Revelation 21:2 and 9 clearly tell us that the New Jerusalem is the bride, the wife of the Lamb. According to the entire Bible, there is a divine romance between God the Creator, the Redeemer, who is the male, and His redeemed people, who are the female. For this reason, God repeatedly likens His chosen people to a spouse (Isa. 54:6; Jer. 3:1; Ezek. 16:8; Hosea 2:19; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32) for His satisfaction in love. As the wife of Christ, the New Jerusalem comes out of Christ to be His spouse, just as Eve came out of Adam and became his counterpart (Gen. 2:21-24). The bride is mainly for the wedding day, whereas the wife is for the entire married life. The New Jerusalem will first be the bride of Christ in the millennium for one thousand years as one day (2 Pet. 3:8) and then His wife in the new heaven and new earth for eternity. The bride in the millennium will include only the overcoming saints (Rev. 3:12; 19:7-9), but the wife in the new heaven and new earth will include all the redeemed and regenerated sons of God (Rev. 21:7).
The fact that the New Jerusalem is the bride, the wife of the Lamb, Christ’s eternal counterpart, is a further proof that the New Jerusalem cannot be a physical city. It would be ridiculous to say that Christ will marry a physical city as His wife. A wife is a person, and the New Jerusalem, as the wife, the bride of the Lamb, Christ, will be a corporate person, the aggregate of God’s redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people.
As the components of the holy city, New Jerusalem, the believers will be the tabernacle of God-God’s eternal habitation among men. Revelation 21:3 says, “I heard a loud voice out of the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them.” The New Jerusalem as the tabernacle of God indicates that in eternity the believers, together with the Old Testament saints, will be God’s eternal dwelling place. In both the Old and New Testaments God likens His chosen people to a dwelling place (Exo. 29:45-46; Num. 5:3; Ezek. 43:7, 9; Psa. 68:18; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Tim. 3:15). The spouse is for God’s satisfaction in love, and the dwelling place is for God’s rest in expression. The New Jerusalem will be God’s dwelling place among men for Him to be expressed for eternity.
As God’s habitation, the New Jerusalem will be “the tabernacle of God with men” for eternity. The tabernacle made by Moses was a type of this tabernacle (Exo. 25:8-9; Lev. 26:11). That type was first fulfilled in Christ as God’s tabernacle among men (John 1:14), and will eventually be fulfilled in the fullest way in the New Jerusalem, which will be the enlargement of Christ as God’s dwelling place. This tabernacle will also be the eternal dwelling place of God’s redeemed people. God will overshadow us with Christ (Rev. 7:15). Hence, the New Jerusalem will be a mutual habitation for both God and us.
Revelation 21:3 tells us that the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God “with men.” Here “men” refers not to the believers but to the nations (Rev. 21:24a, 26), the people living on the new earth outside the New Jerusalem. However, many Bible readers think that “with men” in 21:3 refers to the believers. This is wrong. Even today our God is not merely among us-He is within us. In eternity, in the New Jerusalem, God will not be among the believers but will be in the believers. Actually the believers will be the New Jerusalem, and the New Jerusalem will be the tabernacle of God among men, that is, among the nations.
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