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Scripture Reading: Rev. 6:9-11; 12:1-6; 14:1-5; 15:2-4; 13:7a; 11:3-12; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 11:18c; 19:7-9; 17:14; 19:14; Joel 3:11; Rev. 19:19-21; 11:15; 20:4, 6; Matt. 5:20; 19:23-30; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-5; 2 Pet. 1:11; Matt. 19:28; Rev. 22:3b; 2:26-27; 12:5; 2:7; Matt. 13:43; Dan. 12:2-3, 13; Rev. 21:1-3, 9-12, 14; 22:17
In this chapter we want to see the final consummation of the overcomers. If we read the Bible thoroughly, we can see that the overcomers are the life line, the pulse, of the entire Bible. The first overcomer among God’s people was Abel (Gen. 4:2-8). The Lord Jesus in Matthew 23:35 referred to the martyrdom of Abel, indicating that he was the first overcomer. Starting from Abel, the Lord has continued to gain overcomers to ultimately consummate His economy and bring in the kingdom of Christ and of God (Rev. 11:15).
We have pointed out that the book of Revelation is on the overcomers and the New Jerusalem. The overcomers have a strong issue, and this issue is the conclusion of the divine revelation. The New Jerusalem is the ending, the conclusion, and the totality of the divine revelation in the sixty-six books of the Bible.
The crucial items in Revelation 21 and 22 concerning the New Jerusalem were already mentioned previously in the Bible. The most striking point in the New Jerusalem is the tree of life, which was mentioned at the beginning of the Bible (Gen. 2:9). If there were no tree of life in the holy city, there would be no food for God’s redeemed to live on. The tree of life is the centrality and universality of the holy city.
The New Jerusalem is actually a high mountain with a height of twelve thousand stadia. The city is a cube with the length, breadth, and height all being equal (Rev. 21:16). The Holy of Holies in both the tabernacle and the temple was a cube, being equal in length, breadth, and height (Exo. 26:2-8; 1 Kings 6:20). Hence, the New Jerusalem being a cube signifies that the entire city will be the Holy of Holies. In it, all of God’s redeemed ones will serve and worship God, will see and touch God’s presence, and will live and dwell in God’s presence for eternity. The center of the New Jerusalem is the tree of life for the feeding and nourishing of the entire city.
Now we need to consider how one tree could be available to feed the entire city. The tree of life is not like a pine tree. Because a pine tree is so tall, it is not available to us. The tree of life is a vine tree. Christ is the vine tree (John 15:1) and He is the life (14:6a), so He is the tree of life. That the one tree of life grows on the two sides of the river of water of life (Rev. 22:2) signifies that the tree of life is a vine that spreads and proceeds along the flow of the water of life for God’s people to receive and enjoy. A pine tree grows high, but a vine tree spreads. If we want to eat the tree of life, we do not need a “ladder,” because this tree is a vine tree so available for us to eat.
The river of water of life in the New Jerusalem is within the one golden street (v. 1). The tree of life grows in and alongside the river of water of life, which spirals down the mountain to reach all twelve gates of the city. The tree of life as a great vine is the available food, the nourishment, for God’s redeemed in eternity, so it is the life pulse of the New Jerusalem. I went to England in 1958, and someone took me to see a big vine tree called the Queen’s vine. But this vine is very small in comparison with the vine that I have seen. I have seen the great vine tree, the tree of life, in the New Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus said that He was the true vine (John 15:1). He is the vine tree, and we are the branches (v. 5). He is the centrality and universality of God’s economy, and God’s economy consummates in the New Jerusalem.
The divine revelation in the Bible, beginning from God’s creation in Genesis 1, concludes with two long chapters, Revelation 21 through 22. In these two chapters is the New Jerusalem as a great and strong sign of God’s economy. The centrality and universality of this holy city is the tree of life, the greatest vine in the universe. This vine comprises our God, our Lord, our Master, our Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and us. We are a part of this vine because we are the branches.
In Genesis 2 we see the tree of life, and after all the ages the tree of life is still present in the New Jerusalem. The Triune God embodied in Christ was the tree of life at the beginning, but at the end of the Bible the tree of life is spreading throughout the holy city. Thus, the Bible starts with the tree of life and ends with the tree of life.
In Genesis 2 along with the tree of life, there is also a river. This river had four heads and flowed toward the four directions of the earth (vv. 10-14). Then in the New Jerusalem there is a river in which the tree of life grows. Thus, there is a river at the beginning and end of the Bible. At the flow of the river in Genesis 2 there were gold, bdellium (a kind of pearl), and onyx stone, which is a precious stone (vv. 11-12). Then at the end of the Bible, the holy city is built with gold, pearls, and precious stones (Rev. 21:18-21). There is the same picture at the beginning and end of the Bible of the tree of life with a flowing river issuing in gold, pearls, and precious stones.
In Genesis 2 the material was just lying there, but at the end of the Bible the gold, pearls, and precious stones are built into a city. In the beginning there was a garden created by God, but at the end the garden becomes a city. The city is something created by God that has been transformed and built up. The New Jerusalem is a building with gold, pearls, and precious stones. The beginning and end of the Bible reflect each other. The New Jerusalem as a city has twelve gates, and at the end of the book of Ezekiel, there is also a city by the name of Jerusalem with twelve gates (48:31-35). This shows us that, on the one hand, the New Jerusalem is new; on the other hand, it is ancient.
The entire Bible is a revelation and a record of God’s economy, and God’s economy is consummated in the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem was something in God’s heart in eternity past. This city is God’s desire, God’s good pleasure. I believe that God saw the New Jerusalem in eternity past. When He looked at that, He was happy.
When I was in Chefoo over fifty years ago, I had a dream of building a large meeting hall for the ministry of the word. This dream could be considered as my economy, my heart’s desire, my good pleasure. But eventually, China was taken over by the Communists, and I did not see the completion of my dream to have such a hall. Then I was sent from mainland China to Taiwan. In Taiwan we were not able to have a big meeting hall according to the one I envisioned. I began to minister in the United States in 1962, and we eventually moved to Anaheim in 1974. In Anaheim we were able to acquire two and a half acres of land to build a meeting hall according to my dream in Chefoo many years earlier. Today’s hall in Anaheim had been in my thoughts many years before it was built.
God also had a dream, and that dream was to have the New Jerusalem, a built-up city, as the consummation of His economy. At the beginning of the Bible, we see the tree of life, a flowing river, and precious materials. At the end of the Bible, we also see the tree of life, a flowing river, and precious materials built into a city according to God’s economy. By this we can see how consistent the Bible is. It was written by more than forty writers within a period of about fifteen hundred years. Apparently, Genesis is much different from Matthew, and Matthew is much different from Revelation. It may seem that the sixty-six books of the Bible are independently different. Actually, the very intrinsic essence of the Bible is consistent. It is consistent in one thing—the New Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem comprises the Triune God and His chosen and redeemed people. The Triune God has gone through a wonderful process. In eternity past He was God, having only divinity, but one day according to His economy, He became a man. This is because His economy, His blueprint, shows that He wants to be one with man.
The Triune God took the step to be incarnated four thousand years after Adam was created. From Adam to Abraham was two thousand years, and from Abraham to Christ was two thousand years. The very Triune God became a man. He did not become a man magically. His incarnation was altogether according to the principle that He had ordained in His creation. For a man to be brought into existence, he must be conceived and remain in the womb for nine months. Then he is born and grows into manhood. This is the way Jesus came. He was conceived in the womb of a virgin, and He was born out of her womb. Then He passed through boyhood and entered into manhood. He lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years.
What a wonder that the almighty, infinite, eternal Triune God would enter into the womb of the virgin Mary to be born of her and to be a typical man to live, walk, and work on earth for thirty-three and a half years! The very almighty God who created the heavens and the earth with millions of items became a man and lived on the earth as a little man for thirty-three and a half years to be persecuted, to be despised, to be rejected, to be hated, and to be abhorred by His creatures. This means that He has gone through a process, and through His process He has been consummated to be the processed and consummated Triune God. Such a God is included in the New Jerusalem, and we are there mingled with Him as one entity.
The New Jerusalem is a great sign because the book of Revelation is a book of signs. Revelation 1:1 says that the revelation of this book is made known by signs, symbols with spiritual significance. The seven lampstands are signs, signifying the seven churches (1:20). The Lamb signifies Christ as the redeeming God (5:6). The Lord Jesus is not a literal lamb with a tail and four legs. The Lamb is a sign. In the same way the entire New Jerusalem is a sign, signifying the ultimate consummation of God’s economy. We need signs because a picture is better than a thousand words. It is very difficult to describe what a person looks like, so the best way is to have a photo of that person. The New Jerusalem in the Bible is a “photo” of all the secrets, all the mysteries, of God’s economy.
In His economy God would not accomplish anything merely by Himself. In His economy He has determined to do everything in and with humanity. God’s old creation was carried out in six days, but to accomplish His economy to gain the New Jerusalem takes God at least seven thousand years. It takes God so long because He needs man. He needs human cooperation.
We were caught by the Lord for the carrying out of His economy. Many years ago I was endeavoring to gain the best education. I knew that, humanly speaking, education was my future. One afternoon in my hometown I heard a young lady preach the gospel in a large meeting place to an audience of over one thousand people. I was nineteen years old, and she was twenty-five years old. I was very curious to hear what she would speak. In that meeting, as a young ambitious man, I was caught, “hooked,” by the Lord Jesus. As I was walking back home from the meeting, I consecrated my entire life and future to the Lord. I told Him that I wanted to go throughout the villages to preach Christ. I was “hooked” by Him.
While this enterprising Triune God is on the way to accomplish His economy, He passes through the earth, and here and there, there and here, He gained us for His heart’s desire. He redeemed us, washed us, justified us, and reconciled us to Himself. He regenerated us by entering into us in a hidden way. When we heard the gospel, repented of our sins, and believed into Christ, we were not conscious that God came inside of us. But this is what happened when we were regenerated. From that time onward, He has been sanctifying us, renewing us, transforming us, and conforming us to the image of the firstborn Son of God. As we are in this process, we are waiting for and expecting the time when He will come to glorify us. When He glorifies us, He will bring our entire being into His glory to make us absolutely the same as He is in every way. Of course, we do not and will not have His Godhead for people to worship us. We are not to be worshipped by anyone, but we do have God’s life (1 John 5:12) and God’s nature (2 Pet. 1:4). We are holy as He is, spiritual as He is, and divine as He is. We regenerated Christians are both human and divine. As the human and divine ones, we all become a part of the New Jerusalem. This is the way God takes to consummate His economy, to complete His wonderful masterpiece, the New Jerusalem.
The divine design and composition of the New Jerusalem is marvelous. Gold signifies God in His divine nature, and the entire mount of the New Jerusalem is gold (Rev. 21:18). God in His nature is the base for the building up of the New Jerusalem. The city is also built with precious stones. The foundation of the city is twelve layers of precious stones (vv. 19-20). On these twelve layers are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (v. 14). The twelve layers of the foundation have the appearance of a rainbow, signifying that the city is built upon and secured by God’s faithfulness in keeping His covenant (Gen. 9:8-17) and that the foundation of the city is trustworthy and reliable.
The city also has twelve pearl gates (Rev. 21:21). Pearls are produced by oysters in the waters of death. When an oyster is wounded by a grain of sand, it secretes its life-juice around the grain of sand, making it into a precious pearl. This depicts Christ as the living One coming into the death waters, being wounded by us, and secreting His life over us to make us into precious pearls for the building of God’s eternal expression.
The New Jerusalem is not only a composition but also a constitution of God and man. God has been constituted into man, and man has been constituted into Him. God dwells in man, and man dwells in Him. God and man coinhere; that is, they mutually indwell each other. Eventually, the New Jerusalem is the mingling of God and man. In the whole universe there will be a big cube, the New Jerusalem, which is the mingling of divinity with humanity.
The composition of the overcomers is the categories, the different kinds, of overcomers.
Revelation 6:9-11 reveals the overcomers crying to the Lord for His avenging at the fifth seal. This group of overcomers comprises all the martyrs from Abel to those before the fifth seal. Today we are in the first four seals. The fifth seal has not come yet, but it may come soon. In the Old Testament times, there were a number of martyrs who sacrificed themselves to die for the Lord’s interest (Heb. 11:35-38). They were overcomers in the Old Testament. Then in the New Testament, from the time of the early apostles to our time, there have been many more martyrs. Throughout the approximately nineteen centuries of church history, many faithful saints have been martyred. Some were not martyred physically but psychologically. They were martyred in their soul, their psyche, their emotion, mind, and will. Every day we, the lovers of Jesus, are undergoing a kind of martyrdom. By the time the fifth seal comes, there will be many overcomers crying to the Lord for His avenging. Their cry to the Lord will usher in the sixth seal, which will be the very beginning of the great tribulation.
The second category of overcomers will be the man-child born of the universal woman (Rev. 12:1-5). The universal woman is the totality of God’s people. Out of God’s people, the man-child will be born. The man-child comprises the martyrs who cry at the fifth seal and the additional martyrs before the great tribulation. There is a short time from the fifth seal to the beginning of the great tribulation. But even within such a short time, there will be a number of martyrs. These martyrs will be included in the man-child. Thus, the man-child is a bigger group than those who cry to the Lord at the fifth seal. The man-child will be resurrected and raptured to the throne of God before the three and a half years of the great tribulation (vv. 4b-6).
Revelation 14:1-5 speaks of the one hundred forty-four thousand living overcomers raptured before the great tribulation to Mount Zion in the heavens before God’s throne as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. The man-child will be the dead, martyred overcomers who will be resurrected and raptured to the throne before the great tribulation. The firstfruits to God and to the Lamb will be the living overcomers, who no doubt live a suffering life under the crucifixion of Christ, by the death of Christ. Before the great tribulation they also will be raptured. They will not need to be resurrected, because they will have never died. All the resurrected martyred overcomers and the living overcomers will be raptured to the third heaven before the great tribulation to enjoy the Lord as the morning star (2:28). At His second appearing Christ will be the morning star to His overcomers who watch for His coming. To all the others He will appear only as the sun (Mal. 4:2).
Revelation 15 speaks of the martyrs in the great tribulation under the persecution of Antichrist resurrected and raptured to stand on the glassy sea close to the end of the great tribulation (vv. 2-4; 13:7a). The glassy sea mingled with fire is a sign of the lake of fire, so these martyrs stand above the lake of fire. These are the late overcomers who will pass through the great tribulation and overcome Antichrist and the worshipping of Antichrist. They will be martyred under the persecution of Antichrist and then resurrected to reign with Christ in the millennium (20:4).
When the man-child and the firstfruits are raptured to the third heaven, many believers will be left on the earth because they have not matured. This indicates that they lived a life with very little growth in Christ, so they will be left on earth to pass through the great tribulation. That will be their trial, their test, and that will help them to give up the world. Suppose a brother loves the Lord, yet he still loves the world. When the great tribulation comes and the overcomers are raptured, will such a brother still love the world? He may cry out, “Lord Jesus, why did You leave me here? Brother So-and-so who was serving with me for years has been raptured, but I am still here.” Surely this brother will repent to the Lord, turning to the Lord in a desperate way; he will not want to be left on earth until the last day of the great tribulation. This will issue in his maturity.
The resurrection and rapture of the majority of the saints will be very close to the end of the great tribulation. Even some of them will receive a reward because they will get matured through the great tribulation. After this rapture the Lord will set up His judgment seat in the air to judge all the believers (2 Cor. 5:10). The believers either will be rewarded with the kingdom for one thousand years or will enter into outer darkness to suffer some discipline (Matt. 25:21, 23, 30).
Revelation 11:3-12 shows the two witnesses, who will be martyred, resurrected, and raptured to the heavens in the cloud at the close of the great tribulation. These two will be Moses and Elijah, God’s living witnesses. Moses, representing the law, and Elijah, representing the prophets, both testified for God. They will be martyred by Antichrist, and their corpses will be on the street for three and a half days. Then they will be resurrected and raptured in the eyes of all their persecutors. As the overcomers, the two witnesses will be rewarded and will be in the kingdom. Moses and Elijah appeared before the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-3). That was a miniature of the manifestation of the kingdom.
We can see from our fellowship that the overcomers are those who live the life of a martyr. To be martyred is glorious. During the Boxer Rebellion in China in the early 1900s, many Christians were martyred. One man told me the story of a young girl who was martyred during this time. He was working one day when the Boxers were parading on the street with their long swords in a threatening way. He looked through a crack in the door and saw them leading a young Christian girl to her death. Instead of being frightened, she was singing and praising. When this man saw her, he was shocked and said to himself that there must be something special about being a Christian. Because of this, he sought to find out what this “foreign religion” of being a Christian was, and he was saved by the Lord. Actually, he was saved through that young martyr. Later, he gave up his business and became a traveling preacher. When I was in Chefoo, he told me this story of how he was saved and became a minister of Christ. This young martyr, through whom he was saved, was a real overcomer.
Now we want to see the final consummation of the overcomers. We need to see what the overcomers consummate and accomplish.
Eventually, all of the overcomers will be manifested as a corporate overcomer after their raptures. After they are raptured, they all become one entity. They are really built together. This can be proved by two things. First, all the overcomers become one bride to Christ (Rev. 19:7-9). Christ will not have many brides but only one bride, who is constituted with all the overcomers. This is proof that all the overcomers will become one. Second, they become the heavenly army to follow Christ to defeat Antichrist and those who follow him (vv. 11-21). All the overcomers first become the bride, and after her marriage to Christ, the bride becomes the army. All the overcomers are really one.
This means that today, in this age before the rapture, we have to learn the lesson of how to be one and of how to coordinate with one another with no opinion. We should reject our opinion and care only for our growth in Christ, transformation in Christ, and building up in Christ. If we are such persons, the church life will be pleasant to us. When we are right persons, everything is right and pleasant to us. But when we are wrong persons, we are unhappy and everything is wrong and unpleasant to us. When we are right in an overcoming situation, we love everything and everyone, and every situation is no problem to us. Today in the church life, those who condemn and criticize others are the wrong persons. If someone comes to us to say something negative about the church, about the elders, about the ministry, about the brothers, or about the sisters, we have to realize that this person is a wrong person. We should stay away from such persons (Rom. 16:17). Otherwise, we will be contaminated. In this age we have to learn the lesson to coordinate with all the lovers of Christ. Then after our rapture, we will be ready to go along with one another, and we will be one entity as Christ’s bride and Christ’s army.
The overcomers will be rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 11:18c). Christ will judge His believers not concerning their eternal salvation but concerning their dispensational reward (1 Cor. 4:4-5; 3:13-15).
The overcomers will also be the bride married to the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9).
They will also be the army of the Lamb (17:14; 19:14). According to Joel 3:11, they will come as the mighty ones with Christ to defeat Antichrist and his armies (Rev. 19:19-21) to close the great tribulation and the present age. We should not be those who love this age, because we need to become the ones to close it. The overcomers will come with Christ to close this present, evil, and ugly age. We can hasten the Lord’s coming and the closing of this age by being the overcomers to stand against the tide and the trend of the entire situation and environment on the earth.
When we close the great tribulation and this age, we will bring in the kingdom of God and of Christ (11:15; 20:4, 6). The kingdom will not come spontaneously by itself. The kingdom will come by our bringing it in.
The overcomers will inherit the kingdom of God and of Christ in the fuller enjoyment of the eternal life (Matt. 5:20; 19:23-30; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-5; 2 Pet. 1:11). First, they bring in the kingdom, and then they inherit it. They will be the co-kings with Christ (Rev. 20:4, 6; Matt. 19:28). Christ will be the leader of the kings, and the overcomers will be the co-kings to co-reign with Christ. The overcomers will also be priests of God and of Christ in the millennium (Rev. 20:6; 22:3b) to enjoy the ruling authority over the nations (2:26-27; 12:5). To man, the overcomers will be the kings. To God and to Christ, they will be the priests. What a blessing!
What God wants is the New Jerusalem, which will be the totality of what the overcomers are. Eventually, all the overcomers will be the New Jerusalem, as the bride of Christ for one thousand years, in its initial and fresh stage. These one thousand years will be counted as one day (2 Pet. 3:8), the wedding day. This will be the initial and fresh stage of the New Jerusalem as the bride of Christ.
The overcomers will also be the New Jerusalem as the present Paradise of God in the millennial kingdom (Rev. 2:7). This bride will be the Paradise of God. The three things are one: the bride, the city, and the Paradise of God.
The overcomers will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father in the heavenly part of the millennium (Matt. 13:43; cf. Dan. 12:2-3, 13). The millennium will have two parts: the heavenly part and the earthly part. The saved Israelites who will repent at the Lord’s coming back (Rom. 11:26-27; Zech. 12:10; Ezek. 36:25-28) will be the priests in the earthly part (Zech. 8:20-23; Isa. 2:2-3), which will be the kingdom of the Son of Man (Matt. 13:41; Rev. 11:15); whereas the overcoming believers will be in the heavenly part to shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. For one thousand years, the overcomers will shine forth the light, and the light is the Triune God Himself (1 John 1:5).
Eventually, the New Jerusalem will be consummated and completed in full, as the tabernacle of God and the wife of Christ in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-3, 9-10). In the kingdom of one thousand years, the New Jerusalem will be composed only of the overcomers. Besides the overcomers there will be a great number of immature saints, but after the thousand-year kingdom, all the believers will be matured. The Lord has a way to cause all the believers to be matured. If we do not get matured in this age, we will be matured in the next age. The process of being matured in the next age, however, will be very severe. Eventually, all the believers will join the overcomers to make the New Jerusalem larger than it was in the thousand-year kingdom. That will consummate and complete the New Jerusalem in full, as the tabernacle of God and the wife of Christ in the new heaven and new earth for eternity.
In eternity the New Jerusalem will be the wife of Christ. On the wedding day the wife is the bride, but after the wedding day she is no longer the bride but simply the wife. The believers who do not overcome in this age will participate in the New Jerusalem as the wife, but they will have no share in her as the bride because they will mature too late. The New Jerusalem in eternity future will be with the addition of all the saints perfected for their maturity in the divine life through the discipline in the kingdom age (vv. 2, 12, 14). This will be for the eternal expression, to its fullest extent, of the processed Triune God in, with, and through all the regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite saints in eternity (vv. 10-11).
The overcomers will consummate finally the Triune God’s eternal economy in Christ through the consummated Spirit. This is proved by Revelation 22:17: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come!” The bride is the overcomers, and the Spirit is the consummated Triune God. This is the ultimate consummation of the entire economy of God, and this consummation is the glorified saints married to the processed and consummated Triune God.
The overcomers will participate in the fullest enjoyment of the processed and consummated Triune God in the fellowship with all the redeemed and glorified saints forever and ever. In the thousand-year kingdom the overcomers will be happy, but they will no doubt miss their spiritual relatives, the other brothers and sisters in Christ. But after the one thousand years all the believers will be matured to be included with the overcomers as the New Jerusalem for eternity. Then we will enjoy the Triune God in fellowship with all the saints throughout the ages as the New Jerusalem forever to be in His glory as His expression for His satisfaction. In this chapter we have seen the New Jerusalem. Our “dream” is to become the New Jerusalem as the final consummation of the overcomers and the consummation of God’s economy.
In the universal scene, there are mainly two persons—God and man. There are millions of other lifeless and organic things, which may be considered as a decoration to God’s universe. God loves beauty because He is a God of beauty. The living creatures and the plant life are beautiful. God did not create an empty heaven and a barren earth but a universe of beauty. All the items of beauty in the universe created by God may be considered as God’s decoration, but the main things in the universe are two persons—God and man.
If you take God and man away, the entire universe will have no real history. The universe has a history, beginning with the creation of man, of approximately six thousand years. The real history of the entire universe is concerning God with man and concerning God within man. The Old Testament, from Genesis through Malachi, is the history of God with man. Genesis 1 says that God created man, and Malachi 4 says that God will come to man as the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings (v. 2). Sun dispels all the darkness, and healing swallows up all our sickness. In the age of restoration we will have the unique God as our Sun and our healing. Everything will be restored by His healing and by His shining. When He shines and heals, we are restored.
The history of the entire universe is a history of God with man in the Old Testament, but this is not the ultimate consummation. Still, we have the New Testament. In the New Testament we see a further history of God. Now this God is not just with man; He is within man. The first chapter of Matthew tells us how He got into man. He was conceived in the womb of a virgin. He was the Creator, who could call things into being. In the old creation He spoke things into being. When He said, “Let there be light,” there was light (Gen. 1:3). This is the way He creates. But in the New Testament He was conceived in the womb of a virgin and remained there for nine months.
Matthew 1:20 says, “That which has been begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit.” God was born into Mary through His Spirit. That which was born in Mary was God. God was born there, and He remained there exactly nine months. This was surely a great step. When He created the universe, He spent only six days. But for Him to enter into man was not a simple matter. To enter into man means to join with man and to be one with man.
God has the divine life, the uncreated life, and man has the human life, the created life. How could these two lives be together as one, and how could there be a living of these two lives as one living? This is why God entered into man. He was divine, yet He was born human. No one can exhaust the study of this wonderful One. Who is He? He is God, but He is more than God. He is also man. He is the complete God and the perfect man. We have to call Him the God-man. The term God-man implies so much. This One who is our God, our Savior, our Redeemer, our Lord, and our Master is marvelous and far beyond our natural comprehension.
In Matthew 1 we can see how the unique God became a man. His name was Emmanuel, meaning “God with us” (v. 23). He was God with man. Then He lived on the earth, and He died a wonderful, vicarious, all-inclusive death to terminate every negative thing in the universe. His death was also a life-releasing death. In His death He released Himself out of the human shell that He had put on. His resurrection was a life-imparting resurrection. In resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) to take a second step to enter into man.
In the first step of incarnation He entered into man with the divine essence, to bring God into man, but through the second step of resurrection, He enters into man with two essences, the divine essence and the human essence. A divine-human mingled essence enters into man. When He entered into us in the second step, all the aspects of His person and work were included. When He entered into us, the complete God and the perfect man entered with His human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. When we were born of our human parents, we did not realize all the things that we received genetically. In the same principle, when we were regenerated, when God came into us, we did not realize that many wonderful things came into us. When we give Christ the first place, taking Him as our first love, we grow in Him. It is by our growth in life that we begin to realize what we have inherited by our divine birth.
In the process of living the Christian life, I have discovered many things, not just by my own experiences but also by the revelation in the Holy Bible. In God’s economy there are three crucial factors—God and man plus the Bible, which reveals the history of God in His union with man. In the Bible we have seen that the unique God desires to be wrought into man, making Himself one with man. He lives in this man, and this man lives in Him. These two entities have one living.
The apostle Paul says that our outer man is being consumed, but our inner man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). To be consumed means to be reduced, and to be renewed means to be increased. The old man is decaying, reducing, and the new man is increasing. Our inner man is being renewed with God. This means that the very Triune God is working Himself into us. If we are willing to receive His working, to say yes to His working, we will be the overcomers.
The overcomers enjoy God in them to be their grace for their enjoyment. The result, the coming out, is the Triune God wrought into and mingled with our tripartite being to make us one person, one entity. The New Jerusalem, which is the totality of all the overcomers, is a divine mingling of the processed Triune God with the redeemed and transformed tripartite man, a mingling of divinity with humanity, issuing in a universal, corporate, mysterious person. This is the conclusion of the entire Bible and of the history of God, first with man and second within man.
In the entire universe the crucial items are God plus man plus His divine revelation, which is the Bible. At the conclusion of the divine revelation all of God’s chosen and redeemed people will be absolutely one in the Triune God. He is three, but He is uniquely one, so in the Triune God, the three-one God, we all can be made one. The conclusion of the divine revelation is the New Jerusalem, which is the processed, consummated Triune God wrought into our tripartite, God-created being, making the Triune God and us one entity.
