Revelation 21:3 and 24 indicate that the New Jerusalem will be the dwelling place among men-the nations-in eternity. Those people who do not follow the devil to rebel against God at the end of the millennium will be transferred to the new earth to be the nations living around the New Jerusalem and walking by its light. Hence, the New Jerusalem as the tabernacle of God will be the dwelling place of God among the nations in eternity.
Eventually, the New Jerusalem will be the dwelling place for both God and His serving ones. The picture of this in the Old Testament is very clear. The tabernacle was God’s dwelling place, but at the same time it was the priests’ dwelling place, the place in which they served God. This indicates that in the New Jerusalem, the ultimate consummation of the tabernacle, God and His serving priests will dwell in the same tabernacle. To God the New Jerusalem will be His dwelling, and to us God will be our dwelling. Revelation 21:22 tells us that in the New Jerusalem there is no temple, “for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” This means that God is not only the object of our service and worship but also our temple in which we serve Him. The New Jerusalem is God’s dwelling place, and the New Jerusalem as the temple is God Himself as our dwelling place. Actually, the New Jerusalem is a mingling of the Triune God with His redeemed people, and this mingling is a mutual dwelling for God and His redeemed. God lives in us and we live in Him. He and we become one mingled entity for eternity.
The New Jerusalem is not only the tabernacle of God but also the wife of the redeeming Christ. In both the Old and New Testaments, God likens His chosen people to a spouse for His satisfaction in love (Isa. 54:6; Jer. 3:1; Ezek. 16:8; Hosea 2:19; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32). In the New Jerusalem as the wife of the redeeming Christ, God will have the fullest satisfaction in love.
Revelation 21:9b and 10 say, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in spirit onto a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” Whereas the bride is mainly for the wedding day, 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 then the wife in the new heaven and new earth for eternity. The bride in the millennium will include only the overcoming saints, but the wife in the new heaven and new earth will include all the redeemed and regenerated sons of God (Rev. 21:7).
The New Jerusalem will be one with the redeeming Christ, as Eve became one with Adam. Eve was builded from a rib that was taken out of Adam’s side, and then she was brought back to him to be one flesh with him-to be one with him in nature and in life (Gen. 2:21-24; Eph. 5:25-27, 29-32). The principle is the same with the New Jerusalem as the wife of the redeeming Christ. She will be one with her Redeemer in nature and in life. Once again we see that the New Jerusalem cannot be a material city, for a physical city cannot be one with Christ in nature and in life. The New Jerusalem will not only have the divine element added to it and the holy nature of God wrought into it but will also be one with the redeeming Christ in nature and in life.
The New Jerusalem as the wife of the redeeming Christ has the church as her miniature. This is revealed by Paul’s word in Ephesians 5:22-32, where he speaks of the church as the counterpart of Christ. The church is actually a part of Christ, for the church comes out of Christ and is unto Christ, just as Eve came out of Adam and was unto Adam.
In Ephesians 5:32 Paul says, “This mystery is great, but I speak with regard to Christ and the church.” The fact that Christ and the church are one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), as typified by the husband and wife being one flesh, is the great mystery. It surely is a great mystery that the church as Christ’s counterpart comes out of Christ, has the same life and nature as Christ, and is one with Christ.
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