ASPECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHURCH LIFE SEEN IN THE NEW JERUSALEM
Message Five
The Intrinsic Significance of the Name New Jerusalem and the Dimensions of the Holy City
Scripture Reading: Rev. 21:2, 9-10, 13, 16
I. The intrinsic significance of the name New Jerusalem applies to our living out and working out the New Jerusalem—Rev. 21:2, 9-10:
A. The holy city is "new":
1. The New Jerusalem, the holy city, is created in Christ as the new creation with the divine element—2 Cor. 5:17:
a. The Bible reveals to us two creations—the old creation and the new creation; the old creation does not have the divine life and nature, but the new creation, constituted of the believers, who are born again of God, does—John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4.
b. Hence, the believers are a new creation (Gal. 6:15), not according to the old nature of the flesh but according to the new nature of the divine life.
c. The old creation is our old man in Adam (Eph. 4:22), our natural being by birth, without God's life and the divine nature; the new creation is the new man in Christ (v. 24), our being that is regenerated by the Spirit (John 3:6), having God's life and the divine nature wrought into it (v. 36; 2 Pet. 1:4), having Christ as its constituent (Col. 3:10-11), and having become a new constitution.
d. Only God is "new"; the old creation is old because it does not have God's element, but the new creation is new because it has God as its element:
1) Our new heart and new spirit are something of God (Ezek. 36:26); for our mind to be renewed means that God has been wrought into our mind.
2) Everything that is designated new in the New Testament indicates that God has been wrought into these items (such as the new wine, the new wineskins, the new garment, and the new testament).
3) God is revealed in the New Testament, and the New Testament conveys God to us; God is newness, and newness is God.
e. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, they have become new":
1) To say that all things have become new means that they have become divine.
2) Furthermore, to say that all things have become new means that all things have become God since God is new and since God is newness.
f. Every day we need to have a new beginning of life, an "Abib" (Exo. 13:4), and we need to be saved from staleness to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4) and serve in newness of spirit (7:6).
g. Those who are sanctified by taking Christ as their Substitute (Exo. 13:2), who have a new beginning of life (v. 4), and who eliminate all exposed sin (vv. 6-7) will have a daily living that is worthy of being a memorial, an eternal remembrance (v. 9).
2. The New Jerusalem as a new creation has God in Christ, possessing the divine life and the divine nature:
a. In the New Jerusalem there are the river of water of life and the tree of life (Rev. 22:1-2); besides the divine life the New Jerusalem does not display any other kind of life:
1) Daily we need to drink of the one Spirit as the river of water of life (1 Cor. 12:13) and eat Christ as the tree of life (Rev. 2:7; John 6:35, 57b).
2) Daily we need to give the preeminence to the inner f low of life (Ezek. 47:1-2) and live in the principle of dependence, the principle of the tree of life (2 Cor. 1:8-9, 12).
b. Also, the city itself and the street of the New Jerusalem are pure gold, like transparent glass (Rev. 21:18b, 21b); in typology gold signifies the divine nature:
1) God is Spirit, the nature of God's person; daily we need to enjoy God's person by exercising our spirit—John 4:24.
2) God is love, the nature of God's essence, and God is light, the nature of God's expression; daily we need to enjoy God as love and light by remaining in the fellowship, the flow, of the divine life—1 John 4:8, 16; 1:5, 3; cf. Rev. 22:1.
3. The New Jerusalem is constituted with Christ as the new man with the divine nature and the divine life—Col. 3:10-11:
a. Not only is there no natural person in the new man, but also there is no possibility, no room, for any natural person; in the new man there is only room for Christ.
b. Christ is all the members of the new man, and He is in all the members; He is everything in the new man; actually, He is the new man, His Body— 1 Cor. 12:12.
c. Because we have been born of Christ and constituted with Christ, we can say that we are Christ (in life and in nature); how much we live Christ depends upon how much of Christ has been constituted into our being— Phil. 1:19-21a; Eph. 3:16-17a.
B. The title Jerusalem is composed of two Hebrew words—Jeru means "foundation," and Salem means "peace"; thus, Jerusalem means "the foundation of peace":
1. In the New Testament there are two titles—the God of peace (Phil. 4:9; 1 Thes. 5:23) and the peace of God (Phil. 4:7); both of these titles indicate that God Himself is our peace.
2. Ephesians 2:14 says that Christ Himself is our peace; He is the arbitrating peace of the new man—Col. 3:15.
3. The Lord Jesus told us, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid"—John 14:27.
4. Our Lord also said, "These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction, but take courage; I have over-come the world"—16:33.
5. Since the Lord has given us His peace and left us His peace, today we should live in His peace—Isa. 26:3; Rom. 8:6.
6. Jerusalem is the Triune God to be our peace, to be our safety; the whole New Jerusalem will be an entity of peace—cf. Isa. 66:12.
7. The New Jerusalem will be solidly grounded and safeguarded in the Triune God as peace and safety, and we will enjoy the Triune God as peace forever.
II. The dimensions of the holy city apply to our living out and working out the New Jerusalem:
A. The city has three gates on each of the four sides—Rev. 21:13:
1. The east side, at the front, toward the glory of the sunrise (cf. Luke 1:78-79), ranks first; the north side, at the top, ranks second; the south side, at the bottom, ranks third; and the west side, at the rear, ranks fourth.
2. The gates on the four sides face the four directions of the earth, signifying that the entrance into the holy city is available to all the peoples on earth (cf. the four heads of the river in Genesis 2:10-14).
3. That there are three gates on each side signifies that the three of the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—work together to bring people into the holy city; this is indicated in the three parables in Luke 15 and implied in the Lord's word in Matthew 28:19; to be baptized into the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is the real entrance into the holy city.
4. The three gates indicate that the Triune God has come to reach us and bring us into His eternal economy—Eph. 3:14-17; 2 Cor. 13:14; Num. 6:22-27.
5. That there are three gates on each of the four sides, three times four being twelve, also implies that the Triune God is mingled with man, the creature (the number four signifying the creature—Rev. 4:6).
B. The length, breadth, and height of the New Jerusalem are equal; it is twelve thousand stadia in each dimension—21:16:
1. According to its measurements, the New Jerusalem is a cube; the dimensions of the Holy of Holies, both in the tabernacle and in the temple, were equal in length, breadth, and height; the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle was a cube measuring ten cubits in each dimension, and the Holy of Holies in the temple was a cube of twenty cubits in each dimension (signifying that our experience of Christ in the church must be balanced, like that of a cube)—Exo. 26:2-8; 1 Kings 6:20; Eph. 3:18.
2. That the length, breadth, and height of the New Jerusalem are equal signifies that the entire New Jerusalem will be the Holy of Holies.
3. In the New Jerusalem all 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:
a. In our Christian life and church life, we must hold on to this principle: God's presence is the criterion for every matter; regardless of what we do, we must pay attention to whether or not we have God's presence.
b. We should aspire to be like Moses and Paul, ones who had God's presence to a full extent for God's building, God's corporate expression—Exo. 33:11, 14; 2 Cor. 2:10; 4:6-7; 1 Cor. 3:9.