Gleanings from the Bible Ruth 2:2
Life & Building
The Bible, from beginning to end, is a story of “life and building.” In the opening pages of the Bible, we see the tree of life, which is available for man to receive, and the river of water of life which contains materials for building—gold, bdellium, and onyx stone (Gen. 2:9-12). The matter of building is present throughout the Old Testament. In Exodus God gained a group of people and erected His tabernacle (ch. 40). In 2 Samuel David established God’s kingdom for God to reign (chs. 6—7). In 1 Kings, Solomon built the holy temple and the holy city. When the building of the temple was finished, God’s glory was manifested in the temple (8:11). Furthermore, God’s authority was in place, and His will was carried out. Even the work of the enemy was focused on damaging the building, destroying the walls around Jerusalem, burning the temple, and carrying God’s people into exile at Babylon (2 Kings 25:8-21). After seventy years of captivity, some of the children of Israel returned from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the holy temple and the holy city (Jer. 25:11; Ezra 1:1-6; 6:13-15; Neh. 6:15-16). When Nehemiah was rebuilding the holy city, the enemies around the city rallied their strength to destroy the building (2:19; 4:1-8; 6:1-9). This shows that God’s building is the center of His work in the Old Testament.
In the New Testament the Gospel of John particularly stresses the issue of life and building. Chapter 1 of John’s Gospel is an introduction to the Lord as life, and chapter 2 shows that the Lord Jesus changes death into life for the building up of God’s house: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (v. 19). The Lord Jesus was speaking of the temple of His body (v. 21), meaning that He would build up God’s dwelling place, His temple, in resurrection. The temple of God that the Lord spoke of is a spiritual temple; it is the Lord Himself and all those who have received God’s life and who have been made alive in His resurrection. Hence, the central thought of the Gospel of John (as well as the Epistles of John and Revelation) is that God has come to be man’s life so that He can build those who receive Him and enjoy Him into His eternal habitation. Also in the New Testament Gospels the Lord prophesied in Matthew 16:18, “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.” Life and building are the central work that God is doing in the universe. He wants to enter into us to be our life and to build us up as His eternal dwelling place.
Paul also stresses life and building in his Epistles. In 1 Corinthians 3:9, the apostle writes, “We are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s cultivated land, God’s building.” The cultivated land is the believers, in whose hearts the seed of life is planted and grows with the growth of God; this is altogether a matter of life (Matt. 13:24; Mark 4:4; 1 Cor. 3:6). God’s building is also the believers, who are built together into the dwelling place of God; this is a matter of building (Eph. 2:22). Paul continues this thought by writing, “If anyone builds upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, stubble” (v. 12). Here gold, silver, and precious stones signify the various experiences of Christ in the virtues and attributes of the Triune God that are constituted into the believers. It is with these that the apostles and all spiritual believers build the church on the unique foundation of Christ. Gold signifies the divine nature of the Father with all His attributes; silver signifies the redeeming Christ with all the virtues and attributes of His person and work; and precious stones signifies the transforming work of the Spirit with all its attributes for God’s building. Accordingly, the riches of the Triune God are dispensed into the believers as life through regeneration and by the growth in life the believers are renewed and transformed into precious stones for God’s building (1 Cor.3:18; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23; Titus 3:5).
The apostle Peter also stresses this central thought when he wrote, “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” (1 Pet. 2:5). By describing the believers as living stones who are being built up as a spiritual house, Peter eloquently crystalized the central thought of the Bible–life and building. Every believer has been predestined to be a stone, and our destiny is to be living stones built up as the spiritual house of God!
The seeds of life and building that were planted in Genesis and that grew and developed in both the Old and New Testaments are ultimately harvested in the book of Revelation. In the concluding pages of the Bible and of the book of Revelation, we see again the tree of life and the river of water of life (22:1-2), signifying the processed and consummated Triune God within a built-up city, the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is a city of pure gold (21:18) with gates of pearls and foundations of twelve precious stones. John told us that Revelation is a book of signs (1:1). The city being of pure gold signifies that the city is constituted with God the Father’s divine nature as the element from which the city is produced; the pearls signify God the Son’s redeeming death and life-imparting resurrection through which entrance to the city is granted (21:21); and the wall and foundations of precious stones signify God the Spirit’s work of transforming the redeemed and regenerated believers into precious stones for the building of God’s eternal habitation.
In the garden in Genesis these materials merely existed, whereas in the city of the New Jerusalem they are built up together into a city for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose, which is to have a corporate expression. God’s work of life and building throughout the ages will consummate not in a material, lifeless city but in the greatest and final sign, the New Jerusalem, which is a living composition of all the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people of God throughout all generations!
“Gleanings from the Bible” is a seven-part series contributed by a local Christian home meeting group that loves the Lord Jesus, believes that the Bible is God’s Word, and cares for the oneness of the Body of Christ. For more information please visit our website at www.fromhouse2house.org or email us at info@fromhouse2house.org. This article is based in part on footnote 211 in chapter
21 of Revelation from the Holy Bible Recovery Version published by Living Steam Ministry.