The foundation of the New Jerusalem is the twelve apostles representing the grace of the New Testament, indicating that grace is the foundation of the holy city. This is the grace for which God made a covenant with Abraham. Grace is actually God Himself covenanted to His chosen people. When God is given to us, that is grace, and when grace is covenanted, it becomes a covenant. We can see this in Galatians 4, where the covenant of grace refers to the Jerusalem above (v. 26). The Jerusalem above is a producing mother who produces the sons of God. These sons are actually the components of the producing mother. In the New Jerusalem, the holy city, as the ultimate consummation, the foundation is the grace God covenanted to Abraham. This indicates, therefore, that grace is the foundation of the holy city.
As the foundation of the holy city, grace is the producing factor. Grace is the source, the means, and the element for the producing of the city. The entire city is produced out of grace, with grace, in grace, and through grace.
John 1:1 and 14 reveal that the Word, which is God, became flesh, full of grace. “The law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ” (v. 17). Why did grace come through Jesus Christ? Grace came through Christ because He is the embodiment of God who is grace. Galatians 4 speaks of this grace and shows us that this grace has become a covenant. This covenant is the city, the city is the mother, and the mother is not only the producer of the sons but is also the composition of all the sons.
The book of Galatians concludes with a word concerning grace. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers” (6:18). In Greek an expression such as “the grace of Christ” is an expression of apposition, with “Christ” in apposition to “grace.” This indicates that grace is Christ. The same is true of the expressions “the love of God” and “the life of God.” In the former “love” and “God” are in apposition, indicating that love is God; in the latter, “life” and “God” are in apposition, indicating that life is God. The same is true of the expression “the Spirit of God.”
We see three such appositions in 2 Corinthians 13:14, a wonderful verse concerning the Trinity. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” “The grace of Christ” means that Christ is grace and that grace is Christ. Likewise, “the love of God” means that God is love and that love is God, and “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” means that the Holy Spirit is the fellowship and that the fellowship is the Holy Spirit. Hence, grace is Christ, love is God, and fellowship is the Holy Spirit. Love as God is the source; grace as Christ, the embodiment of God, is the course; and fellowship as the Spirit is the flow in the course to reach us for application.
When Paul in Galatians 6:18 speaks of the grace of Christ, he is speaking of Christ as grace. To say “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit” actually means “Christ as grace be with your spirit.” This is not a doctrine-it is a realization of what Christ is.
The Word that became flesh and tabernacled among us is a person, and this person is Christ as the embodiment of grace. Because He is the embodiment of grace, when He became flesh, grace became embodied in the flesh. The law was given through Moses, but grace came, and it came through and with the person of Jesus Christ. Now where Christ is, there grace is also.
The foundation of the New Jerusalem is grace, and this grace is all-inclusive. Such a grace is the processed and consummated Triune God embodied and expressed. The twelve apostles, whose names are on the twelve foundations of the holy city, are figures representing the embodied and expressed grace of God, which is God Himself. In Revelation 21:14 the twelve apostles are the representation of God’s embodied and expressed grace. Therefore, God Himself in the embodiment and expression of grace is actually the foundation of the New Jerusalem.
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