New Jerusalem, the consummation of every positive matter in the Bible, is the consummate newness in the Bible. Besides the “new” matters touched previously, New Jerusalem is eternal reality of the new man.
Adam was a man created by God for God’s purpose. When Adam fell from God, he and all his descendents became the old man. Later God came in the man Jesus to redeem us from the old creation and to bring us into a new creation.
Ephesians 2:15 tells us that on the cross Jesus Christ created a new corporate man in Himself. This new man is not separate from Christ; it is in Him and He is the new man’s element and life in us.
Colossians 3:10 tells us that we “have put on the new man.” This same verse tells us that the new man “is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” The fact is that we have put on the new man; the experience is that the new man needs to be renewed by Christ’s newness saturating us day by day.
This renewing takes place by the operation of the Spirit in our spirit that we may be “renewed in the spirit of our mind” (Ephesians 4:23). According to Colossians, this renewing is “according to the image of Him [Christ] who created” the new man.
In Colossians 1:15 Christ is the image of the invisible God. Thus, the renewing of the new man brings forth the image of God in Christ, the image which ultimately and eternally is displayed by New Jerusalem.
Photo courtesy of NASA.
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