Ephesians 4:12-13 says, “For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ, until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” These two verses put two matters together. Verse 12 speaks of the building up of the Body of Christ, and verse 13 speaks of the growth of the Body unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The building up in verse 12 refers to the growth in verse 13. Revelation 19:7 says, “For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” We need to pay attention to the phrase His wife has made herself ready. Matthew 25:1-13 speaks of the parable of the ten virgins. This shows us that God’s work throughout the generations is to build Himself into man. He is the God of heaven, possessing not only the nature of God but also the element of heaven. When He builds Himself into us, He constitutes the nature of God and the element of heaven into us. The more we allow Him to work Himself into us, the more we will have the element of God and the element of heaven. We all have had this experience. When we submit to the Holy Spirit, allowing God to work Himself into us, we have the presence of God and the taste of heaven within us.
God, heaven, and man are mingled as one, and the mingling of the three is the church today. What is the church? The church is God and heaven mingled together with man. This surely is a mystery. Those who have not received God’s salvation cannot comprehend this matter. The unbelievers are merely human, but we who are saved have the all-inclusive Christ living in us. We are something mystical because we have God and heaven inside of us. This is the church today.
The church is a miniature, similar to a fetus in a mother’s womb, which is conceived as a miniature of a complete person. Gradually, the fetus grows and eventually is born as a complete person. The church, which is something mystical, is a miniature, and when it is completed, it will be the New Jerusalem.
A newborn child actually begins as a fetus in the mother’s womb, and this fetus grows bit by bit until it is born. The church today is a miniature of the glorious New Jerusalem in the future, and it will continually grow until the day that it is fully grown. How can the church or the saved ones grow continuously? We grow through God’s continuous building work in us. The more God builds, the more we grow. Without God’s building work we cannot grow. Do not think that you can grow by yourself. Our growing is actually God’s building. Ephesians 4:12-13 clearly shows us that the building is the growing.
We cannot grow if we do not have God within us building Himself into us. We should all spend time to find out how God builds and how we can grow. God’s building and our growth are for the preparation of the bride. Revelation 19:7 says that the bride has made herself ready. What does it mean to say that the bride has made herself ready? It means that the church has been built up. The bride signifies the church in its ultimate state. The bride having made herself ready means that the church has been completely built up and has grown unto maturity. Therefore, if we find out how God builds, we will see how we can grow and make ourselves ready.
The parable of the virgins in Matthew 25 shows us the way to get ready. Simply speaking, this parable reveals that when the Lord comes back, those who are ready will sit with Him at the wedding feast. To be ready here means that the bride has made herself ready, that God has completed His building work in man, and that we have grown and matured in the Lord’s life. These three matters—God’s building in us, our growth in the Lord’s life, and our getting ready before the Lord—are all linked together. God’s building work in us is our growth in the Lord’s life and is also our getting ready before the Lord. These three matters—God’s building, our growth, and our getting ready—are actually one matter. How does the Lord carry out the building work in us? When we were saved, He not only forgave our sins, but through His Spirit He entered into us with His life to be our life. That was the beginning of His building work.
An unsaved person is merely a human being. But we who are genuinely saved have God’s Holy Spirit and God’s life within us. We are not merely humans but humans with the life of God and the Holy Spirit mingled within. When the Holy Spirit of God and the life of God entered into us, that was the beginning of God’s building work in us.