economy and goal according to His heart's desire are just to build Himself into man and to build man into Him. We have seen that Athanasius said, "He [Christ] was made man that we might be made God." This means that as God's children we are "baby gods," having the life and nature of God but not the Godhead. However, not even this is God's goal. God in Christ is within us to build Himself into our being and to build us into His being. He builds His divinity into our humanity and builds our humanity into His divinity in order to mingle and blend His divinity with our humanity into one entity. This is like the meal offering: fine flour mingled with oil for the satisfaction of both God and man.
At the time of David, the divine revelation reached the point where God showed David what He wanted. God revealed to David that He could not be satisfied simply to have a man who was according to His heart. Rather, God indicated to David that He wants to build Himself into the man who is according to His heart and to make this man His building as His house. Then out from this house would issue a seed of humanity, yet this seed would become the Son of God. This involves the mingling of divinity with humanity, a mingling that eventually produces the church, the house of God.
In this mingling God and man, man and God, are blended together into one entity. This entity is God's building, which is a mutual abode for God and man. This entity, possessing both the divine nature and the human nature, also is the wife of the redeeming Christ. This entity, the New Jerusalem, will remain forever and will be the centrality and universality of the new heaven and new earth. This is the entire and complete revelation of the Bible.
The Bible begins with the tree of life, the flowing river, the precious materials of gold, bdellium, and onyx stone, and a builded wife. At the end of the Bible, we see again the tree of life with the flow of the living water, three kinds of material — gold, pearls, and precious stones — and a builded wife, the New Jerusalem. The beginning of the Bible shows God's goal, and the end shows God's achievement and attainment. This is God's goal, and both God and we are heading toward it. With this revelation as our "road map," we can know where we are and where we will be for eternity.
