Scripture Reading: Isa. 60:1-3, 7b, 9, 13-14, 19-21; 58:8, 12; 57:15; 66:1-2; 56:7; 62:6-7
Ⅰ
God's economy is that God became man so that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead to produce the organism of the Triune God—the Body of Christ, which consummates the New Jerusalem—Eph. 3:9; 1:4-5, 22-23; Rev. 21:2, 10-11.
Ⅱ
The central thought of the Scriptures is that God is seeking a building as a living composition of persons redeemed by and mingled with Himself— Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 4:16:
A
God's intention is to have a group of people built up as a spiritual building to express Him and represent Him by dealing with His enemy and recovering the lost earth—Gen. 1:26; 1 Pet. 2:5.
B
For the sake of His coming back, the Lord needs the church to be built up— Matt. 16:18-19, 27.
C
God's building is the desire of His heart and the goal of His salvation—Exo. 25:8; Matt. 16:18; 1 Pet. 2:2-5.
D
God's building is the expression of God as life in a corporate Body—Eph. 2:21-22; 4:15-16; Rev. 4:2-3; 21:11, 18a:
１
God purposes to express Himself through a corporate Body—Eph. 3:10-11, 21.
２
God desires to be life to a group of people who will be built up to express Him in a corporate way—Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11; 12:4-5; Rev. 21:2, 10-11.
E
God's building is the mingling of God with man—John 14:20; 15:4a; 1 John 4:15:
１
The principle of God's building is that God builds Himself into us and builds us into Himself; that is, God mingles Himself with us as one building—Eph. 3:17a; Rev. 21:3, 22.
２
In principle, the church is the same as Christ—the divine nature mingled with the human nature to become one entity—John 14:20.
F
God's building is the corporate expression of the Triune God—1 Tim. 3:15-16; John 17:22; Eph. 3:19b, 21:
１
God's purpose to be expressed and represented by man on earth can be fulfilled only when we are built up together—Gen. 1:26; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9.
２
The building of God is the Triune God wrought into us so that we may become His glorious expression, the enlargement and expansion of God— Eph. 3:17a, 19b, 21.
Ⅲ
"The glory of Jehovah has risen upon you.…His glory will be seen upon you"—Isa. 60:1b, 2c:
A
Glory is the expression of God; the glory of God is God expressed in His divine life and nature—Acts 7:2; John 17:22.
B
Eternal glory is the ultimate goal of God's salvation; God's salvation leads us into His glory—Rom. 8:21; Heb. 2:10.
C
The Lord Jesus prayed for the believers' oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of God—John 17:22-23:
１
In this oneness the believers, their self having been fully denied, enjoy the glory of the Father as the factor of their perfected oneness and thus express God in a corporate, built-up way.
２
This oneness fulfills the Son's prayer that He be fully expressed, that is, glorified, in the building up of the believers that the Father be fully expressed, glorified, in the Son's glorification—vv. 1, 5.
D
An outstanding feature of the New Jerusalem is that it has the glory of God, His expression; the city will be completely filled with the glory of God, containing God and expressing Him—Rev. 21:10-11.
E
The church today should have God's glory, manifesting and expressing Him in this marvelous divine attribute—Eph. 3:21:
１
God's glory is wrought into the church, and He is expressed in the church; hence, God is glorified in the church.
２
"O Jehovah, I love the habitation of Your house, / And the place where Your glory abides"—Psa. 26:8.
３
"In His temple all say, Glory!"—29:9b.
Ⅳ
"I will beautify the house of My beauty"—Isa. 60:7b:
A
"Jehovah will be an eternal light to you, / And your God your beauty"—v. 19b.
B
"Jehovah your God…the Holy One of Israel…He has beautified you"—v. 9c.
C
"To beautify the place of My sanctuary; / And I will make the place for My feet glorious"—v. 13b.
D
"Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, / God shines forth"—Psa. 50:2.
E
"To behold the beauty of Jehovah, / And to inquire in His temple"—27:4d.
Ⅴ
The Lord looks to the one who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and He dwells with the contrite and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite—Isa. 66:1-2; 57:15.
Ⅵ
"My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples"—56:7b:
A
"These I will cause…to rejoice in My house of prayer"—v. 7a.
B
"Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, / I have appointed watchmen; / All day and all night / They will never keep silent. / You who remind Jehovah, / Do not be dumb; / And do not give Him quiet / Until He establishes / And until He makes Jerusalem / A praise in the earth"—62:6-7.