If the New Jerusalem were an actual city made of gold, pearls, and precious stones, it would mean that a physical city was the conclusion of the entire revelation. This is not logical. God has been working throughout the ages. First He created the universe. Then He created man. He afterwards became incarnate to redeem man. He lived on this earth, was crucified, and then resurrected, ascended, and poured Himself out as the Spirit upon His disciples. The disciples then went out to preach the gospel. Many have been saved and added to the church; they are being built up as a Body to express Christ. Do you believe the final outcome will be that God gains merely a physical city? Do you think this is God's intention?
If this were the case, God would be a poor architect. Through His creation, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, through His building up of the churches and the perfecting of the saints in generation after generation, God is preparing something far greater than a big literal city. God has already created something more splendid than a city—the universe. The solar system is beautiful, but God is not satisfied with that. How could He be satisfied with a city, even a city which is half the size of the United States? To interpret such a vision, such a sign, in a natural way is wrong.
The church today is our home. When we come to the church, we come home. The church is in God. The church life with God is everywhere. There are churches in Dallas, Houston, Hong Kong, and all over the earth. Hallelujah! Wherever we go, our home is there. Our home is the church. Why worry about whether we will have a house in the New Jerusalem. We do not need to worry about this. God is not interested in these physical things. This physical thought has to go.
What God cares about is a living composition of His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people. All these will be built together to express God for eternity. This will satisfy God forever. Satan will be in the lake of fire. God will be in His living dwelling place. All those He created, chose, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed will be glorified into His image. He will be living in them, and they will be living in Him. No one can adequately explain such a profound concept. Marvelous! This will be God's dwelling and the wife of His dear Son, Christ. No physical building can be a wife. A wife is something organic, a living person.
The New Jerusalem signifies God's dwelling in the new heaven and new earth. In the New Testament God's dwelling place on earth was first a single Man, Jesus Christ, signified by the tabernacle (John 1:14), and then a corporate man, the church, signified by the temple (1 Cor. 3:16). In the new heaven and new earth, God's dwelling, as the wife of the Lamb (Rev. 21:9-10), is also a living composition of His redeemed people, composed of both the Old Testament saints, represented by the twelve tribes, and the New Testament saints, represented by the twelve apostles (Rev. 21:12, 14).
These people, built together to be God's dwelling, firstly experienced regeneration through Christ's death and resurrection. This is signified by the pearl gates, their entrance into the city. A pearl is produced by an oyster, a living creature in the death waters. When a grain of sand wounds the oyster, it secretes a substance around the sand, which makes the sand become a pearl. The wound of the oyster signifies death, and the secretion of life juice around the grain of sand signifies the resurrection life. Jesus' death and resurrection make us pearls through regeneration. No one can enter into the kingdom of God except by regeneration (John 3:5).
In the holy city God's nature or God's essence becomes our basic element, signified by gold (Rev. 21:18b, 21b); the city proper is gold and the street is gold. The essence of all believers is just God Himself.
By the Spirit's work we shall be transformed into the image of God, signified by jasper. The Father's nature (gold), the Son's redemption and our regeneration (pearl), and the Spirit's transforming work (precious stones) produce all the components that comprise this eternal dwelling of God. God's dwelling is also our dwelling. We will also be built together to be God's Holy of Holies, expressing Him in glory.