The holy city will be illumined by the shining of God Himself. Revelation 21:24 says, “The nations will walk by its light.” This reminds us of Isaiah 2:5, which says, “House of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of Jehovah.” Light preserves oneness and rules out disorder. The light in the New Jerusalem will control, rule, guide, and keep everything in order. Hence, it will preserve the oneness.
Where life is, there light is also. John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” This light is the light of life (8:12). In Revelation 21 we have both life and light. Because the New Jerusalem is saturated with light, it has no need for the light of the sun. In the New Jerusalem we will have the glory of the Triune God as our shining light. In the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem, there will be no night, no death, and no darkness. Instead, there will be life and light. This will cause everything to rise up and be in good order.
Life regulates, and light controls. In the church life we do not have regulations, but we do have the regulating life and the controlling light. When the church is full of life, it is also full of light. Then everyone in the church is regulated by the inward life, not by outward rules, and everyone is controlled and kept in order by the light of life. Here in life and in light, we are headed up. In Revelation 21 we see the Head, the Body surrounding the Head, and all the nations walking in the light of the city (v. 24). This will cause the new heaven and the new earth to be a bright sphere. Therefore, in the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem as the center, all things will be headed up in Christ, thereby fulfilling the heading up of all things in Christ spoken of in Ephesians 1:10.
In order for this to take place, we need the dispensing of life. The life that is dispensed into us eventually becomes the light of men. In the dispensation of the fullness of the times, all the nations will walk in the light of the city. This means that there will be no death, no darkness, no corruption, and no confusion. Instead, everything will be in order, headed up under Christ, the unique Head, to express the Triune God in eternity. This heading up of all things will be an eternal expression of the Triune God. Today’s church life is a foretaste of this. It is a miniature of the new heaven, the new earth, and the New Jerusalem. As those in the miniature, we are enjoying the dispensing of life with light, and we are being headed up in Christ.
God needs a group of people who live in His life and allow His life to shine forth from them in order to bring all things into the light of life to be headed up in Christ. Even though God’s life is in us, if the light of life cannot be diffused out from us, we can never arrive at the oneness. When the life of the Head passes through the church, His Body, and reaches all things, all things become headed up in Christ. Where there is the life of the Head, there is the authority of the Head and also oneness.
Ephesians 1:10 speaks of the heading up of all things, and 4:13 speaks of the church arriving at the oneness. The church arrives at the oneness, and then all things are headed up. When the church arrives at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, all things will be headed up, the church will become transparent, and the light of life within the church will be fully diffused. The light that is diffused shines on all things in order that all things may be in the light. In this way all things are headed up.
Romans 8 shows that the church has not yet arrived at the oneness, because the sons of God have not yet entered into glory. All things are still subject to vanity and are groaning and travailing due to the slavery of corruption (vv. 20-22). Their being subject to vanity proves that all things are not in oneness. However, when the sons of God enter into the freedom of glory, there will be harmony without any struggle, friction, slavery, vanity, corruption, groaning, or travailing. This will be the genuine oneness. Moreover, when the New Jerusalem is expressed, the life within her will shine forth, and the nations will walk by her light. At that time, no one will go astray, walk on the wrong way, or stand on the wrong position. Everyone will be in his own position, walk on the proper way, and be absolutely one. All things will be headed up and in oneness.
God Himself is the life of the church. God’s life operates in the church and shines forth from the church to be light to the nations; this is how He heads up all things. Hence, the heading up of all things is through the church. When we have God in Christ as life to us, life becomes the shining light. Eventually the entire environment, the whole universe, will walk in the light of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:11, 23-24). Under the control of this light, the whole universe, the whole of creation, will be in harmony.