The believers' growth in life is for their transformation into white stones, justified and approved by the Lord (Rev. 2:17b) for God's building—the New Jerusalem (3:12), firstly in the millennium in the initial stage (2:7; 3:12) and lastly in the new heaven and new earth in its ultimate consummation (21:1-3).
The apostle John told us that some of the saints eventually become white stones in the eyes of God. Stones are for building. The color white signifies justification, approval, and acceptance. By our growth in life, we eventually become transformed for God's building, and God's building is the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.
Revelation 3:12 tells us that the transformed saints will be built up into the temple of God as pillars. The temple of God equals the New Jerusalem in the coming ages (Rev. 21:22). The transformed saints will not only be stones but also parts (signified by the pillar) built into God's building.
The New Jerusalem as God's unique building firstly will appear in its initial stage in the millennium, the thousand years, and lastly it will appear in the new heaven and new earth in its consummated stage forever.
What we have just covered in this chapter concerning the growth in the divine life issuing in transformation for the building up of the Body of Christ may be considered an extract of all the writings of the apostle John, from his one Gospel, through his three Epistles, to his last writing, Revelation. This extract unveils to us the vitalness of our growth in the divine life for the metabolic transformation that the organic Body of Christ may be built up even today. Even though we have been regenerated and sanctified to a certain extent, we are still below the standard of the requirements for the building up of the Body of Christ. For us to be the proper materials for God's unique building, the organic Body of Christ, we still need very much to grow in the divine life that we may be transformed with it into the glorious image of the resurrected Christ as the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29). If we are natural, fleshly, and in ourselves, we can neither be built up nor become the proper material for the building up of the Body of Christ. We have to grow in life until we are transformed. As long as we remain in our disposition, our character, and our peculiar traits, we cannot be built up with anyone. We must be transformed for God's building.
If we are too much in our natural person, we cannot be built up with others. We have to be transformed. Transformation is a kind of metabolic change in nature and appearance. In transformation we are changed not just in our form and our appearance but in our very element and our very essence. Although we may be American or Chinese, we should grow and be transformed until we are less American or Chinese and more Christian, more Christ-like. We all need such a metabolic change in the element and essence of our being through our growth in the divine life. May the Lord bless all of us with the bountiful supply of His abounding grace for the practical building up of His organic Body, that the eternal purpose of God's eternal economy may be fulfilled in our age.