All posts tagged born again

A second birth for people, to be born of God, by receiving the divine life (John 1:12: 3:3, 5).

Life and Building unto New Jerusalem

New JerusalemLife and building are two key aspects in the Bible for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. God desires to impart His life into man and thereby to build many men together into His corporate expression. This expression of God has which has New Jerusalem as the consummation.

Life and building are together in Ephesians 4:16; this verse presents a supply from the Head, Christ, through all His members which “causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” Growth in life and building are together.

Life and building are also seen in 1 Peter 2. In verse 2 we as Christian babes, born of “incorruptible seed” (1:23), should “long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation.” This is a life matter. 

Then verses 4-5 present Christ as the living Stone and all of us as living stones; as such we “are being built up as a spiritual house.” This is building.

The seed is for life-planting; the stone is for building (v. 5). As life to us, Christ is the seed [1:23]; for God’s building, He is the stone [2:4]. After receiving Him as the seed of life, we need to grow that we may experience Him as the stone living in us.*

Life and building is the path to New Jerusalem, a city built of precious materials with the river of water of life and the tree of life.

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

* A part of footnote 1 on 1 Peter 2:4 in the Recovery Version Bible, © by Living Stream Ministry.

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

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/03/22/life-and-building-unto-new-jerusalem/

New Jerusalem, a City Saturated with Christ

New JerusalemIn Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus promised that He would build His church. In order for this to be realized, the church has to enter into a state where so many saints will have Christ making His home deep down in their heart so that their entire being would be saturated within with Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, possessing and occupying every corner and every avenue of their entire being. This is the subjective experience of the Triune God and is the very mingling of the Triune God with His chosen and redeemed people.*

Being saturated with Christ is for His building up of the church today and is a characteristic of New Jerusalem. The city radiates the glory of God because every member has been possessed and occupied by the Triune God. This makes New Jerusalem the corporate expression of God mingled with all His people.

The saturation is necessary because we were all born into the old creation but New Jerusalem is the center of the new creation. It is new with the newness of God. That is why we need a new birth (John 3:3, 5-6), the renewing of our soul by the Spirit (Titus 3:5; Eph. 4:23), and the transfiguration of our mortal body “to be conformed to the body of His glory” (Phil. 3:21).

* From chapter 39, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.

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 August 2, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on August 2, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/08/02/new-jerusalem-a-city-saturated-with-christ/

Jerusalem Above, the Mother of the Believers

New JerusalemNew Jerusalem is the consummation of the Bible. Prior posts have covered four designations of this city: New Jerusalem, the holy city, the tabernacle of God, and the wife of the Lamb. Now we consider a fifth designation, the mother of the believers and the new covenant of grace.

Galatians 4:26 declares, “the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother.” Galatians 4:22-31 is about Abraham’s two sons, one of the maidservant and one of the free woman. Verse 24 says “These things are spoken allegorically, for these women are two covenants.”

Galatians 4:26-28 and 31 reveal the New Jerusalem as the mother of the believers. This mother is the Jerusalem above, the heavenly Jerusalem (v. 26). It is impossible for a physical city to be a mother bringing forth children….Sarah symbolizes the new covenant of grace that justifies and brings in life, bringing forth children unto freedom (vv. 26-28, 31). The New Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem above, is our mother, and this mother is the new covenant of grace. This new covenant is our mother because it brought us forth as children of freedom.*

New Jerusalem is a living city and we have been born of God as our Father and of the city as our mother to have forgiveness of sins and to receive the eternal life and to be part of this city.

* From chapter 28, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.

Graphic courtesy of PublicDomainPictures.net.

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by Don on December 16, 2022  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on December 16, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/12/16/jerusalem-above-the-mother-of-the-believers/

Grow unto New Jerusalem with the Growth of God

All who believe into Jesus Christ are born of God (John 1:12-13). This birth, pictured by human birth, begins a life of growing. The goal of this growth is maturity to match the perfection of New Jerusalem.

New JerusalemThe growth of the eternal life in us is our growth. Colossians 2:19 exhorts “holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.”

This verse brings forth a question: Does God grow? God in Himself is perfect and eternal. He does not need to grow and He does not grow. But He does want to grow, to spread, to increase, in us. Bible phrases related to this growth are Christ making His home in our hearts (Eph. 2:19) and Christ being formed in us (Gal. 4:19).

This growth is for New Jerusalem, which is God constituted into His millions of believers to radiate His glory from within them. God created us in his image (Gen. 1:26) for this. Because we are in His image, He can enter into us and be formed in us to manifest Himself in  glory.

The glory is of God yet it becomes ours when God regenerates us. But it must grow within us with the growth of God. Romans 8:29 speaks of God conforming us to the image of Christ and verse 30 of us being glorified. This glory, the glory of New Jerusalem, will be manifested through us when Christ comes visibly: “He comes to be glorified in His saints” (2 Thes. 1:10).

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by Don on June 9, 2021  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on June 9, 2021

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2021/06/09/grow-unto-new-jerusalem-with-the-growth-of-god/

God’s Building Work with Man (3)

New Jerusalem“He who believes into the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36a). When we believe, we receive eternal life. This is to be born again. John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Our second birth, of the Spirit, is the beginning of our journey to New Jerusalem.

Because we have had two births, we are both natural, fallen men, men of flesh, and redeemed, regenerated men, men with God living in us. God wants to spread in us; to live in, with, and through us; to be formed in us. God’s goal is that we no longer be natural, fallen men but “be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29).

We all need, experientially, to have Christ incarnated into us. Then He must bring us through death and resurrection into God. The more we pass through the cross and into the resurrection, the more we will be in God. God is in us today, but we are not very much in God. This is why God is doing His work of building on this earth today.*

God seeks our cooperation with His building work. On one side our cooperation is to deny our self, our soul-life, as spoken by the Lord in Matthew 16 and Luke 9. On the other side our cooperation is to live and walk in spirit as in Galatians 5:16, 25. This cooperation allows God a way to build Himself into us and to build us with Him into New Jerusalem.

* Excerpt from The Vision of God’s Building by Witness Lee, chapter 17

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by Don on September 28, 2020  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on September 28, 2020

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2020/09/28/gods-building-work-with-man-3/

Growth and Maturity for New Jerusalem

New JerusalemNew Jerusalem is a city of life. Every aspect of the city depends on and is in God’s eternal life. This is the life we all receive when we first believe into and receive Jesus Christ.

When we receive Him we are born again. Immediately, we “as newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation”
(1 Peter 2:2). But to grow a little is not sufficient to be constituted into New Jerusalem.

Paul and his companions labored that “we may present every man full-grown in Christ” (Col. 1:28-29). Through our receiving and applying the perfecting ministry of those the Lord has gifted, we all arrive “at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:12-13). This matches what God desires for New Jerusalem.

We all need to see this light today. We have been saved, our sins have been forgiven, and we have God’s life, but we still must grow in life and become mature. God would never put a man of clay in the New Jerusalem. Every stone built into the New Jerusalem is a precious stone that has been transformed by God. As soon as the life of God enters into man, transformation begins to take place within him in order to gradually build him into the New Jerusalem. Therefore, strictly speaking, we do not walk into the New Jerusalem. Rather, God works us into it. However, this requires the growth and maturity in life.*

Lord, cause me to grow daily in Your life, all the way to maturity!

* The Way for a Christian to Mature in Life, chapter 3, Witness Lee, © LSM.

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by Don on July 6, 2020  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on July 6, 2020

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2020/07/06/growth-and-maturity-for-new-jerusalem/

New Jerusalem: Bride and Tabernacle

John the apostle tells us in Revelation 21:2-3a, “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice out of the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them.”

The New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth is the bride, the wife (Rev. 21:9) of the Lamb Christ as His counterpart (John 3:29) and the tabernacle of God as His habitation (Rev. 21:3). Christ and God are one. They are one God, but triune. And the tabernacle is one entity with two aspects to meet the different needs of its Triune God. To Christ, the Lamb, the Redeemer, the New Jerusalem is His bride as His counterpart for His satisfaction. To God, the Originator, the Creator, the New Jerusalem is His tabernacle as His habitation for His rest.*

New JerusalemThe Bridegroom and bride are spoken about in John 3:29. In 3:30 the bride is the increase of Christ. How can Christ increase? By spreading into many human beings and then growing in us to saturate us with Himself. His spreading begins with His terminating the serpent’s deadly poison, as alluded to in 3:14, so that we can be cleansed to receive eternal life.

This eternal life is the life of New Jerusalem. After being born again, this life, Christ Himself, grows in us. This growth, presented in many of the epistles, brings us to maturity and builds us together. This is our path to New Jerusalem.

* Conclusion of the New Testament, The, chapter 13, by Witness Lee

Photo courtesy of NASA.

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by Don on March 16, 2020  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on March 16, 2020

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2020/03/16/new-jerusalem-bride-and-tabernacle/

Transformation, Renewing, Sanctification, Washing for New Jerusalem

Every human being is born into the old creation. Every human being who turns to God and believes into Jesus Christ is born a second time, born again, into the new creation. The culmination of this new creation is “a new heaven and a new earth” with “the holy city, New Jerusalem” as its center (Rev. 21:1-2).

Being born again is a positional transfer into the new creation and a gaining of the life of the new creation. Being born again is also a guarantee that our condition, our inner nature, will change to fully match New Jerusalem in the new creation. In our second birth Jesus Christ as the Spirit enlivens our human spirit and remains within us eternally. He is our guarantee.

New JerusalemHis growth and spreading within us transforms, renews, sanctifies, washes us, changing our inward nature from the old to the new creation, to the shining of New Jerusalem.

Ephesians 5 speaks of the “washing of the water in the word.” This is not the printed word of the Bible but the living word which comes through the Bible page in front of us or the Bible memory within us.

This living word is the Spirit and the Spirit is the flow of life in us. John 6:63: “It is the Spirit who gives life…the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” We experience this living word when a passage of the Bible becomes so bubbling in us, or when we receive fresh light on it, or when the Spirit applies it to our personal situation.

In our present experience the living word is irregular but in New Jerusalem the Spirit flows constantly as the river of water of life.

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by Don on February 26, 2020  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on February 26, 2020

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2020/02/26/transformation-renewing-sanctification-washing-for-new-jerusalem/

New Jerusalem: the Full Expression of God

Prior posts speak of our transformation by the Spirit’s renewing to bring forth New Jerusalem as the full expression of the Triune God. Our transformation and renewing from men of dust in the old creation to living stones in the new creation is also a sanctification, a washing. Transformation, renewing, and washing are not separate actions but three views of the same action.

New JerusalemThere are two washings in our Christian life. One is the cleansing from sins by the blood of Jesus. That is a judicial matter. The other washing is living, by the flow of His life within us. This post is about the living washing.

Titus 3:5: “according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.” Regeneration, being born again, is a once for all matter. But regeneration brings eternal life into us and this life is a flowing life. This flow, portrayed by the river of water of life in New Jerusalem, washes us continually.

Ephesians 5:25-27 also speaks of our sanctification by this washing: “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her that He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word, that He might present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things.”

On the cross Christ gave Himself to gain the church. Now He is “cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word.” The goal of this washing is that the church, as the forerunner of New Jerusalem, be glorious, radiating the glory of God.

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by Don on February 24, 2020  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on February 24, 2020

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2020/02/24/new-jerusalem-the-full-expression-of-god-4/

The Gospel: Be Cleansed, Receive Eternal Life, Enter New Jerusalem

New JerusalemRevelation 22:14 proclaims, “Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.” This is the gospel to everyone now.

Our robes signify our conduct. In the eyes of God all our living apart from Him, even our good deeds, is like “a soiled garment” in Isaiah 64:6. We need to wash our robes/garments, our conduct. This washing is by the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14) which cleanses us from everything we have done apart from God (Acts 15:9).

This cleansing/washing gives us the right to the tree of life—Jesus Christ becoming our life for our new birth and being our life supply for our daily living with Him.

The cleansing/washing also gives us the right to enter by the gates into the city, New Jerusalem. An unbeliever’s basic need is to confess that he is a sinner apart from God, to turn to God, and to thank Jesus for dying to cleanse him and resurrecting to impart eternal life into him. This is the proper response to the proclamation of Revelation 22:14.

In contrast to 22:14, verse 15 declares “Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the fornicators and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and makes a lie.” Those who reject cleansing through the death of Jesus and refuse to repent (e.g. Rev. 16:9) will be outside, that is, in the lake of fire.

May all who are around us hear and respond to Revelation 22:14 to be cleansed, have life, and enter New Jerusalem!

Bible verses quoted in these posts are from The Holy Bible, Recovery Version, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim CA, 2003. The New Testament of this Bible, with its outlines, is at online.recoveryversion.org; this too is © by LSM.

Photo courtesy of pixabay.com.

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by Don on August 2, 2019  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on August 2, 2019

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2019/08/02/the-gospel-be-cleansed-receive-eternal-life-enter-new-jerusalem/

Enter by the Regenerating Resurrection

New Jerusalem has twelve gates; “the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was, respectively, of one pearl” (Rev. 21:21).

Like the gold of New Jerusalem, the pearls are not physical. They are spiritual signs. They represent the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Through death He terminated all the problems that separate us from God. In resurrection He released the divine life to us to regenerate us. “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

New JerusalemThis life is our entrance into New Jerusalem. The city is entirely separate from our fallen, natural life and is wholly in the realm of the divine, eternal life.

The Lord also presented this in His words to Nicodemus. He said, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). When we are born again, regenerated by the Spirit with eternal life, we enter the kingdom of God. New Jerusalem is the ultimate stage of this kingdom.

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is our entrance into New Jerusalem. Each gate is one pearl; this is the one, unique way to get into the city. Yet there are twelve pearl gates; this shows that the Triune God (three) faces all of creation (four) to invite and allow every human being a chance to enter the city.

“He who believes into the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36). This is our entrance into New Jerusalem.

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by Don on May 22, 2019  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on May 22, 2019

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2019/05/22/enter-by-the-regenerating-resurrection/

God is Leading Many Sons into Glory

Continuing in Revelation 21:7, we read “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and
I will be God to him, and he will be a son to Me.” This word continues the blessings in the foregoing verses, and is spoken in response to New Jerusalem coming down out of the new heaven onto the new earth.New Jerusalem

We overcome by believing and thus being born of God, receiving His overcoming life. In this life relationship He is God to us and we are His sons. In this life all the sons of God are constituted the corporate expression of God, New Jerusalem.

New Jerusalem, like the church today
(1 Tim. 3:15-16), is both the house, the dwelling place, of God and the house-hold, the family, all the sons, of God. His leading of all His sons is in Hebrews 2:10—God made Christ, the Author of our salvation, perfect through sufferings* and thereby God is “leading many sons into glory,” many sons into the city of glory, New Jerusalem.

In contrast to this wonderful destination, Revelation 21:8 speaks of all the evil in the lake of fire, the second death. In Revelation 21:1-8 there are three categories of people: the sons of God constituting New Jerusalem, the nations (including the sheep in Matt. 25) around New Jerusalem, and the evil people in the lake of fire.

We who have believed into Jesus Christ are sons of God and will be in New Jerusalem. May many more believe and be led into glory!

* This does not imply that there was any imperfection of virtue or attribute in Jesus, but only that the completing of His experience of human sufferings was needed to make Him fit to become the Author, the Leader, of His followers’ salvation. (part of Heb. 2:10, footnote 5 in the online Recovery Version NT, © LSM)

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by Don on March 27, 2019  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on March 27, 2019

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/god-is-leading-many-sons-into-glory/

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