The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Heavenly Jerusalem, #7

And I heard a great voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Revelation 21:3)

The "tabernacle of God" is the Church. God in Christ is making the Church His eternal dwelling place. God in Christ intends to dwell among mankind in the form of His Church. This is the coming of the Kingdom of God, the will of God, to the earth.

Here is the end product of the Gospel. It is the central truth of the Scriptures, the Old Testament and the New Testament. There is no greater truth in the Word of God. It is the goal of Divine love.

The mystery of the Gospel is Christ in us. We forever are attempting to keep God external to our personality. God desires to dwell in us so in us He can dwell among the nations of the earth.

The tabernacle, the dwelling place, the house of God is to be located eternally among men. God will dwell with mankind through His saints, through the members of the Body of Christ.

The house of God is the central topic of the Scriptures.

We can never understand what the Christian redemption is all about until we grasp the concept that God desires to dwell among men, using the members of the royal priesthood as His eternal temple.

Many passages of the Scripture speak to us of the construction of the house of God. Yet this topic remains a mystery to the present hour.

God gave Adam and Eve His Divine image and likeness, fruitfulness, and dominion. At the time of the creation He did not reveal his intention, His plan and desire to live in them, to find rest in them.

When we consider the awful rebellion that occurred among the angels in Heaven, plus the six thousand years of human history, we can understand why it is necessary God dwell in man and find rest in him. The Kingdom of God, the rule of God, must be an inner rule in which Christ is formed and dwells in us and eventually in every saved person on the earth.

Because God has proclaimed that mankind will be in God's image, be fruitful, and have dominion over the works of God's hands, it is in the heart of every individual to multiply his own image in the earth and also to impose his will on the people and circumstances around him.

The world is in chaos in our day as each person, under the direction of his or her human mind, seeks to be in God's image, to be fruitful, and to exert rulership over the creation.

This chaotic condition exists in the world and also in the Christian churches, as we can observe by glancing about us. If at some point the Lord God did not establish His rule in our heart, the thousand-year Kingdom Age and also the new heaven and earth of Christ would be filled with wars, murders, hatreds, envies, jealousies, and every other evil work.

To be continued.