All posts tagged conformed to the image of God’s Son

New Jerusalem Expresses the Triune God

Revelation 21:18 says of New Jerusalem “the city was pure gold, like clear glass.” Verses 12 and 21 tell us that New Jerusalem “had a great and high wall and had twelve gates” and “the twelve gates were twelve pearls.” Verse 19’s description is “The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every precious stone” and then twelve stones are named.

The city is a mountain of gold with pearl gates and with a jasper wall built upon twelve layers of precious stones. Gold expresses God in His divine nature, pearls express Christ in His death and resurrection, and precious stones express the Spirit in His transforming work with all the unsearchable riches of Christ. In the New Jerusalem we see the triune expression of the Father as the source of all the divine riches, of the Son as the embodiment of all the divine riches, and of the Spirit as the realization of all the divine riches.*

New JerusalemGod’s eternal purpose is to express Himself in a corporate humanity. The gold, pearls, and stones are outward symbols; the reality of New Jerusalem is that it expresses the Triune God. God is preparing this expression now by working in all the people who have received Christ Jesus as their Redeemer and their Life.

God’s preparation work is described in multiple verses. Romans 8:29 says that we were “predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son.” Now we, beholding “the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).

And 1 Corinthians 15:49 promises, “as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.” New Jerusalem will be our corporate bearing of the heavenly image.

* From chapter 44, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986

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by Don on November 17, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on November 17, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/11/17/new-jerusalem-expresses-the-triune-god-44-1-1/

Constituted to be God’s Corporate Expression

New JerusalemIn Ephesians 3:8 Paul announcing “the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel” and in 3:9 “to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is.” The current goal of this labor is in 3:10, “that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church.”

New Jerusalem, as the ultimate goal, will enlarge this presentation of God’s wisdom and will radiate “the glory of God” (Rev. 21:11a).

The church today and then the New Jerusalem in the future, being the house of God [1 Tim. 3:15], has to be a spiritual constitution with the element of the Divine Trinity. This constitution is God’s dwelling place. Second, this constitution is God’s corporate expression (Rev. 21:11). God dwells in such a constitution, and this constitution expresses God in a corporate way as a corporate Body. The function of the church today is to express God corporately, and in eternity in the New Jerusalem we will be such a corporate expression forever. This corporate expression is also a constitution with the intrinsic element of the Triune God.*

The constituting of God’s corporate expression includes many aspects of the Triune God’s work in us beginning from regeneration. This inner work goes onward to our glorification, the transfiguration of our mortal bodies (Phil. 3:21). The washing of the water in the Lord’s word (Eph. 5:26), Spirit’s renewing (Titus 3:5) and transforming (2 Cor. 3:18), and our being conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29) are all part of the constituting that produces New Jerusalem as God’s eternal expression.

* From chapter 40, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.

Graphic courtesy of pixabay.com.

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 September 1, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on September 1, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/09/01/constituted-to-be-gods-corporate-expression/

Beholding the Glory, Transformed into the Image

New Jerusalem is the mingling of the Triune God with His redeemed people. To achieve this goal, the Triune God constitutes us with Himself to bring forth His expression through us. The first step is regeneration with the divine life and nature. The second aspect in Christ gradually imparting Himself into us to be formed in us and to conform us to His image.

New JerusalemThe third item of the triune constitution is the precious stones through the transformation of the Spirit (Rev. 21:18a, 19-20), from the time that we began to look to the Lord. In the New Jerusalem we first see the base, the golden mountain, then there are the pearly gates, and finally, there is the building, mainly with jasper and other precious stones. The gold is given, the pearl is produced by Christ’s resurrection life through His death, and the precious stones are produced by the transforming work of the Spirit.*

The transformation proceeds as we turn our hearts to the Lord (2 Cor. 3:16) which removes the inner veils from our being. Then, “we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit” (3:18).

“We all [plural] with unveiled face [singular]” indicates that we need companions in our beholding and reflecting of the Lord. This is a corporate experience which brings us to New Jerusalem as the corporate manifestation of all God’s riches and glory.

* From chapter 40, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.

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by Don on August 28, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on August 28, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/08/28/beholding-the-glory-transformed-into-the-image/

The Triune God, our Constitution for New Jerusalem

New JerusalemAfter we enter into the Triune God, we experience Him as the triune constitution, the second application [of the New Jerusalem for the believers]. We are now being constituted with the Father’s divine nature, the gold; with the Son’s produce in His redemptive work, the pearl; and with the Spirit’s produce in His transforming work, the precious stones. The New Jerusalem is built with these three basic materials, which are the three basic elements for our spiritual constitution.*

Galatians 1 mentions Christ being revealed in us and Galatians 2 is Christ living is us. This is very good but we need to move on to Galatians 4:19, Christ being formed/constituted in us. These three steps answer the call in Hebrews 6:1, “let us be brought on to maturity.”

Romans 8:29 is the same, presenting God’s intention that we “be conformed to the image of His Son.” And in 2 Corinthians 13:9 Paul and his companions were praying for the Corinthians’ (and our) equipping/perfecting/completing; this too is a matter of our constitution so that our inner being matches the constitution of New Jerusalem.

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

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by Don on July 14, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on July 14, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/07/14/the-triune-god-our-constitution-for-new-jerusalem/

The Triune God in Us, the Essence of New Jerusalem

The New Testament begins, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ.” He is the subject of this book and He is “the Life”. The Old Testament has many references to Him and figures of Him. For example, many chapters in Matthew refer to the prophets in general or to a specifically-named prophet whose words apply to Jesus.

New JerusalemThe Bible is not a book of religion, philosophy, or something invented by the human mentality, but it is God’s revelation of the divine life. The Bible, of course, covers many things, but its focus and very central thought is the divine life. Our human life is a mystery, and the divine life is even more abstract and mysterious. No human words in human language can fully utter the mystery of this divine life. Therefore, God exercised His wisdom to reveal such a mystery concerning His divine life by many allegories.*

One allegory is John 1:29. John the Baptist “saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God.” Lamb is an allegory, an emblem/figure/symbol of something. In this case it refers to Jesus as the reality of all the Old Testament lambs offered as sacrifices.

The gold, pearls, and precious stones that compose New Jerusalem are also allegories, spiritual signs. They point to the Triune God as the real essence of New Jerusalem. The three materials composing New Jerusalem are the Triune God Himself. The city is entirely of the highest divine standard.

But, the Triune God alone is not New Jerusalem. Rather, the Triune God mingled with His people is the structure of the city. We are partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4), Christ is in us (Rom. 8:10; Col. 1:27), and the Spirit operates in us to transform our image and to infuse us with glory (2 Cor. 3:18) to bring forth New Jerusalem.

* From chapter 33, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.

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by Don on January 16, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on January 16, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/01/16/the-triune-god-in-us-the-essence-of-new-jerusalem/

Conformed to God for New Jerusalem

Hebrews 7—10 speaks about the new and better covenant. Hebrews 12:22-24 ties this new covenant to “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.”

New JerusalemThe Triune God in His new covenant is imparting and dispensing Himself into all of us all the time, making us His components, the components of His ultimate consummation. The ultimate consummation will not be the Triune God Himself alone, but it will be the mingling of the Triune God with His redeemed, tripartite man—this is the New Jerusalem. We all have to be wrought with God and by God so that we might be fully transformed, saturated, and conformed to God Himself….We should remain here and should not be distracted by anything.*

The paragraph above includes imparting, dispensing, transformed, saturated, and conformed. Here are some verses presenting these actions which bring forth the reality of New Jerusalem in all God’s people.

“My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.” (Gal. 4:19).
“…says the Lord: I will impart My laws upon their hearts, and upon their mind I will inscribe them.” (Heb. 10:16b)
“We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18)
“Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.” (Rom. 8:29)

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

Graphic courtesy of PublicDomainPictures.

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by Don on December 23, 2022  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on December 23, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/12/23/conformed-to-god-for-new-jerusalem/

The Triune God: the Center, Substance, and Essence

New JerusalemThe Bible begins “God created.” God is plural in Hebrew and created is singular. This is the first indication that God is Triune, Three-One.

The Bible consummates with New Jerusalem where there is “a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street.” This also shows that God is Triune—the river, portraying the Spirit, is the unique flow out of one throne occupied by God and the Lamb.

Throughout the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation we see one divine wonderful person—the Triune God. The ultimate consummation of the divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures and of everything that the Triune God has done and achieved is the New Jerusalem, which is the composition of the Triune God mingling Himself with the tripartite man. The New Jerusalem as the divine composition of the Triune God mingling Himself with His redeemed, transformed, tripartite man is the ultimate, universal consummation of all of God’s divine revelation and His divine doing.*

The Triune God created man for His purpose. Man fell into sin and death but God redeemed and regenerated man. Now He is working so that regenerated humans will be transformed “from glory to glory” by beholding the Lord with unveiled face (2 Cor. 3:18). We are also being “conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29).

These humans in the process of transformation and conformation are being built together as the Body of Christ today to prepare the way unto New Jerusalem’s appearing with God’s image and glory.

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

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by Don on December 19, 2022  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on December 19, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/12/19/the-triune-god-the-center-substance-and-essence/

New Jerusalem is God and Man Blended Together

God’s purpose is eternal and is focused on man. Man was created in God’s image so that God could be expressed through man.

This expression requires that God be life to man in a blended way. God’s life in man is not like water in a cup which can easily be separated. Rather God and man become one mingled entity and divinity is expressed through humanity.

New JerusalemThe mingling of God with man can be seen in typology in Leviticus 2:4 with the meal offering, composed of fine flour mingled with oil. The entire New Jerusalem will be the fine flour mingled with the oil….Humanity is the fine flour, and God is the oil. The coming New Jerusalem will be a great meal offering, a big cake, made of fine flour mingled with oil. The Triune God is being mingled with us today, and this mingling will consummate in the New Jerusalem.*

This mingling requires man to accept Christ’s redemption and to receive Him as life. Then, as presented in Galatians 2:20, “it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith.”

We live one with the Christ who lives in us. This mutual living is “in faith.” By this living, Christ is formed in us (Gal. 4:19). His being formed in us is His constituting of us with Himself, His conforming us to His image, that He may be expressed through us and ultimately through New Jerusalem.

* From chapter 26, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.

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by Don on October 17, 2022  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on October 17, 2022

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To God be the Glory Forever and Ever

New JerusalemI meet weekly with a group of Christians. In the past months we have been slowly reading through Romans, reading some footnotes in the Recovery Version, and discussing what we read. I write this a few days after we finished Romans by reading 16:25-27.

Verse 27 says, “To the only wise God through Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” I realized that this is not merely a nice closing word but is a conclusion of the whole of Romans. All positive aspects of Romans contributes to bringing glory to God.

In this, Romans is parallel to the entire Scriptures, in which all God’s work concludes with the bringing forth of New Jerusalem which has the glory of God (Rev. 21:11).

The moving of God with and in His people to bring forth His glory includes:
• the revelation to Paul and his interaction with the Romans (first half of ch. 1)
• condemnation (mid ch. 1 to mid ch. 3), a black background to justification (mid ch. 3 to end ch. 4)
• justification and reconciliation bring forth “being saved in His life” (first half ch. 5)
• sanctification, identification with Christ, and presenting ourselves to Him (mid ch. 5 and ch. 6)
• bondage in flesh (ch. 7) turns to “no condemnation” and the Spirit with our spirit (first half ch. 8)
• being conformed to the image of God’s Son and glorification (second half ch. 8)
• God’s choosing and promises to Israel are a picture of God’s work in us and conclude “To Him be the glory forever.” (11:36)
• being transformed to practice the Body life with the exercise of His virtues through us (ch. 12–13)
• receiving one another as Christ has received us “to the glory of God” (15:7) (ch. 14 to mid 15)
• fellowship among the believers in many parts of the earth (mid ch. 15 to end)

Eventually all these actions, and more, bring forth New Jerusalem with eternal fullness of glory.

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by Don on September 30, 2022  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on September 30, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/09/30/to-god-be-the-glory-forever-and-ever-4/

The Fulfillment of God’s Eternal Purpose

Genesis 1:26 tells us, “God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

The last half of Revelation 22:5 is “the Lord God will shine upon them; and they will reign forever and ever.”

New JerusalemThe last clause of verse 5 is the most important. “And they will reign forever and ever.” This was the purpose of God in creation. In Genesis God’s purpose was that man should rule, and now he has obtained that purpose—man is ruling. This is not something in the millennium. This passage of Scripture, Revelation 21 and 22, is not a description of the millennium, but of eternity. They will reign unto eternity, and they shall reign forever and ever. God’s original goal is reached.*

Genesis 1 records God’s creation. Genesis 3 tells how Satan corrupted the creation by imparting his evil nature into man, which spread sin and death to all men. But by Revelation 21 all the corruption has been cleared away and what God purposed in eternity and spoke in Genesis 1 has been fully accomplished.

Genesis 1:26 presents two aspects of God’s purpose. First, the man created in God’s image fully expresses God. All God’s people have been conformed to the image of Christ so New Jerusalem shines with the glory of God. Second, God’s people, the constituents of New Jerusalem, reign. This completes “let them have dominion” in Genesis 1.

* From chapter 5 of The Glorious Church by Watchman Nee, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, available at www.ministrybooks.org and www.livingstream.com/en/the-church/8012401-glorious-church-the.html.

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by Don on September 7, 2022  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on September 7, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/09/07/the-fulfillment-of-gods-eternal-purpose/

Sufferings and Transformation for New Jerusalem (2)

New Jerusalem is composed of materials which express the Triune God. Revelation 21:18b-19a say, “the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every precious stone.”

That life which God has imparted to us is the gold, while the life which God is constituting in us is the precious stone. Day after day, in all kinds of circumstances, He is making us in the image of Christ. This is the precious stone. God does not stop by just giving us a portion of Christ’s life; He wants to have the life of Christ wrought into us.

It seems that the things which other people encounter are all good, but the things which you are up against are not prosperous or easy….But you must realize that it is not without a cause. God is continually burning you; the Holy Spirit is working to constitute more of the life of Christ in you so that you may be transformed into His image.*

New JerusalemWhenever we turn our heart to the Lord (2 Cor. 3:16) we behold “the glory of the Lord” and  “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” Glory indicates that this is a part of the preparation of New Jerusalem, the city having God’s glory!

Our circumstances do not limit the Spirit’s transformation work; we could be in prison as Paul was for years. Romans 8:28 says, “we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

The good in this verse is not our human concept. Rather, it is explained in the next verse, “Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son.” This is the preparation of New Jerusalem to fully manifest and magnify God for eternity.

* From chapter 5 of The Glorious Church by Watchman Nee, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, available at www.ministrybooks.org/ and www.livingstream.com/en/the-church/8012401-glorious-church-the.html.

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by Don on June 29, 2022  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on June 29, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/06/29/sufferings-and-transformation-for-new-jerusalem-2/

The Image of the New Man and of New Jerusalem

Ephesians 2 presents the creation of the one new man. Colossians 3 tells us that this new man “is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” This renewing causes our entire being to match New Jerusalem.

The renewing brings us to “the image of Him who created” the new man. This is the image of Christ Jesus. The mature new man, and New Jerusalem, will express the image of Christ. We are part of the new man, but Christ is “all and in all” so the expression is His, not ours.

The image in Colossians 3 matches Romans 8:29, “those whom He [God] foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.” In the prior verse all things work together for good—not our desire for material good, but New JerusalemGod’s desire for our conformation to bring forth a corporate expression of Christ.

Then Romans 8:30 declares that God has also called, justified, and glorified us. The goal is glorification, God expressed through humanity, with New Jerusalem as the highest and fullest state of this expression.

Applying Colossians 3:10 we can pray, Lord, renew me today and every day. Impart more of Your image into me. This prepares us to participate in New Jerusalem.

Photo courtesy of pixabay.com.

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by Don on April 6, 2022  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on April 6, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/04/06/the-image-of-the-new-man-and-of-new-jerusalem/

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