Eventually that type was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. When the Lord Jesus came, God came. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," and this Word became flesh (John 1:1, 14). We know this is Jesus in incarnation. When He came in the incarnation, He "tabernacled" (v. 14). This indicates that He Himself as the living tabernacle was the fulfillment of the tabernacle in Exodus 40. Jesus as the tabernacle is not a building but a living, organic Person. This One who is the tabernacle is a divine Person, a wonderful Person, a God-man. The first impression the Bible gives concerning the tabernacle is that it is an organic thing, an organic person. Even more it is an organic human mingled with God. The tabernacle is the God-man, Jesus Christ.
At the end of the Bible is the New Jerusalem, the ultimate consummation of the tabernacle (Rev. 21:3). The tabernacle in the two Testaments, both Old and New, is actually a living person of two natures—the human nature and the divine. The Lord Jesus was a man composed of divinity and humanity. The Holy Spirit is the divine element, the divinity, and the human virtue is the human element, humanity. Therefore, Jesus' conception is of the divine element in the human element. This conception brought forth a child of two natures—divine and human. This child was not only human. but also divine. He was a God-man, and this God-man was the tabernacle.
Let me stress strongly that this is a tabernacle in the biblical sense. In the Bible the tabernacle is a living person as a composition of the divine nature and the human nature. Because of this, the New Jerusalem cannot be a literal city, nor can it be a heavenly mansion. According to the biblical sense, tabernacle means a living person as a composition of divinity and humanity.
Israel first built the tabernacle. Then when they entered into the good land, God revealed to them through David (2 Sam. 7:2, 5-13) that He wanted to have something solid and not portable. The tabernacle was a "portable" house of God. It could satisfy God temporarily but not permanently. He wanted something solid built on a solid foundation. The temple was not movable or portable, but something settled. David knew God's heart and prepared all the materials for the building of the temple (1 Chron. 22). God had given him a son, Solomon, who would build the temple. This temple was the enlargement of the tabernacle. When it was finished, the things from the tabernacle were brought into the temple (2 Chron. 5:1, 5), indicating that the two were actually one.
In the New Testament the Lord Jesus in John 1:14 is revealed as the tabernacle, but in John 2:19-21 He indicates that He is the temple. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (v. 19). Jesus' word here indicates that His body was the real temple. When He said He would raise up the temple in three days, we know He raised up a house of God in resurrection. The house of God that Jesus built up in resurrection is not only Himself but includes His believers also (Eph. 2:6). Thus this temple built in and by the resurrection of Jesus is a corporate one. This temple is the church. The church is the temple (1 Cor. 3:16).