“God is the ultimate architect …” (Heb. 3:4, MB)
We will spend the next couple of teachings exploring the New Jerusalem in a symbolic city tour.
We have already pointed out numerous times that God is busy establishing a “royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9) as we speak, so that kings and priests can reign on earth (Rev. 5:10). They are those who have experienced the physical resurrection from the dead whilst they are still living in the flesh, in other words, have not physically died yet! When John describes this group of people (which we can typify as the Bride), he sees them as follows, in Rev. 20:4: “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God … And they lived and reigned with Christ …”
Those who were symbolically beheaded will reign with Christ, yes, they who follow in the footsteps of the first prototype of the New Covenant (Matt. 11:11), John the Baptist, who had to lose his head (Matt. 14:8-10) so that Jesus could become the head (Eph. 1:10; 4:15)! Therefore every person who undergoes this resurrection from the dead (in this still earthly dispensation, whilst they are still living), will also bear “the image of the heavenly Man”. 1 Cor. 15:49 makes it clear: “And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” Verse 48 backs this up: “As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly.” There are thus “heavenly” people on earth who have already reached “heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22). In fact, they have not just reached the city, they ARE the city. The Bride is the home or abode or tabernacle (John 1:14, YLT) of God on earth, a city “filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19), the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27), the wife of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7; 21:9), with a Godly nature (2 Pet. 1:4), “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:20-22). The Christ is the Blueprint for all created things.
Here it is explicitly spelled out – the Bride is the home of God in the Spirit. Then Heb. 3:4 & 6 (MB) states : “Every house is an expression of someone’s design. (Here) God is the ultimate architect … Christ is in charge of his household …” If this building is then “a city that is compact together” (Ps. 122:3; Eph. 2:21; 4:16), it means that we need to be meshed together “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”. We need to be “moved to perfection” (Heb. 6:1, CAB). How this happens/is built, is the focus of our next teaching.
- Selah: What does this statement mean? “The Christ is the Blueprint for all created things.”
- Read: 19-20; Prov. 8; Ps. 128.
- Memorise: 8:30-31 (what glorious synchronicity!)
