Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:13a; John 1:42; 1 Pet. 2:2-7; Rev. 21:10-11

Ⅰ　

In the Bible there is a line concerning stone from Genesis through Rev-elation; in Genesis 2 we have the onyx stone at the beginning, and in Revelation 21 and 22 we have the jasper city as the consummation.

Ⅱ　

Christ is not only the Builder of God's house but also the element in which and with which the church is built—2 Sam. 7:13a; Matt. 16:18; 1 Pet. 2:4-7:

A　

Christ is the material for God's building; thus, God's building is entirely of Christ—Matt. 21:42; Eph. 2:21; 3:17a; Col. 3:10-11.

B　

Christ is the house, His Body—John 2:19-21; 1 Cor. 12:12.

Ⅲ　

The stones in the temple signify Christ's humanity in transformation, the transformed Christ—1 Kings 5:17; 6:7; 2 Chron. 3:6:

A　

Such a transformed Christ is now the foundation stone, the cornerstone, the living stone, the precious stone, and the topstone of God's building—Isa. 28:16; 1 Cor. 3:11; Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:4; Rev. 4:3; Zech. 4:7.

B　

In Christ God came in incarnation to be a stone for the building up of His universal habitation—John 1:14; Matt. 21:42.

C　

As the all-inclusive stone, Christ is the centrality of God's move for the building up of His eternal habitation—vv. 42, 44; Zech. 3:9.

D　

Christ as the cornerstone is for the building up of the church—Isa. 28:16:

１　

Everything Christ is, everything He has done, and everything He is doing are due to the fact that He is the cornerstone—Matt. 21:42; 1 Pet. 2:6-7:

ａ　

It is by His being the cornerstone that He could die for us and that we could be crucified with Him, made alive with Him, resurrected with Him, and seated with Him in the heavenlies—Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:5-6.

ｂ　

It is by His being the cornerstone that He could save us, transform us into precious stones, and build us together to be God's habitation, His unique temple—Acts 4:10-12; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 2:20-22.

２　

In Christ, who is the cornerstone, all the building, including both the Jewish and the Gentile believers, is being fitted together and is growing into a holy temple in the Lord—v. 21.

Ⅳ　

The stones in the temple also signify the believers in Christ who have been transformed by Christ as the stone—Matt. 16:18; John 1:42; 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 21:11, 14, 19-20:

A　

The stone in John 1:42 denotes a work of transformation that brings forth material for God's building—1 Cor. 3:12.

B　

We, the believers in Christ, are living stones, like Christ, through regeneration and transformation—1 Pet. 2:5.

Ⅴ　

We need to experience Christ as the stone living in us and making us precious stones for God's building—vv. 2-7:

A　

We need to believe in Christ and regard Him as most precious, having a divine sense of value—v. 7; Jer. 15:19; Luke 16:15b; 10:41-42; Phil. 3:7-11.

B　

We need to come to Christ, the living, precious stone, by turning to our spirit, His dwelling place, and by contacting Him in the Word—2 Tim. 4:22a; Eph. 2:22; John 5:39-40.

C　

We need to be nourished with the milk conveyed in the word of God—1 Pet. 2:2-3.

D　

We need to eat Christ as the passover lamb in His entirety, with the head (wisdom), the legs (activity and move), and the inward parts (the inward parts of Christ's being, including His mind, emotion, will, and heart with all their functions)—Exo. 12:9; John 6:57; 1 Cor. 1:24; Rev. 14:4b; Phil. 1:8.

E　

We need to experience Christ as the ladder that produces stones—John 1:51.

F　

We need to grow in the divine life through the increase of the element of God and of the stature of Christ within us—1 Pet. 2:2; Col. 2:19; Eph. 3:17; 4:13.

G　

We need to be transformed with the stone element of Christ through the flowing of the Spirit of life throughout our inner being—Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18.

H　

We need to deny the self, take up the cross, follow the Lord in our spirit, and lose our soul-life—Matt. 16:18, 21-26.

I　

We need to be stones "cut" and "finished" at the "quarry" and then fitted into the temple of God, experiencing a life hidden with Christ in God and knowing the quietness of the work of the divine building—1 Kings 5:17; 6:7.

J　

We need to be transfused with all that Christ is and has accomplished by opening our being to the gaze of the seven eyes upon the building stone—Zech. 3:9; 4:7; Rev. 5:6.

Ⅵ　

What the Bible presents as its conclusion is jasper—the issue of the union of the processed and consummated Triune God and the transformed believers through the transforming Spirit—21:10-11:

A　

God has the appearance of jasper; our God is the jasper-God—4:3.

B　

The New Jerusalem will have the same essence and appearance as God.

C　

God's purpose in creating the universe is to produce such jasper—21:11.

D　

We are in the process of being made jasper, "a piece of God," to look the same as God for His expression—1 Cor. 3:12; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rev. 4:3; 21:11, 18a.

E　

God is working on us to such an extent that we will become wholly like Him in the divine glory to express the glorious image of God as jasper for His eternal corporate expression—Gen. 1:26; 2 Cor. 4:4; 3:18; 1 John 3:2; Rev. 4:3; 21:11.