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Scripture Reading: John 3:36a; Matt. 28:19; John 15:4a; 14:17, 23; Col. 2:7a; Eph. 3:16-19
We have already pointed out that the New Jerusalem is the greatest allegory in the Bible since it is the ultimate consummation of the divine revelation in the entire Scripture. In order to interpret the significance of this allegory, we need the proper understanding of the spiritual revelation in the entire Bible and also the experience of all the crucial points of God’s revelation in the New and Old Testaments. We all need to see how the allegory of the New Jerusalem is applied to us. The New Jerusalem is not merely objective, nor is it merely something for the future, but it should be subjective in our daily experience.
In these final six chapters we will cover the six aspects of the application of the New Jerusalem to the believers. The first application is the triune entry. We are using entry in the denotation of entering in, not in the denotation of an entrance or a door. The entering into the New Jerusalem is triune because it is an entry through the Divine Trinity — through the Son, with the Father, and by the Spirit.
After we enter into the Triune God, we experience Him as the triune constitution, the second application. We are now being constituted with the Father’s divine nature, the gold; with the Son’s produce in His redemptive work, the pearl; and with the Spirit’s produce in His transforming work, the precious stones. The New Jerusalem is built with these three basic materials, which are the three basic elements for our spiritual constitution.
Through the entering in we have the constitution, and in the constitution we have the triune existence. Our spiritual existence is totally dependent upon the Triune God. Second Corinthians 13:14 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Such a “benediction” not only bears a sense of enjoyment but also denotes the way that we Christians are existing today. We are existing by the grace of Christ, by the love of God, and by the fellowship, the flow, of the Spirit. In other words, we are existing by what the Triune God is. He is grace and love to us, and this grace with love is carried on within us in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We exist spiritually by and with the very Triune God.
The way that we exist is the way that we live, so the fourth aspect of the application is the Triune God as our living. We are living by, with, and in the Triune God. We are living by the Son, with the Father, through the Spirit. We live in the same way that we entered into the Triune God. We live by the Triune God, with the Triune God, and in the Triune God. This living is on the highest plane. How marvelous it is that human beings could live in such a way! We do not live by ourselves, with ourselves, and in ourselves. Rather, we admit the accomplished fact of what Christ has done for us on the cross, and we admit that we ourselves have been crucified with Him. “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). We live by Christ (John 6:57), and we even live Christ (Phil. 1:21a). Since Christ is the very embodiment of the Father and realized in the Spirit, when we live by Christ, we live by the Triune God, and when we live Christ, we live the Triune God.
The fifth application is the triune enjoyment. Everything related to our spiritual life is triune. The word triune is a good adjective to describe our spiritual condition, situation, existence, living, and enjoyment. We are those who are enjoying the Triune God. We enjoy the Son’s grace, the Father’s love, and the Spirit’s fellowship. Christ is grace, God is love, and the Holy Spirit is fellowship. Therefore, we enjoy a triune blessing — the blessing of the Son as grace, the blessing of the Father as love, and the blessing of the Spirit as the fellowship. This is our threefold enjoyment; our enjoyment is triune.
Finally, the New Jerusalem expresses the Triune God, so its expression is triune. All of us individually should express the Triune God. People should be able to see God’s golden nature in us and that we are the pearls. We are not rocky, but we are “pearly.” The rock wounded the oyster and stayed in this wound, and the oyster secreted its life-juice around the rock, making it a pearl. Thus, we were changed from being rocky, and we became pearly. Not only the sisters but also the brothers are pearls. We must be found by others in Christ (3:9). Paul was pursuing Christ to be found in Christ. He did not want others to find him as Saul of Tarsus, a natural, “rocky” man, but he wanted others to find him in Christ. He desired to be wrapped up with the secretion of Christ’s resurrection life in order that others could see him as a pearl, full of Christ’s life.
Also, we express the sevenfold Spirit. The lampstand has seven lamps, which are the seven Spirits of God shining to express all that the Triune God is. We must be persons who are expressing God by shining with the sevenfold intensified Spirit. This is the triune expression. Thus, the six applications of the New Jerusalem to the believers are its triune entry, triune constitution, triune existence, triune living, triune enjoyment, and triune expression.
In this chapter we want to specifically look at the triune entry. According to the divine revelation in the sixty-six books of the Bible, our God is enterable. That God is righteous, holy, merciful, and faithful has been preached and taught for centuries. We must also realize, though, that the righteous, holy, merciful, faithful God is enterable.
Noah’s ark is a type of our God being enterable. The ark typifies Christ, the embodiment of God, and that ark was enterable. Noah, his wife, his three sons, and three daughters-in-law all entered into the ark. The ark was not only trustworthy but also enterable. Because the ark was enterable, the eight people who entered into it were saved from the flood. In like manner, every airplane is enterable. If a 747 were only trustworthy and not enterable, we could not go anywhere with it. When we enter into the 747, however, we are saved from the wind and the storm, and we are on our way to our destination. Our enterable God is the real ark and the real 747.
The second type which shows that our God is enterable is the tabernacle. The tabernacle is also a type of Christ. John 1:14 tells us that the Word who was God Himself became flesh and tabernacled among men. Christ is a tabernacle for people to enter into. When we believed in Him, we entered into Him. John 3:36 says, “He who believes into the Son has eternal life.” The same Greek preposition for into is used in Romans 6:3, which tells us that we have been baptized into Christ Jesus. Just to say that you were baptized in Christ is not adequate. You were once outside of Christ, but when you were baptized into the water, that signified that you were baptized into Christ.
Furthermore, Matthew 28:19 indicates that we need to baptize people into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We were once outside of the Triune God, but when we were baptized, we were baptized into the Triune God. Vincent indicates in his word study that the preposition into denotes a kind of spiritual and mystical union with the Triune God. In other words, an organic union transpired at the time that we were baptized into the Triune God. When we were baptized into the Triune God, we were baptized into the very Spirit, who is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God. The Spirit is just the Triune God reaching us. Because He is the Spirit, we all can be baptized into Him.
This matter of our entering into the Triune God is a crucial aspect of the divine revelation that has been missed among most Christians. When we baptize people, it should not be just a ceremony or a religious form to accept people into Christianity. When we baptize them, we must tell them to exercise their faith to be immersed into the sum total of the Divine Being, equivalent to His person. We need to tell the ones being baptized that we are baptizing them not only into the water but also into all that the Triune God is.
The Jews believe God, but they believe in an objective God that exists in the universe but has nothing to do with them experientially. Our believing, however, is very subjective because we believe into God. Our believing creates an organic union between us and the Triune God. Into means entering in. No one told me when I was baptized that I was being immersed into the Triune God. We all have to realize this wonderful fact of our baptism; that is, when we were baptized, we entered into the Triune God.
We have seen that the three gates of the New Jerusalem portray the Triune God as our entrance. Also, the three parables in Luke 15, with the Son as the shepherd, the Spirit as the seeking woman, and the Father as the loving father, show that the Triune God is receiving sinners, not only back to His home but also back into Himself. We all have entered into the Triune God, and now we are in the Triune God! I always consider myself as a person in God. While I am living in my home, I am actually in God. While I am taking a plane, my sensation is that I am in God. While I am walking on the street, I am in God. I am altogether in my Triune God — in the Father, in the Son, and in the Spirit.
This one realization of being in God will preserve you from many evil things. If you realize that you are in God, can you go dancing? Whenever you realize that you are in God, you would never fly to Las Vegas to gamble. Also, this realization will stop your gossip. We Christians gossip frequently, nearly every day. However, whenever you begin to gossip and you realize that you are in God, this realization will stop you from gossiping. Do not “jump out” of God. To gossip is to jump out of God. We should not take a leave of absence from our dwelling place in God. We may feel that we could gossip a little bit and then come back into God. Many times, however, after we gossip, it is hard for us to get back into God. We have to make a strong confession and let the blood wash us. Then our conscience would be cleansed to allow us to be in God experientially.
Furthermore, we need to abide in the Son so that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit may abide in us (John 15:4a; 14:17, 23). Once you get into God, do not get out. You need to abide in Him. To abide implies to enter in further. The depths of God are unfathomable, so we need a further entering into Him. After entering into Him, we have to stay in Him. To stay in Him is actually to enter in further and further. John 15:4a says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” Our abiding becomes a term, or condition, for His abiding in us.
John 14:17 and 23 indicate that when we abide in the Lord, the Spirit of reality abides in us, and the Father comes with the Son to make an abode with us. This indicates that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit abide in us because of our abiding in Him. Our abiding is a term, or a condition, for His abiding in us, and the fulfilling of this condition furthers our entering into Him. This can be fully proven by our experience. We all need to pray, “Lord, thank You that I am now in You. Lord, thank You that hour after hour I abide in You.” When we abide in Him, we realize that He is abiding in us and that His abiding is becoming deeper and deeper in us. This shows that our entering in is triune and that our abiding is also triune. While we are abiding in the Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are abiding in us. This is a kind of triune abiding, which brings in a triune entering in further into the Triune God.
Not many Christians are for the proper experience of the Triune God. They know the Trinity in doctrine, and they talk and teach about the Trinity as theology. However, in the Bible the Triune God is revealed to us for our experience. The grace of Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit referred to in 2 Corinthians 13:14 are not for doctrine but for our enjoyment. To be baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is not for doctrine but for bringing us into an organic union with the Triune God. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not for us to merely know about but for us to experience. We need to be born of the Father, joined to the Son, and one with the Spirit. The experience of the Triune God begins with our entering into Him and continues with our abiding in Him. When we abide in Him, He abides in us in His Divine Trinity.
Colossians 2:7a says that we have been rooted in Christ. This indicates that we believers are like plants and that Christ is likened to the soil. We believers, the plants, need to be rooted into the soil, Christ. A tree not only grows upward but also downward. The root system of a tree grows downward deeply. Quite often, we Christians do not pay attention to our roots or to our being rooted in Christ. We only talk about our growing, but we have to realize that our growing depends upon our rooting. Colossians indicates that we have received Christ as the mystery of God (2:2) and that now we have to be rooted in Him. To be rooted in Christ simply means to enter into Him. When the tree is rooted into the soil, it enters into the soil. When we are rooted in Christ, we will enjoy a further entry into the Triune God.
We are rooted in Christ so that He may make His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:16-19). In Ephesians 3 the apostle prays that God the Father would grant the believers to be strengthened through God the Spirit into their inner man, that Christ, God the Son, may make His home in their hearts, that is, to occupy their entire being, that they might be filled unto all the fullness of God (vv. 14-19). The phrase make His home is only one word in the Greek, katoikeo. This Greek word basically means to settle down in a dwelling, to make a dwelling place. The prefix of this word kata means “down.” This means that Christ is making His home not upward but downward. In many of today’s cities we see parking lots that are built downward, and in some big cities there is an “underground city” with all types of shops and eating establishments. In the same way Christ likes to make a home downward or “underground.” Christ is not superficial like many of today’s Christians who “skate on the ice” of the truth contained in the Bible. The Father, according to His wisdom, is exercising His sovereignty to strengthen you through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your heart.
In Ephesians, Paul’s writing is long and redundant. Verses 14 through 19 of chapter 3 are one long sentence. Verses 3 through 14 of Ephesians 1 are also part of one long sentence. Paul did not care for language; he cared only for the divine revelation. (For a full explanation of all the details of the apostle’s prayer for the church in Ephesians 3:14-19, it would be profitable to read all the footnotes on these verses in the Recovery Version.) The reason Paul writes in such a redundant and seemingly complicated way is because our God is not that simple. He is not merely God, but He is the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The divine mystery of the Trinity is beyond explanation. Martin Luther indicated that if a person can explain the mystery of the Triune God, then that person must be the teacher of God. We do know, however, that our God is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, not for us to know doctrinally but for us to experience. We all need to say, “Thank You, Father! You are the One granting us to be strengthened. You have a plan, You have a purpose, and You are wise. Praise You that You are exercising Your sovereignty to cause us to be strong. Thank You, Father, that You do this through the Spirit. Thank You, we are being strengthened into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in our heart.”
God the Father is exercising His authority through God the Spirit to strengthen us into the inner man, that God the Son may make His home deep down in our hearts. I am sorry to say that some Christians even argue that Christ is not in us. They say that Christ is merely on the throne. They argue that Christ is too great to enter into us small human beings. We all need to declare, however, that the Bible teaches that Christ is not only in us (Col. 1:27) but that He is also making His home downward in our heart. He is housing Himself in our heart.
We all have entered into the Triune God, and we are now abiding in Him. Our abiding in Him affords Him a way to abide in us triunely. The Triune God is now abiding in us, so we have been rooted into Him. While we are rooted into Him, the Father works to strengthen us through God the Spirit so that God the Son, Christ, may make His home deep down in our heart, which is composed of our mind (Heb. 4:12), will (Acts 11:23), emotion (John 16:6, 22), and conscience (Heb. 10:22). Before He began to make His home in our heart, our mind, emotion, will, and conscience were devoid of Him. However, since we began to pray that God the Father would strengthen us into the inner man, Christ gradually began to occupy our mind, take over our emotion and will, and possess our entire conscience.
Our heart is like a house that has four rooms, and these rooms are the mind, the emotion, the will, and the conscience. Christ has the desire to occupy every room of our heart and every corner of every room. As He makes His home downward in our heart, we become strong to apprehend with all the saints the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ (Eph. 3:18). These are the dimensions of the universe. No one knows how wide the breadth is, how long the length is, how high the height is, or how deep the depth is. All these dimensions describe the immeasurable Christ, whose dimensions are the dimensions of the universe. He is the breadth, length, height, and depth. We can only apprehend His universal dimensions with all the saints. Eventually, we know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God (v. 19). When we are filled unto all the fullness of God, this is the complete entering into this wonderful, marvelous, all-inclusive Triune God. When we enter into the Triune God completely, we have entered into the entire constitution of the New Jerusalem. This is the triune entry.
We have seen that our baptism into the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is triune, that we abide in the Son so that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit may abide in us, and that the Father grants us through His Spirit to be strengthened into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart. We enjoy a triune entering in, a triune abiding, and a triune making home in our hearts. This is not the teaching of ethics, morality, or character improvement but the pure teaching according to the pure, divine revelation. We are being filled with the Triune God unto, or resulting in, the fullness of God, which is the expression of the Triune God as the New Jerusalem. This is our enjoyment and experience in today’s church life.
Today many Christians do not like to talk about the church, but in Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus promised that He would build His church. In order for this to be realized, the church has to enter into a state where so many saints will have Christ making His home deep down in their heart so that their entire being would be saturated within with Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, possessing and occupying every corner and every avenue of their entire being. This is the subjective experience of the Triune God and is the very mingling of the Triune God with His chosen and redeemed people. This is divinity mingled with humanity, the composition of the divine God with His redeemed people, which is termed the New Jerusalem in this great allegory. We have entered into the Triune God, and we are still entering. We are entering, and He is making His home deep down in our heart. The more we enter, the more He deepens. Eventually, He gets into our inward being to such an extent that He has housed Himself in every corner and avenue of our entire being.
