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Scripture Reading: Rev. 21:1-21
The book of Revelation is a book of symbols, so to understand this book, we need to find the real meaning of all the symbols. It is also a book that reaps all the seeds of the Bible. We must use these principles in understanding the New Jerusalem in chapter 21.
The first thing we need to see is that this city is square, with three equal dimensions. The length, the width, and the height are all identical. In the Old Testament there is only one thing that had three equal dimensions. That is the innermost part of God’s dwelling place, the Holy of Holies. In the tabernacle the Holy of Holies was ten cubits wide, ten cubits long, and ten cubits high. In the temple built by Solomon, the width, length, and height of the Holy of Holies were twenty cubits (1 Kings 6:20). By this we understand that the whole New Jerusalem is the eternal Holy of Holies. That is why there is no temple in this city. The whole city is the temple, twelve thousand stadia by twelve thousand stadia by twelve thousand stadia. This means that this city is one thousand times the total mingling of divinity with humanity. It is altogether a mingling of God with man, and this mingling will be God’s eternal Holy of Holies.
God does not desire any kind of habitation in the heavens or on the earth. Not only is the earth not satisfactory for God’s habitation; even the heavens do not satisfy Him. God’s desire is to have a habitation of Himself mingled with His chosen people. In other words, God wants His chosen people to be His habitation by being mingled with Himself. This is the real church life. The church life is neither a building nor a place but a group of God’s chosen people mingled with God. The more mingling we have, the more we will be God’s dwelling place.
The mingling of God with man is the real meaning of transformation. Transformation is the divine essence coming into us to replace the fallen human element. We are human, but the divine elements are coming into our being to replace our natural essence. This is what the New Testament calls transformation. Transformation is not an outward change but an inward metabolism. Metabolism is an inward change caused by a new element replacing the old. This is God’s work today, and this is the work the indwelling Christ is doing. This is also the reason that teachings, doctrines, forms, and regulations never work. Teachings may correct you, and regulations may improve you somewhat, but they can never metabolize you; they can never transform you. The metabolic process in our physical body takes place with the eating of food. As we eat day by day, something new comes into our body to replace the old. All the old things are discharged. The body’s health depends upon this kind of metabolization. Hallelujah! Jesus is transforming us! Day by day He is “metabolizing” us.
To be transformed we need an unveiled face: “We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). All the veils keep us from being transformed. Most of the time our veils are our old concepts. They may be good and wonderful, but they are old. The Lord is new and fresh every day. He is moving on! If we still hold on to our old concepts, we will have veiled faces. These things may have been good ten years ago, or even two years ago, but the Lord is going on.
In the Old Testament the Lord charged His people to be circumcised. He also charged them to keep the Sabbath day. The Jews became so accustomed to these things that they could never give them up. Then one day the very God who gave them these commandments came to them in a very mysterious way. He came in the form of a little child born in a manger at Bethlehem. If He had come in a glorious way with two camps of angels escorting Him, all the people of Israel would have received Him. But because He came in such a manner, they missed Him.
Who could believe that this little child was the very God? Yet Isaiah 9:6 tells us so: “A child is born to us, / A Son is given to us; / And the government / Is upon His shoulder; / And His name will be called / Wonderful Counselor, / Mighty God, / Eternal Father, / Prince of Peace.” A child is born, yet His name is called Mighty God. The Jews paid all their attention to the verses concerning circumcision and the keeping of the Sabbath, but they missed Isaiah 9:6. If they had heeded this verse, surely they would have been watching for such a child to be born. When the magi came from the East, they might have been clear that this was the fulfillment of Isaiah 9:6.
When Jesus came to the Jews, He completely disregarded the Sabbath day. He told them that He was the Lord of the Sabbath! If they had Him, they had the Sabbath, and if they did not have Him, they missed the Sabbath (Matt. 12:8). God’s dealing with man is always improving. Leviticus 11 tells clearly the things that could be eaten and the things that could not be eaten. Even after Pentecost Peter still held on to that ancient, traditional teaching. It forced God to give Peter a vision to show him that what He had cleansed, Peter should not call common or unclean (Acts 10:15). Peter was veiled by the old religious way.
The apostle Paul was a typical Jewish religionist. Then the Lord within began to show him that circumcision was just an outward form. This was not easy for a typical Jew. But he was very bold to say, “Neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation is what matters” (Gal. 6:15). Some of us still hold on to something that veils us. Some of my friends have told me that they cannot tolerate the noise in our meetings. But is this really wrong? How many verses can you find about meeting in a silent way? I cannot find one verse. There are a few that tell us to be silent, but all these are regarding God’s judgment. We have to be silent if God is coming to judge! But when we are meeting together, are we expecting to be judged by God? No! We are meeting with joy! Psalm 100:1 tells us to make a joyful noise to Jehovah. This is not just a voice but a noise. Do you think that the Lord really cares for all the silent religion? Paul tells us that in the last days there is the danger that some will have the form of godliness without the power (2 Tim. 3:5). A mere form means nothing. We need the reality! The reality is just the Spirit. We must forget about all the old, dead, traditional things, or they will become a veil to us.
We all must look to the Lord with an unveiled face. When we see Him thoroughly, we can reflect Him as a mirror. By this we will be transformed into His image from one degree of glory to another. This is the transformation accomplished by the Lord Spirit. Here we have another compound title of the Lord. It is not the Father God who transforms us but the Lord Spirit. The Lord Spirit is not teaching or correcting us but transforming and metabolizing us. He is putting the riches of His element into us to discharge all our old, natural element and replace us with Himself. He is not making us an adjusted man but a new man! Then we will be fully mingled with God, and this total mingling is God’s habitation, God’s dwelling place. This is the basic concept of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the total mingling of God with man for His habitation.
This should help us to realize what the proper church life is. It is not the sisters coming to the meeting with their heads covered, and the brothers meeting as the head. This does not mean that I am disregarding the Bible. What I mean is that the real church life does not consist of these outward things. The real church life is to be filled up and saturated with the Lord Spirit. Why do we not say certain things? Not simply because it may be wrong but because the Lord Spirit within us will not say them. If He will not say them, then we will not say them. Even if it is right, we still will not say them. Whether we say them or not is not based upon right or wrong but upon the Lord Spirit. This is the basic concept of the church life. Many people today are talking about the church life but in a way that is based upon right or wrong. In the New Jerusalem there will be no teachings of right or wrong but the total mingling of divinity with humanity.
How can we obtain this mingling? To enter into the New Jerusalem, we must pass through one of the twelve gates. Every gate was made of one pearl (Rev. 21:21). The producing of a pearl is very meaningful. It starts in a living oyster in the death waters. Something, such as a grain of sand, enters into the oyster and makes a wound. Then, because the grain of sand abides at the wound, the oyster secretes a kind of life-juice around the grain of sand. Eventually, a pearl is produced by the secretions of the oyster’s life-juice. This is the work of Christ, the Son of God, as the second person of the Triune God. He came to be such a living One in the death waters of this earth. We are the grains of sand that wounded Him at the cross. But if we stay at this wound, He will secrete His life over us. In this way we all become pearls. This is a picture of regeneration. Regeneration is the entrance into the New Jerusalem. How did we get into the church? It was not by joining or by being sprinkled but by realizing that in all this world full of death there is Someone living. This Someone died on the cross by being crucified. When we believe in Him, we abide at this wound of the cross, and the life of Jesus begins to cover us. From that time onward, there is a secretion of life over us all the time. This is the gate into the church life. This includes redemption, crucifixion, resurrection, and regeneration.
Once we are in the gate, we are on the street of gold. In typology, gold signifies the divine nature of God. Once we enter into the gate of regeneration, we are immediately on the street of the divine nature. God’s divine nature becomes our way of doing things. Suppose a brother wants to have his hair cut. Should he have it cut long or short? There is no verse in the Bible telling us how to cut our hair. But our way is the divine nature. God’s divine essence is our way. We have a golden way. We need not ask anyone but should turn to the divine nature within us. The divine nature will become the way we cut our hair. We will know what kind of haircut to have. We should not take our way or anyone else’s way. We should take the golden way! There is something golden within us! We have been regenerated and have passed through the gates of pearl. Now we are on the golden street, the divine way. The divine nature within us has become our street. When we call on the Lord from deep within to contact this divine nature, we know the way to take. There is no need to tell you where the golden street is. As long as we have passed through the pearl gates, we are on it. There is only one way, for in the New Jerusalem there is only one street. The American, Chinese, and German believers are all on the same golden way. This golden street is God’s divine nature.
Many Christians today say that we must do everything according to the Bible. I was influenced to believe that. But later, as I studied more of the Bible, I realized that if everything we did was according to the Scriptures, our Bible would need thousands of chapters. It would take us years to read through this Bible. But we do not need such a thick Bible. We have the divine nature! After being regenerated, we are on the golden way. We have the divine nature within us as our living way.
In all of America there is not such a highway as this golden street. It is a spiral that begins at the throne of God and of the Lamb at the top of the mountain and spirals around until the last spiral covers all twelve gates. This street is of two lanes, with the living water of life flowing in the midst. Wherever the street goes, the river flows. If we walk on the golden way, we will have the continual flowing of the living water. The best check to see whether we are on the divine way or not is the flow within. You may say that it is all right for you to do a certain thing, but do you have the flow within? Do you have the flow of the water of life? If you do not, you have turned away from the divine way. The divine way is full of the flowing of the water of life.
The tree of life also grows in the river of life, which is between the two lanes of the golden street. Once we enter the gate, we have three things: the golden street, the flow of the river of life, and the tree of life. This is just the Triune God. The divine nature is the Father, the tree of life is the Son, and the flow of the river of life is the Spirit. While we are walking on the golden street, we are drinking of the living water and eating of the tree of life. This means that we are living, behaving, walking, and having our being in God’s divine nature. We are drinking of the Spirit and eating of the Son that we may live in the Father’s nature. This is the way the Triune God is getting into us. The Father is our way, the Spirit is our drink, and the Son is our food. This is not a teaching of the Trinity; this is the real experience of the Triune God! The Triune God is dispensing Himself into us in our daily living as we walk in the divine nature, drink of the Holy Spirit, and eat Jesus as the tree of life. This is our way.
People are always asking me concerning the way to have a meeting. It is really difficult to answer. We have published a book entitled How To Meet, and by the title many have thought that it gives directions concerning how to meet. But I can assure you that the more you read this book, the more you will not know how to meet! My intention in publishing this book was to puzzle all those who think they know how to meet. After reading it, I believe you will never think that you know how to meet again. Some say that the way to meet is in 1 Corinthians 14, but they are still not clear. No one can be clear how to meet. The way is not in the letters. The way is in the divine nature of the Father. The way to meet is to take the divine nature of the Father, drink of the Spirit, and eat of the Son. If we do this, the Lord will take away all our knowledge. Eventually, we will not know anything. We will only know to call on the name of the Lord.
If we will take the divine nature as our way, the Triune God will flow all His divine elements into our being. This flow will also carry away all our old nature. We will have a real replacement, and we will become golden! This is why in the book of Revelation the church is seen as a golden lampstand. The New Jerusalem is the same. The whole city is of gold (21:18). It is a universal golden lampstand. How can we become such a church? It is by walking in the divine nature of the Father, drinking of the Spirit, and eating of the Son. Day by day we are walking in the street, drinking of the river, and eating the tree. This signifies that the Triune God is getting into us.
Poor Christianity never could understand the book of Revelation, but it is so clear in the Lord’s recovery. I do believe that we have all passed through the pearl gates, and we are now walking in the golden way. Here is the flow of life and the supply of life. Here we enjoy the Triune God by drinking of the water of life and eating of the tree of life. By taking the divine nature, we have the flow for drinking and the tree for eating. It is new, living, real, and available. When we take care of God’s divine nature within, we sense that the water of life is flowing, and the tree of life is supplying. This is the real enjoyment of the Triune God through drinking and eating.
The gate is the work of the Son. The street is the nature of the Father. Besides these, there is the wall. The wall is built of transformed precious stones. This is the transforming and building work of the Spirit. So in the pearl, the gold, and the precious stones we see the Triune God again. This city is the product of the working of the Triune God. The pearl signifies the regenerating work of the Son, the gold signifies the sanctifying work of the Father’s divine nature, and the precious stones signify the transforming work of the Spirit. Hallelujah!
While we are walking in the divine way, drinking the living water, and eating the tree of life, something is getting into us. We are being transformed into precious stones to be built up as the wall. The wall is made of jasper stone, which bears the appearance and image of God (4:3). This transforming work is the work of the Spirit, the third person of the Triune God. We all with unveiled face are beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord to be transformed into the Lord’s image from glory to glory even as from the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). The Lord Spirit is doing this transforming work within us. Even now He is doing this work.
The whole New Jerusalem is the issue of the Triune God moving, living, working, and transforming us. The seed of the Triune God is sown in Genesis 1:26: “God said, Let Us make man.” Then in the New Testament, in the last chapter of Matthew, the Lord tells us to baptize His disciples into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (28:19). In the Gospel of John, Philip asked the Lord to show them the Father and they would be satisfied. “Jesus said to him, Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works” (14:9-10). In a brief word the Lord was saying that He and the Father are one. Isaiah 9:6 says, “A child is born to us, / A Son is given to us; / ...And His name will be called / ...Mighty God, / Eternal Father.” A Son is given, yet His name is called Eternal Father. Is He the Son or the Father? I simply cannot explain it. I can only say that it is wonderful. In the same chapter of John, the Lord told the disciples that He would ask the Father to send the Spirit of reality, who will abide in them forever (14:16-17). He seemed to say that this Spirit of reality is just Himself (v. 18). It is really mysterious. This is the Triune God.
All these things concerning the Triune God are in the Bible, but the harvest of the Triune God is in the book of Revelation as seen in the New Jerusalem. The three gates on each side show the Triune God. The street, the river, and the tree signify the Triune God flowing within us. The three categories of precious materials—gold, pearl, and precious stones—also show us the work of the Triune God. He is working Himself into us and even replacing us with Himself. The end result is that we all become an eternal mingling of divinity with humanity. This is the New Jerusalem. Hallelujah for the Son’s regeneration! Hallelujah for the Father’s sanctification by His nature! Hallelujah for the Spirit’s transformation! In this way we are built up as gold, pearl, and precious stones for God’s eternal habitation.
In contrast to the New Jerusalem there is the great Babylon in Revelation 17—18. All Bible scholars agree that this is the Roman Catholic Church. This counterfeit and falsehood is superficially gilded with the same precious materials of the New Jerusalem (17:4). We should not think there is nothing real in the Roman Catholic Church. There are some real things but in a subtle, superficial, and deceiving way. There are some real Christians there seeking God. In history Madame Guyon and Brother Lawrence were very spiritual, yet they remained in the Roman Catholic Church. They were there even after Martin Luther’s Reformation. This harlot holds a golden cup. The appearance is of real gold, but within are abominations. This means idol worship and fornication. There is something real, but it is full of mixture. The Roman Catholic Church abounds with idol worship, yet undoubtedly some of her people are real brothers and sisters in the Lord. However, this does not justify Catholicism. The Lord says, “Come out of her, My people, that you do not participate in her sins and that you do not receive her plagues” (18:4).
The Roman Catholic Church is the mother harlot, and this mother has many daughter harlots (17:5). A harlot is a woman who will be a wife to anything. A proper wife could only be a wife to one husband. This is God’s governing principle. A harlot breaks this principle and causes confusion by committing fornication.
In the Bible there is the governing principle of one city, one church. This is for the oneness of Christ’s bride, the church. The church has only one Husband. But today’s Christianity does not abide by this governing principle. Instead, they take many different kinds of names as their husband. They say that they are broad-minded because they can have anybody as their husband, and they condemn us because we take the way of one city, one church. They all say that this is too narrow. But every genuine wife has to be narrow. She can only have one husband. The church has only one Husband, and that is Christ. The proper oneness is Christ, and this is described in the Bible as one city, one church. Anything that causes confusion and division is in the principle of the harlot. I have never seen such a confusion as in today’s Christianity. Many people leave the denominations and form free groups. But these many small free groups are just more confusion. They are the little daughters of the great harlot.
Praise the Lord that today He is recovering the proper church life! The genuine church is a genuine wife to Christ. We do have a definite Husband on the ground of oneness. All the principles of this church life are clearly portrayed in the New Jerusalem by the working of the Triune God within us. It is in this way that God will obtain His eternal dwelling place. May the Lord have mercy on us that we may take the narrow way of His purpose.
