In this message we shall consider Christ’s person in the New Jerusalem.
In the New Jerusalem Christ will still be the redeeming Lamb (Rev. 22:1). This indicates that in eternity we shall be enjoying what God has prepared for us through Christ as the Lamb. Christ accomplished redemption on earth. This redemption was designed by God in eternity past. Before the foundation of the world Christ was appointed by God to be the Lamb to redeem the fallen human race (1 Pet. 1:19-20). Hence, redemption was designed in eternity and accomplished in time. The fact that Christ will be the Lamb in the New Jerusalem means that the redemption accomplished by Him in time will be carried into eternity. In eternity past there was only the design of redemption, but in eternity future there will be a memorial of redemption. In the New Jerusalem we shall remember that we were fallen and that we were redeemed by Christ as the Lamb.
In eternity we shall enjoy something like the Lord’s table. When Christ established the table, He said, “I will by no means drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of My Father” (Matt. 26:29). Here we see that we shall have the Lord’s table in the kingdom. In the New Jerusalem we shall have the Lord’s table eternally. We shall remember how Christ gave His body for us so that we might become His mystical Body, and how He shed His blood for our sins so that we might be redeemed back to God and have the right to come to Him and enjoy Him as the tree of life. There will be such a memorial in eternity. For this reason, Christ will be the Lamb in the New Jerusalem. He was appointed the Lamb in eternity past, He died as the Lamb in time, and in eternity He will still be the Lamb for a memorial.
In eternity Christ, the Lamb, will be the Husband. This means that the Redeemer is the Husband and that the New Jerusalem is the wife. The thousand years of the millennium will be the Lamb’s wedding day (Rev. 19:7). On this wedding day the overcoming saints will be the bride to the Bridegroom. Then after the wedding day Christ for eternity will live a married life with His redeemed ones. In that married life He will be the eternal Husband, and all His redeemed ones will be His eternal wife.
In both the Old and New Testaments God likens His chosen people to His spouse (Isa. 54:6; Jer. 3:1; Ezek. 16:8; Hosea 2:19; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32). The spouse is for the Lord’s satisfaction in love. As the bride of Christ, New Jerusalem comes out of Christ, her Husband, and becomes His counterpart, just as Eve came out of Adam, her husband, and became his counterpart (Gen. 2:21-24). As the wife of Christ, the New Jerusalem is prepared by participating in the riches of the life and nature of Christ.
Revelation 21:9 speaks of both the bride and the wife. The bride is mainly for the wedding day, whereas the wife is for the entire life. The New Jerusalem will be the bride in the millennium for one thousand years as one day (2 Pet. 3:8) and the wife in the new heaven and the new earth for eternity. The bride in the kingdom age will include the overcomers (Rev. 3:12; 19:7-9), but the wife in eternity will include all God’s redeemed ones.
In the book of Genesis Adam typifies Christ as the Husband, and Eve typifies the church as the wife. Eve was built with a bone, a rib, taken out of Adam and then was brought back to Adam to be one flesh with him. The ultimate fulfillment of this type will be in the New Jerusalem. Christ will be the eternal Adam, and God’s redeemed people will be the eternal Eve. The two, Christ and His wife, will enjoy their married life eternally.