If we have the light, we can see right away that God’s salvation is not to save us from earth to heaven but to save us who are outside of God into God. This is the work God has been doing throughout the ages since creation. In the Bible this work is called building. God wants to build Himself into man and build man into Himself.
We know that this building work of God is accomplished by His coming to be man’s life. This building of God is the pouring of oil upon the stones, as we mentioned before. The stones are we the saved ones, and the oil is the Spirit of God, the transfiguration of God, God Himself. In eternity God was the Father. When He was manifested among men, He was the Son. When He enters into man to be mingled with man and to be man’s life, He is the Spirit. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is the One in whom God has a relationship with man. Oil being poured upon stones makes us living stones to be built into a living building.
The Bible uses another way to depict God’s entering into us to be our life. It says that the life of God is the seed of life. First John 3:9 says plainly that God’s seed abides in us. A seed contains life. God being life in us is just like a seed. Therefore, the Lord Jesus said that He was a grain of wheat. If He did not fall into the ground and die, He would abide alone; but if He died, He would bear much fruit (John 12:24). Through His resurrection the Lord regenerated us, making us alive from within. Since then, we are God’s wheat, God’s crop, growing in the field of the world.
Please remember that this growth is the building. In regard to a farm, it is a matter of growth; in regard to a building, it is a matter of building. The two matters are one. If you do not grow, you cannot be built. If you grow a little, then you can be built up a little more in the church. If you grow into Christ, the Head, in a certain matter, then in that matter you can be built up with the saints. When all of us have grown and matured, this building of God will be accomplished.
I would ask you, brothers and sisters, are you God’s farm, God’s harvest? I believe you would all acknowledge that you are. However, I would further ask, are you mature? If you have not matured, and if the Lord comes today, do you think He will reap you? Only when the harvest is fully ripened will it be reaped and gathered into the barn. What will you do since you have not ripened? Today Christianity tells people that they will go to heaven if they believe in Jesus. I do not know what kind of thought or concept this is. They say that this is due to the efficacy of the Lord’s blood. Please remember that redemption through the blood is only one aspect of God’s salvation. There is another aspect, which is the aspect of life. It is true that the blood solved all of our problems before God and brought us to God. However, please remember that it is the growth in life that causes us to grow into God. God does not consider us as glass vessels that are good enough if He merely washes us clean with the blood and places us before Him. He has washed us with the blood, but He also wants to come into us to be our life that we may become a living harvest. This living harvest needs to grow and mature.
Let me ask you: Is there a lord of the harvest who reaps the crops that are still green in the field? No, the crops must be ripe before they can be gathered into the house. Now we understand that the house is the New Jerusalem. The house is the destination of the harvest after it is fully ripened. This does not refer to a heavenly mansion; it refers to the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate destination of us who are saved. However, those who are immature cannot yet go into the house.
Therefore, we should not believe the erroneous doctrines in Christianity. They say that after a person believes in Jesus, he is washed in the blood and will go to heaven after death. This is an inaccurate statement. It is true that if you believe in the Lord Jesus, His blood washes away your sins, and when you die your spirit and soul can be comforted in Paradise in Hades. Yet I still have to ask, have you grown and matured since you were saved? Paul could say that he was matured. In 1 Corinthians 9 Paul said, “I therefore run in this way, not as though without a clear aim; I box in this way, not as though beating the air...lest perhaps having preached to others [which is preaching to others concerning maturity, concerning the gaining of the reward], I myself may become disapproved” (vv. 26-27). When he wrote Philippians, he was already quite old. At that time he was locked away in a Roman prison, and he still said, “I do not account of myself to have laid hold...Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal” (3:13-14). That pursuit is the growth, and it is the building. As crops, we need to grow. As a building, we need to be built. We are all running a race on a course, so we need to pursue. Even in his old age Paul said that he was pursuing.
However, in 2 Timothy 4 he said that he was about to be martyred for the Lord: “For I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness” (vv. 6-8). He knew that he had matured. I ask you brothers and sisters, if today you were to depart from the world and your spirit went to be in Abraham’s bosom, would you be able to say what Paul said? Paul could say that he had matured and was waiting for the Lord’s coming. Can you say the same thing? Therefore, with regard to being washed by the precious blood, you are a redeemed person; you can come before God. However, you need to keep in mind that there is another aspect; that is, God’s life needs to grow within you. God needs to build you into His building. Have you matured? Have you been built? This is a great matter.