LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Statue and the Church
"You were looking on, until a stone was cut out, not with hands, and struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces" (Daniel 2:34).
The Lord shows us in his word two figures: the statue of Nebuchadnezzar and the church. The statue of Nebuchadnezzar's dream is the figure of man. It is Adam and the kingdoms of this world, which begin in glory and end in dust, like clay. The statue is something forged by human hands, a figure of the decadence of sinful man.
In Nebuchadnezzar's dream, a stone was cut without the aid of hands (without the intervention of men), and it struck the statue on the feet, and broke them in pieces. The Lord Himself gives us the interpretation of this dream. This stone is Christ. God the Father will raise up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, neither shall the sovereignty of this kingdom pass to any people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all the kingdoms of the earth, and it shall stand forever (Dan. 2:44).
This stone is Christ, and we, the children of God, are the living stones of that building: "Coming unto him a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood" (1 Pet. 2:4-5). This is his church, where Jesus Christ is the foundation and cornerstone, and we are the stones of the building. Christ is the head, and we are his body.
In Adam we see a statue that will subsist for some time. In Christ we see a Body; although it is a stone, it is a living thing, not made by human hands, but by the hand of God, "in whom the whole building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. 2:21-22). The statue shows us the first man: Adam. The Body reveals the second man: Christ. The first is lifeless, the second is living, and will subsist forever.
The kingdoms of this world, though they were once sublime in human eyes, will become like the dust of the threshing floor in summer, and the wind will carry them away, and no trace of them will be found (Daniel 2:35). "Not so the wicked; for they are as chaff which the wind driveth away" (Ps. 1:4). The kingdom of our Lord will endure forever. It will never be passed on to other people; we will be kings and priests in a kingdom that will never be shaken. Hallelujah!
Where are your eyes set? "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18). Therefore, since we have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us hold fast the grace by which we serve God with reverence and holy fear (Heb. 12:28).