It takes the entire Bible to give us God's complete revelation. In Genesis we are told about God's creation. Then at the end of the Bible we see a holy city. At the beginning there is creation and at the end a city. In creation God called "not being as being" (Rom. 4:17), but a city signifies something further because a city is a building. In God's economy, then, He first created. Following the creation, He began to build.
The thought of building runs throughout the entire New Testament. After Peter recognized that Jesus was the Son of God and the very Christ, the Lord told him, "On this rock I will build My church" (Matt. 16:18). Here is the thought of building in Matthew 16.
The thought of building actually came in much earlier. In God's consideration what was going on even in Old Testament times was a building. In Matthew 21 the Lord used the parable of a vineyard to signify the Jewish nation. At the end of that parable the Lord told the Jewish leaders that because of their fruitlessness, the lord of the vineyard would turn the vineyard to another nation (that is, to the church) (vv. 33-43). The Lord said to them, "The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the cornerstone" (v. 42). The Lord was telling them that they were the builders and that He was the cornerstone, which they as the Jewish leaders were rejecting. This rejected stone became in God's sovereignty the cornerstone of the building.
Christ as the cornerstone is the base of the gospel. Many preachers quote Acts 4:12, which says "neither is there another name...in which we must be saved." We must realize, though, that Acts 4:12 is based upon verse 11. Verse 11 tells us that Christ, the rejected stone, has become the cornerstone. This cornerstone is the very Savior in verse 12. Christ's being the Savior is based upon His being the cornerstone which was rejected by the builders in the Old Testament economy. The Jewish leaders until that time were the builders in the eyes of God; the rejected stone becoming the cornerstone is a prophecy in Psalm 118:22. In God's eyes, then, both the Old Testament time and the New Testament time have been His building period.
Right after His creation, He began to build. His creation was to produce the building materials for His building. God created the universe and man for the purpose of building a city. Creation means calling not being as being. A city, however, is a building of things created. God has two works. The first is the work of creation, and the second is the work of building. The New Jerusalem, a city as God's building, is the conclusion of God's entire revelation.