Monday

Related Verses
Gen. 1:26
26 And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

Gen. 2:22
22 And Jehovah God built the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a woman and brought her to the man.

Rev. 21:2
2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Heb. 11:10
10 For he eagerly waited for the city which has the foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God.

1 Cor. 3:9
9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s cultivated land, God’s building.

Matt. 16:18
18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

2 Sam. 7:12-14
12 When your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which will come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 It is he who will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
14 I will be his Father, and he will be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will strike him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the sons of men;

Related Reading
The result of Adam’s sleep in which his side was opened to release a rib was that he gained Eve as his complement to match him. This signifies that the result of Christ’s death with His side pierced to release His divine life was that He obtained the church as His complement. Henceforth, God is no longer alone. Christ has gained a bride to match Him. 

Adam and Eve eventually became one flesh, one complete unit. This was a figure of God and man being joined as one. God’s desire is to be one with man. He has reached this goal through Christ’s death and resurrection which produced the church, representing the proper humanity to match Him as the Husband…The coming New Jerusalem will be just the unity of God and man, a living, complete unit composed with divinity and humanity. 

Adam and Eve, being one, lived together. This portrayed that God, the universal Husband, will live with regenerated humanity forever…In eternity, God in Christ will be the center, reality, and life of man’s living, and man will live by God in Christ as life. Man will express God’s glory and will exercise God’s authority over the new earth. God and man, man and God will live together in a marriage life forever. (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 224-225) 

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There are four corresponding items seen both in the beginning and at the end of the Scriptures: a bride, the tree of life, a flowing river, and three precious materials—gold, pearl, and precious stones…Genesis 1 and 2 are like the blueprint in the beginning of a manual of building instructions. Revelation 21 and 22 are like a photo of the finished structure inserted at the end of the manual. First we look at the blueprint; then we read the building instructions and go to work; finally, at the end, we attain the finished structure, similar in every detail to the photo in the manual. 

We must be deeply impressed that we are a vessel made with a spirit, an inner recipient to receive God. We must learn how to exercise our spirit continually to contact and receive God. Next we must realize that God in Christ by the Spirit is the tree of life, the real food for us to eat and enjoy. As we enjoy Christ in such a way, we will have the flowing of the living water within us, and by this flowing we will be transformed from clay into precious materials. Then as transformed materials we must be built up with others…We must learn to be related with others and very dependent. Finally, such a building will be the bride on this earth, the bride which will satisfy Christ. 

It is only when we are enjoying Christ as our food that we may be transformed, and it is only as we are being transformed that we may be built up with others, and it is only as we are built up with others that Christ will have full satisfaction with us. We will be the expression and representative of God as well as the bride of Christ. 

In our natural life…we can never be one with others. Every natural man is a peculiar man, a separate man…Our natural life must be swallowed up by Christ. We must learn how to contact and feed on Christ in our spirit. We must learn how to deny our self, rejecting our natural life, and live by Christ. Then the Lord will flow within, transforming us from clay into precious stone. As we are united, related, and built up with others, God’s goal will be attained. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 4, “The Vision of God’s Building,” pp. 176-177) 

Further Reading: CWWL, 1964, vol. 4, “The Vision of God’s Building,” chs. 1—2; CWWL, 1994–1997, vol. 3, “The Triune God’s Revelation and His Move,” ch. 7