New Creation with God’s Life and Nature

In Christ we are a new creation. Outside of Him everything presently remains in God’s original creation, which became the old creation because of the fall of man which brought in sin and death.

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 (Eph. 4:24), our being that is regenerated by the Spirit (John 3:6), having God’s life and the divine nature wrought into it (John 3:36; 2 Pet. 1:4), having Christ as its constituent (Col. 3:10-11), and having become a new constitution. This refers to the nature, the inward and intrinsic organic constituent, of the church. Thus, the new creation is composed of sons; it is a corporate, divine sonship (3:26; 4:5, 7) brought forth through Christ’s redemption, the Spirit’s regeneration, and God’s dispensing of Himself into us, and through our entering collectively as this new man into an organic union with the Triune God.*

New JerusalemThank the Lord for our new beginning through redemption and regeneration and for our renewing by God’s life flow into us, His dispensing. We have “been regenerated not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). This is our spirit being made alive, born, of the Spirit (John 3:6).

Gradually the Spirit in our spirit spreads through our being to make us wholly new. This is the path to New Jerusalem. When we are fully new, the Lord will then remove all the oldness around us and bring in the new creation and New Jerusalem will manifest His work in us.

* Part of footnote 1 on Galatians 6:15 in the Recovery Version Bible published and © by Living Stream Ministry. A New Testament of this Bible, with 9000 footnotes, is available in multiple languages for free from Bibles for America, Bibles for Canada, Bibles for Europe.

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by Don on May 10, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on May 10, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/05/10/new-creation-with-gods-life-and-nature/

A New Creation in Christ

We continue with our look at newness in New Testament verses, which culminate in New Jerusalem in the new creation. First Corinthians 11 speaks of “the new covenant” established by the Lord. To participate in this newness we have His redemption and a new birth.

New JerusalemSecond Corinthians 5:17 says, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” We are in Christ by believing into Him (John 6:29; Rom. 10:14). In Christ everything is new. Although we still have our fallen flesh, the amount we live in Himis the amount we are in His newness.

Here is Galatians 6:15: “For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation is what matters.” Part of a footnote in the Recovery Version Bible* says,

The old creation was old because it did not have God’s element; the new creation is new because it has God as its element [2 Peter 1:4]. Although we are still the old creation, we experience the reality of the new creation when we walk according to the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25).*

The presence of God in Christ makes the new creation new. This is true today as an inward matter. In New Jerusalem the newness will be true both inwardly and outwardly.

* Footnote 1 on Galatians 6:15 in the Recovery Version Bible published and © by Living Stream Ministry. A New Testament of this Bible, with 9000 footnotes, is a available in multiple languages for free from Bibles for America, Bibles for Canada, Bibles for Europe.

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by Don on May 8, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on May 8, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/05/08/a-new-creation-in-christ/

A New Lump in Christ

Because of what the Lord has accomplished, we may “walk in newness of life” and “serve in newness of spirit.” When New Jerusalem “comes down out of heaven” all the old, fallen, corrupted aspects of our inward being and the outward environment will have been removed (Rev. 20). We will be fully in newness of life and spirit.

Today however, much of sin and death is still in us and around us. We need to exercise our spirit to open to the Lord and “purge out theNew Jerusalem old leaven that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened” (1 Cor. 5:7). Our position in Christ is “a new lump.” Yet we still need to exercise to purge out all the oldness.

First Corinthians 11:23-26 reviews what the Lord Jesus did in establishing His supper. To “purge out the old leaven” is one side of our responsibility. But this is only possible as we care for the positive side—to eat the Lord and drink the Spirit regularly, frequently that we may be in the reality of “the new covenant” established in His blood (11:25).

In verse 11:26 the words of the Lord are “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you declare the Lord’s death until He comes.” Our spiritual eating and drinking renew us and point to the Lord’s return. His return will openly manifest His kingdom and take us onward to New Jerusalem in the new creation.

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by Don on May 6, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on May 6, 2024

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Newness of Life for New Jerusalem

The death and resurrection of Jesus, and our participation in them (Rom. 6:3-6), are the beginning of our journey to New Jerusalem. Romans 6:4 says, “We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of New Jerusalemthe Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.” This is the life of New Jerusalem.

We walk in “newness of life” because we have received the resurrected Jesus Christ as our new life. This life is different from the life we have from our natural birth. This new and different life brings forth a new living. This is a living originating from our spirit, the deepest part of our being.

Romans 7:6 tells us that “we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter.” The “oldness of letter” is a living according to outward regulations, written or not, whether from our culture, our society, or some other source.

In contrast, the “newness of spirit” originates from Christ living in our spirit. “If Christ is in you…the spirit is life” (Rom. 8:10). Our living is complicated by the remaining presence of our natural human life, but we are gradually being renewed from that. The goal is the newness of New Jerusalem.

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by Don on May 3, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on May 3, 2024

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A New Beginning in Resurrection

In Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, 9, Luke 24:1, and John 20:1, the phrase “the first day of the week” is coupled to the Lord’s resurrection.

New JerusalemThe first day of the week, or the day after the Sabbath, signifies a new beginning, a new age. In Lev. 23:10-11, 15, a sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest was offered to the Lord as a wave offering on the day after the Sabbath. That sheaf of the firstfruits was a type of Christ as the firstfruits in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20, 23)…By His all-inclusive death He terminated the old creation…In His resurrection He germinated the new creation with the divine life.*

The new beginning points to New Jerusalem, a city of resurrection. Everything about this city is in resurrection; it has no part in the old creation and there is nothing old in it.

Thank the Lord for this new beginning which He accomplished for us! It was on the evening of that same day, “the first day of the week”, that He came to His disciples (John 20:19), showed them His physical body, and “He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit” (20:22). This completed His promise to them in John 14:17.

The Spirit breathed into the disciples is the Spirit as life for our regeneration (John 3:6), renewing (Titus 3:5), and more. This is inward, whereas the Spirit as power coming as a wind in Acts 2 is outward, upon the disciples. It is the Spirit as life for our eternal newness that is pictured by the river of life flowing from the throne in New Jerusalem.

* Part of footnote 1 on John 20:1 in the Recovery Version Bible published and © by Living Stream Ministry. A New Testament of this Bible, with 9000 footnotes, is a available in multiple languages for free from Bibles for America, Bibles for Canada, Bibles for Europe.

Bible verses quoted in these posts are from The Holy Bible, Recovery Version, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim CA, 2003. The text of this Bible is at text.recoveryversion.bible; this too is © by LSM.

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by Don on May 1, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on May 1, 2024

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New Heaven, New Earth, New Jerusalem

The conclusion and the summit of the Bible is New Jerusalem in the new creation which is composed of the new heaven and the new earth (Rev. 21:1-2). In a few posts we will look at newness in the New Testament.

In Matthew 9:17 (and Mark 2, Luke 5) the Lord Jesus spoke about “new wine” which should be put into “fresh wineskins.” The Lord is the new wine and human beings are the containers, “vessels of mercy” to containNew Jerusalem Him. To be qualified to receive Him, we must be fresh, that is, born again into the new creation. Perhaps New Jerusalem could be considered the eternal, corporate fresh wineskin containing God in Christ as the new wine.

In Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22 the Lord initiated His supper with the bread and wine as symbols of “the new covenant.” This new covenant was brought forth by His death and resurrection. Through these we have been redeemed from the old creation and regenerated into the new creation.

His death and resurrection, and our participation in them (Rom. 6:3-6), are the beginning of our journey to New Jerusalem. His glorious coming will bring us into the initial stage of New Jerusalem in the kingdom age for our rejoicing with Him until we enter into the eternal fullness of the new creation.

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by Don on April 29, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on April 29, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/04/29/new-heaven-new-earth-new-jerusalem/

New Jerusalem: Out of Heaven to Earth

New JerusalemIn Revelation 21:2 John tells us, “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven.” He repeats this in verse 10.

Revelation 21:1 says that the new creation is composed of “a new heaven and a new earth.” Since New Jerusalem comes “out of heaven” it must be on earth. We need to hold to God’s word in the Bible, rejecting human reasoning which sometimes says that New Jerusalem is to big for the earth or that it will disturb the rotation of earth.

God created the first earth and He created man “in His image and with His likeness” (Gen. 1:26) to express Him on earth. Man fell into sin and death but God’s purpose never can be stopped. God in Christ, pictured by the tree of life in Genesis 2, came as the reality of life to enter man as His container.

This life (zoe in NT Greek) is different and distinct from man’s psychological and physical lives (psuche and bios in NT Greek). This zoe life grows in us and gradually is formed into us, as in Galatians 4:19. When formed in us, this life conforms us “to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29) so that God may be expressed through His people.

This zoe life being formed in us is a transmission from heaven to earth, a big step toward New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to earth to become God’s full expression on the new earth.

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by Don on April 26, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on April 26, 2024

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From Golden Churches to the Golden City

The first lampstand described in the Bible is in Exodus 25, for the tabernacle. The second is in 1 Kings 7, for the temple. The third is in Zechariah 4, related to the rebuilding of the temple after the return from Babylon. Fourth are the seven golden lampstands in Revelation 1:12, 20. The ultimate lampstand is New Jerusalem shining eternally “with the glory of God.”

In Zech. 4 the emphasis is on the Spirit (Zech. 4:6) as seven lamps shining, these seven lamps being the seven eyes of God (Zech. 4:2, 10). The seven eyes of God are the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 5:6) for God’s intensified move. This indicates that…the lampstands in Revelation are the reproduction of the lampstand in Zechariah….The shining Spirit is the reality of the shining Christ, and the shining churches are the reproduction and expression of the shining Spirit to accomplish God’s eternal purpose that the New Jerusalem as the shining city may be consummated.*

New JerusalemIn Revelation 1:12 John tells us, “I saw seven golden lampstands.” In verse 1:20 “the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” The churches are golden because their inner reality is the divine nature, portrayed by the gold. The shortages in Revelation 2–3 are in the human element, but that does not detract from the inward divine nature.

For New Jerusalem as God’s goal to be reached, the “seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God” (Rev. 4:5) burn for our purification. Eventually all the fallen human element will be in the lake of fire and God’s fully transformed and glorified people will be with Him in the golden and shining New Jerusalem.
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* This is an excerpt from footnote 3 on Revelation 1:12 in the Recovery Version Bible, published and © by Living Stream Ministry. A New Testament of this Bible, with 9000 footnotes, is a available in multiple languages for free from Bibles for America, Bibles for Canada, Bibles for Europe.

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by Don on April 24, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on April 24, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/04/24/from-golden-churches-to-the-golden-city/

What God Prepared for Those Who Love Him

Many posts in January 2024 emphasized that New Jerusalem is spiritual; it is not a physical city. All the characteristics of New Jerusalem must be interpreted spiritually; they should not be understood or explained in comparison with current human buildings and cities.

New JerusalemFirst Corinthians 2:9 touches this same line. “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not come up in man’s heart; things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

New Jerusalem is a living organism beyond the scope of human eyes, ears, and imaginations. It is a divine mystery which was hidden in past ages but which God desires now to reveal to us (Rom. 16:25; Eph. 1:9, 3:9, 5:32; Col. 1:26-27).

God had this mystery hidden in Himself before He created the universe. Now He will grant us “a spirit of wisdom and revelation” that we may be enabled to see and grasp this mystery. Even more, this mystery is being wrought into out being. This is the divine supply which “causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love” (Eph. 4:16).

This building progresses in those who love God, who love the Lord Jesus. The building up is “in love.” This constitutes us to be New Jerusalem, “the bride, the wife of the Lamb” (Rev. 21:9), to live an eternal marriage in love.

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by Don on April 22, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on April 22, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/04/22/what-god-prepared-for-those-who-love-him/

Two Women at the End of the Bible

Revelation 17-18 presents a woman named Babylon and chapters 19, 21-22 reveal a woman named New Jerusalem who is the bride, the wife of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.

The sixty-six books of the Bible speak of many things and contain many revelations. In the end, however, there are two women. The conclusion of the Bible, the last chapters of the book of Revelation, is a story of Babylon and Jerusalem—two cities and two women. We need to have a clear understanding of the principles represented by these two women.*

New JerusalemBabylon, the development from Babel in Genesis 11, signifies confusion and rebel-lion against God. In Revelation 18:4-5 there is a cry, “Come out of her, My people, that you do not participate in her sins and that you do not receive her plagues; for her sins have accumulated up to heaven, and God has remembered her unrighteousnesses.”

By the end of Revelation 18 Babylon is destroyed and chapter 19 begins with praises to God. Then there is a wonderful declaration in 19:7, “Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”

May we all love the Lord Jesus and pursue Him to experience Him, gain Him, and be filled with Him that we may be constituted into New Jerusalem as His bride, His wife.

* from Witness Lee, The Four Men in the Bible, chap. 9, published and © by Living Stream Ministry.

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by Don on April 19, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on April 19, 2024

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Christ Jesus our Hope, our Coming Glory

The previous two posts focus on Colossians 1:27, Christ in us the hope of glory. This is the hope of our Lord’s glorious, public appearing (Titus 2:13) to reign over the earth, and our being brought into His glory (Heb. 2:10) and this glory being revealed in us (2 Thes. 1:10).

New JerusalemFirst Timothy 1:1 declares, “Christ Jesus our hope.” He is both the source of this hope and guarantee that this hope will be fulfilled. We do not yet see the glory but we hope for it “with endurance” (Rom. 8:24-25). We also “boast because of the hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2).

We do not hope with our own effort nor try to convince ourselves that the hoped for glory will really happen. Rather, this hope is Christ and He is within us. This is “the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7; 1:2). This is “a living hope” unto which we have been regenerated through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:3).

We can thank and praise our Lord for this hope of glory. It is good for at least some of our praising to be aloud, not merely in our thinking. The more we do this, the more we turn from our doubts unto Him as the reality of our hope. Christ in us, the hope of glory!

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by Don on April 17, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on April 17, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/04/17/christ-jesus-our-hope-our-coming-glory/

Christ in Us, Our Hope of Glory

Colossians 1:27 declares that Christ in us is our hope of glory. God desires to be glorified/ expressed in Christ through all of His people and He certainly will accomplish this. Ultimately New Jerusalem is this accomplishment.

This hope of glory is of Him, not of us. It is not an uncertain hope arising from our desire. It is not like a hope to get a promotion at work or to earn an A in a class. Those hopes depend on human effort and a positive response from another person.

New JerusalemThe hope of glory is not like that. This hope originates with Christ and He is the certainty of its fulfillment.

This hope is “in you.” Whether you feel it at any one time or not, it is present! Verse 1:27 also says “God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery.” Christ in us is a mystery, yet God wants to make this mystery, and the riches of this mystery, fully known to us.

Christ, not we, is the assurance that we will be in glory in Him as New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven “having the glory of God” (Rev. 21:2, 11). Our part is to cooperate. We can pray, O God, make the riches of Your glory known in me and in all the Christians around me.

Our Hope and the Coming Glory       Our Hope and the Coming Glory (2)

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by Don on April 15, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on April 15, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/04/15/christ-in-us-our-hope-of-glory-2/

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