The New Jerusalem has God’s throne with God and the Lamb (the redeeming God) sitting on it on the peak of the city. Out of this throne proceeds a river (the consummated Spirit) of water of life in its unique spiral street (the ministering communication) to water the whole city (for its drink). The tree of life (the life-supplying Christ) as a great vine grows on the two sides of the river to nourish the entire city (for its food). All of this is seen in Revelation 22:1-2.
The river of water of life in the New Jerusalem signifies the consummated Spirit. Eventually, God’s Spirit will be a river. This river of water of life is in the city’s unique spiral street. In the whole city there is only one street. The street with the river spirals down the mountain to reach every part of the city and all its twelve gates. The street is the communication that ministers something to us. This is the ministering communication to water the whole city for the city’s drink. The tree of life, the life-supplying Christ, is a great vine growing on the two sides of the river to nourish the entire city for its food. God’s throne is for His government, the river is for our watering, and the tree of life is for our nourishment. The river signifies the consummated Spirit, and the tree signifies the life-supplying Christ. The Triune God governs the entire city, serves the entire city, waters the entire city, and feeds the entire city.
All God’s redeemed and transformed people are kings within the city to reign over the new heaven and new earth as the realm of God’s eternal kingdom (22:5b). All the believers will be a big royal family. All of us will be kings, not mere citizens. We will be a governing class. The kingdom is the city, and the new heaven and new earth will be the realm of the kingdom. The restored and purified nations will be the people outside the city (21:24-26).
At the Lord’s coming back, the last day of His parousia, His coming to the earth, He will destroy Antichrist, his armies, and the false prophet. They will be the most evil people on earth. God will gather them together into a great winepress, the war at Armageddon, to destroy them.
After Christ destroys all these evil ones, He will set up His throne in today’s Jerusalem to gather all the nations who are left and to judge them (Matt. 25:32-46). He will separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. They will be judged based upon how they have treated the Lord’s brothers during the great tribulation. The sheep are those who have helped the Lord’s brothers, the Jews and the Christians, during the three and a half years of the great tribulation. These sheep will inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. Those of the nations who treated Christ’s brothers poorly will be considered as the goats. They will go directly to the lake of fire, just like Antichrist and the false prophet. The nations who are the sheep will be in the new earth as the people of God for eternity. They will be the restored and purified nations as the people outside the city, who are not redeemed and regenerated to have the uncreated life of God, but who are restored in their created life to its original state, preserved forever by the leaves of the tree of life (Rev. 22:2b). The fruit of the tree of life will be our food on which we live. But the leaves of the tree of life will be the healing element to sustain the restored nations forever.
The New Jerusalem is a city full of living water as the eternal dwelling of the Triune God with His redeemed people in contrast with a lake full of burning fire as a prison of Satan, the Devil, with his followers for eternity (20:10; 21:8; 22:15). The issue of the entire history of the universe will be a city full of living water and a lake of burning fire outside the city. The city will be God’s dwelling. The lake will be Satan’s prison. All God’s lovers will be with God in the city full of living water. All the followers of Satan will be with Satan in the lake of burning fire.