Revelation 21:17b says the wall's measurement is "a measure of a man, that is, of an angel." This is a sign that by then man will be like the angels. In Matthew 22:30 the Lord Jesus indicated that in resurrection man will be "as angels of God in heaven." Thus, man's being like an angel indicates the principle of resurrection. The entire city, therefore, will be in resurrection. Christ the Head and we His members will all be in resurrection.
The wall is made of jasper, and the light of the city is like jasper (21:18, 11). In 4:3 we are clearly told that God sitting on the throne looks like jasper. Jasper, then, signifies God's appearance. In eternity the New Jerusalem will bear God's appearance. God looks like jasper, and the entire city will bear the appearance of jasper. This indicates that it will be a corporate and eternal expression of God.
This fulfills Genesis 1:26. The Bible begins the way it ends. It begins with God's image for His expression, and it ends with a corporate, vast, immense, splendid expression. This is the ultimate consummation of the record of the tabernacle and the temple. The Bible is a record of these two things: the tabernacle and the temple. The conclusion of the Bible is the consummation of the tabernacle and the temple.
What the New Jerusalem is should be true of the church right now. We as the church in the Lord's recovery must have the Triune God as our structure, with the divine life as our inner supply and nourishment, and with the divine light as our inward shining and outward expression. This is the testimony of Jesus. At the beginning of the book of Revelation are the lampstands as the testimony of Jesus (1:2, 12). Then at the end of the same book there is the aggregate of all the lampstands, the New Jerusalem, as the eternal testimony of Jesus. Today we should be such a living testimony of Jesus. We are not another Christian work nor are we simply a Christian group. We are the testimony of Jesus as the lampstand today, which will be consummated in the New Jerusalem. What we will be there we should first be here.