God Desires to Take Man from a Garden of Plants to a City of Precious Materials
God put the created man in a garden with trees “pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Gen. 2:9). God’s desire was that man would receive God in as His life (in addition to His human life) so that God could live Himself through man.
Man failed but God is never defeated. God incarnated Himself in the man Jesus, lived a perfect human life, died on the cross for our redemption from sin and sins, and resurrected to impart God’s life into all who will receive Him.
When man receives God as life, the Spirit regenerates man’s spirit and then gradually works to renew man’s mind (Rom. 12:2). When the Lord returns in glory His believers’ mortal bodies will be “conformed to the body of His glory” (Phil. 3:21) to be glorified with Him.
Regeneration, renewing, and glorification transform man from dust to a treasure. Simultaneously these men are built together to be God’s habitation, through which God is expressed to satisfy His eternal plan. The consummation of this is New Jerusalem, a living city built of precious materials.
Here are links to the previous ten posts on this development from the garden of Eden to the city of New Jerusalem.
The Bible focuses on how God moves from creation to New Jerusalem.
God’s city, New Jerusalem, is in the new creation where everything is pure.
God, by His life in man, builds His believers together into a corporate expression of Himself.
By God’s life in us, our entire being will be in resurrection and in glory, matching New Jerusalem.
God’s living building is growing into a holy temple in Christ Jesus.
The treasure and pearl (Matt. 13) are the life products which constitute New Jerusalem.
The fruit of the vineyard should become material for building God’s eternal dwelling.
We were dead in sin but made alive in Christ for God’s display of surpassing riches of His grace.
We are rooted in Christ Jesus for our life supply and grounded in Him to be built together.
In 1 Peter, as life to us, Christ is the seed; for God’s building, He is the stone.
Posted by Don on February 18, 2022
God Desires to Take Man from a Garden of Plants to a City of Precious Materials
