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Scripture Reading: Rev. 21:1-3a, 6-7, 9-12, 14, 18-19a, 21-23; 22:1-2, 14, 17
Thus far, we have seen that the Bible unveils to us that God’s economy is His household administration to dispense Himself into His chosen people in order that we may partake of His life and nature and become the members of Christ for the formation of His Body so that God may express Himself through this Body for eternity. In the last book of the Bible, which is the conclusion of the entire New Testament and even of the entire Bible, there are two great signs. At the beginning of Revelation there is the sign of the golden lampstands, and at the end there is the greatest sign, the sign of the New Jerusalem.
In Exodus the lampstand signifies Christ Himself as God’s embodiment (25:31-37). The lampstand in the temple signifies the enlarged Christ (1 Kings 7:49), and the lampstand in Zechariah 4:2 signifies the children of Israel as God’s expression. Finally, in the last book of the Bible there is the harvest of the truth concerning the lampstand. The lampstands in Revelation 1 signify the churches (vv. 12-13, 20). In Revelation there is not merely one lampstand but seven, and these lampstands are the local churches. In Exodus the lampstand signifies Christ as God’s embodiment, and at the end of the New Testament the lampstands signify the churches as the multiplied embodiment of the Triune God.
In the lampstand there are only two basic elements — the gold and the oil. The gold is the solid form, and the oil is the burning element. When these two are put together, there is a lampstand shining to express God in His Trinity with the Father’s nature and essence, the Son’s image and appearance, and the Spirit’s expression. On the negative side, the priest snuffs all the negative things. On the positive side, the priest also functions to add more oil to the lampstand. Zechariah 4:12 tells us that the oil of the lampstand is golden oil. The two elements of the lampstand are the golden element and the element of the oil, but according to Zechariah, these two elements actually are one. The oil itself is golden oil, which means that the gold flows as oil. When more oil is added into the lampstand, that means that more gold is added. The church as the lampstand is the solid embodiment of the Triune God with the sevenfold Spirit as the oil. Actually, the essence of the oil is the element of the gold.
This can be confirmed by the churches’ experience. Whenever Christ as the High Priest comes to snuff all the negative things and add more oil to the church, He is actually adding more and more of the sevenfold Spirit, which is to add more of the divine nature, more of the gold, into the church life. At the beginning, the church in a locality may not have much gold. As time goes on, though, the Lord snuffs the negative things and adds the oil. Eventually, the church will have more gold, more and more of the divine nature. This tells us that the church as the embodiment of the Triune God must be reduced in all the human, natural things but always increased in the divine nature. Our flesh, our self, our natural man, and everything about us related to the old creation, even our good self, must be reduced.
The black, charred part of the wicks of the lampstand signifies our flesh, our natural man, our self, and our old creation. In the church life if you bring in your natural life, your self, your flesh, and your old creation, this becomes the charred part of the wicks of the lampstand. Then Christ as our High Priest must come in to cut off, to snuff, this charred part. A brother may exercise so much of his self, his old creation, and his natural life, that these natural things become black. Then there is the need for our Head, Christ the High Priest, to come in to cut off all these black things. Whenever such a cutting is going on, the adding of the oil accompanies it. This oil is actually the flow of the gold, which is the sevenfold Spirit as the divine element.
In Revelation 2 and 3 with the seven churches, all the black, charred parts of the wicks can be seen. In the church in Ephesus the coldness came in, and the first love was lost (2:4). This was the black part. In the church in Pergamos worldliness came in along with hierarchy (vv. 13-15). Christ as the High Priest in Revelation is snuffing all these black charred parts of the wick. At the same time He is adding the oil into the churches. In principle, today it is the same. When the church exists in a certain locality, at the beginning it may have been somewhat pure because worldliness and fleshly activities could not be seen there. But after a number of years the worldly things, the fleshly activities, the human opinion, the natural activity, the old creation, and the traditional things may gradually come in. Then there is the need of a snuffing of these black elements. The High Priest comes to snuff all the negative things and to add in more and more of the sevenfold Spirit. The Spirit in essence is the golden element, even God Himself. The Spirit being added into the church indicates that God’s divine element is being added into the church. By this way the flesh, the natural life, and the old creation are being reduced in the local churches, and God’s divine element is being increased. Through this process the churches become the pure golden lampstands in reality, and this is the testimony of Jesus in today’s age on this earth.
The first three chapters of the book of Revelation are on the local churches as the golden lampstands, trimmed and dealt with by Christ the Head as the Priest. Then after chapter 3, chapters 4 and 5 are on Christ, and chapters 6 through 20 are a section on God’s governmental, universal administration to purify and clear up the entire universe by judging and eliminating all the negative things. While the world situation is going on, the church is within the world situation. Thus, within this section there are at least six mentionings concerning the church. In 7:9-17 there is an innumerable multitude under the Lamb’s overshadowing care. The great multitude consists of the redeemed ones, throughout all generations from the nations, who constitute the church (5:9; Rom. 11:25; Acts 15:14, 19). While the judgment of all the calamities is taking place, Christ will overshadow His redeemed ones. In Revelation 12:1-17 there is the universal woman with the man-child. This signifies God’s chosen people with the stronger ones as the overcomers among them. It is the man-child who causes the great dragon to be cast down from the heavens to the earth. In 14:1-5 we see the firstfruits of the believers before the great tribulation, the one hundred and forty-four thousand. This signifies that as God’s chosen people are growing on this earth, a small number among them will become the firstfruits, the overcomers. In 15:2-4 there are the martyrs who had been under Antichrist’s persecution, standing upon the glassy sea. These are the later overcomers who overcome Antichrist at the end of the great tribulation. In 19:7-9 there is the bride ready for Christ’s wedding. This bride is a corporate bride, referring to the body of overcomers who mature earlier to be ready as Christ’s bride for His marriage. Finally, in 20:4 and 6 there are the co-kings of Christ in the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. These co-kings will be the overcomers reigning with Christ for a thousand years. In these six portions of the Word, the church is referred to. This indicates that the Lord is doing something to cause the believers to become overcomers, to make the saints mature, in order to usher in the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation of God’s chosen, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people.
After the millennium of a thousand years, the old heaven and the 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 tells us that John saw a new heaven and a new earth and that he saw the holy city, New Jerusalem (21:1-2). The verb saw is in the past tense, confirming the fact that the New Jerusalem is not only something to come but something that has come already and is now existing.
The new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem is the issue, the result, of Christ’s death. Christ died to clear up the old creation, so eventually the old creation with the old heaven and the old earth will pass away. Christ died on the cross to sweep away the entire old creation, so one day there will be no more old heaven and old earth. Everything of the old creation will be over. His death terminated the old creation, and His death as the grain of wheat released the divine life to germinate the new creation. The new creation is eventually realized in its ultimate consummation in Revelation 21 and 22 where the old heaven and the old earth have passed away, and the new heaven and the new earth have come in. This is a new beginning with a new universe, and in this new universe there is the New Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem is not an actual city, just as the lampstands are not actual lampstands but signs of the churches. The New Jerusalem is a great sign of the totality of all God’s chosen, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people. The church today is a house, the house of the living God (1 Tim. 3:15). The house of God today is not an actual house but the totality of God’s people. The church today as God’s temple, God’s house, God’s building, is not an actual physical building but is a sign signifying that the church’s function is to be a house in which the Triune God can dwell. Today the church is a house, and in eternity the church will be enlarged. When the church is enlarged, it becomes a city. The church as a house is not an actual physical house, in the same way that the church enlarged to be the holy city will not be an actual physical city. The New Jerusalem is a city signifying the church’s function in eternity to be God’s dwelling place.
Many Bible teachers have misunderstood and misinterpreted the New Jerusalem. They say that the New Jerusalem will be a heavenly mansion as a physical place for all God’s redeemed ones to dwell in. It is altogether not logical to say that the New Jerusalem is a physical mansion or a physical city for God’s redeemed people to lodge in. The New Jerusalem, the holy city, is a golden mountain (Rev. 21:16, 18). This mountain is twelve thousand stadia in length, breadth, and height (v. 16). Twelve thousand stadia is about thirteen hundred and fifty miles, the approximate distance from New York to Dallas. Such a high mountain has only one street, which goes down spirally from the top of the mountain to reach all the twelve gates on the four sides of the city.
If this is a real city to lodge in, we must ask how all of God’s redeemed through all the centuries will be able to lodge there. How could so many people live in a city with only one main spiral street? How could these people travel in a city with only one main street? For a physical city with only one main street to contain billions of people is impossible. The holy city is not a physical heavenly mansion but a sign signifying the totality of all God’s chosen people. In the eyes of God, all His redeemed people will be like a great city, just as today in God’s eyes all the redeemed people are His house. In this age God’s people are His house, but in eternity God’s people will be His city. The New Jerusalem will be the ultimate consummation of God’s people.
Revelation 21 tells us that this city is a wife (v. 9). The New Jerusalem is the wife of the Lamb, the bride of the Lamb (v. 2). This indicates that the city is organic. It is not something physical but is a life matter.
Revelation 21 also tells us that this city as the wife of the Lamb is God’s tabernacle, God’s dwelling place (v. 3). Eventually, the New Jerusalem will be a dwelling for both God and His serving ones. In the Old Testament the tabernacle was God’s dwelling, and at the same time it was the priests’ dwelling in which they served. Both God and His serving priests dwell in the same tabernacle. To God the New Jerusalem is His dwelling, and to us God is our dwelling because Revelation tells us that in the New Jerusalem there is no temple, “for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (v. 22). God and the Lamb become the dwelling place of His serving ones. This word matches Psalm 90:1, which says, “O Lord, You have been our dwelling place / In all generations.” Therefore, the tabernacle is God’s dwelling place with His serving ones, and this very God who dwells in the tabernacle is the temple, which is the dwelling place of His serving ones.
Again, we must realize what a wrong concept it is to say that the New Jerusalem is a great physical mansion for God’s children to lodge in. Revelation says that God Himself, God and the Lamb, will be the temple for us who serve Him to dwell in. Our dwelling place in eternity is God Himself. We will not dwell in a big mansion. We will dwell in God. He is our temple, and we are His tabernacle. He dwells in us, and we dwell in Him, and this mutual dwelling is the New Jerusalem, which to God is the tabernacle and to us is the temple. We enjoy a foretaste of this today when we abide in the Lord and the Lord abides in us (John 15:5). This mutual abode will be enlarged in eternity to be the New Jerusalem, where God will be our dwelling place, and we will be His dwelling place.
We need to abandon the thought of a physical dwelling place. When we come to divine, heavenly, and spiritual things, we must put aside our natural thoughts. When I was young, I heard some Bible teachers discussing what we would eat and where the restroom would be in the “heavenly mansion.” How poor it is to bring in our natural thought! The Lord Jesus told the Sadducees that they did not know the Bible, that in the resurrection men “neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Matt. 22:30). Today in this age there is marriage, but in the resurrection there will be no marriage, because all will be like the angels. In the New Jerusalem everything will be in resurrection. Revelation 21:17b says that the wall’s measurement is “the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.” This is a sign that by then man will be like the angels. Man’s being like an angel indicates the principle of resurrection. The entire city, therefore, will be in resurrection.
As the constituents of the New Jerusalem, we will enjoy the Triune God as everything to us. We will enjoy Him as our dwelling place (v. 22), as the tree of life to feed us (22:2), as the river of water of life to satisfy us (v. 1), and as the light of life to illumine us (21:23). Everything will be God Himself. Eventually, we will be completely transformed into gold, pearls, and precious stones. The city itself with its street is pure gold (vv. 18, 21). The twelve gates of the city are twelve pearls (v. 21), the foundation of the city is adorned with precious stones (v. 19), and the light of the New Jerusalem is like a jasper stone (v. 11), bearing the appearance of God to express God by her shining.
God’s appearance is like jasper (4:3), and the entire city has the appearance of jasper. This means that the entire New Jerusalem looks like God, which is the fulfillment of Genesis 1:26. God made man in His image to express Himself. When the New Jerusalem comes, all of God’s people will bear God’s expression, God’s image, God’s appearance. All of God’s people will be fully transformed for the full expression of the Triune God. Today every local church is a miniature of the New Jerusalem. Today God is our dwelling place, our food, our drink, our life, our light, our nature, and our element to become our expression. We are being transformed into precious material for God’s universal and consummate building in the universe, the New Jerusalem, where all of God’s redeemed people will bear the likeness, the appearance, of God (1 John 3:2).
