True oneness is also the building. Do not think that this is my concept or that it is not supported by the revelation in the Bible. Through the type of the tabernacle in the Old Testament we can see that oneness is the building. The mutual abode revealed in John 14 was typified, pictured, and portrayed by the tabernacle. If you are not clear about the mutual abode in John 14, you need to go back to Exodus 26 to see the composition and the building up of the tabernacle.
Every careful reader of the Bible knows that the tabernacle was not only God’s dwelling place but also the dwelling place of those who served God. Those who served God dwelt in the tabernacle. Many times in the Psalms the psalmist prayed that he would abide in the temple, in the house of God. For example, Psalm 27:4 says, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.” By this we can see that the temple or the tabernacle was not only God’s dwelling place but also the dwelling place of those who loved God. Thus, it was a type of the mutual dwelling place, the mutual abode.
The tabernacle was composed of forty-eight boards. This is very meaningful. Since this is a type, we need to allegorize every aspect of it. Those forty-eight boards were composed with the basic number six. The number six, as the number of the six stone water pots in John 2, signifies man who was created on the sixth day. Hence, the number six is the number of humanity, the number of man. Forty-eight divided by six is eight, which, in the Bible, denotes resurrection, a new beginning. The first day of the week, following the seven days of the previous week, is the eighth day and signifies a new beginning. When was circumcision conducted? On the eighth day (Lev. 12:3). When was the Lord Jesus resurrected? On the first day of the week, that is, on the eighth day (John 20:1). Hence, the number eight signifies a new beginning in resurrection, and the number forty-eight signifies humanity in resurrection. This is not the natural humanity but the resurrected humanity. In the church there is the need of humanity, but this should be the resurrected humanity, not the natural humanity.
The forty-eight wooden boards signifying humanity were overlaid with gold (Exo. 26:29). Gold signifies divinity including the divine nature and the divine glory. Thus, the gold overlaying the forty-eight boards in the tabernacle signifies the divine essence with the divine glory. Upon the overlaying gold were the golden rings, and within the golden rings were the golden uniting bars that united the forty-eight boards. Here we have oneness, the oneness that is the building. Therefore, we can say that the building is the oneness.
In the Bible, oneness is not just a matter of putting things together. Merely putting things together is not oneness; that is just a piling up. Oneness is the building together. In order to be built together, many pieces are not only put together but are fitly framed together to form one unit. Take the example of a house: every part of it is fit together to form one unit. Through the example of the type of the tabernacle we can see that the forty-eight boards became one building.
This oneness, this building, in the tabernacle was altogether dependent upon the gold. If the gold was removed from the forty-eight boards, the oneness would have been lost, and the forty-eight boards would have fallen apart. In themselves, the wooden boards did not possess the uniting factor or the uniting element. That uniting element was the gold. The gold overlaid the boards, on the overlaying gold were the golden rings, and within the golden rings were the golden uniting bars. Hence, it was in the gold that all the boards could be one. It is in the divine life, the divine nature, and the divine glory, not in the humanity, that all the “boards” are one. Although we are the boards in resurrection, this resurrected humanity is not the uniting factor; the uniting factor is the divinity, the gold. The divine life, nature, and glory are the uniting factor. Likewise, our oneness is not in ourselves but in the Triune God who is our life, nature, glory, and expression. Eventually, we, like the forty-eight boards in the tabernacle, do not express ourselves but the glory of the Triune God as typified by the gold. Now we can see that the forty-eight boards are one in the divine glory, expressing the glory of the gold. This is real oneness. It is so clear that this oneness is not just a togetherness but the building. Togetherness is not adequate to have genuine oneness. This oneness must be the building.
When we come to the end of the Bible, we have the harvest of God’s building work through the ages—the New Jerusalem, the ultimate consummation of God’s building enterprise. Is the oneness of the New Jerusalem a pile of precious stones? No, it is a building up. The appearance of the New Jerusalem is that of jasper (Rev. 21:10-11, 18a). In Revelation 4 we see that the appearance of God, the One sitting on the throne, is also that of jasper, meaning that jasper is God’s expression, God’s appearance. Therefore, the whole New Jerusalem will have the same appearance as God; it will express God. This means that all the precious stones are one in the expression of God’s image. This is real oneness.
Some Christians say that every local church should be distinct, being different from all the other local churches. I was deceived by this concept for a number of years. But one day the Lord showed me that while the seven churches in Revelation were distinct, they were distinct in a negative way, not in a positive way. In their negativeness, some of those seven churches were different from the others, but in their positiveness, they were all the same. Look at the four sides of the New Jerusalem. According to the opinion of those who say that each local church should be distinctly different, the four sides of the New Jerusalem should also be different. One side should be jasper, and the others ruby, emerald, or diamond, each having its own distinction. According to those who hold this opinion, each side of the wall should express something unique, something different from the others. But that is not oneness. All four sides of the New Jerusalem have the same expression—the expression of jasper, the glorious appearance of God.
In the New Testament, the distinction between the churches is not on the positive side but on the negative side. Some may say, “Were not the churches established by Paul in the Gentile world of one kind and the churches in Judea, especially the church in Jerusalem, of another kind?” This is true, but only in a negative sense, not in a positive sense. In the positive sense, all the churches believed in Jesus Christ and had Christ as their life to express God. On the positive side, there was no difference between them. However, on the negative side there was a difference because the Gentile churches knew nothing about keeping the law, while the saints in Judea, especially some in the church in Jerusalem, still practiced the rituals of the Jewish religion, even up to the time of Paul’s last visit to Jerusalem. That was a real distinction among the churches. Do you want to keep this kind of distinction? The saints in Jerusalem even convinced Paul to pay the charge for purification in the Jewish religious way, but God did not agree with that. Yes, there were distinctions between the churches, but only in a negative sense.
Shall we keep the negative distinctions, or shall we go on to keep the positive oneness? All the churches must be the same. We have one Bible, we believe in one God, we have the same one Jesus Christ as our Savior, and we all enjoy Him as our life to express God. There is no reason to be different. If we still maintain the differences, it means that we are negative. All the forty-eight boards in the tabernacle expressed the glory of the same gold, and the entire wall of the New Jerusalem will have the appearance of jasper. How happy we are that all the churches today are the same positively. We must forsake the traditional concept that the churches should be different. All the churches must be the same.