After God gained Abraham, He gave him the promise of the good land and of a descendant to enjoy the land. Isaac, one who enjoyed the good land, was a type of Christ. The good land itself also was a type of Christ. The rich produce of the good land (Deut. 8:7-10) signifies Christ as our life supply. This life supply eventually becomes the life-giving Spirit, who is the reality of Christ. The blessing of the gospel that God promised to Abraham is actually Christ in reality as the Spirit (Gal. 3:14).
With David the revelation went further to show that man not only needs God but needs God to be built into him. God wants not only to be our life and our life supply; He wants to be built into us. God desires to build Himself into us and to build us into Him.
David wanted to build a house for God, but God stopped him and told him that He would build a house, a family, for David, and out of that building He would give him a seed. Here we see that God builds Himself into man to produce a house, and the issue of this building is a seed, which is Christ. After this Christ enters into us, He does a building work in us, making His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:17). Christ builds His home in our hearts with the elements of divinity and humanity.
This home is a mutual abode. In John 14:23 the Lord Jesus said, "If anyone loves Me,..My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him." To "make an abode" is to build a house. This house, this abode, is for mutual abiding. Hence, the Lord Jesus went on to say, "Abide in Me and I in you" (15:4a).
In the New Testament the divine revelation reached the highest standard. This revelation includes the goal which had been revealed to David in 2 Samuel 7.
God wants a building, and the consummate issue of the Bible is a building. This building is the New Jerusalem as a wife, a counterpart, to match Christ (Rev. 21:2, 9). The New Jerusalem as the corporate wife of Christ is composed of the Old Testament saints and the New Testament believers (vv. 12-14), who have been built together with the Triune God. This building will become the wife of the Lamb, Christ, and will be a mutual abode for God and His redeemed (vv. 3, 22).