AN OVERVIEW OF THE CENTRAL BURDEN AND PRESENT TRUTH OF THE LORD'S RECOVERY BEFORE HIS APPEARING
Message Twelve
Becoming the New Jerusalem
Scripture Reading: Rev. 3:12; 19:7; 21:2, 9-11, 22; 22:17
I. For our Christian life and church life we need to have a vision of the New Jerusalem—Rev. 21:9-11:
A. The New Jerusalem is a composition of divinity and humanity mingled, blended, and built up together as one entity; all the components have the same life, nature, and constitution and thus are a corporate person— John 14:20, 23; Rev. 21:2-3, 9-23.
B. The New Jerusalem is the consummation of the central vision of God's economy and of the high peak of the divine revelation— vv. 2, 9-11:
1. The New Jerusalem, the ultimate consummation of the Bible, involves God becoming man and man becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead—v. 2; 3:12:
a. In Christ, God has become man to make man God in His life and in His nature so that the redeeming God and the redeemed man can be mingled, constituted, together to be one entity—the New Jerusalem—21:3, 22.
b. Eventually, the triune, eternal God becomes the New Jerusalem incorporated with all of us, and we also become the New Jerusalem through the process of God's organic salvation—Rom. 5:10; Rev. 3:12.
2. The New Jerusalem is a composition of God's chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified people who have been deified— John 3:6; Heb. 2:11; Rom. 12:2; 8:29-30:
a. For us to be deified means that we are being constituted with the processed and consummated Triune God so that we may be made God in life and nature to be His corporate expression for eternity—Rev. 21:11.
b. The deification of the believers is a process that will consummate in the New Jerusalem; this is the highest truth and the highest gospel—Rom. 1:1, 3-4; 5:10; Rev. 21:2; 3:12.
3. The New Jerusalem is the corporate God-man—the enlargement, expansion, and expression of God—the corporate God— Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10-12; Rev. 4:3; 21:10-11:
a. The New Jerusalem is the expansion and expression of the processed and consummated Triune God with His built-up people—vv. 10-11.
b. The New Jerusalem is God's enlargement and expansion, God's expression in eternity, which is the corporate God— Gen. 1:1; John 1:1, 14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 22:17.
II. The New Jerusalem is "the bride, the wife of the Lamb…the holy city, Jerusalem"—21:9-10:
A. The apostle John saw "the holy city…prepared as a bride adorned for her husband"—v. 2:
1. The New Jerusalem is a bride, indicating that she is not a material city but a corporate person for Christ's satisfaction.
2. As the bride, the wife of the Lamb, the New Jerusalem is Christ's eternal counterpart—19:7.
B. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of the divine romance—a universal couple, "a loving pair eternally"—22:17:
1. The subject of the Bible is a divine romance of a universal couple; the male is God Himself, and the female is God's chosen and redeemed people—Isa. 54:5; Jer. 2:2; 3:1, 14; 31:32; Hosea 2:7, 19; John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 19:7.
2. The divine romance is portrayed poetically in Song of Songs— 1:2; 8:14:
a. The seeker passes through a process to become the Shulammite, the duplication of Solomon and a figure of the New Jerusalem—6:13, 4.
b. The New Jerusalem will be a corporate Shulammite, including all of God's chosen and redeemed people.
3. Christ's espousal and marriage life cover the church age, the kingdom age, and the eternal age:
a. In the church age we are betrothed to Christ—2 Cor. 11:2.
b. The wedding day will be the age of the millennial kingdom—Rev. 19:7.
c. The marriage life will be in the New Jerusalem eternally— 21:2, 9-10.
4. The New Jerusalem will be the bride in the millennium for one thousand years as one day (2 Pet. 3:8) and then the wife in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:2):
a. The bride in the millennium will include only the overcoming saints—3:12.
b. The wife in the new heaven and new earth will include all the redeemed and regenerated sons of God—21:7.
C. Revelation 22:17 indicates that Christ and the New Jerusalem as His wife will be a universal couple for eternity:
1. The Spirit, who is the totality of the processed Triune God, becomes one with the believers, who are now fully matured to be His bride—cf. Eph. 4:13, 15-16.
2. The consummation of the processed Triune God and the consummation of God's chosen, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people will be one and will be a universal couple expressing the Triune God for eternity.
D. The overcomers in the recovered church will be the New Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom—Rev. 3:7-8, 12.
III. The Lord Jesus will make the overcoming one in the recovered church a pillar built into the temple of God, which is the Triune God Himself—v. 12a; 21:22:
A. In Revelation 21:22 we see that in the New Jerusalem the Triune God Himself will be the temple:
1. For the overcomer to be a pillar in the temple means that he will be a pillar in the Triune God—3:12a.
2. This involves being mingled with the Triune God and constituted with the Triune God—Eph. 3:16-17a.
B. The Lord makes us pillars by transforming us, that is, by carrying away our natural element and replacing it with His divine element—Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18:
1. The meaning of make in Revelation 3:12 is to constitute us into something, to construct us in a creative way.
2. In the church life today the Lord desires to make us, constitute us, into pillars in the temple of God.
C. The Lord's work in the recovered church is to work Himself into us, constituting us into pillars in the temple of God—Eph. 3:16-17a; Rev. 3:12a.
IV. Upon the one in the recovered church who overcomes, the Lord Jesus will write the name of His God, the name of the city of God, the New Jerusalem, and His new name—v. 12b:
A. The fact that the name of God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and the Lord's new name are written upon the overcomer indicates that the overcomer is possessed by God, by the New Jerusalem, and by the Lord; that God Himself, His city (New Jerusalem), and the Lord Himself all belong to him; and that he is one with God, with the New Jerusalem, and with the Lord.
B. The name of God denotes God Himself, the name of the New Jerusalem denotes the city itself, and the name of the Lord denotes the Lord Himself—v. 12b.
C. That the name of God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and the name of the Lord are written on the overcomer indicates that what God is, the nature of the New Jerusalem, and the person of the Lord have all been wrought into the overcomer— John 14:19-20, 23; Eph. 3:16-17.
D. The mentioning of the New Jerusalem as a prize to the overcomer indicates that this promise will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom; the New Jerusalem in the millennium will be a prize only to the overcomers—Rev. 3:12b.