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Having covered the various aspects of the New Jerusalem as the holy city, we will consider in this message two other matters related to the New Jerusalem: the enjoyment in the New Jerusalem and the New Jerusalem as the conclusion of the entire divine revelation and the central and ultimate consummated significance of the entire divine revelation.
The first aspect of our enjoyment in the New Jerusalem will be to participate in the holy city as the embodiment of all the blessings of the processed and consummated Triune God. Revelation 22:19 says, “If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.” This indicates that having a part in the holy city means a great deal to us.
Revelation 22:14c speaks of our entering “by the gates into the city.” To enter by the gates into the city is to enter the New Jerusalem as a realm of God’s eternal blessing by regeneration through the death-overcoming and life-imparting Christ. As Revelation 21:27 tells us, only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life have the right to enter into the holy city.
The holy city in which we will participate and which we will enjoy is the processed and consummated Triune God mingled with all His saints. In this one entity, the holy city, we will enjoy not only the Triune God but will also enjoy the Triune God in all the saints. This means that we will enjoy the Triune God in one another and that we will enjoy one another in the Triune God.
The second aspect of our enjoyment in the New Jerusalem is the tree of life. The tree of life is nothing less than Christ, the Son of God, the redeeming Lamb, as our life supply. This tree is rich, fresh, and refreshing. We have been redeemed that we may have the right to come to the tree of life.
Revelation 22:14a says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life.” This may be regarded as a promise of the enjoyment of the tree of life, which is Christ with all the riches of the divine life.
After his creation, man was put before the tree of life (Gen 2:8-9), indicating that he was privileged to partake of it. But due to the fall of man, the tree of life was closed to man by God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness (Gen. 3:24). Through Christ’s redemption, which has fulfilled all the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness, the way to the tree of life has been opened again to the believers (Heb. 10:19-20). Hence, the believers who wash their robes in the redeeming blood of Christ have the right to enjoy the tree of life as their eternal portion in the holy city, the paradise of God in eternity (Rev. 2:7; 22:14).
Another aspect of the enjoyment of God’s redeemed in eternity is the water of life (Rev. 22:17; 21:6). The water of life of the life-giving Spirit is our eternal drink, and the life-giving Spirit is actually the processed and consummated Triune God flowing Himself out to be our drink. We need to both eat and drink, for it is not pleasant to eat without having anything to drink. We praise the Lord that for eternity in the New Jerusalem we will have food, the tree of life, and drink, the life-giving Spirit.
In the New Jerusalem all of God’s redeemed will drink the water of life as their eternal portion. This indicates that even in eternity future we will still need the supply of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. That dispensing will be the spring of the water of life. The spring is God Himself in Christ, and the water of life is the flow of the life-giving Spirit. In the New Jerusalem the Triune God Himself will be flowing as the water of life for our supply eternally.
The water of life as our eternal drink is clear as crystal (22:1). In the life-giving Spirit there is nothing opaque. As we drink this eternal Spirit, everything becomes crystal clear.
In the New Jerusalem God’s redeemed will live in the divine light of the divine life embodied in the redeeming Lamb (Rev. 21:23). The divine light is the divine life embodied in the redeeming Lamb operating within us. The Lamb as the lamp shines with God as the light to illumine the New Jerusalem.
Revelation 22:5 says, “Night shall be no more; and they have no need of the light of a lamp and the light of the sun, for the Lord God shall illumine them.” Being illumined by the Lord God is another aspect of the eternal enjoyment in the New Jerusalem. We will have no need of a lamp, the light made by man, nor of the sun, the light created by God. God Himself in the Lamb will shine upon us, and we will live under His illumination.
In the New Jerusalem we shall dwell in the processed and consummated Triune God as the temple. Revelation 21:22 says, “I saw no temple in it, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” This indicates that the processed Triune God will be the holy city as the temple, which will be the eternal dwelling of all His redeemed people, where they will live with Him and serve Him. In the coming eternity, the holy city will be the tabernacle as God’s eternal dwelling and the temple as our eternal dwelling. Eventually, it will be a mutual dwelling of God and us.
In the New Jerusalem we will partake of the divine kingship and priesthood. Revelation 22:5b says, “They shall reign forever and ever.” This is a matter of the divine kingship. In the New Jerusalem for eternity we will reign as kings over the nations that will be on the new earth.
The last part of Revelation 22:3 says, “His slaves shall serve Him.” The pronoun “Him” in this verse refers to God and to the Lamb; God and the Lamb are one in eternity. In eternity we shall serve God and the Lamb. This verse indicates that we will serve God as priests. For eternity in the New Jerusalem, all the believers will participate in the priesthood.
I would like to conclude this message by giving a further word on Revelation 21:1-8. These eight verses present a clear picture of the new heaven and new earth. These verses may also be considered an outline of Revelation 21 and 22.
Verse 1 says, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea is no more.” In eternity past God purposed to have a corporate expression that He might be fully expressed and glorified, and for this purpose He created the heavens, the earth, and mankind. After the millennium, the old heaven and old earth will pass away through fire and be renewed into the new heaven and new earth (2 Pet. 3:10-13), into which the New Jerusalem will come for God’s eternal expression.
Revelation 21:2 speaks of the New Jerusalem. “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” We have strongly emphasized the fact that the New Jerusalem is a living composition of all the saints redeemed by God throughout all generations. It is the bride of Christ as His counterpart and the holy city as God’s habitation.
Revelation 21:3 and 4 speak not of the New Jerusalem but of the peoples on the new earth. “I heard a loud voice out of the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them. And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain — they shall be no more; for the former things have passed away.” The word peoples in verse 3 indicates that these verses apply not to the saints but to the restored nations on the new earth. As God’s redeemed, we are His unique people (1 Pet. 2:9; Titus 2:14), whereas the restored nations are His peoples, those for whom the kingdom was prepared from the foundation of the world (Matt. 25:34) but not before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). God Himself will tabernacle among His peoples, even as the Lord, in His incarnation, tabernacled among us (John 1:14). Therefore, we should not misapply these verses in Revelation 21 by applying them to the saints in the New Jerusalem. Verse 4 refers not to the blessings we will enjoy in the New Jerusalem but to the blessings to be enjoyed by the restored nations on the new earth.
If we read Revelation 21:1-8 carefully, we will realize that verse 5 begins a new paragraph and introduces a new subject — the sons of God in eternity. Verses 5 through 7 say, “He who sits upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said, Write, for these words are faithful and true. And He said to me, They are come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to him who thirsts from the spring of the water of life freely. He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be God to him, and he shall be a son to Me.” The word inherit in verse 7 is important, for it indicates that in eternity the sons of God will have an inheritance. However, in verses 3 and 4 there is no indication that the restored nations will have an inheritance.
Verse 7 tells us that the sons of God will inherit “these things.” These things are the spring and the water of life mentioned in verse 6. The spring and the water of life will be our inheritance for our eternal enjoyment.
The one who inherits the spring and the water of life will be a son to God. The sons of God are the components of the New Jerusalem. As such, they are a different category from the peoples, the restored nations.
In 21:7 we have the conclusion of the entire revelation in the New Testament concerning the divine sonship. Ephesians 1:5 says that we were predestinated unto sonship; Romans 8:29, that we, who once were sinners but have been made sons by God, are being conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son; and Hebrews 2:10, that God is leading many sons into glory. Hence, the New Testament reveals that God’s intention is to produce sons and that the New Jerusalem is the totality of the divine sonship. In Revelation 21:7 we have the concluding word of the revelation in the New Testament concerning the divine sonship.
In 21:8 we have a word concerning the perished in the lake of fire. “But the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and fornicators and sorcerers and idolators and all the false, their part shall be in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Here we have the third category of people in eternity. The first category consists of the peoples, and God will tabernacle among them. The second category is the sons of God, who constitute the New Jerusalem and who will inherit the spring and the water of life for their enjoyment. The third category is the perished in the lake of fire. Satan, the demons, and all rebellious human beings will be swept into the lake of fire, the universal “trash can.” This means that on the new earth there will be the New Jerusalem, the restored nations surrounding the holy city, and the lake of fire containing all the rebellious ones.
In Revelation 21:1-8 we have a brief and clear presentation of biblical eschatology. Here, in the new heaven and new earth, we see the New Jerusalem composed of God’s sons, the restored nations as the peoples, and the lake of fire. The lake of fire will, in a negative way, show forth God’s righteousness, for all who are in it will suffer God’s righteous judgment. But the New Jerusalem will, in a positive way, show forth God’s holiness and shine with His glory. This is a clear picture of the eschatology in the New Testament.
