The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Manual and the Garden, continued

In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. (John 14:2—NIV)

God needs a house. He needs a living temple through which He can express Himself to His creation. This is what we are being created. This is the garden.

The last of the seven feasts of the Lord is the feast of Tabernacles. This Jewish celebration symbolizes the consummation of the plan of redemption, which is God settling down to rest in Christ in the saints.

But, as we have stated previously, all depends on our keeping the commandments of Christ. Notice this fact in the following:

Jesus replied, If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (John 14:23—NIV)

Can you see that the coming of the Father and the Son to dwell in us for eternity depends on our obeying the teachings of Christ? All depends on our reading the New Testament and obeying what is stated there.

The Church is being created the eternal habitation of God. This is the new Jerusalem that will descend through the new sky and come to rest on a high mountain of the new earth.

God through Christ through the saints (which is the new Jerusalem) will wipe away the tears of the saved nations of the earth. Sickness, pain, death will be banished by the saints. The saints will govern the creation, being the royal priesthood of God. The saved nations will walk in the moral (and perhaps physical) light of the holy city.

The Holy Spirit will be available as a river of eternal life, having trees of life growing along its banks, to whoever desires to come and receive the Life of God. But no individual will be permitted to enter through the gates of the new Jerusalem who is not keeping the commandments of the Lord.

The Law will go forth from Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. The Sermon on the Mount in particular includes the eternal moral laws of the Kingdom of God that will be enforced on the creation by the rod of iron in the hands of the sons of God.

God's servants, His elect, His Israel, shall serve Him in His temple, which is the new Jerusalem. They shall see His face.

We were born to be the dwelling place of God. The whole plan of redemption is moving to this end: that God's elect may become a suitable dwelling place for the Father through Christ.

There are indications in the Scriptures that Christ will be formed in His Body in the last days. It always has been true throughout the Christian Era that Christ has been formed in every believer who kept the commandments of God. But it may be true that special emphasis is being placed in our day on the maturing of Christ in the believers.

To be continued.