The believers’ enjoyment of the eternal life to the fullest will be in the new heaven and new earth. After the millennium, the old heaven and the old earth will pass away through fire and be renewed into the new heaven and new earth (2 Pet. 3:10-13), into which the New Jerusalem will come for God’s eternal expression. Revelation tells us that John saw a new heaven and a new earth and that he saw the holy city, New Jerusalem (21:1-2). The new heaven and new earth (Isa. 65:17; 66:22) with the New Jerusalem as the center will be the new universe which God will renew out of the old heaven and old earth. Although the heaven and earth which were created by God have become old because of Satan’s corruption, God’s purpose in creating the heaven and earth cannot be stopped. On the one hand, God will exercise His almighty power to judge the Satan-corrupted old heaven and old earth; on the other hand, He will renew the judged old heaven and old earth into the new heaven and new earth. Thus, the old heaven and old earth will be rid of their oldness and be renewed into a new universe suitable for God’s use to accomplish His eternal purpose and in which He may express Himself eternally and fully.
The new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem is the issue, the result, of Christ’s death. Christ died to clear up the old creation, so eventually the old creation with the old heaven and the old earth will pass away. Everything of the old creation will be over. Christ’s death terminated the old creation, and His death as the grain of wheat (John 12:24) released the divine life to germinate the new creation. The new creation is eventually realized in its ultimate consummation in Revelation 21 and 22, where the old heaven and the old earth have passed away and the new heaven and the new earth have come in. This is a new beginning with a new universe, and in this new universe is the New Jerusalem. After the coming out of the new heaven and new earth, the holy city, New Jerusalem, will descend to the new earth, indicating that the dwelling place of God and His redeemed will not be in heaven but on the new earth. Therefore, in an environment that is new and eternal the believers will enjoy the eternal life to the fullest extent.
Revelation 21:27 tells us that only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life shall enter into the New Jerusalem. This assures us that all the believers in Christ will be there, for we are those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Those who enter into the New Jerusalem will be given to drink of the spring of the water of life. Revelation 21:6b says, “I will give to him who thirsts from the spring of the water of life freely,” and 22:1 says, “He showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street.” The water of life is the life-giving Spirit as our eternal drink. The life-giving Spirit is actually the Triune God Himself flowing Himself out to be our drink. This eternal drink is bright as crystal. In the life-giving Spirit there is nothing opaque. As we drink this eternal Spirit, everything becomes crystal clear.
The river of water of life in 22:1 is a symbol of the processed Triune God in Christ as the life-giving Spirit (John 7:38-39; 1 Cor. 15:45) flowing out Himself to saturate His redeemed people, the constituents of the New Jerusalem. In eternity all the redeemed people will drink the water of life as their eternal portion. This indicates that even in eternity future we shall still need the supply of the divine dispensing of the divine Trinity. That dispensing will be the spring of the water of life. The spring is God Himself, and the water of life is the flow of this God. In the New Jerusalem the Triune God Himself will be flowing out as the water of life for our supply eternally.
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