In Ephesians 3:8 Paul announcing “the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel” and in 3:9 “to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is.” The current goal of this labor is in 3:10, “that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church.”
New Jerusalem, as the ultimate goal, will enlarge this presentation of God’s wisdom and will radiate “the glory of God” (Rev. 21:11a).
The church today and then the New Jerusalem in the future, being the house of God [1 Tim. 3:15], has to be a spiritual constitution with the element of the Divine Trinity. This constitution is God’s dwelling place. Second, this constitution is God’s corporate expression (Rev. 21:11). God dwells in such a constitution, and this constitution expresses God in a corporate way as a corporate Body. The function of the church today is to express God corporately, and in eternity in the New Jerusalem we will be such a corporate expression forever. This corporate expression is also a constitution with the intrinsic element of the Triune God.*
The constituting of God’s corporate expression includes many aspects of the Triune God’s work in us beginning from regeneration. This inner work goes onward to our glorification, the transfiguration of our mortal bodies (Phil. 3:21). The washing of the water in the Lord’s word (Eph. 5:26), Spirit’s renewing (Titus 3:5) and transforming (2 Cor. 3:18), and our being conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29) are all part of the constituting that produces New Jerusalem as God’s eternal expression.
Republished with permission from Blogs.crossmap.com, featuring inspiring Bible verses about Constituted to be God’s Corporate Expression.
