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Scripture Reading: Rev. 21—22
II. The New Jerusalem:
I. The unique, divine, and organic building in the entire universe:
7. Its reign with its subjects — 3-4, Rev. 21:24, 26; 22:2b:
а. The divine royal household, as kings under the Father as the King of kings, reigns within this organic building (vv. 3b-5) over the nations around it as its subjects (21:24, 26; cf. II. I. 5. d.). This forms the eternal kingdom of the Lord God and of His Christ (11:15; Eph. 5:5; Gal. 5:21; 2 Pet. 1:11; John 3:3, 5). Their kind of reign began with the God-men as the overcomers in the millennial kingdom (Rev. 2:26-27).
b. The subjects are the people who were created by God but fell.
c. They were recovered back to their original condition according to God’s creation, that is, redeemed by God with the death of Christ (Heb. 2:9; Col. 1:20) but not regenerated by God with the life of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3; John 3:3, 5, 15).
d. They are the sheep, the righteous of the nations, justified by Christ at His throne of glory in His coming back (according to the eternal gospel, not the gospel of grace, preached by an angel during the great tribulation — Rev. 14:6-7) that they may inherit the kingdom (prepared by God for them from the foundation of the world), that is, enter into eternal life — to participate in (the eternal blessing of) the eternal life — Matt. 25:31-40, 46.
e. They will be God’s peoples, among whom is the tabernacle of God — Rev. 21:3.
f. They will be sustained to live the human life for eternity by the leaves of the tree of life (22:2b), signifying the deeds of Christ, but they will not eat of the fruit of the tree of life, which is for God’s redeemed as His sons (21:7).
g. They will walk in the light of this organic building (v. 24a), which is the glory of God shining in the Lamb through His redeemed, in their relationship with God, and they will also live under the light of the sun created by God and the lamp made by man in their human affairs.
h. The earthly kings of the subjects will bring their splendor to God (v. 24b), as the twenty-four elders cast their crowns before the throne of God (4:10), and the nations will bring their splendor and their honor, that is, their preciousness in status and dignity in position, to God (21:26), as the four living creatures do to God, who sits upon the throne (4:9).
i. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death will be no more, nor will there be sorrow or crying or pain anymore; for the former things have passed away — 21:4.
J. The New Jerusalem as such a marvelous, wonderful, and amazing entity is:
1. The aggregate of all the visions and revelations in the Holy Scripture.
1. The total accomplishment of the types, figures, and shadows, and the total fulfillment of the prophecies of the Holy Scripture.
1. The final conclusion of the sixty-six books of the Holy Scripture.
K. This New Jerusalem, as the organism of God, is:
1. His good pleasure of His heart’s desire — Eph. 1:5, 9.
1. God’s ultimate goal.
1. The complete fulfillment of the eternal economy of God — v. 10; 3:9.
L. Such a New Jerusalem is the total blessing of the eternal life (Matt. 19:29; Rom. 5:21) that all the redeemed people of God will enjoy in Christ as the unsearchable blessing of God’s dynamic and complete salvation for their eternal inheritance.
M. This excellent and lovely New Jerusalem, not the “heavenly mansion” as the superstition of millions of Christians, is the dear expectation of God’s elect (Heb. 11:10) and the destination, the goal, of the heavenly pilgrims.
N. In the new heaven and new earth (the eternal kingdom of God), in which is the New Jerusalem, righteousness will dwell for eternity — 2 Pet. 3:13:
1. God’s divine work throughout the four ages of man, the age of the forefathers, the age of law, the age of grace, and the age of the kingdom, on the one hand, consummates His new creation and, on the other hand, does away with Satan, sin, the old creation, and the old man to clear up all the unrighteousness from the universe.
2. Then, in the new heaven and new earth, that is, in the eternal kingdom of God, righteousness will dwell, which is one of the attributes of God and the foundation of the throne of God (Psa. 89:14) and issues in peace. Such a righteousness is suitable for God to express Himself in the New Jerusalem, as His royal household, to the nations as His subjects.
O. It is according to these five items J to N that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is always with all the saints from the age of grace through the age of the kingdom to eternity for the accomplishment of the eternal economy of God — Rev. 22:21.
The more I engage in the crystallization-study of the New Jerusalem as it is unveiled in Revelation 21 and 22, the more I worship God for His revelation. Only He, the omnipotent and omniscient One, could write such a word.
Before we consider further aspects of the New Jerusalem, I would like to review the main points we have covered thus far regarding the New Jerusalem as the unique, divine, and organic building in the entire universe. We have seen that the New Jerusalem itself is of six aspects: its base with its street, its gates with its availability, its wall with its foundations, its center with its administration and supply, its temple with its dwellers, and its light with its shining. In reviewing these matters I am burdened to point out that every aspect of the New Jerusalem as an organic building is nothing other than the Triune God as the redeeming God with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people. It is crucial that we see this.
Of the six aspects, the first three — the base, the gates, and the wall — are a group. The base with its street, the gates, and the wall are for the complete building on the base. Without the base there could not be a building. As an illustration of what we mean by base, we may refer to the building of a house in the housing development called Grace Gardens in Anaheim. Before we were allowed to build a house on the site, we first had to build the base of the house. The base is not the building site but the ground under the foundation of the house. This ground, this base, must be strong enough to support the house. The base, therefore, is the ground under the house that has been prepared, strengthened, and reinforced to bear the weight of the building. Just as a house in Grace Gardens has a base, so the New Jerusalem has a base. The base of the New Jerusalem is a golden mountain. The street of the city, which is part of the base, is also gold. Gold signifies God the Father, the first of the Trinity, in His nature. This indicates that the divine nature is both the base and the street of the New Jerusalem.
The pearl gates are produced by God the Son, the second of the Trinity, through His redeeming and life-releasing death and His life-dispensing resurrection. This indicates that Christ created the New Jerusalem through His terminating, redeeming, and life-releasing death and His life-dispensing resurrection. In brief, Christ created the New Jerusalem through His death and resurrection and with Himself as the element. According to Ephesians 2:15, on the cross Christ created the new man in Himself, that is, with Himself as the element. In Ephesians 2:15 in Himself indicates that Christ is the element with which the new man was created. Christ created the New Jerusalem through His death, which is joined to His resurrection.
After the creation of the New Jerusalem, there is the need of consummation, which is related to the wall with its foundations. This points to the Spirit, the third of the Trinity, in His transforming and building work. Now we have the complete building, consisting of the base with its street, the gates, and the wall with its foundations.
We need to see that this complete building is built by the Triune God with each of the three of the Trinity being something. God the Father in His nature is the base and the street; God the Son in His death and resurrection and with Himself as the element produces the gates; and God the Spirit in His transforming and building work builds up the wall with its foundations. But what are the materials for this building? Ephesians 2:15 reveals that the materials are “the two,” the Jews and the Gentiles, whom Christ created “in Himself into one new man.” For this reason the gates bear the twelve names of the twelve tribes of Israel, signifying the Old Testament saints, and the foundations of the wall bear the names of the twelve apostles, signifying the New Testament believers. Therefore, the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints are the materials.
In the New Jerusalem we have God the Father in His nature as the base and the street, God the Son as the Creator through His death and resurrection and with Himself as the element producing the gates, God the Spirit with His transforming and building work building the wall with its foundations, and the Old and New Testament saints as the materials. When we put all this together, we have the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people. This is the New Jerusalem.
How can the materials, from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, be consummated and built to become the New Jerusalem? The answer to this question is that we must pass through the death and resurrection of Christ to have our fallen humanity terminated and to have our original, God-created humanity redeemed and recovered so that Christ can use us as the materials. Through the death of Christ on the cross, our fallen humanity was terminated and our original humanity was redeemed in order that the divine life released in His death could be dispensed into this redeemed humanity. Then in Christ’s resurrection the Spirit dispenses the released divine life into the redeemed humanity to regenerate us. This is the creation of the New Jerusalem. Now, in the consummation, the regenerating Spirit works as the sanctifying, renewing, transforming, conforming, and glorifying Spirit to consummate the entire building.
I hope that through this review you will have a clear view of what the New Jerusalem is. The New Jerusalem is the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with the believers through Christ’s death and resurrection and the Spirit’s regenerating, sanctifying, renewing, transforming, conforming, and glorifying work.
This consummated building is now ready for use, but it still needs certain furnishings. The first item of the furnishings of the New Jerusalem is the throne of God and the Lamb as its center. This throne is joined to the street, on which flows the river of life with the tree of life as the supply. With the street we have the communication for administration, and with the river we have the water of life and the fruit of the tree of life for supply. The water of life is for drinking, and the fruit of the tree of life is for eating. This is a matter of provision. For administration this throne is the throne of authority, and for provision this throne is the throne of grace. Hebrews 4:16 tells us that we may come to the throne of grace to “receive mercy and find grace for timely help.” If there were not such a throne, then in the New Jerusalem there would be no administration, no communication, no food, and no water. Thus, there is the need of the throne as the first item of the furnishings.
The second item is the sanctuary, the temple. The redeeming God Himself is the temple in which His priests live and where they serve Him. The throne is for administration and provision, and the sanctuary is our dwelling place and our serving place.
The last of the furnishings is the light with its shining. The glory of God as the light is in the redeeming Lamb as the lamp.
The three furnishings all involve the Triune God. The Triune God is the basic structure of the building, and the Triune God becomes the redeeming God who possesses the throne, who is the sanctuary, and who is the lamp with the light. The structure is the Triune God, and the furnishings are the redeeming God. This is the New Jerusalem, and this is also us. To be parts of the New Jerusalem, we need to be created, consummated, and furnished with the Triune God and the redeeming God.
To be constituted into such persons is not merely to be improved, remodeled, or changed. No matter how much a natural person is improved, remodeled, or changed, he is still a natural person, not a God-man like Jesus Christ. Christ is the God-man who is now producing many God-men to be created, consummated, and furnished to be the New Jerusalem. If we see that we are part of this New Jerusalem, we will see what kind of person we should be today. We should not be a good man like Confucius or Socrates. Rather, we should be a God-man for the New Jerusalem. We all need to see this.
Let us now go on to consider another matter related to the New Jerusalem as the unique, organic building.
The New Jerusalem also has its reign with its subjects (3-4, Rev. 21:24, 26; 22:2b). It has been created, consummated, and furnished for the purpose of reigning.
The New Jerusalem is a divine royal household, as kings under the Father as the King of kings, reigning within this organic building (vv. 3b-5) over the nations around it as its subjects (21:24, 26). This forms the eternal kingdom of the Lord God and of His Christ (11:15; Eph. 5:5; Gal. 5:21; 2 Pet. 1:11; John 3:3, 5). Their kind of reign began with the God-men as the overcomers in the millennial kingdom (Rev. 2:26-27).
The subjects of the reign of the New Jerusalem are the people who were created by God but fell.
The subjects have been recovered back to their original condition according to God’s creation, that is, redeemed by God with the death of Christ (Heb. 2:9; Col. 1:20) but not regenerated by God with the life of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3; John 3:3, 5, 15).
The subjects are the sheep, the righteous of the nations, justified by Christ at His throne of glory in His coming back. They are justified not according to the gospel of grace but according to the eternal gospel preached by an angel during the great tribulation (Rev. 14:6-7). They have been justified that they may inherit the kingdom prepared by God for them from the foundation of the world, that is, enter into eternal life — to participate in the eternal blessing of the eternal life (Matt. 25:31-40, 46).
During the three and a half years of the great tribulation, Antichrist, the Caesar of the revived Roman Empire, and the false prophet will be instigated by Satan to fight against Christ. Whereas the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit form a Divine Trinity, Satan, Antichrist, and the false prophet will form a demonic trinity. The believers who remain on earth after the rapture of the overcomers will suffer persecution under Antichrist. During that time an angel will preach the eternal gospel, telling the people on earth to fear God and worship Him. To persecute the saints is not to fear God, and to worship the image of Antichrist is not to worship God. The angel who preaches the eternal gospel, therefore, will be telling the people not to persecute God’s people. Those who receive this gospel will fear God and love the persecuted people of God. Thus, the Lord Jesus will say that what they did in caring for the least of His brothers, they did to Him (vv. 35-40). Based upon their good conduct and upon their receiving the eternal gospel, He will justify them and regard them as the sheep. However, the Lord Jesus will regard the rest as goats and condemn them, telling them to go into the eternal fire (vv. 41-46a). The righteous, the sheep, on the contrary, will go into eternal life (v. 46b). They will not receive eternal life but will go into the environment, the condition, and the situation of the eternal life. These sheep will become the nations as the subjects of the reign of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth.
These subjects will be God’s peoples, among whom is the tabernacle of God. Revelation 21:3 speaks not of the sons of God (vv. 6-7) but of the peoples of God, who will be the nations around the New Jerusalem.
The subjects of the reign of the New Jerusalem will be sustained to live the human life for eternity by the leaves of the tree of life (22:2b), signifying the deeds of Christ, but they will not eat of the fruit of the tree of life, which is for God’s redeemed as His sons (21:7). This means that the subjects will not be regenerated; that is, they will not have eternal life but only the life of the humanity that was originally created by God and then was redeemed and recovered. Although they will not have eternal life, they will live for eternity by the leaves of the tree of life.
The fruit of the tree of life will be our food to nourish us in the New Jerusalem, but the leaves of the tree of life, which are good not for eating but for medicine, will be for the healing of the nations. Because the leaves are effective for healing, the nations will live forever. The leaves of the tree of life symbolize the deeds of Christ. The regenerated believers will eat of the fruit of the tree of life, receiving Christ as their inward life and life supply that they may enjoy the divine life for eternity, whereas the restored nations will be healed by the leaves of the tree of life, taking the deeds of Christ as their outward guide and regulation that they may live the human life for eternity.
In their relationship with God, the subjects will walk in the light of this organic building (v. 24a), which is the glory of God shining in the Lamb through His redeemed. This means that in matters related to God the nations as the subjects will walk in the divine light. For their human affairs they will also live under the light of the sun created by God and the lamp made by man.
The earthly kings of the subjects will bring their splendor, that is, their glory, to God (v. 24b), as the twenty-four elders cast their crowns before the throne of God (4:10). The nations will bring their splendor and their honor, that is, their preciousness in status and dignity in position, to God (21:26), as the four living creatures do to God, who sits upon the throne (4:9).
God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death will be no more, nor will there be sorrow or crying or pain anymore; for the former things will have passed away (21:4). All these are the blessings to the nations as the subjects, not to the saints as the sons of God (vv. 5-7), under the reign of the New Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem as such a marvelous, wonderful, and amazing entity is the aggregate of all the visions and revelations in the Holy Scripture; the total accomplishment of the types, figures, and shadows, and the total fulfillment of the prophecies of the Holy Scripture; and the final conclusion of the sixty-six books of the Holy Scripture. Without the New Jerusalem, the Bible would not have a conclusion.
The New Jerusalem as the organism of God is God’s good pleasure of His heart’s desire (Eph. 1:5, 9), God’s ultimate goal, and the complete fulfillment of the eternal economy of God (v. 10; 3:9).
Such a New Jerusalem is the total blessing of the eternal life (Matt. 19:29; Rom. 5:21) that all the redeemed people of God will enjoy in Christ as the unsearchable blessing of God’s dynamic and complete salvation for their eternal inheritance.
This excellent and lovely New Jerusalem, not the “heavenly mansion” as the superstition of millions of Christians, is the dear expectation of God’s elect (Heb. 11:10) and the destination, the goal, of the heavenly pilgrims. Today we are sojourners, journeying on a rugged road toward our eternal goal, the New Jerusalem.
In the new heaven and new earth (the eternal kingdom of God), in which is the New Jerusalem, righteousness will dwell for eternity (2 Pet. 3:13). This means that the entire eternal kingdom of God, including the New Jerusalem, is a matter of righteousness.
God’s divine work throughout the four ages of man, the age of the forefathers, the age of law, the age of grace, and the age of the kingdom, on the one hand, consummates His new creation and, on the other hand, does away with Satan, sin, the old creation, and the old man to clear up all the unrighteousness from the universe. There will no longer be any unrighteousness in the universe. Righteousness will dwell in the new heaven and new earth for eternity.
After all unrighteousness has been cleared away from the universe, then in the new heaven and new earth, that is, in the eternal kingdom of God, righteousness will dwell. Righteousness is one of the attributes of God, is the foundation of the throne of God (Psa. 89:14), and issues in peace (Isa. 32:17). Such a righteousness is suitable for God to express Himself in the New Jerusalem, as His royal household, to the nations as His subjects.
It is according to the five previous items that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is always with all the saints from the age of grace through the age of the kingdom to eternity for the accomplishment of the eternal economy of God.
Revelation 22:21, the last verse of the entire Bible, says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.” Most Christians take this verse for granted and speak in a common way about the grace of the Lord Jesus being with us. But what is the basis for saying that the grace of Christ is with us? The Lord’s grace being with us is based upon all the particular aspects of the New Jerusalem. In other words, the New Jerusalem is the base upon which the grace of the Lord Jesus is with us. With the New Jerusalem as the base, the grace of the Lord Jesus is always with all the saints from the age of grace through the age of the kingdom to eternity for the accomplishment of the eternal economy of God. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with us for nothing other than the accomplishing of the eternal economy of God.
