![The New Jerusalem is the Consummation of the Building up of the Body in the Local Churches [in the picture, The sun rises over Nilgiri Range, Himalayas, Nepal]](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/The-sun-rises-over-Nilgiri-Range-Himalayas-Nepal.jpg?resize=383%2C576&ssl=1 "The New Jerusalem is the Consummation of the Building up of the Body in the Local Churches [in the picture, The sun rises over Nilgiri Range, Himalayas, Nepal]")
The New Jerusalem as the consummation of all that God is doing is rich in meaning and profound in all its aspects. One aspect of the New Jerusalem is that it is the consummation of the organic building up of the Body of Christ in all the local churches.
Today the Lord has put us in the local churches not FOR the local churches but for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem.
Our purposeful God has an economy in which He intends to have eternal and universal incorporation with humanity – God wants to dwell in man and He wants man to dwell in God.
Every genuine believer in the Lord is a member of the Body of Christ today and will be a part of the New Jerusalem as the consummation of the union of God with man, the mingling of God with man, and the incorporation of God with humanity.
Today the Body of Christ is expressed in the local churches as the practical and local expression of the spiritual Body of Christ.
We love the church life, and we are for the church, but we need to see that the local churches are used by God in this age as a procedure for us to be the Body of Christ and for the New Jerusalem to be brought in.
Lord, open our eyes to see the Body of Christ. Lord, uplift our view of the local churches. May we be those who are in the local churches to enter into the reality of the Body of Christ so that we may bring in the New Jerusalem in reality!
The New Jerusalem – the Enlargement of God
What God desires is to be enlarged, expanded, expressed to the full – in and with man. For this He has an economy, a household administration, a plan to dispense all that He is into man so that man may be joined to Him, one with Him in life, mingled with Him in nature, and incorporated with Him in person.
Just as the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, so the Triune God wants to be in us and we to be in Him – this is incorporation, two persons coinhering mutually by working together as one (John 14:10-11).
For this purpose God became a man and passed through a long process to become the life-giving Spirit to be dispensed into man and to be enlarged in humanity. All the believers throughout the ages are God’s enlargement, His expansion, His expression in humanity.
We all can be one because God is in us, and He is the source of our oneness. We are all the one Body of Christ expressed in the many local churches all throughout the earth for God to be enlarged and expanded.
The consummation of the processed God and the redeemed and regenerated believers is the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2-3), the universal enlargement of the Triune God in humanity. This should be the principle governing our work for the Lord today.
If we work with the Lord today with the vision of the New Jerusalem in view, we will keep the oneness, we will build up the Body of Christ, and we will hasten the Lord’s return!
The Body of Christ Needs the Local Churches
It is easy to say, I am a member of the Body of Christ! But the question is, Practically, are you in the local church? The Body of Christ is spiritual and divine, and the Body needs the local churches for its existence and function (see Acts 8:1, 13:1).
Without the local churches the Body of Christ is impractical, in the heavens, and only spiritual – “in the air”. The many local churches on earth are the many expression of the One Unique Body of Christ in many localities.
For us to see and touch the Body of Christ we need to come to the local churches, where the many members of the Body are today. At the same time, the local churches are the procedure for the many believers as the members of the Body to be in the reality of the Body of Christ.
The local churches are the Body of Christ, and we all in the local churches need to be not only in the church life but also in the reality of the Body of Christ. The local churches are “the procedure” for God to gain the Body of Christ.
We are in the church life today so that we can be ushered and brought into the reality of the Body for God to obtain a miniature of the New Jerusalem today.
The goal of God’s economy is not the local churches but the church, the Body of Christ (in this age) consummating in the New Jerusalem (in eternity). We love and we treasure the local church because it is the procedure to bring us in the reality of the Body of Christ.
The Church, the Churches, the Body, and the New Jerusalem
![The practicality of the church as the Body of Christ today is in the local churches, and God ordained there to be one church in one city. But what God desires to eventually obtain is the New Jerusalem - one city (Rev. 21:2). [in the picture: Rev. 21:2, NASB]](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/NASB_Revelation_21-2-i-saw-the-holy-city-new-jerusalem.jpg?resize=400%2C309&ssl=1)
If we read the book of Acts and the Epistles we see that there are many local churches, like the church in Jerusalem, the church in Antioch, the church in Ephesus, the church in Corinth, the churches in Galatia, the church in Philippi, the church in Thessaloniki, etc. In Revelation 1:11 we see that there are the seven local churches as the seven golden lampstands.
The practicality of the church as the Body of Christ today is in the local churches, and God ordained there to be one church in one city. But what God desires to eventually obtain is the New Jerusalem – one city (Rev. 21:2). The Lord desires to gain the New Jerusalem through the precursor of the organic Body of Christ built up in the many local churches today (Eph. 4:16).
In the church life today in the local churches we need to live in the reality of the Body of Christ so that God may gain the Body for His corporate expression.
In the church life today we have many nationalities, colors, and cultures, but we are here to be blended together by enjoying Christ together. Also, we go to visit, blend with other churches, and meet together not only in our locality but also in our region, country, continent, and beyond our continent.
We love the local church but we are not FOR the local church – we are for the church, the organic Body of Christ! As we are built up in the Body with all the other members, God can gain the reality of the Body as the foretaste and precursor of the New Jerusalem!
Lord Jesus, gain the reality of the Body of Christ in all the local churches today. Lord, thank You for putting us in the church life, where we can grow in life and be built up in the Body of Christ. May our emphasis be not the local church as the procedure but on the Body of Christ as the goal! Lord, we are here for You to gain the New Jerusalem through the building up of the Body of Christ expressed in the local churches! Build up Your Body! Bring in the New Jerusalem!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from, The Conclusion of the New Testament (msgs. 258-259), and, The Practical Points concerning Blending (pp. 9-10), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery, week 9 (entitled, The Consummation of the Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery—the New Jerusalem).
- Further reading on this topic:
# New Jerusalem – mutual abiding place of God and man (via, newjerusalem12.wordpress.com);
# The New Jerusalem – a Corporate Person (via, affcrit.com, PDF file);
# The New Jerusalem is the consummation of God’s work in humanity (via affcrit.com, PDF file);
# New Jerusalem – the consummation of God’s eternal economy (via, lastadam.com); - Hymns on this topic:
# Behold the New Jerusalem descends from God. / The Triune God Himself in His intrinsic essence.
# Our goal—the holy city with the Lord, / It is our portion, ’tis where He’s adored;
# New Jerusalem—the ultimate sign; / The ultimate goal of God’s economy; - Pictures credit: Sunrise in the Himalayas (Nepal), and Rev. 21:2 (online).
We may think that the local churches are the goal of God’s economy. However, they are not the goal, but the procedure God takes to reach the goal of His economy….Many of those who have been brought into the recovery love the local church to the uttermost, and they stress the local church very much.
I treasure the local churches, as you do. But I treasure the local churches because of a purpose. The local churches are the procedure to bring me into the Body of Christ. The churches are the Body, but the churches may not have the reality of the Body of Christ. Thus, we need to be in the local churches so that we can be ushered, or brought, into the reality of the Body of Christ. (The Practical Points concerning Blending, pp. 9-10)
It's awesome to realize that today we are a part of the practical procedure to build up the Body of Christ so that the Lord can return. We love the local churches because they are the procedure to bring us into the reality of Christ's Body. And this reality in the local churches becomes a present foretaste of the New Jerusalem!
May all of our church life be strengthened according to this vision, so that we will never miss aim and do things in our church that is not in this reality of the Body, but live in the Body to bring in God's goal–the New Jerusalem.
Amen. How good it is when we not only enjoy Christ in the church life and meet with the saints but we do all things with the vision of the Body of Christ and the New Jerusalem in view! This will keep us from being for OUR own church, and we will not be local Christians but global, corporate, Body-conscious.
Lord, we pray for this vision to be imparted and to govern all Your true believers so that You may really gain the building up of the Body of Christ on earth today! Open our eyes to see this, Lord!