Revelation 21:21 says, “And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was, respectively, of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.” Each of the twelve gates is a great pearl. Here we see three kinds of materials: The city itself is gold, the wall upon it is jasper with different kinds of precious stones as the foundation, and the gates are pearls. As we have seen, these three items are in Genesis 2. There are not two or four kinds of materials, but three, signifying the three persons of the Triune God. The gold, signifying the divine nature, is something of God the Father; the pearl, which forms the entrance, is something of God the Son; and the wall with its appearance is something of God the Spirit. This signifies that the Triune God is mingled with and constitutes all the saved ones.
The city itself is gold, and the street of the city, which is one, not many, is also gold. The wall built upon the foundation is of precious stones, and the gates are twelve pearls. Therefore, there is gold, pearl, and precious stones. Gold is the first item. When building the wall of a house, you first must leave a space for the entrance; in this sense, the entrance is first and the wall is built around it. Therefore, the second item is the pearls, and the precious stones are third. This is the order of the materials according to the teaching of the apostle Paul. Paul told us that we should build the church with gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12), and silver signifies the same thing as pearls. Therefore, in Genesis 2 there are three items, in Revelation 21 there are three items, and in 1 Corinthians 3 there are also three items. All three items are for the building up of the dwelling place of God. These three items signify something of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. The Triune God is mingled with us and wrought into us. In this way, we have the divine building.
Revelation 21:22 says, “And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” This verse speaks of the temple, but it is different from the temple in the old Jerusalem. With the old Jerusalem, there was the city and there was the temple within the city, but the New Jerusalem is a city in which no temple is seen. Since God Himself in Christ is the divine temple, there is no need of another temple. With this city are both the tabernacle and the temple. As we have seen, the whole Old Testament is a history of the tabernacle and of the temple, and the New Testament is the continued history of the tabernacle and the temple. While the Lord Jesus was on this earth, He tabernacled among men (John 1:14). Furthermore, His body was the temple. This temple, this body, was killed, destroyed, by the Jewish people on the cross, but the Lord raised it up in three days, that is, in resurrection (2:19-21). In resurrection He built up an enlarged temple, which is the church. The ultimate conclusion of all the Scriptures is the city as the tabernacle with the temple. This city is the tabernacle with God in Christ Himself as the temple. Thus again, we have the tabernacle and the temple.
Revelation 21:23 says, “And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon that they should shine in it, for the glory of God illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.” God is the light and Christ is the lamp. God is in Christ shining through Christ, just as light is in a lamp and shines through the lamp.
Verses 24-27 speak of the nations, saying, “And the nations will walk by its light; and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it. And its gates shall by no means be shut by day, for there will be no night there. And they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. And anything common and he who makes an abomination and a lie shall by no means enter into it, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
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