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Scripture Readings: Gen. 2:8, 9b-12; Rev. 21:1a, 2-3, 10-11, 18-19a, 21; 22:1-2
In the last chapter we saw that the spirits and souls of dead believers did not ascend to heaven even after the Lord Jesus resurrected and ascended to heaven. Revelation 6:9 clearly says that at the time of the opening of the fifth seal, which occurs very close to the second coming of the Lord, the souls of the martyrs will still be underneath the altar, that is, in the Paradise of Hades. In this chapter we need to see in principle what the distinctive features of the heavenly New Jerusalem and the Paradise in Hades are. We need to see the consistent line in the Bible.
Most Bible readers acknowledge that at the beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis, God prepared a dwelling place for man (2:8). At the end of the Bible in Revelation we also see that God prepares a dwelling place for man (21:2). From beginning to end, the Bible is a record of God’s preparation of a dwelling place for man.
The dwelling place God prepared for man in the beginning was called the garden of Eden, and the one at the end is called the New Jerusalem. Eden means “pleasure.” Therefore, the garden of Eden was a paradise. The dwelling place at the end of the Bible—the New Jerusalem, which is mentioned at the beginning of Revelation 2—is also a paradise. The paradise in Genesis 2 has the tree of life in it. Revelation 22 shows that the New Jerusalem also has the tree of life in it. Thus, the paradise in Genesis 2 is the New Jerusalem in Revelation 22.
Here we see that the dwelling place God prepared for man in the beginning was a paradise and that the dwelling place God prepares for man in the end is also a paradise. Both are pleasant places, and their contents are also similar. The two paradises both have the tree of life and a river, and both have pure gold, pearl, and precious stones. This shows that the dwelling place God prepared for man in the beginning is the same as the one He prepares for man at the end. The two places have almost the same contents. This shows that what God did in the beginning was related to His ultimate purpose, and God’s ultimate purpose is revealed in what He did in the beginning.
The two paradises in Genesis and Revelation are both dwelling places for man. They show the purpose and reason why God prepared them for man. Our simple minds may think that God only wants us to go to heaven. However, God’s thought is very different from ours. God’s unique purpose in this universe is to work Himself into man so that man may have His life and nature and that through His life and nature man may be transformed inwardly (2 Pet. 1:3-4; 2 Cor. 3:18). Ultimately, God and man will be mingled together, and man will have the image of God (Rom. 8:29). The inward being of God will be the inward being of man, and God’s glorious, outward appearance will be man’s glorious appearance (cf. Rev. 4:3; 21:11). As a result, God and man will be exactly the same both outwardly and inwardly.
In typology pure gold is used to signify God’s life and nature. Most Bible readers know that pure gold signifies God’s life and nature. For example, the Ark in the Old Testament tabernacle was overlaid with pure gold (Exo. 37:1-2). The lampstand was made of beaten work from one piece of pure gold (v. 17). Pure gold typifies the divine life and nature of the Lord Jesus.
The outward expression of God is usually symbolized by precious stones. In Exodus, when Moses saw God, he saw something like a paved work of sapphire under His feet (24:10). When Daniel saw the Lord, the Lord looked like beryl (Dan. 10:6). In Revelation, John saw in a vision One who was sitting on the throne in heaven who was like a jasper stone and a sardius stone in appearance (4:3). There is no question that in the Bible precious stones signify the expression of the glorious image of God. I hope we all would remember the significance of the pure gold and the precious stones. The pure gold is God’s life and nature, and the precious stones are the expression of God’s glorious image.
Pure gold signifies God’s nature, and precious stones signify His glory. God’s purpose is to work in us to the extent that we become exactly the same as He is. He wants to put His nature into us so that we may be transformed to the point of having His image outwardly. Do we have the pure gold and the precious stones? The pure gold is God’s nature, and the precious stones are God’s glorious image. Do we who are under the work of God’s grace have the pure gold and the precious stones? The pure gold signifies God’s life and nature, which is inward, whereas the precious stones signify God’s glorious image, which is expressed outwardly. Since we all have been saved by grace, we at least have the pure gold, which is God’s life and nature.
Peter says that God has given us His life so that we can be partakers of His nature (2 Pet. 1:3-4). Once we are saved, God’s life with His nature enters into us; thus, we have the pure gold in us. However, we may not have the precious stones outwardly. In other words, our outward man may be the same and may not have changed much. For example, before some saints were saved, they were not only created human beings but human beings who had become a mess. One day, however, they were saved and were cleansed by the Lord. They received the Lord’s life and nature and became clean within. Yet outwardly, they are still the same. They are still what they were by creation without any outward change. In other words, they do not express the glorious image of God. They are still what they were originally, except that they do not sin as they did before. Hence, in their outward being they are still the original old man. Is this old man made of precious stones or clay? Our old man is a “clay man.” One gets dirty simply by touching this clay man.
Genesis 2:7 records that in the beginning God formed man with the dust of the ground, 1 Corinthians 15:47 says that Adam is earthy, and 2 Corinthians 4:7 says that we were created to be earthen vessels. The term earthen vessel in Greek denotes an earthy vessel made of clay. Hence, even after receiving the life and nature of the pure gold within, we still may not have the image of the precious stones without. We may still be earthy. We remain the same because the life of God has not yet transformed us enough.
After we are saved, although we may not sin as we did before, much of our being remains unchanged. Even though we may be somewhat transformed into the image of Christ, that amount of transformation is not enough. We have the life and nature of the pure gold within, but we may be short of the glorious image of the precious stones without. When God first put Adam in the garden of Eden, there were pure gold and precious stones there. God’s purpose was that the man of clay would be transformed into pure gold and precious stone. Therefore, in the garden of Eden we can see the tree of life and the river of life. God wanted Adam to receive the life from the tree of life and the river of life so that he could be transformed into pure gold and precious stone.
When we come to Revelation 21, a city of pure gold appears, and a wall of precious stones is manifested. The street of this city is pure gold, and the outward wall is composed of precious stones. This city is a sign with a twofold significance. On one hand, this city signifies a place, because it is a city. On the other hand, it signifies a person, because it is a bride, the wife of the Lamb. In other words, this city is the dwelling place of God and all the saints, and it is also the issue of God’s work in man throughout the ages. This city is a man of glory.
In the garden of Eden in Genesis, we see man, pure gold, and precious stones. The man, the pure gold, and the precious stones are separate from each other. When we come to the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21, we see pure gold and precious stones but no man. Where is man? Can anyone find man in the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21? In Genesis we can see man in the garden of Eden, but in Revelation we cannot see man in the New Jerusalem. Why is this? This is because the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 is the issue of God’s work in man throughout the ages. The city, the place itself, is man. In the New Jerusalem, man, the pure gold, and the precious stones are one and cannot be separated.
On the foundations of the wall of the city we can see the names of the twelve apostles, but we cannot see the twelve apostles themselves. In this respect the New Jerusalem is different from the garden of Eden. In the garden of Eden we can see Adam and Eve. However, if we went to the city in Revelation and saw a stone with Peter’s name on it and asked where Peter was, I am afraid Peter would tell us, “I am actually this stone.” This is not our own inference. In 1 Peter 2, Peter says that every saved one is a living stone before the Lord and is being built together with the Lord Jesus to be a spiritual house for God’s dwelling (v. 5). In Ephesians 2 Paul also says that the saved ones are “being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone; in whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord” (vv. 20-21). In the Old Testament, God’s people were in the holy temple, but in the New Testament, God’s people are the holy temple. In the New Testament the physical temple is gone, and the saved ones are built together. In the New Testament the saved ones are the holy temple. Hence, we may say that the holy temple is a place and also a person.
Today the church has a twofold significance. On one hand, it is a dwelling place, and on the other hand, it is a group of people saved by God. In the same way, the coming New Jerusalem also has a twofold significance. On one hand, it is God’s dwelling place, a city, and on the other hand, it is also God’s counterpart, a bride. Therefore, in the New Jerusalem one stone is Peter, one stone is James, and another stone is John. The twelve precious stones, which are the foundations of the wall of the city, are the twelve apostles. All the saved ones throughout the ages are living stones. They all have the life of God in them, and in this life they are joined together to become the living dwelling place of God, a living city. This is the coming New Jerusalem.
People may ask why this city is also a bride. They may ask why it is both the dwelling place of God and also the wife of God. For example, when a man gets married, his bride is one thing—a person—and his bridal chamber is another thing—a building. But when God marries man, the bride and the bridal chamber will be one. The bridal chamber will be the bride, and the bride will be the bridal chamber. We cannot comprehend this in our mind. This is like Revelation 21, which says, “The street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass” (v. 21). How can gold be transparent as glass? We cannot comprehend this. Nevertheless, we have to believe that this is not our interpretation but the revelation from the Bible. What God has been doing throughout the ages is transforming the redeemed ones with His life to make them precious stones. One day this group of people will fully become God’s eternal dwelling place in the universe.
If you still want to go to “heaven,” you will ultimately be disappointed. One day you will become the place that you want to go to. As the bride, do you merely wish to live in the bridal chamber? One day you will actually be the bridal chamber, because the bride of Christ is also His bridal chamber. This is indeed a mysterious and wonderful matter. Throughout the ages God has been working continuously. Ultimately, He will make Himself one with man and bring heaven and earth together.
Christianity talks about the saved ones going up to heaven, but Revelation shows that the coming New Jerusalem will come down out of heaven from God. We do not need to go up to the New Jerusalem because we are entering into it. In fact, we are not even merely entering into it. Instead, we are becoming part of the New Jerusalem. This is the result of God’s mysterious plan throughout the ages. What are the new heaven and new earth, and what is the New Jerusalem? They are the oneness of God and man and the oneness of heaven and earth with nothing in between.
Currently, heaven and earth are widely separated by the air in between them. The air is the dwelling place of Satan (Eph. 2:2). As those who are on the earth, we love God and work with God who is in heaven. The more we work together, the closer we become. We will work together until one day Satan, who is between God and us, will be squeezed out. Where will Satan be then? He will be squeezed out into the lake of fire. On that day we on earth who belong to God will not go up to heaven. Rather, the eternal dwelling place that God is preparing for us will come down out of heaven. When the new heaven, the new earth, and the New Jerusalem are manifested, it will not only be something glorious but also mysterious. God and man will be completely mingled together. Heaven and earth will also be fully joined together. God and man will be inseparable, and there will be no more distance between heaven and earth. In that day heaven, earth, God, and man will be completely mingled together into one.
Just as it is hard for us to comprehend pure gold that is transparent, it is also hard for us to comprehend this concept. Nevertheless, the Bible shows that this is so. In the new heaven and new earth when the New Jerusalem is manifested, God and man will be completely mingled together, and heaven and the earth will also be fully joined together as one. This is the New Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God in man. Furthermore, this will be the eternal dwelling place of God and man. At that time the whole composition of the New Jerusalem will simply be God Himself.
The content of God is pure gold, and the expression of God is precious stone. The street of the New Jerusalem is pure gold, and the foundations of the wall as its expression are adorned with every precious stone. The glory of the city is the same in appearance as the One sitting on the throne. They are both like jasper stone. At the beginning in Genesis, God started His work. What kind of work was God doing? God began His work in Genesis 2. He wanted to transform Adam who was made of clay into pure gold and precious stone. Thus, the garden of Eden was the beginning of God’s work. Ultimately, God will make the garden of Eden into the New Jerusalem. In the garden of Eden, God and man had not yet become one, nor had heaven and earth been joined as one. Man did not have the gold within or the precious stone without. From that time on, God began to work in man so that eventually the man of clay would have pure gold inwardly and the precious stone outwardly. On the day that the work of transformation is completely finished, the garden of Eden will have become the New Jerusalem. This is the line of thought from Genesis to Revelation. God’s work throughout the generations is to transform the garden of Eden into the New Jerusalem.
In the beginning man was neither pure gold nor precious stone but clay. For this reason God has been working continuously to reach His goal. At the end of Revelation a city composed of pure gold and precious stones appears. In that city God and man are mingled into one and heaven and earth are joined together. This is the final destination of the saved ones throughout the ages. Hence, we must change our concept. Our concept should not be that one day we will go to a city. Rather, our concept should be to allow God to transform, build, and work Himself into us today so that we may become that city. We are not going to the New Jerusalem but are being built into the New Jerusalem.
The concept of going to heaven is a wrong concept and cannot be found in the Bible. Strictly speaking, our entering into the New Jerusalem is not simply an entering in. It is God’s working in us to the point that we have become mature and have been thoroughly dealt with to become pure gold and precious stone. At that time we will spontaneously be in the New Jerusalem. Do not think that God will one day put us in the New Jerusalem even if we have not been thoroughly worked on by God and are still men of clay with very little of God’s life, the pure gold, inside of us. This is a wrong concept. The correct concept in the Bible is that God is working in us with His life. This requires our cooperation to allow His life to transform us inwardly so that we may be changed from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18).
If a man dies before he is completely transformed into precious stone, his spirit and soul will go to Hades. The spirits and souls of those who have not been saved go into the fire in Hades, whereas the spirits and souls of those who have been saved go to the Paradise in Hades and rest there, waiting for God.
Has God’s work in the apostle Paul been completed yet? Is Paul’s body today made of clay or of precious stone? His body is still made of clay. Our bodies are made of clay, and Paul’s body is exactly the same as ours. There is no difference. The only difference is that we are living, and he is dead. The nature of Paul’s body is the same as the nature of our body—it is simply clay. Paul’s body is still buried in the earth, but his spirit and soul have gone to a resting place, the Paradise in Hades. God still has unfinished work to do in the believers throughout the ages and generations. Hence, God puts them in Paradise that they may be at rest and may be comforted while waiting for Him to complete His unfinished work in them.
In summary, the Bible clearly states that God has prepared three paradises for man. The first one is the garden of Eden, and the last one is the New Jerusalem. In between these two is the Paradise in Hades. The first paradise was the dwelling place of the man who had just been created by God. This was before the fall of man when there was no sin. The last Paradise is the eternal dwelling place for man after God’s work in man has been fully accomplished. In between these two paradises, Satan corrupted man during the process of God’s work. As a result, sin and death came in. This problem of death will not be solved until the day of resurrection and transfiguration. At that time death will be swallowed up. However, before that time comes, the problem of death brought in by Satan cannot be solved in man. When it becomes necessary for a man’s spirit and soul to leave his body, since God’s work in him has not been completed, he cannot enter into the last Paradise, the New Jerusalem. For this reason God prepared a temporary place for people so that the spirits and souls of those in whom God has not finished His work would have a place to stay. These three places, which the Bible calls paradises, are the places God has prepared and is preparing for all the saved ones.
God is so gracious to man. Before man’s fall the garden of Eden was the dwelling place for man. It was indeed a paradise, having the tree of life, the river of life, pure gold, and precious stones. The place man will enter into in the future is the New Jerusalem with the new heaven and new earth. This is also a Paradise, even a fuller Paradise. All the saved ones will be in glory there. Today we are somewhere between the beginning and the end. When the spirits and souls of the saved ones leave their bodies, they go to a Paradise of rest and enjoy happiness and comfort there. These three paradises are for the saved ones in three periods of time.
In summary, man lived in the garden of Eden before the fall. This was the first paradise. Then death was brought in after man’s fall. Today man has been saved, but death has not yet been swallowed up. Thus, today when believers die, their spirits and souls temporarily go to a place to enjoy rest. This is the Paradise in Hades. When the fullness of time comes and all the work is accomplished, all the saved ones will go to God’s eternal dwelling place. This will be the ultimate Paradise. Nevertheless, we must see that this New Jerusalem, the ultimate Paradise, is not for us to walk into or for us to be brought into by God. Rather, God has to work us into it. God will work continuously until the day we are matured and have been completely transformed by Him from glory to glory. Then we will be exactly the same as Christ, and we will be in the New Jerusalem.
Starting in the garden of Eden, the God of creation began to work in us to make us pure gold and precious stones. When His work is done, we will be in the New Jerusalem. At that time we will not only be in the New Jerusalem, but we will also be able to say that we are the New Jerusalem. It is God who is working heaven into us, and it is God who is working us into the heavenlies (cf. Eph. 2:6). Heaven and man are becoming one. What is heaven? Heaven is the dwelling place of God. When the New Jerusalem is manifested, this dwelling place of God will be us, and we will be the dwelling place. Heaven is being built into us, and we are being built into heaven. We are not only being joined with God but also with heaven. Thus, God’s thought is not merely that man would be saved, have his sins forgiven, and have God’s life. God wants man to be transformed, to grow in life unto maturity, to let Christ be formed in him, and to be conformed into the Lord’s image. Then man will be built up to become the New Jerusalem, the eternal Paradise.
We all need to see this light today. We have been saved, our sins have been forgiven, and we have God’s life, but we still must grow in life and become mature. God would never put a man of clay in the New Jerusalem. Every stone built into the New Jerusalem is a precious stone that has been transformed by God. As soon as the life of God enters into man, transformation begins to take place within him in order to gradually build him into the New Jerusalem. Therefore, strictly speaking, we do not walk into the New Jerusalem. Rather, God works us into it. However, this requires the growth and maturity in life.
To be in the garden of Eden did not require the growth in life. Once man was created, he was put in the garden of Eden. Entering into the Paradise of Hades also does not require the growth in life. Believers simply enter into it when they die. However, to be in the Paradise of the New Jerusalem requires our whole being—our spirit and soul with our body—to be prepared and completely transformed. It requires the growth and maturity in life so that we may participate in God’s eternal dwelling place. The cleansing of the precious blood delivers us from sins so that we do not perish. However, whether we can be transformed to become building material for the New Jerusalem depends on the extent to which the life of God grows in us and transforms us. Everyone in the New Jerusalem is a precious stone, not a piece of clay. Thus, the goal of our salvation is not merely to believe but to grow. The goal is not to go to heaven but to grow in life.
