In John 14:2 the Lord Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many abodes.” What or who is the Father’s house? The Father’s house is firstly the incarnated Christ. The incarnated Christ is the embodiment of God. He is the house of God. God did house Himself in Christ. The incarnation was God’s housing. When Christ was on this earth, God housed Himself in Him. That was the Father’s house.
Furthermore, in John 2:19 the Lord Jesus told the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” This meant His physical body would be raised in resurrection. In resurrection Christ raised His own body, the destroyed house of God, with the church, His mystical Body.
The New Testament goes on to tell us in 1 Timothy 3:15 that the church is the house of God. We must connect this verse with John 14:2 which says, “In My Father’s house are many abodes.” The many abodes of John 14 are “the house of God, which is the church of the living God” of 1 Timothy 3.
According to these verses God is so solid for us to enter into, but there is the need of some bridging instruments, the offerings. So John 1 which speaks of the tabernacling God also speaks of the Lamb of God (v. 29). On the one hand there is the tabernacle which is Christ, and on the other hand there is the Lamb of God indicating Christ as the offerings.
Now we have to consider the reality of the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the offerings. Yes, Christ is the tabernacle, and Christ is all the offerings. But we have to ask: Where is the tabernacle today? And where are all the offerings today? Without the reality these are empty doctrines and vain talk. There is the need of reality. This word, reality, is used very particularly and very specifically in the Gospel of John. John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, (and we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten from a father), full of grace and reality.” The tabernacle in the Old Testament was full of glory. The glory of God was upon the tabernacle. Then in the New Testament, Christ, the incarnated God, became the tabernacle, and the glory of God was upon Him. And He was full of grace and reality, so the word reality is used in chapter one.
Then in chapter four the Samaritan woman talked to the Lord Jesus about worshipping God. The Lord Jesus told her that “an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and reality; for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and reality” (vv. 23-24). The Father is seeking a certain kind of worship—a worship in spirit and reality.
In chapter eight the Lord Jesus spoke of reality again: “And you shall know the reality, and the reality shall set you free” (v. 32). Reality frees people.
The Lord Jesus continued to speak of reality in chapter fourteen: “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever; even the Spirit of reality, Whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you” (vv. 16-17). This Comforter whom the Lord would send is just the Spirit of reality. What is reality? Reality is just the Spirit.
Let me illustrate: suppose I have a book about electricity. From the first page to the last, it is concerning electricity, and I am teaching this book. I teach you many things about electricity. Eventually, if we don’t have electricity, we don’t have the reality. Only electricity itself is the reality of the book and of its teachings. If we only have the book about electricity, but no electricity, it is vanity. There is no reality until electricity is installed in a building. Once the electricity is actually installed, you have the reality of the book and the teaching.
In the same way the Bible teaches us many wonderful things. It teaches us that Christ is the tabernacle and the offerings. But what or who is the reality? It is the Spirit! If you don’t have the Spirit, these are just terms. The tabernacle is just a term; the offerings are just terms. Without the Spirit as the reality, these are vain terms. Once electricity is installed into a building, you simply need to be taught where the switches are and what they operate. That is not a teaching of vanity; that is a teaching of reality. Christ is the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the offerings, but without Christ becoming the Spirit, these are vain teachings.