Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:11-14a; Isa. 11:1; Eph. 3:17; John 14:23; 1 Cor. 3:10-12; Rev. 21:2-3, 9, 12-14
In this message I have the burden to speak a word concerning God's intention to build Himself in Christ into us. God desires not mainly to do things for us but to work Himself into our being.
Although there is no time element with God, nevertheless He has, in the course of time, gradually, bit by bit, released His revelation to man. For instance, He revealed something to Job that He had not revealed to Adam, Abel, Enosh, or Noah. God revealed to Job that what He wants is a man who has God, not a man of uprightness, integrity, and perfection. God seemed to be saying, "Job, you should forget about your integrity, your perfection, and your uprightness. You do not need these things — you need Me." God revealed to Job that his unique need was God Himself, but He did not reveal to him anything concerning building.
When God appeared to Abraham, He promised to give him two things — the good land and a seed. The good land and the seed both typify Christ. This indicates that, in typology, God would give Abraham Christ as the good land and also give him Christ as the seed, the real Isaac. The genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1 speaks of Christ as "the son of Abraham" (v. 1). Isaac is a type of Christ as the son of Abraham, the One who inherits the promise and blessing God gave to Abraham (Gen. 22:17-18; Gal. 3:16).
According to Paul's interpretation in Galatians 3, both the good land and the seed are the Spirit. The blessing of the gospel is the promised Spirit (vv. 8, 14). The land signifies Christ, the seed signifies Christ (v. 16), and eventually Christ became the life-giving Spirit. Thus, in verse 14 Paul says, "In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." The physical aspect of the blessing that God promised to Abraham was the good land (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4), which was a type of the all-inclusive Christ. Since Christ is eventually realized as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17), the blessing of the promised Spirit corresponds to the blessing of the land promised to Abraham.
When we believe in Christ, God gives us His Spirit. The life-giving Spirit is the reality of the resurrected Christ, the very Christ in resurrection. The Spirit is the good land, and the Spirit is also the seed.
According to the common understanding and view among Christians, God gave Christ to be our Redeemer and our Savior. He died for our sins, accomplishing redemption; He rose up from among the dead; and He has become our life. However, this does not tell us what God wants to do. God wants to work Himself in Christ into us. Redemption and salvation are for this. Christ's incarnation, Christ's human living, Christ's death and resurrection — they all are for God's desire to work Himself in Christ into us. Everything that Christ is and everything that Christ has accomplished are for this one thing. All the steps, big and small, that God takes in our daily life are to fulfill His intention of building Himself in Christ into our being.
In 2 Samuel 7:2 David, a man according to God's heart, said, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within curtains." This indicates that David felt that he should do something for God, that he should build a house for God. God reacted by saying to David through Nathan the prophet, "Will it be you who builds Me a house to dwell in?" (v. 5). God went on to reveal to David, through a prophecy in typology, that His intention was not that David would build a house for Him but that He would build Himself into David. First, God told David that He would make him a house (v. 11b). Then He said, "I will raise up your seed after you..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" (vv. 12-14a). Here God revealed to David something concerning building, a matter that had not been revealed to either Job or Abraham.
The prophecy in typology in 2 Samuel 7 is related to the prophecy in Isaiah 11:1, which tells us that a twig will come forth from the stem of Jesse and that a branch from his roots will bear fruit. This refers to Christ. The house of David, which was a flourishing tree at Solomon's time, eventually was reduced to a stump consisting mainly of Joseph and Mary. Out of that stump the child Jesus came forth as a twig, a sprout. That was God's building a house for David, and through this house God gave David a seed — Jesus Christ. Thus, the prophecy given to David in the way of typology was fulfilled in Christ's incarnation and human living. Christ is the seed that is the issue of God's building a house for David.
Matthew 13 reveals that Christ has sown Himself as the seed into us as the soil. Christ is the seed, and we are the soil with the nutrients for the growth of the seed. Christ in resurrection, Christ as the life-giving Spirit, has sown Himself into us not simply to stay in us but to grow in us. The growth of Christ in us equals the building.
The Christ who has sown Himself into us is now doing a particular work in us — the work of making His home in our inner being, in our hearts (Eph. 3:17). This is building, and it is carried out through the mingling of divinity with humanity. Such a building is mentioned 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 is not only for the Triune God but is also for us. Hence, it is a mutual abode.
This thought regarding the building is strengthened in 1 Corinthians and in Revelation. In 1 Corinthians 3:10 Paul says, "According to the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid a foundation [Christ], and another builds upon it. But let each man take heed how he builds upon it." Then he goes on to speak of building "upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, stubble" (v. 12). Revelation 3:12 tells us that Christ will make the overcomer a pillar in the temple of God, which is the New Jerusalem. Eventually, the New Jerusalem, the consummation of the building, a composition of the Old Testament saints and the New Testament believers (21:12-14), will be the wife of the Lamb, Christ, and a mutual abode for God and His redeemed for eternity (vv. 2-3, 9).
In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus declared, "I will build My church." How does Christ build His church? He builds the church not merely by saving sinners and making them believers and members of Himself but by building Himself into them. When we believed in Christ, He came into us and began the work of gradually building Himself into our being.
In the Bible there is the line concerning God's building Himself in Christ into us. This matter of building is therefore mentioned strongly and repeatedly in the New Testament. According to the divine revelation in the Bible, God is building by working Himself in Christ into our being. This involves the mingling of divinity with our redeemed, resurrected, and uplifted humanity.
God is working Himself in Christ into us to make a house not only for us but to us. This house will be both God's house and our house, a mutual abode. Eventually, the Triune God and redeemed humanity will be mingled, blended, and built up to be one entity, and this entity will be the New Jerusalem. If we see this, we will realize that all our problems today are due to one thing — our shortage of having God in Christ built into our being. Thus, our need today is not merely to be holy, spiritual, and overcoming. Our need is for God to carry out His building work within us.
What a great light the Lord has shown us from 2 Samuel 7! God revealed to David that his seed, a seed of man (v. 12), would become the Son of God (v. 14). How can this be? The answer is that a human seed is designated the Son of God (Rom. 1:3-4). Humanity is designated in divinity, and divinity and humanity are blended as one. Today, we, seeds of humanity, are becoming sons of God in divinity through the process of God's building. We praise the Lord that in His recovery on the earth today, we are undergoing the work of God's building. God is fulfilling His desire to build Himself in Christ into our being, and eventually the outcome of this building will be the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity.
