Search
In Revelation 21:2—22:5 Christ is revealed as the universal and eternal Husband of the New Jerusalem, the universal and eternal wife. This is the last item of Christ unveiled in Revelation.
The main content of the New Testament is that the Triune God has an eternal economy according to His good pleasure to dispense Himself in His life and nature into His chosen and redeemed people, thereby making them His duplication so that they may express Him; this corporate expression will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Eph. 3:9; 1:9-23). The New Jerusalem, the ultimate consummation of the Bible, involves God becoming man and man becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead (Rev. 21:2; 3:12). In Christ, God has become man to make man God in His life and in His nature so that the redeeming God and the redeemed man can be mingled, constituted, together to be one entity — the New Jerusalem (21:3, 22). Eventually, the triune, eternal God becomes the New Jerusalem incorporated with all of us, and we also become the New Jerusalem through the process of God’s organic salvation (Rom. 5:10). The ultimate consummation of God’s organic salvation is the New Jerusalem — the universal incorporation of the union and mingling of God with man, divinity with humanity — the processed and consummated Triune God incorporated with His regenerated, renewed, sanctified, transformed, conformed, and glorified tripartite elect.
The issue of the Bible’s teaching is just one entity, the New Jerusalem, as the aggregate of all the God-men (Rev. 21:7; Heb. 2:10-11; 12:22). God’s New Testament economy is to make the believers God-men for the constitution of the Body of Christ so that the New Jerusalem may be consummated as the eternal enlargement and expression of the processed and consummated Triune God (Gal. 3:26; 4:7, 26, 31). The New Jerusalem is the God-men who have been transformed, glorified, and mingled with the processed and consummated Triune God (John 17:22-23a; Eph. 4:4-6).
The New Jerusalem is a composition of divinity and humanity mingled, blended, and built up together as one entity (John 14:20, 23; Rev. 21:2-3, 9-23). All the components have the same life, nature, and constitution and thus are a corporate person. God and man, man and God, are built up together by being blended and mingled together (John 14:20, 23; 15:4a; 1 Cor. 6:17). This is a matter of God becoming man and man becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
The New Jerusalem is a composition of God’s chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified people who have been deified (John 3:6; Heb. 2:11; Rom. 12:2; 8:29-30). For us to be deified means that we are being constituted with the processed and consummated Triune God so that we may be made God in life and in nature to be His corporate expression for eternity (Rev. 21:11). The New Jerusalem is built by God’s constituting Himself into man to make man the same as God in life, nature, and constitution so that God and man may become a corporate entity. The New Jerusalem is God Himself enlarged with His redeemed by the way of constituting, uniting, and mingling (John 3:29a, 30a; 14:20; 15:4a; 1 Cor. 6:17). Thus, the deification of the believers is a process that will consummate in the New Jerusalem. On God’s side, the Triune God has been incarnated to be a man; on our side, we are being deified, constituted with the processed and consummated Triune God so that we may be made God in life and in nature to be His corporate expression for eternity. This is the highest truth and the highest gospel (Rev. 3:12).
The subject of the Bible is a divine romance of a universal couple; the male is God Himself, and the female is God’s chosen and redeemed people (Gen. 2:21-24; Isa. 54:5; Jer. 2:2; 3:14; 31:32; Ezek. 23:5; Hosea 2:7, 19; Matt. 9:15; John 3:29). In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, God likens His chosen people to a spouse (Isa. 54:6; Jer. 3:1; Ezek. 16:8; Hosea 2:19; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32) and a dwelling place for Himself (Exo. 29:45-46; Num. 5:3; Ezek. 43:7, 9; Psa. 68:18; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Tim. 3:15). The spouse is for His satisfaction in love. As the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem comes out of Christ, her Husband, and becomes His counterpart, just as Eve came out of Adam, her husband, and became his counterpart (Gen. 2:21-24). She is prepared by participating in the riches of the life and nature of Christ.
Christ’s betrothal and marriage life cover the church age, the kingdom age, and the eternal age. In the church age we are betrothed to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2). The wedding day will be the age of the millennial kingdom (Rev. 19:7). The marriage life will be in the New Jerusalem for eternity (21:2, 9-10).
According to its humanity, the New Jerusalem is the human wife (with the divine life and nature) of the Lamb, the redeeming God (vv. 2, 9). This human wife can marry a divine person because she has the divine life and nature. This qualifies her to match the redeeming God. On the one hand, she is human; on the other hand, she is divine. Because she is human, she can be the redeeming God’s human wife. Because she is divine, she can marry Him, a divine person.
According to its divinity, the New Jerusalem is the divine Husband (the redeeming God in His consummated embodiment, Christ, with the human life and nature) of God’s redeemed elect. The wife is human, and the Husband is divine. A human wife can marry a divine person because she has the divine person’s nature and life. The same entity can be both a husband and a wife because the New Jerusalem is divine. The divine God is a part of its constituent. Therefore, on the one hand, it is a wife; on the other hand, it is a husband. The New Jerusalem is the wife according to its humanity and the Husband according to its divinity. But as the divine Husband, the New Jerusalem has the human life and nature. In its humanity and in its divinity it is a couple, a wife and a husband.
The holy city is a corporate person, and this corporate person is a couple — the processed Triune God married to the transformed, tripartite man. This is the Spirit and the bride becoming one (22:17). Divinity and humanity are married together, mingled together, to be one entity. The holy city is a corporate person — a great, corporate God-man. The New Jerusalem is a couple with the Husband and the bride, the wife. The Husband is the wife, and the wife is the Husband because they coinhere. This is God’s eternal economy: to incorporate Himself with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified elect, to be one universal, divine, mystical incorporation, which is the New Jerusalem.
Revelation 22:17 indicates that Christ and the New Jerusalem as His wife will be a universal couple for eternity. The Spirit, who is the totality of the processed and consummated Triune God, becomes one with the believers, who are now fully matured to be the bride (21:2, 9-10). The consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God and the consummation of His regenerated, transformed, and glorified people will be a universal couple expressing the Triune God for eternity (vv. 11, 23).
Revelation 21:2 says, “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Christ is a person, and He will marry the New Jerusalem. It is impossible for Christ to marry a physical city as His wife. This is a strong proof that the New Jerusalem is not a physical city. Here, to be adorned is to make oneself pretty. This term can be applied only to females. Only females need adornment. The New Jerusalem as the bride of Christ needs to be not only consummated but also adorned (v. 19). Today we need to adorn and consummate the New Jerusalem with God the Father as its golden base, God the Son as its pearl gates, and God the Spirit as its wall of precious stones. The New Jerusalem is adorned with pure gold, pearl, and precious stones, that is, with the Triune God as the elements. This is the consummated Divine Trinity constituting Himself into our being to make us gold, pearl, and precious stones so that He may have an enlargement for His eternal expression, the New Jerusalem.
Similarly, Song of Songs 1:10-11 reveals that Christ’s lover is transformed with the Triune God’s attributes by the remaking Spirit in coordination with the lover’s companions, the gifted members in the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-12). The seeker’s hair being bound into plaits of gold indicates her submission to God through the transformation of the Spirit with God the Father in His divine nature. The plaits of gold are fastened with studs of silver, signifying Christ the Son in His all-inclusive judicial redemption. The strings of jewels on the seeker’s neck signify God the Spirit in His transforming work to become her obedience to God’s will. Perfecting others with gold, silver, and precious stones in Song of Songs 1:10-11 corresponds to building the church with gold, silver, and precious stones in 1 Corinthians 3:10-12. Eventually, what is built at the end of the Bible will be a city of gold, precious stones, and pearls to replace silver. The entire Bible speaks the same thing concerning God’s economy to produce the church as the Body of Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem. If we want what we do to be in the New Jerusalem, we need to learn how to add gold into the plaits of hair, how to make silver studs to hold the plaits of hair, and how to make strings of jewels, precious stones, to cover the naked neck. In other words, we need to learn to build with gold, silver, and precious stones. We must learn to minister the Triune God in a practical way to others for their transformation.
Revelation 21:9-10 says, “One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, Come here; I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in spirit onto a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” Christ will be the Husband, and the holy city, Jerusalem — the aggregate of all the saints — will be the bride, the wife of the Lamb. This will be the universal couple living a universal married life for eternity.
The New Jerusalem is the holy city (vv. 2, 10). As the holy city of God, the New Jerusalem is sanctified, fully separated unto God, and thoroughly saturated with God’s holy nature to be His habitation. Thus, the holy city is a constitution in life of the processed Triune God mingled with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite elect.
Holiness is the nature of God. Love reveals God’s heart, righteousness is God’s way, and holiness is God’s nature. Only God Himself is holy (15:4), for only God is separated and uniquely different from everything else. The New Jerusalem is a city that is absolutely saturated and mingled with God; therefore, it is absolutely holy. It is entirely different from all other things. Whenever we experience the mingling of God with us today, there is a real separation, a real holiness. In anything we do, if we have some experience of God in Christ being mingled with us, we experience holiness in that thing. Holiness signifies a separation from common things. The more we are mingled with God in Christ, the more we will be holy. We will be different and separated from all things common. To be holy means to have something of God mingled with us. Holiness is not a matter of action but a matter of nature; it is not a matter of what we do but of how much we have been mingled with God. An aloofness from everything is not holiness. Holiness is determined by how much we have experienced being mingled with God. Hebrews 12 says that God disciplines us that we might partake of His holiness (v. 10). This means that He disciplines us that we may partake of His nature by being mingled with Him. The New Jerusalem is absolutely and thoroughly mingled with God; therefore, it is the holy city.
In the New Testament the word holy does not only mean separated unto God but also saturated with God. In the Old Testament to be made holy is to be separated unto God. There is no saturation of God in the Old Testament, and the holiness, or sanctification, there is only positional, not dispositional. In the New Testament, though, we see both the objective, positional holiness and sanctification and the subjective, dispositional holiness and sanctification. Romans 6:19 and 22 indicate that sanctification is something subjective and dispositional. In the Old Testament a piece of gold could be made holy and sanctified by changing its position, by placing it in the temple. Yet the church today is made holy not only positionally but also dispositionally. Eventually, both the positional sanctification in the judicial aspect and the dispositional sanctification in the organic aspect of God’s complete salvation will ultimately be manifested in the New Jerusalem as the holy city (Rev. 21:2, 10; 22:19).
In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul prays that our whole being, spirit and soul and body, may be sanctified wholly. This is dispositional sanctification in which the holy God is saturating us with His holy nature. In positional sanctification there is only a change of position, but in dispositional sanctification there is the transformation in nature and in element. Therefore, the New Jerusalem is holy not merely in the sense of the Old Testament but also in the sense of the New Testament. Based upon this principle, we can see that the holy city, the New Jerusalem, could never be a physical city since a physical city could never be saturated with God. This city is composed with living persons who can be and who are saturated with God. In the old Jerusalem and in the old temple we can see the separation but not the saturation with God. In the New Testament, however, the church is God’s temple (1 Cor. 3:16), and this temple is not only separated unto God but also saturated with God. The New Jerusalem is not the Old Testament city but the New Testament city — a city saturated with God.
The New Jerusalem is called the holy city because gold, which signifies God’s holy nature, is the site of the New Jerusalem. In the whole universe, only God is holy in nature. The New Jerusalem is built on gold. The city proper of the New Jerusalem is gold, and its street is gold (Rev. 21:18, 21). On this gold the foundations are laid and the gates and wall are built.
God sanctifies us so that we may be established in His holy nature. God’s sanctifying us is a very important and particular item in God’s organic salvation. Not only is God Himself holy, but He also wants to make us holy. Eventually, He wants to make us the holy city, New Jerusalem. In the universe God is holiness; whenever people touch God, they touch holiness (cf. Isa. 6:2-3; Rev. 4:8). Hence, in His organic salvation God’s intention is to constitute us with His holy nature so that we may become the Body of Christ and ultimately be manifested as an established holy city, New Jerusalem. Since all the believers will be the components of the holy city, all of them should be sanctified to be as holy as the holy city. Unless we are made holy, we will not be qualified to be a part of the New Jerusalem. As the holy city, the New Jerusalem is composed of holy believers.
The title Jerusalem is composed of two Hebrew words — Jeru meaning “foundation,” and Salem meaning “peace.” Paul tells us in Hebrews 7 that the king of Salem is the king of peace (v. 2). Salem is peace, and Jeru is that which is founded, built, and laid as a foundation. Thus, Jerusalem means the foundation of peace. Jerusalem is that which is grounded, founded, and safeguarded in peace. The Bible indicates that peace is God Himself. In the New Testament there are two titles — the God of peace (Phil. 4:9; 1 Thes. 5:23) and the peace of God (Phil. 4:7). Both of these titles indicate that God Himself is our peace. Also, Ephesians 2:14 indicates that Christ Himself is our peace. This peace is God into whom we have been grounded. This is not an outward peace but an inward peace in which we are safeguarded. In eternity we will enjoy this peace.
The Lord Jesus told us, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you” (John 14:27). Our Lord also said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” Since the Lord has given us His peace, today we should live in His peace. Actually, the Lord Himself is still here as our peace. Jerusalem is the Triune God to be our peace, to be our safety. The entire New Jerusalem will be an entity of peace. The New Jerusalem will be solidly grounded and safeguarded in the Triune God as peace and safety, and we will enjoy the Triune God as peace forever.
Since the New Jerusalem is the bride, we should not consider her as a material city. Christ will marry only something living. The bride will be composed of all the redeemed, regenerated, and transformed saints of God. In the New Jerusalem there will be no wood, bricks, or dust. Instead, there will be gold, pearl, and transformed precious stones.
The fact that the New Jerusalem is such a living composition means that it is a living building. The thought that God’s people are a living building is not first found in the book of Revelation. In the Old Testament we see that God’s people were considered material to be built together as His dwelling place.
The Bible covers two main things — God’s creation and God’s building. In the beginning of the Bible we have creation, and at the end we have the building. Between these two ends we have God’s building work. In creation God produced the building materials. As He carries on His building work, He fits all these materials together into one unit, which is His building.
In Genesis 2 we have a garden created, and in Revelation 21 we have a city constructed. A garden is something natural, created by God, but a city is something built up by Him. The New Jerusalem is not a natural garden but a built-up city. In the garden in Genesis 2 there is the tree of life, and near the tree of life there is a river flowing in four directions (vv. 8-10). By the flow of this river we have gold, bdellium, and onyx, a precious stone. Bdellium here is a resin secreted by a tree that hardens to form a pearl-like substance. The first mention of stone in the Bible is not of ordinary, common stone but of onyx, a type of precious stone.
According to the record of Genesis 28, Jacob, a supplanter, had a divine dream in which he saw a ladder set up on earth and reaching to heaven. When he awoke from his sleep, he called the name of that place the house of God (v. 17). Then he took the stone he had used for a pillow, set it up as a pillar, anointed it with oil, and called it Bethel, meaning the house of God (vv. 18-19, 22).
According to Exodus 28, twelve precious stones were set on the breastplate of the high priest (vv. 15-21), the first of which was sardius and the last of which was jasper. Included among these twelve stones was onyx. This indicates that the breastplate of the high priest is related to both Genesis 2 and Revelation 21, for in Genesis 2 we have onyx, and in Revelation 21 we have jasper. In the description of the breastplate of the high priest and of the two onyx stones engraved with the names of the children of Israel (Exo. 28:9-12), we see a miniature of God’s building. The precious stones of both the breastplate and the shoulder pieces bore the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. This signifies that the redeemed Israelites are for God’s building. The twelve precious stones on the breastplate were set in gold. The gold base held all the precious stones. Certainly this is a picture of God’s building. This breastplate was a type of the building that expressed God.
John 1 tells us that when Peter first met the Lord Jesus, the Lord changed his name from Simon to Cephas, which means a stone (v. 42). After Peter received the revelation that the Lord was the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord said, “I also say to you that you are a stone, and upon this rock I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18, lit.). In this one verse we have the stone and the rock. Later, in his first Epistle, Peter says, “Coming to Him, a living stone, rejected by men but with God chosen and precious, you yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house” (2:4-5). Therefore, the concept that the believers are stones to be built up for God’s habitation is not new in the book of Revelation. It is found elsewhere in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
If we put together all the portions of the Word concerning the stone, we will see that precious stones signify God’s redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people. All the stones with which the New Jerusalem is built are God’s redeemed, regenerated, and transformed saints. The apostle Peter tells us clearly that we are living stones. Now we are in the process of transformation and of being built into God’s building. First, God transforms us; then He builds us. Therefore, the New Jerusalem is not a pile of material; it is a composition of material that has been built up. The entire city of New Jerusalem is God’s building, the living composition of all God’s redeemed, regenerated, and transformed saints.
Revelation 21:9 speaks of the bride and the wife. The bride is mainly for the wedding day, whereas the wife is for the entire life. The New Jerusalem will be the bride in the millennium for one thousand years as one day (2 Pet. 3:8) and the wife in the new heaven and new earth for eternity. The bride in the kingdom age will include the overcomers (Rev. 3:12; 19:7-9), but the wife in eternity will include all God’s redeemed ones (21:9).
The whole Bible speaks concerning the bride and the wife. The first wife in the whole universe was Eve. In Ezekiel 23 the children of Israel are referred to as the wife of Jehovah (vv. 1-4). In John 3 all the regenerated believers are the bride of Christ to be His increase, His enlargement (vv. 29-30). In Ephesians 5 the church is the wife of Christ, and in 2 Corinthians 11:2 the believers have been engaged, or betrothed, to Christ as their Husband. In Revelation 19:7-9 there is a universal wedding day, the marriage of the Lamb. Finally, in the last two chapters of the Bible there is the wife of the Lamb. Revelation 21:2 tells us that the New Jerusalem is prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and verse 9 refers to the New Jerusalem as the bride, the wife of the Lamb. The Lamb is the embodiment of the Triune God, and the wife is the consummation of all the saints.
The wife of the Lamb is one with her Redeemer, as Eve was taken out of Adam and attached back to him to be one flesh, two as one in one nature and one life (Gen. 2:21-24; Eph. 5:25-27, 29-32). Eve was originally a piece of bone, a rib, taken out of Adam. This bone was built into a woman, a wife for Adam, and attached back to Adam to be one flesh. These two, Adam and Eve, were as one in one nature and one life. A wife is one nature and one life with her husband. A physical, material city could never be one with Christ in one life and in one nature. The New Jerusalem is not only something with the divine element added to it and with the holy nature wrought into it, but it is also one with the Redeemer in one nature and in one life.
In Ezekiel 23:1-4 we see that the old Jerusalem symbolized the children of Israel as the wife of Jehovah. In these verses Ezekiel speaks concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. In this passage, Jerusalem does not denote a physical city but the people represented by the city, a living people who were a wife to Jehovah.
The divine romance is portrayed poetically in Song of Songs. In Song of Songs the seeker passes through a process to become the Shulammite, the duplication of Solomon and a figure of the New Jerusalem (6:13, 4). The lover’s name, Shulammite, which is the feminine form of Solomon, is first used in Song of Songs 6:13, indicating that at this point she has become Solomon’s duplication and counterpart, the same as Solomon in life, nature, and image, as Eve to Adam (Gen. 2:20-23). This signifies that the lover of Christ becomes the same as He is in life, nature, and image to match Him (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29) for their marriage. The lover of Solomon, having passed through various stages of transformation, has become Solomon’s duplication. The New Jerusalem will be a corporate Shulammite, including all of God’s chosen and redeemed people.
In the New Jerusalem the redeeming God (signified by Solomon) and all His redeemed (signified by the Shulammite) become one. The New Jerusalem is a mingling of divinity and humanity to express the processed and consummated Triune God in human virtues. Christ and His wife will be joined together to be the New Jerusalem for God’s expression; this is the consummated Shulammite. The New Jerusalem is the real and consummate Shulammite.
Ultimately, we will be conformed to be the wonderful Shulammite, who, as the duplication of Solomon, is the greatest and ultimate figure of the New Jerusalem as the counterpart of Christ. Just as King Solomon became a country man to court a country girl in order to make her his queen, his duplication, God in Christ became a man to court man in order to make man God in life, nature, expression, and function but not in the Godhead, to be Christ’s bride (Matt. 9:15; Rev. 19:7; cf. Psa. 45:1-3, 9, 13-14). The Bible reveals that God became a man to court us and that now He wants us to court Him by our becoming divine for His expression through our personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual relationship with Him (S. S. 1:1-8; 2 Cor. 2:10; Exo. 33:11; Rom. 8:4, 6; 1 Cor. 2:15). The Shulammite is a figure of us as the reproduction of Christ, who is the embodiment of God. Thus, the many lovers of Christ eventually will become duplications of God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. This is the fulfillment of God becoming a man that man might become God, which is the high peak of the divine revelation. The corporate overcomer, the Shulammite, who is the duplication of Solomon, is a figure of the New Jerusalem.
The Shulammite was a country girl. Now, as a counterpart of Solomon, she has become the same as Solomon in life, nature, expression, and function for the carrying out of God’s economy. We become the same as God and Christ in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in the Godhead. To say that we are the same as God in His Godhead is a great blasphemy, but to say that we cannot be the same as God in life, nature, expression, and function is unbelief. The Bible tells us again and again that God wants to be one with us and to make us one with Him. This is God’s intention.
The phrases in Christ and in the Lord are used repeatedly in the New Testament. Paul tells us to rejoice always in the Lord (Phil. 4:4). In ourselves we cannot rejoice. We can only sigh. But in the Lord we are able to do all things (v. 13). Surely our God is able to make us the same as He is in His life, in His nature, in His expression, and in His function to carry out His economy. This signifies that in the maturity of Christ’s life, the overcomers, who were once sinners, have become the same as Christ in life, nature, expression, and function for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy.
The almighty King, the almighty “Solomon,” wants to be one with His people, signified by a country girl. He does this not by coercing but by the personal and affectionate way of courting. The Bible ends with a couple in a marriage life — the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21). We are involved in this divine romance, and we are participating in this wonderful conclusion of the entire Holy Scriptures.
John 3 reveals that all the regenerated believers constitute the bride of their Redeemer as His increase, His enlargement (vv. 3, 5-6, 14, 29-30). Many believed in the Lord Jesus by the time of John 3. They had been regenerated and had received the eternal life. As a result, the disciples of John the Baptist became jealous and told him that all were coming to Jesus (v. 26). John then told his disciples that He who has the bride is the Bridegroom, and he indicated that everyone who was regenerated should go to Him since He was the Bridegroom. This indicates that all the regenerated believers are composed together to be the bride to match the Bridegroom as His increase. Following this John said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (v. 30). The increase in John 3:30, however, is the bride in verse 29, who is a living composition of all the regenerated people. All the believers regenerated by the Triune God should be attached to Him as the Bridegroom. The believers should not have been detached from their Bridegroom to form a religion, taking John as the head. John had to be put into prison; otherwise, there would have been two bridegrooms — Jesus Christ and John the Baptist. Since John the Baptist had carried out his ministry to introduce Jesus Christ, it was necessary that he must decrease. All the regenerated ones should not have come to John to attach themselves to him. They all needed to go and attach themselves to Jesus, the Bridegroom.
In 2 Corinthians 11:2 Paul says, “I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” The you in this verse is corporate. Many saints have been betrothed to Christ as one corporate virgin. There is one church with many members, and Paul betrothed the believers in a corporate way as one corporate virgin to one Husband — Christ.
The New Jerusalem as the wife of the Lamb is also the consummation of the church as the wife in Ephesians 5:25-27 and 29-32. The church in Ephesians 5 is the wife in the stage of development, and the New Jerusalem will be the consummated bride. The bride in Revelation 21 can never be improved; she will live forever, but she will not grow. The wife in Ephesians 5, however, is still growing. The church in Ephesians 5 still has wrinkles and spots, but the bride in Revelation 21 has no wrinkles or spots. The New Jerusalem is the consummation of the wife in Ephesians 5. The Lord is still working in the church to cause her to grow.
The wife of the Lamb as symbolized by the universal and heavenly woman in Revelation 12:1-6 and 13-17 is composed of all the Old Testament and New Testament saints. According to Revelation 12:1, this woman is “clothed with the sun, and the moon underneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” This universal and heavenly woman is the total composition of God’s people on earth. The sun signifies God’s people in the New Testament age (Luke 1:78), the moon signifies God’s people in the Old Testament time, and the stars signify the patriarchs (Gen. 37:9). This universal and heavenly woman in Revelation 12 is the wife of the Lamb. This woman is a universal composition of all the saints, and this woman consummates in the New Jerusalem.
The millennium will be the wedding day in which the overcoming saints will participate (19:7-9). To the Lord a thousand years are as one day (2 Pet. 3:8); hence, the millennium will be the wedding day of the Lamb with the church as His bride. A wife is a bride for one day, but after the wedding day she is no longer the bride. The millennium of one thousand years will be one day for the Lamb to marry His bride. In the new heaven and new earth all the saints of both the Old Testament and the New Testament will be the New Jerusalem, enjoying the divine married life with the Triune God for eternity.
