Name: A Revelation of Life and Building
Uploaded: 2024-06-22T04:29:50.000Z
Duration: 18 min 30 s
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A Revelation of Life and Building Life and Building In this booklet, we will consider the revelation of John's Gospel, but first we need to have an overview of the Bible as a whole.

The Bible covers two main matters, Christ and the Church.

Transition words & phrases

However, considered from another angle, the Bible is a book of life and building.

Christ is life and the Church is a building.

When we speak of Christ and the Church, we must realize that Christ is life and that the Church is a building.

If you fail to realize that Christ is life and that the Church is a building, then when you say these words, they will simply be doctrinal terms.

In Genesis, the Bible is very consistent.

If you read it with insight and with a heavenly vision, you will discover that it begins with life and building.

We see life and building in Genesis chapter 2.

Immediately after the creation of man, life was introduced.

After the Lord created man, he placed him in a garden in front of the tree of life.

Following this mention of the tree of life, we see the flowing river and three precious materials, gold, delium, a pearl-like material, and onyx, a precious stone.

According to the further revelation of the Scriptures, especially Revelation chapter 21, these precious materials are for God's building.

In Genesis chapter 2 verse 22, we find specific mention of the building.

Jehovah God built a rib which he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.

God took a rib out of Adam's side and used it to build him a wife.

Thus the man was created, but the woman was built.

In Genesis chapter 2, we see life, the materials that proceed out of the flow of life, and the building of a wife.

Therefore, in Genesis chapter 2, we have life and building.

In Revelation, the book of Revelation also speaks of life.

Revelation chapter 2 verse 7 says, To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

This certainly is a reference to the tree of life in Genesis chapter 2.

Revelation chapter 2 verse 17 says, To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and to him I will give a white stone.

This verse speaks of a stone that, according to the Bible, has no purpose other than that of building.

In the last two chapters of Revelation, which are the last two chapters of the Bible, we see the building of the New Jerusalem.

In the New Jerusalem, the river of life flows, and the tree of life grows in the waters of the river.

Thus it is clear that the Bible ends as it begins, with life and building.

In the Gospel of John Between Genesis and Revelation, the two ends of the Bible, there is a wide gap, a broad span.

The book of John opens with the words, In the beginning.

However, if you read this Gospel carefully, you will discover that the history recorded in it has no end.

Hence it starts from the beginning in eternity past, and it continues indefinitely into the future.

Thus it bridges the span between Genesis and Revelation.

We have seen that the Bible begins and ends with life and building.

The Gospel of John, the bridge between the two ends of the Bible, also is a book of life and building.

A few words from the first chapter of this Gospel will convince us of this fact.

In the beginning was the Word, in Him was life.

The Gospel of John does not say, In the beginning was doctrine, and in it was knowledge.

No, it says that in the beginning was the Word, that the Word was God, and that in this one the Word who is God was life.

Therefore we find life in the first chapter of John.

Furthermore, verse 42 of the same chapter speaks of a stone.

When Simon was brought to the Lord by his brother Andrew, he gave him a new name, Cephas, which means a stone.

In the same chapter we are told that in the Lord was life, and that one of his disciples became a stone.

It means that life not only quickens, enlivens, and regenerates, but also transforms.

Life will transform the believer into a piece of stone.

The purpose and use of the piece of stone are revealed in verse 51.

Speaking to Nathanael, the Lord said, Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

The ancient Jews knew the meaning of this word.

It was the fulfillment of Jacob's dream, recorded in Genesis chapter 28, verses 10-22.

In that dream, Jacob saw a ladder set up on the earth, the top of which reached to heaven, and on which the angels of God ascended and descended.

Jacob called the name of the place at which he had the dream, Bethel, which means the house of God.

During the night, Jacob slept, using a piece of stone as a pillow.

Early the next morning he awoke, set up the stone as a pillar, and poured oil upon the stone calling the name of that place Bethel.

The Lord Jesus was referring to Jacob's dream as he spoke to Nathanael.

Therefore, in the light of all these verses from John chapter 1, we can see that the gospel is concerned with life and building.

The gospel of John reveals that Christ came that man may have life and that he himself is life.

Furthermore, this gospel shows us that Christ is the bread of life, that he has the water of life, that he gives life to man, and that he even lives in man as life.

Other verses from the gospel of John also unfold the building.

In chapter 1, verse 14, we see that Christ in the flesh was a tabernacle for God's habitation among men on earth.

The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.

Also, Christ's body was a temple before his death and after his resurrection.

Before his death his body in the flesh was a temple, and after his resurrection his resurrected body remained the temple of God.

We have seen that Genesis chapter 2, verse 22 speaks of the building of a wife, a bride for Adam.

According to John chapter 3, all the regenerated ones composed together become the bride.

Furthermore, this gospel reveals that the believers are to be built as the abode of the triune God.

This is adequately and fully disclosed in John chapter 14.

John chapter 14, verse 2 says, In my Father's house are many abodes.

If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you.

This verse tells us that the Lord was going to prepare a place of many abodes in the house of the Father.

And if we love the Lord, He will come with the Father and make an abode with us.

This denotes the building of God's eternal habitation, a building which has many abodes.

Thus, as the Lord's last prayer found in John chapter 17 indicates, all His believers must be built up into one.

The gospel of John is altogether a gospel on life and building.

If you want to know the meaning of the Bible, you cannot stay away from the gospel of John.

The key to the whole Bible is in this book, Life Christ Dispensed.

We have seen that Christ is life and that the church is a building, but what is life?

It is correct to say that life is Christ and that Christ is life.

However, we must realize that life is Christ as God dispensed into our being.

Although many Christians talk about Christ being life, not all have the experience of Christ as life.

The genuine experience of Christ as life is in the realization that Christ is God Himself dispensed into our being.

If you lack this realization, the word life may remain a mere term as far as you are concerned.

Life is the triune God dispensed and wrought into our being.

Although I do not drink alcoholic beverages, we may use the illustration of drinking a glass of wine.

If I were to drink a tall glass of wine, after a short period of time my complexion would become colorful because of the effect of the wine upon my system.

That would be the result of wine becoming life to me.

However, if I only learned the meaning of the word wine, discussing it night and day, and acquiring a great deal of knowledge about it, I would experience nothing.

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A Revelation of Life and Building

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