ASPECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHURCH LIFE SEEN IN THE NEW JERUSALEM
Message Seven
The Triune God as Our Constitution, Existence, Enjoyment, Living, and Expression
Scripture Reading: Rev. 21:11, 18-21, 23-25; 22:1-2, 5, 14, 19
I. The three kinds of precious materials for the building of the holy city signify that the Triune God is the triune constitution of the New Jerusalem— Rev. 21:18-21:
A. Gold signifies God the Father in His holy nature as the base of God's organic building—vv. 18, 21:
1. We need to partake of and be constituted with the holy and divine nature of God, the divine element of the New Jerusalem—Eph. 1:4; 2 Pet. 1:4.
2. We need to do everything according to the divine nature of God, taking the divine nature as our pathway, to be under the ruling of God's golden administration—Rev. 21:21; 22:1; cf. 1 Kings 10:18:
a. The divine life f lowing in the divine nature is the unique way for our daily life and for our move in the Lord's move—cf. Eph. 4:29; Rev. 22:1.
b. We need to practice the divine fellowship based upon the golden nature within us—1 John 1:3.
B. Pearls signify the issue of Christ's secretion in two aspects—His redeeming and life-releasing death and His life-dispensing resurrection—Rev. 21:21:
1. We need to preach regeneration through the death-overcoming and life-secreting Christ as the entrance into the holy city—1 Pet. 1:3, 23.
2. We need to remain under the killing of the Lord's death so that His resurrection life may be imparted through us into others—Col. 1:24; 2 Cor. 4:10-12.
C. Precious stones signify the Spirit's work to transform the redeemed and regenerated saints for the building of God's eternal habitation that they may express God corporately in His all-permeating glory—Rev. 21:18-20:
1. Transformation is not an outward change or correction but a spiritual metabolism; it is the metabolic function of the life of God in the believers— Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18, 16.
2. For the church life there is the need of the transformed human virtues, which have been strengthened and enriched by the divine attributes—Rom. 12:2-3; Eph. 4:1-3.
3. We must learn to minister the Triune God to others for their transformation by perfecting them with the attributes of the Triune God—1 Cor. 3:10, 12; S. S. 1:10-11.
II. The river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb signifies that the Triune God is the triune existence of the New Jerusalem—Rev. 22:1:
A. The application of the New Jerusalem in its triune existence is described in Ephesians 4:4-6—one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father.
B. These verses show us how the Body of Christ exists with the Father, the Lord, and the Spirit as a foretaste of the existence of the New Jerusalem in eternity:
1. We are existing with God the Father as the source of the Body, allowing Him to be over us, through us, and in us—v. 6; Luke 8:15; Rom. 8:11.
2. We are existing with the Lord Christ as the element of the Body, living Him, existing by Him, through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ for His magnification in our existence—Eph. 4:5; Phil. 1:19-21a.
3. We are existing with the Spirit as the essence of the Body (Eph. 4:4)—walking by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25), serving by the Spirit (Phil. 3:3), drinking the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), being transformed by the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18), and being strengthened and enriched by the sevenfold intensified Spirit (Rev. 4:5; 5:6) for the Body life, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
III. The Triune God—the Father as the light of life, the Son as the tree of life, and the Spirit as the river of life—is the triune enjoyment of the New Jerusalem—cf. Psa. 36:8-9:
A. God as the light shines from within the Lamb as the lamp through the New Jerusalem as the diffuser—Rev. 21:23-25, 11; 22:5:
1. We need to keep our heart pure and single for God so that our whole inner being will be illuminated, full of light without any dark part—Matt. 5:8; 6:22-23; Luke 11:34-36.
2. For the building up of the Body of Christ, we need to walk and live under the divine, redeeming, shining light through the word of God—Isa. 50:10-11; 1 John 1:5-7; Psa. 119:105, 130; Rom. 13:11-14.
3. We need to shine as luminaries in the world, letting our light shine before men in all goodness, righteousness, and truth for His glory—Phil. 2:15; Matt. 5:14-16; Eph. 5:8-9, 14; Isa. 58:7-8; 60:1-5.
4. We need to be one with Christ as the light of the Gentiles so that His salvation may reach to the end of the earth for Him to come again as the Desire of all the nations—Acts 13:46-47; Eph. 3:9; Hag. 2:7; Matt. 24:14.
B. The enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life will be the eternal portion of all God's redeemed—Rev. 22:14, cf. v. 19:
1. The tree of life signifies God as life to man and declares that God offers Himself to man in an edible form—Gen. 2:9; John 6:35, 57; Rev. 2:7.
2. We are not only the eaters of this tree, enjoying the continually fresh fruit, but also the branches of this tree, abiding in Him to enjoy the life-juice— 22:2; John 15:5.
C. The river of water of life is the f lowing out of the Triune God—the Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God reaching His redeemed people for their enjoyment—Rev. 22:1:
1. To contact God the Spirit with our spirit is to drink of the living water, which is to render real worship to God—John 4:10, 14, 24; Isa. 12:2-6.
2. By drinking the living water, we become the New Jerusalem, the totality of the eternal life, the destination of the flowing Triune God—John 4:14b.
IV. The Triune God—the Father as the source of life, the Son as the tree of life, and the Spirit as the flow of life—is the triune living of the New Jerusalem—Rev. 22:1-2:
A. We need to live out the Father as the source of life on the throne—John 5:26:
1. We need to take God the Father as our source with His redeeming element and with the element of His divine authority so that we may enjoy the f low of life for our organic salvation—Rev. 22:1; Rom. 5:10.
2. We need to live out the Father as love and as light by keeping ourselves in the fellowship of the divine life, the inner f low of the divine life—1 John 4:8, 16; 1:5, 2-3.
B. We need to live out the Son as the life and life supply, the tree of life—Rev. 22:2; 2:7; John 14:6:
1. We need to learn to take Christ as everything for His magnification—Phil. 1:19-21a; 2:5; 3:8-9, 13-14, 20-21; 4:8, 11-13.
2. We need to call upon His name to enjoy His riches as our supply—Rom. 10:12; Phil. 1:19; S. S. 1:3.
C. We need to live out the Spirit as the bountiful supply of the processed and con-summated Triune God, the f low of life—Rev. 22:1; Phil. 1:19:
1. The f low of the river of water of life in the New Jerusalem illustrates the fellowship of life, which is the flow of the eternal life within the believers— 1 John 1:2-4; 1 Cor. 1:9; 12:24; Rev. 22:1.
2. The f low of the river of water of life is the one stream of the Lord's work for His one move through His one ministry to produce and build up His one Body for His one testimony—v. 1; cf. 1 Cor. 16:10; 4:17; Acts 2:42.
V. The Triune God—the Father as the source of the divine riches, the Son as the embodiment of the divine riches, and the Spirit as the realization of the divine riches—is the triune expression of the New Jerusalem—Rev. 21:18-21; 22:1-2:
A. The expression of God the Father as the source of the divine riches is His communicable glory in His rich life—21:11, 21:
1. The first layer of the wall's foundation and the entire wall are built of jasper, signifying that the whole city bears the appearance of God for God's glory, His corporate expression—vv. 18, 11; 4:3a.
2. The work of the apostles, who are signified by the twelve foundations, is "layer upon layer" and leads to the unique appearance of jasper, the appearance of God in Christ—21:14, 19-20.
B. The expression of God the Son as the embodiment of the divine riches is in His person and with His work:
1. The Lamb as the redeeming One is the lamp for the expression of God as the light through the city as the light-bearer to express Him as the glory— 22:5; 21:23, 11.
2. The work of Christ's death and resurrection, signified by the pearls (v. 21), is a "double cure" that saves us from the guilt of sin through His blood and from the power of sin in His life—John 19:34; Hymns, #1058, stanza 1.
C. The expression of God the Spirit as the realization of the divine riches is in His all-inclusiveness as the consummation of the processed Triune God:
1. The all-inclusive Spirit as the river of water of life f lows with God, with the Lamb, with the throne, with the divine nature as the divine way, and with all the unsearchable riches of Christ to saturate our entire being—Rev. 22:1-2.
2. The Christian life must be a life in the Spirit, by the Spirit, and with the Spirit, issuing in the fruit of the Spirit, with all the divine attributes ex-pressed in human virtues—Gal. 5:16, 22-23, 25.