The New Jerusalem is a sign of the aggregate of the result of God’s work of the new creation in all the dispensations within the old creation. There are four dispensations: the dispensation of the patriarchs, the dispensation of the law, the dispensation of grace, and the dispensation of righteousness.
From the time God created all things and mankind according to His eternal plan, His economy, He has used four distinct dispensations to do His work of the new creation on the man whom He created in order to accomplish the purpose of His eternal economy. The dispensation of the patriarchs was from the creation of Adam to the giving of the law by Moses (Rom. 5:14). This was the dispensation before law. Hence, it may be called the pre-law dispensation. In this dispensation God first put the created man under His direct government that man might receive Him as life. Man, however, became fallen. Thus, God caused fallen man, the function of whose conscience had been activated by the knowledge of good and evil, to receive His redemption in Christ. God also caused man to be governed by his own conscience and to be acceptable to Him through sacrifices according to the way of redemption that He ordained. Moreover, He caused man to enjoy His riches by calling on His name so that he might walk with God and work with God. Eventually, because man became repeatedly fallen, God made fallen man subject to the authority which He gave to man. This caused man to be ruled by man that he might live and be preserved and that God might have the opportunity to visit man. Finally, in the dispensation of the patriarchs, God called the new race out of the Adamic race, which had become fallen to the uttermost, and gave to this new race the promise of grace, leading them to hope in the Christ who would come to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. In this way, God obtained the chosen patriarchs to be the first part of the new race in His new creation, signified by the crown of twelve stars worn on the head of the universal woman in Revelation 12, for the building of the New Jerusalem as God’s expression in eternity future.
God’s original intention was to do the work of the new creation on the fallen man of the old creation according to His promised grace. However, because fallen man did not realize his impotence and his need of God’s grace, God temporarily changed His way of doing His work of the new creation on the fallen man of the old creation. God gave fallen man the law, which was established according to what God is. By doing this, He initiated another dispensation, the dispensation of law, which extended from Moses to the coming of Christ.
God’s intention in setting up the dispensation of the law according to His economy was to accomplish certain things through the law. First, through the law God kept His chosen people in custody that they might satisfy the requirements of the law through the offerings, which typified Christ, and thereby be guarded, as sheep are guarded in a sheepfold. Second, through the law God provided His chosen people a child-conductor that they might be led to Christ, that through the offerings they might be forgiven, and that through the temple they might enjoy God’s riches. Third, through the law God caused His chosen people to have the knowledge of sin and of themselves, and thereby realize and sense their need of God’s grace. As a result, God kept His chosen people in the custody of the law and brought Christ to the chosen people who waited for Him in the dispensation of law and to those who would believe into Him in the coming dispensation. In this way God obtained a group of people who are signified by the moon under the feet of the universal woman in Revelation 12, as the second part of the new race of the new creation, to constitute the New Jerusalem as God’s eternal expression in the new heaven and new earth.
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