The Daily Word of Righteousness

One With God, #14

Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (II Corinthians 6:17-7:1—NIV)

It never would have been possible for us to come to God unless the Lord Jesus Christ had come to earth, made an atonement for our sins, and then helped us get rid of worldliness, lust, and self-will. Our God will not dwell where there is worldliness, lust, and self-will. If we are to walk with God we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He makes us holy.

Let us purify ourselves so we may walk with God. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

As we notice in the above passage, the holiness we must have if we would walk with God is not an imputed holiness but an actual holiness proceeding from the work of the Holy Spirit in our life.

"We will come to him and make our home with him."

"We will come to him." The Lord Jesus and the Father are two Persons, although one in that perfect Oneness that is the Godhead. The Lord Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Lord Jesus is the Bridegroom of the Church. The Lord Jesus is the Head of the Body. But the Father is our Father and the Father of the Lord Jesus.

Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" (John 20:17—NIV)

Can you sense in the above the exuberance the Lord felt as He was able to point His younger brothers to their common God and Father?

"And make our home with him."

Right here is one of the main purposes, if not the main purpose, of the work of God. It is to provide a dwelling place, a place of rest, a home, for God.

Because God will dwell only in Jesus Christ, God coming to make His home in us necessitates that Christ also make His home in us. God is in Christ who is in us. We are in Christ who is in God.

Christ is the chief Cornerstone of the house of God. We are living stones in this eternal temple.

In our Father's house there are many rooms. If this were not to be the case, Christ would have told us. He has gone to the cross, then to Heaven, and now back to us in the Spirit that we may be with Him where He is—in the heart of God.

The house has not been completed as yet. During the coming years a firstfruits, as it were, of the house will be brought to maturity. Then another thousand years (whether literally or figuratively) must transpire before the house is completely ready to descend to the new earth as the new Jerusalem.

To be continued.