What is God’s building today? God’s building is the church. God’s economy, salvation, and redemption are to bring us into His building, the church. This is not my particular emphasis; it is the emphasis in the Bible. Christ Himself emphasized this. He tried to help others to know Him. According to Matthew 16, one day He asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” When Peter confessed that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord went on to speak concerning the church: “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). The purpose of knowing Christ is that we may be built into the church. Furthermore, in the book of Acts we see that thousands were saved for the purpose of the raising up and the building up of churches. Then in Romans Paul indicates that we sinners have been justified, transferred out of Adam into Christ, and are now walking according to spirit so that we may become full-grown sons to be proper members built up in the Body. For this reason, at the end of the book of Romans we have local churches. This is the ultimate goal of God’s revelation and also the goal of God’s gospel. The entire book of Romans, according to Paul, is the gospel of God. Entering into the building of God, therefore, is the goal of God’s salvation.
To enter into God’s building is to be saved. When we were outside the building of God, we were lost. But when we repented and believed in the Lord Jesus, we came into God’s salvation and also entered into God’s building. From the very beginning, we should have realized that to enter into the building of God is to bear the Triune God involved with man as a testimony. This is what we all should be doing today. Once again I say that this concept is not deep. As part of the twenty-six letters of the spiritual alphabet, it is something we should have learned at the beginning. However, we were not taught this, and we did not learn it.
More than fifty years ago, I learned some letters of the Greek alphabet, but at that time I did not learn them very well. I had trouble, for instance, with the Greek letter gamma (γ), which resembles a lower case y in the English alphabet. Also, an upper case y (Y) in the English alphabet looks somewhat like an upper case upsilon (Υ) in Greek. Today many believers have learned the alphabet of God’s salvation in much the same way I learned part of the Greek alphabet years ago. On the one hand, they are like those who do know some Greek letters. On the other hand, they are like those who confuse Greek and English letters, perhaps taking a lower case English y for a lower case Greek gamma. For example, they may think that certain aspects of our culture are the same as God’s salvation. This can be compared to saying that an upper case Greek eta (Η) is the same as an upper case English h (H), or that a lower case English p is the same as a lower case Greek rho (ρ).
Those who confuse aspects of culture with God’s salvation have not learned thoroughly the alphabet of God’s salvation. They know something about justification, regeneration, and forgiveness. But they also know many things of their culture. As a result, they unconsciously mix certain aspects of their culture with God’s salvation and confuse human culture with the salvation of God. Furthermore, when someone speaks about a certain aspect of God’s salvation, they may be very confident that they understand. Actually, they do not understand at all and have confused something of God with their natural concept and the cultural elements that have saturated them. This can be compared to thinking that a lower case Greek nu (ν) is a lower case English v. I use this illustration of Greek and English letters to point out our need to know the complete alphabet of God’s salvation.
What we see signified at the front of the court of the tabernacle is man bearing as a testimony the Triune God involved with man. Whenever a person repents, believes, and enters into God’s salvation, that person should realize that he is entering into God’s building and that this building is God’s testimony. The entire realm of the tabernacle, including the tabernacle itself and the outer court, is a constitution of the Triune God with His chosen and redeemed people. Therefore, it is God’s testimony. God is the One testified, and we are those testifying Him. Thus, from God’s side, it is a testimony. From our side, it is a matter of bearing the testimony. This bearing of the Triune God as a testimony is signified by the door, the gate, of the court of the tabernacle.
The gate or entrance of any building expresses the purpose of that building. For example, the entrance of a bank indicates clearly that that building is a bank. Likewise, the entrance of a stadium has a different kind of appearance, indicating that it is a gateway into a stadium. The same is true of the entrance of a school. In keeping with this principle, the gate of the court of the tabernacle also has a particular appearance: it signifies man bearing as a testimony the Triune God involved with man. If this part of the alphabet of God’s salvation can be impressed upon us, this message will have been helpful.