New Jerusalem - the Consummation

by Don on October 6, 2023 • Permalink

Tagged Christ our life, garden of Eden, Genesis, God's eternal purpose, redeeming & enthroned Lamb, redemption for life, Revelation 22:1-2, Revelation 22:3-5, throne of God and the Lamb, tree of life, Triune God

Posted by Don on October 6, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/10/06/live-by-the-spirits-flow-from-the-redeeming-god-42-1-5/

New Jerusalem is the Spiritual Reality of OT Symbols

Ephesians 3:4-5 speaks about the mystery of Christ, “which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men.” God’s mystery was not made known but was shown in symbols.

The Old Testament is full of pictures, signs, of New Testament spiritual realities. An example is the passover lamb in Exodus 12 and the lambs as offerings in Leviticus 1, 3–5. The reality is in John 1:29; John the Baptist saw Jesus and declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”

The New Jerusalem is also the ultimate consummation of the positive types, figures, and signs of the Scriptures. In Genesis 2 we see the tree of life, a river, gold, bdellium, onyx stone, and a couple—Adam and Eve. In the New Jerusalem we also see the tree of life, the river of water of life, gold, pearl, precious stone, and a divine couple with the Lamb as the Husband and His redeemed people as His wife.*

There are so many symbols in Genesis 1–2 which have their reality in New Jerusalem. Much more is presented at The Garden of Eden and New Jerusalem.

The Old Testament tabernacle is also a figure—the New Testament reality is Jesus Himself. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (John 1:1, 14).

The OT has symbols but the NT has the reality. New Jerusalem is the ultimate reality of so much. It is not a physical symbol but a spiritual reality.

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

Photo courtesy of burningwell.org.

by Don on October 19, 2022 • Permalink

Posted in Old Testament pictures

Tagged Christ the reality, garden of Eden, John, Lamb of God, spiritual signs, tabernacle of God

Posted by Don on October 19, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/10/19/new-jerusalem-is-the-spiritual-reality-of-ot-symbols/

Three Materials in God’s Eternal Purpose

Revelation 21:18, “And the building work of its wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold…”
Revelation 21:21a, “And the twelve gates were twelve pearls.”
Revelation only mentions three materials in the composition of New Jerusalem: gold, pearl, and precious stones. These signify God’s nature, Christ’s life, and the Spirit’s transformation. The Triune God is the constitution of the entire city of New Jerusalem.

First Corinthians 3:12 says that spiritual building should have materials of gold, silver, and precious stones…but in Genesis 2, in the garden of Eden, there were gold, precious stones, and pearl—there was no silver. In Revelation 21, in the New Jerusalem, there are once again gold, precious stones, and pearl; there is no silver. What is the significance of this? Gold, precious stones, and pearl—these three items—are found both in the garden of Eden and in the New Jerusalem. This means that gold, precious stones, and pearl are from eternity to eternity.*

Silver represents redemption. In Genesis 1–2 there was no sin and in Revelation 21–22 there is no sin. Hence there is no need of redemption and no silver is present. In contrast, from Genesis 3 through Revelation 20 there is sin causing the need of redemption.

Thank God that although we have sinned, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from every sin. However, God has shared the life of His Son with us, a life which forever needs no redemption. One day we will live completely by this life and the history of sin will pass away.*

How wonderful that Jesus died so that God could forgive our sins. As Christians we need to confess our sins and receive forgiveness (1 John 1:7). But even more we need to hold onto Christ to grow in His life in everything so that He can flow through us for the growth and building of His Body (Eph. 4:15-16) unto New Jerusalem.

* 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.

4 Comments

by Don on July 20, 2022 • Permalink

Tagged 1 Corinthians, 1 John, forgiveness of sins, garden of Eden, pearl gates, redemption for life, Revelation 21:12-21, spiritual signs

Posted by Don on July 20, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/07/20/three-materials-in-gods-eternal-purpose/

New Jerusalem has a Great and High Wall

Three verses in Revelation 21 speak about the wall of New Jerusalem. “It had a great and high wall” (v. 12); “he who spoke with me had a golden reed as a measure that he might measure the city and its gates and its wall” (v. 15); “he measured its wall, a hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel” (v. 17).

In the beginning God made a garden in Eden, and the serpent was able to come into this garden to speak to Eve….God originally intended for Adam to keep the garden. In other words, His intention was that Adam would be the wall of the garden. However, Adam did not guard it, and Satan entered. But what about the New Jerusalem? The New Jerusalem has a wall. On one hand, a wall includes, and on the other hand, it excludes. It includes and keeps everything that is within the city, and it excludes and rejects everything that is outside the city.*

The wall makes a clear distinction between what is inside and what is outside the city. On the new earth there will not be anything negative for the wall to reject but the wall will clearly distinguish between New Jerusalem constituted with God’s nature and the surroundings merely restored to a clean, pure human nature.

by Don on May 27, 2022 • Permalink

Tagged garden of Eden, partake of the divine nature, Revelation 21:12-21

Posted by Don on May 27, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/05/27/new-jerusalem-has-a-great-and-high-wall/

New Jerusalem in Genesis and Revelation

The Bible is a complete book presenting God and His eternal purpose. The Glorious Church by Watchman Nee helps us to see how what is presented at the beginning of the Bible corresponds to its conclusion.

The last two chapters of Revelation correspond with the first three chapters of Genesis. God created the heaven and the earth in Genesis, and the new heaven and the new earth are in the last two chapters of Revelation. In both Genesis and Revelation there is the tree of life, a river flowing out, gold, pearl, and…precious stones. In Genesis 2 Eve was Adam’s wife. In Revelation 21 the Lamb’s wife is the New Jerusalem, and God’s eternal purpose is fulfilled in this woman. In Genesis 3 man’s fall was followed by death, sickness, suffering, and the curse. But, when the New Jerusalem descends from heaven, there is no more death, sorrow, crying, or pain. Genesis 1 through 3 and Revelation 21 and 22 face each other at the two ends of the expanse of time.*

God created man in His image (Gen. 1:26) so that He could gain a corporate expression of Himself and a bride for Christ. The fulfillment is clearly seen in Revelation 21 with New Jerusalem “having the glory of God” (v. 11) and being “the wife of the Lamb” Jesus Christ (v. 9).

God’s purpose is accomplished by His life. It is portrayed by the tree of life in Genesis 2 and the reality is Christ, our life (Col. 3:4), coming in resurrection to live in us based on the redemption He accomplished through His death on the cross. Christ as the resurrection brings us to New Jerusalem.

* From chapter 5 The Glorious Church by Watchman Nee, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, available at www.ministrybooks.org/books.cfm and www.livingstream.com/en/the-church/8012401-glorious-church-the.html. The quote here is the second paragraph of chapter 5, slightly shortened.

For more on these aspects of New Jerusalem, see the posts in
The Garden of Eden and New Jerusalem
Man was Created in God’s Image to Express God

by Don on April 15, 2022 • Permalink

Posted in Characteristics of New Jerusalem, Old Testament pictures

Tagged Christ our life, death nullified, garden of Eden, Genesis, precious stones, pure gold, redemption for life, resurrection, Revelation 21–22, river of life, tree of life

Posted by Don on April 15, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/04/15/new-jerusalem-in-genesis-and-revelation/

God Desires to Take Man from a Garden of Plants to a City of Precious Materials

God put the created man in a garden with trees “pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Gen. 2:9). God’s desire was that man would receive God in as His life (in addition to His human life) so that God could live Himself through man.

Man failed but God is never defeated. God incarnated Himself in the man Jesus, lived a perfect human life, died on the cross for our redemption from sin and sins, and resurrected to impart God’s life into all who will receive Him.

When man receives God as life, the Spirit regenerates man’s spirit and then gradually works to renew man’s mind (Rom. 12:2). When the Lord returns in glory His believers’ mortal bodies will be “conformed to the body of His glory” (Phil. 3:21) to be glorified with Him.

Regeneration, renewing, and glorification transform man from dust to a treasure. Simultaneously these men are built together to be God’s habitation, through which God is expressed to satisfy His eternal plan. The consummation of this is New Jerusalem, a living city built of precious materials.

Here are links to the previous ten posts on this development from the garden of Eden to the city of New Jerusalem.

The Bible focuses on how God moves from creation to New Jerusalem.

God’s city, New Jerusalem, is in the new creation where everything is pure.

God, by His life in man, builds His believers together into a corporate expression of Himself.

By God’s life in us, our entire being will be in resurrection and in glory, matching New Jerusalem.

God’s living building is growing into a holy temple in Christ Jesus.

The treasure and pearl (Matt. 13) are the life products which constitute New Jerusalem.

The fruit of the vineyard should become material for building God’s eternal dwelling.

We were dead in sin but made alive in Christ for God’s display of surpassing riches of His grace.

We are rooted in Christ Jesus for our life supply and grounded in Him to be built together.

In 1 Peter, as life to us, Christ is the seed; for God’s building, He is the stone.

by Don on February 18, 2022 • Permalink

Tagged Christ glorified in us, Christ our life, corporate expression of God, garden of Eden, God's eternal purpose, redemption for life, regeneration, renewing of the Spirit, summaries

Posted by Don on February 18, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/02/18/god-desires-to-take-man-from-a-garden-of-plants-to-a-city-of-precious-materials/

Rooted for Growth, Grounded for Building Up

God’s intention is to sow His life as a seed into man, to grow in man, and to build His many people into a corporate expression of Himself. The Bible takes this course, from man in the garden of Eden to New Jerusalem.

Colossians 2:6-7 is a little summary of this. “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, having been rooted and being built up in Him, and being established in the faith even as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”

If we have received Christ Jesus as our Lord, then He lives in us and we should walk (have our daily living) in Him (Gal. 2:20). This is possible because we have been rooted in Him (as portrayed by the plant life in recent posts) and, by His life, we are being built together with other believers in Him. For this we abound in thanksgiving.

The parallel verse is Ephesians 3:17, “That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love…” In 3:16 Paul prayed that we would be strengthened into our inner man, our regenerated spirit. This affords Christ the way to make His home in our hearts.

When he makes His home in us we are rooted in Him to absorb Him as our life supply for growth. We are also grounded in Him to be built up with others until we reach New Jerusalem. This journey from plant life to building up is the path laid forth in the Bible.

Graphic courtesy of pixabay.com.

by Don on February 14, 2022 • Permalink

Tagged Christ may make His home, Colossians, Ephesians 3, garden of Eden, God's eternal purpose, growth, life and building, thank God

Posted by Don on February 14, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/02/14/rooted-for-growth-grounded-for-building-up/

Made Alive with Christ for God’s Rich Display

New Jerusalem, the conclusion of the Bible, is a city of resurrection life. Man was created in Genesis 1, in the garden with the tree of life in Genesis 2, but fell into sin and death in Genesis 3.

Because the redemption accomplished by Jesus on the cross was not available during the Old Testament, man remained in spiritual death. Nevertheless, there were some real lovers of the Lord in that age, including those recorded in Hebrews 11.

The spiritual death is the death of our spirit, the innermost part of our being. Ephesians 2 begins with the believers in Ephesus formerly “dead in your offenses and sins,” walking “according to the age of this world” and “were by nature children of wrath.”

Thank God for verses 4 and 5: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”

God’s eternal purpose is to impart His life into us to grow in us so that He can be expressed through us corporately. An aspect of this expression is, “that He might display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (v. 7). “In the ages to come” includes New Jerusalem.

God’s manifestation of Himself and His riches begins with God making us alive (v. 5) and concludes with “all the building” as the “holy temple in the Lord” (v. 21). Thus Ephesians 2 is a summary of the transition from the garden of Eden to New Jerusalem.

by Don on February 11, 2022 • Permalink

Tagged corporate expression of God, Ephesians 2, garden of Eden, made alive, riches of grace, sin and death

Posted by Don on February 11, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/02/11/made-alive-with-christ-for-gods-rich-display/

God’s Farm, God’s Building

The Bible begins with created man in a garden with “every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” The Bible concludes with God and man built together in His life to be New Jerusalem. “The city was pure gold, like clear glass” (Rev. 21:18b).

First Corinthians 3:9 is a miniature of these two. “You are God’s cultivated land, God’s building.” God’s cultivated land, His farmland, portrays not only life but even more the growth of life. This life brings forth God’s building, which is God’s dwelling place, His believers knit together to form His living house.

This is the focus of the Bible: God in Christ as life enters into man to grow in man and to form these men into a corporate expression of Himself which ultimately is New Jerusalem.

Ephesians does not mention the plant life of the garden but it does couple growth with building. Verses 2:20-22 are about God’s building, His temple, His dwelling place. Verse 21 also speaks of “all the building growing.” Verses 4:15-16 present “the Head Christ” out from whom a rich supply flows for “the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.”

This is God’s New Testament building, alive and growing to be built together. God’s Old Testament building was physical because prior to the redemption of Christ God’s life could not come into us. Now we have both redemption and life; this life grows and builds us together unto New Jerusalem.

Photo courtesy of pixabay.com.

by Don on February 4, 2022 • Permalink

Tagged 1 Corinthians, corporate expression of God, Ephesians 2, Ephesians 4, garden of Eden, growth, life and building, redemption for life

Posted by Don on February 4, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/02/04/gods-farm-gods-building/

The Bible: A Pleasant Garden to a Precious City

The Bible progresses from a pleasant garden to a precious city. Genesis 2 describes the garden of Eden. “Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden…And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food…” (v. 8-9).

Revelation 21 presents New Jerusalem composed of precious materials. New Jerusalem’s “light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, as clear as crystal” (v. 11b). “The city was pure gold, like clear glass” (v. 18b). “The twelve gates were twelve pearls” (v. 21a).

The Bible focuses on how God moves from creation to New Jerusalem. A summary of this move:
• God has a desire in His heart, an eternal purpose He wants to fulfill;
• God created man “in His image” to bring forth an expression of Himself through man;
• God will impart His life into man so that man can express Him;
• this life transforms man inwardly from a vessel of clay to something precious;
• this life also joins, knits, and builds men together to be a corporate expression of God;
• the culmination of this process is the city New Jerusalem.

New Jerusalem is a city of life, a living city, brought forth by the operation of God’s life in humanity. This life is portrayed by the tree of life and the river of life in both Genesis 2 and Revelation 22. The reality is God in Christ as the Spirit flowing through man. This flow has New Jerusalem as it glorious result.

Graphic courtesy of pixabay.com.

by Don on January 26, 2022 • Permalink

Tagged garden of Eden, Genesis, God's eternal purpose, pearl gates, precious stones, pure gold, Revelation 21–22

Posted by Don on January 26, 2022

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2022/01/26/the-bible-a-pleasant-garden-to-a-precious-city/

The Divine Dispensing for Eternity

New Jerusalem is a city of resurrection life. The divine light, the river of water of life, and the fruits of the tree of life are the eternal life supply in New Jerusalem.

The uncreated light, the river of water of life, and the tree of life are all for the divine dispensing to maintain the New Jerusalem, to supply the necessities of the holy city, and to sustain the divine building for eternity. The light shines to dispense, the river flows to dispense, and the tree grows to dispense. The light, the river, and the tree are for dispensing the very substance, element, and essence of the Triune God into our being.*

The Triune God created man in His image so that man could express God. However, man in himself cannot do this. Man needs God’s life to express God. So God put the created man in the garden of Eden with the tree of life and the river, a picture of God as life. Man did not take of that tree and fell into sin and death.

Jesus Christ redeemed us by His death. That re-opened the way to the tree of life and the water of life. Now we are partaking of this wonderful supply. By partaking, the divine life spreads in us and increases God’s expression. The ultimate development is New Jerusalem which shines with the glory of God!

* This is the 22nd of a series with quotes from chapter 28 of The Central Line of the Divine Revelation by Witness Lee, copyright by Living Stream Ministry.

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.

by Don on September 6, 2021 • Permalink

Tagged created in God's image, fruit each month, garden of Eden, glory of God, light of life, rich supply, river of life, tree of life, Triune God

Posted by Don on September 6, 2021

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2021/09/06/the-divine-dispensing-for-eternity/

The Bible, a Journey from the Garden of Eden to New Jerusalem

The Bible is our journey with God from the garden of Eden to New Jerusalem. The garden portrays many aspects of New Jerusalem.

In the beginning of the Bible, God shows the garden of Eden. The garden of Eden is a picture, revealing that God’s heart’s desire is to produce the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate issue of the work of God. This issue is a group of people and also an abode. Revelation clearly says that the New Jerusalem is the bride, the wife of the Lamb (21:9). It also says that the New Jerusalem is the holy city, God’s habitation (v. 10).*

Comparing Genesis 2 with Revelation 21–22, we see both in the garden (symbolically) and in the city (in reality) God and man with the tree of life, the river of life, and precious materials. We also see a husband and wife and God’s building work.

Although sin came in at Genesis 3, nevertheless in this chapter we see more pictures of what is in New Jerusalem. Here are God’s redemption and His glory, holiness, and righteousness. A detailed look at these features is in The Garden of Eden and New Jerusalem.

New Jerusalem, the holy city, is God’s habitation and our habitation. We abide in Him and He abides in us. And the Lamb is our Husband and we are His wife. This is our eternal destiny.

by Don on April 5, 2021 • Permalink