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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:4-6; Gal. 2:20a; John 6:57b; Phil. 1:20-21; 1 Cor. 12:13; John 3:6b; Rev. 1:4b
We need to be reminded of our need to realize that the New Jerusalem is not just an item of prophecy concerning something coming in the future, but the holy city is altogether applicable to us today. In this chapter we want to see the New Jerusalem’s application to us as the triune existence. We have seen that the New Jerusalem is built with gold as its city proper, with pearls as its gates, and with precious stones for its foundation and wall. The standing of this city with its three basic elements is its existence. The New Jerusalem has a triune existence.
We need to see how this triune existence can be applied to us today. Since the New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of the entire divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures, its existence can be applied to us by going back to look at the church. In Ephesians 4:4 is the Body. The Body is the church, and the church is a miniature of the New Jerusalem. We can also say that the Body of Christ is a precursor of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is coming, and the church exists today as its precursor. The New Jerusalem will be a full consummation of this precursor, the Body of Christ.
We are not in the New Jerusalem yet, but we are surely in the Body. What is applied to the Body today will consummate in the New Jerusalem. As we have already seen, in the New Jerusalem there are three materials for its existence: gold signifies God the Father in His divine nature, pearls signify the produce of Christ through His death and in His resurrection, and precious stones signify the produce of the Spirit’s transforming work. According to Ephesians 4:4-6, we see the Spirit, the Lord, and God the Father for the existence of the Body of Christ today, which will consummate in the existence of the New Jerusalem. In Ephesians 4 the existence of the New Jerusalem has been applied to us already and is still being applied to us. Day by day we who are in the church, in the Body, are enjoying this application of the existence of the New Jerusalem. We are existing in the Body by the Triune God.
Ephesians 4:4-6 says, “One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” In these verses we see the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father. This, of course, refers to the Divine Trinity, yet the order of the Trinity in these verses is not the Father, the Lord, and the Spirit. We need to ask why Paul begins with the Spirit, goes on to the Lord, and ends with the Father. This is because Paul is touching a subjective matter, and in our experiences the Spirit is the Triune God reaching us. When the Trinity reaches us, He is the Spirit; therefore, Paul begins with the Spirit as the reaching aspect of the Divine Trinity. When we have the Spirit, we also have the Lord because the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). When the Spirit reaches us, the Lord is with us since there is no separation between the three of the Divine Trinity. There is a definite distinction among the three yet no separation. We can never separate the Lord from the Spirit, nor can we separate the Father from the Lord. When the Lord is here, the Father is here. If we have one, we have all three. When the Spirit reaches us, the Lord is here, and when the Lord is here, we also enjoy the Father.
First, in the triune existence we are existing with God the Father, who is over all, through all, and in all. You may think that it is easy to understand that God is over you and in you, but can you explain what it means for God to be through you? We Christians have a bad habit of taking things in the Bible for granted. Many of us have probably read Ephesians many times, but did we ever check what it means for God the Father to be over all, through all, and in all? How is this verse applied to our experience? Do we experience God being over us, through us, and in us?
Verse 6 uses the term one God and Father. We all know that God is our Father, but in this verse Paul inserts the conjunction and. We need to ask what the difference is between God and the Father. God is the Originator of all things and the Originator of His eternal purpose, His eternal economy. As the Father, God is the source of life for the Body. As the Originator, He created us in the old creation, and as the source, He regenerated us in the new creation to be the church. Concerning the old creation, we were created by God. Concerning the new creation, we were regenerated by the Father. On the one hand, we are still the old creation, and on the other hand, we are the new creation. Ephesians 2:15 tells us that through the death of Christ in the flesh, one new man has been created, and this new man is the Body. This Body is of God, the Originator, and of the Father, the source. The very Originator and the source are over all of us, through all of us, and in all of us.
To say that God is over all of us signifies God’s sovereign authority. In business corporations people are either over others or under others. God is over us, and we are all under Him. This means that He is sovereign over us and that He has the authority over us. We have already seen in chapter 38 that when we submit to the inner throne, we experience the flow of the divine life. When you go shopping, do not “throw the throne away.” When you get into the department store, do not dethrone God. You have to enthrone Him. You have to realize that you are under God and that God is over you. God is sovereign, and God is the authority over you. You must submit yourself to His authority.
The unbelievers do not have God over them or above them in their experience, but what about our experience? For God to be over us is not a doctrine. We should always be under God’s sovereignty. Our home and our family must be under God’s authority. If we are going to enjoy the triune existence applied to us today, we should be under God’s authority, under His sovereignty. He is over us, and we are under Him, so we need to submit ourselves to Him.
On this earth today everybody likes to have freedom. Also, everyone likes to be over everyone else. Today, however, we have to realize that God is our authority, and we have to submit ourselves under His authority. We should not be like the unbelievers who do not want to be under anybody, but we are the believers having God over us as our authority.
The one God and Father is also through all. We all should ask ourselves whether God was able to get through us today. Did He get through us, or did we frustrate Him? On certain streets or lanes there is a sign that reads — “No Thoroughfare.” This, of course, means that you cannot get through on this street. In my early days as a Christian, God was struggling to get through me quite often. Actually and outwardly, I was very ethical, moral, and good. However, God could not get through me easily as a young believer. At that time, on most of the lanes and on most of the streets within me, there was a sign that read — “No Thoroughfare.” God could not get through. The young saints among us especially need to ask themselves whether God has gotten through in them in certain matters. You may come to the meetings regularly, but this does not mean that you let God through. God must be over us, and He also must be through us. The question is — do we give Him the thoroughfare? Most of the time in us or with us God sees only a “dead end.”
Many times all the avenues in our being are blocked, and God cannot get through in us. Do you believe that God can get through you all the time? Most of the time God does not have a freeway in us, but instead He runs into “many red lights.” The basic problem that we have with God is that we do not give Him a thoroughfare. Your character may be excellent, and there may be nothing wrong in your behavior morally speaking, yet all the avenues and streets within you are blocked to God. It is a very precious thing that we would give God a thoroughfare through us. Quite often, we do not let God get through in us for a whole day. This means that we do not have much enjoyment of God for our existence. We Christians have God, but because He could not get through us, we do not enjoy Him as our existence. He is over us and He is in us, yet He could not get through us. Paul’s teaching here is altogether experiential.
Paul then goes on to say that God is in all. Paul begins with over all, continues with through all, and ends with in all. First, you must be under God’s sovereignty, and then you must give Him a thoroughfare all the time. As a result, He can abide in you. Paul is not talking about an objective God, but his description is altogether subjective. For God to be over us, through us, and in us is experiential and subjective so that we may enjoy His presence as our existence. We exist by this God who is over us, through us, and in us.
All of us as believers have God, but do we have a God in our experience who is over us, through us, and in us? Is God really over you, through you, and in you? Maybe your job, your business, your education, or a promotion is over you, but not God. Many things are getting through you daily. You may give a thoroughfare to many things but not to God. A lot of things may be right now abiding in you, but not God. God may not be above you, through you, and in you. We may have a God who is merely in the third heavens, far away from us. Paul, however, unveils the very God of the Body of Christ who is over the Body, through the Body, and in the Body. This is the subjective God for our daily existence. We need to be honest before the Lord to allow this word to “check us out” so that we can see where we really are. If we would really open to the Lord, we may see that we are off and that we are not under Him, we are not letting Him through us, and we do not give Him the rule within us. He wants to be such a God to us, but we may not agree with Him.
What we have been fellowshipping is a preapplication of the New Jerusalem to us today in the church life. In the church life today we must have God existing with us in this way, applied to our daily experience. Daily we must be under Him, daily we must let Him go through us, and daily we must give Him our inner room that He may stay in us. Then we exist with Him. Most saints, however, do not exist with God over them, through them, and in them.
We also need to be those existing with the Lord Christ (Eph. 4:5). Our existence today must be one with Christ in the way that He lives in us. Many of us have heard message after message telling us that Christ lives in us, yet in our daily life we do not exist with Christ living in us. Christ living in us is a continuation of the Father being over us and eventually in us. The Son’s living in us is a continuation of the Father’s being in us. When God is over us, through us, and in us, that is Christ living in us. When Christ lives in us (Gal. 2:20a), we live by Him (John 6:57b), which means that we exist by Him. Furthermore, we even live Christ (Phil. 1:21). To live by Christ is not as high as to live Christ. We need to live Christ. The very Christ whom we live is the very substance with which we exist. We exist with Christ as the living substance.
The façade of the New Jerusalem is its twelve pearl gates. The front of a building is its façade. Today we must have Christ living out of us as our façade, our front. We exist not only with God the Father over us, through us, and in us but also with Christ living in us, that we may live by Christ and that we may live Christ. Eventually, we magnify Christ (Phil. 1:20). The first thing that can be seen in the New Jerusalem is the pearl gates. These gates are the magnification of Christ, and today we must exist in a way that Christ is magnified in our existence. In order for us to enter into such a state, there is the need of much time for the divine nature within us to develop and for our growth in life, yet we have to realize that the existence of the New Jerusalem should be applied to our daily life. The New Jerusalem has the Father’s nature as its city proper and the pearls as its gates. We must live by Christ, we must live Christ, and we must magnify Christ by His living in us. When He is living in us, He is surely secreting His resurrection life around us, making us pearls, and these pearls are His magnification.
Finally, we should be those existing with the Spirit (Eph. 4:4). Ephesians 4:4 refers to the one Body and the one Spirit. This verse indicates that the very Spirit is the essence and the substance of the Body, the church. The church today must be substantially and essentially the Spirit Himself. If there is no Spirit, there is no Body, no church. Without the Spirit all we have is a kind of human congregation. The church must be substantially and essentially the Spirit. When we sing a hymn, we sing it with the Spirit. When we speak, we speak with the Spirit. When we serve, we serve with the Spirit. When we testify, share, and function, we do it entirely with the Spirit. Without the Spirit there is no substance of the church. Without the Spirit the church is the same as any other social organization. The church must be one Body with the Spirit as its substance.
Some may wonder how we can say that the Spirit is the substance or the essence of the church. First, the New Testament tells us that we were regenerated by the Spirit (John 3:6b). Since the Spirit has regenerated us, this regenerating Spirit has become the very substance and the very essence of the church. The New Testament also tells us that we have been baptized in the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13a). Now we are those drinking the Spirit (v. 13b). Day after day the Spirit is our drink, and whatever we drink becomes our intrinsic essence. Therefore, the Spirit must be the intrinsic essence of the church life. Furthermore, we are now being transformed by the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). He is now transforming us with the divine element, which is being added to us to replace and discharge the old element of our old nature. You and I have to exist with the Spirit as our spiritual essence. Finally, we are being strengthened and enriched by the sevenfold intensified Spirit (Rev. 1:4b) for the Body life, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
The application of the New Jerusalem in its triune existence is described in Ephesians 4:4-6. These verses show how the church can exist with the Triune God — with the Father, with the Lord, and with the Spirit. I hope that we all have seen something concerning the triune existence. The Bible is a book full of revelations and full of visions. We should not limit our understanding of the Bible according to the ability of our mentality. Our mentality is too small. This is why Paul prays in Ephesians 1:17 that the Father would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation, that He would open our inner eyes that we might see something. We need a vision to see how the Triune God can be our daily existence. We need a vision to see how we have to exist with God the Father over us, through us, and in us, and with the Son living in us so that we may take Him as our life to live by Him, to live Him, and to magnify Him. We also have to see that the very consummation of the Triune God is the reaching Spirit who is right now within us. He has regenerated us, we have been baptized in Him, we are drinking Him, and He is transforming us. He is the very substance and the very essence of our church life. This is the existence of the New Jerusalem applied to us today. I am happy for this wonderful portion of the Scriptures where we can see the Spirit, the Lord, and God the Father being the substance of our daily existence. It is truly marvelous that today we can enjoy a foretaste of the existence of the New Jerusalem in eternity.
