Message Twelve

The New Jerusalem—
the Consummation of God's Eternal Economy

1. The New Jerusalem is the conclusion of the entire divine revelation and the central and ultimate consummated significance of the entire divine revelation—Rev. 21:2, 9-10:
   1. The New Jerusalem is the conclusion and the total composition of the entire revelation of the Bible.
   2. All the revelations and visions of the Scriptures consummate in the New Jerusalem.
2. The New Jerusalem is not a physical city but an organic constitution constituted with the redeeming processed and consummated Triune God with the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite man as an organism of the consummated Triune God for His eternal enlargement and expression through the glorified tripartite man:
   1. The New Jerusalem is the composition of all the Old Testament and New Testament saints built together as God's eternal building.
   2. The New Jerusalem is the mingling of all the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite men with the processed and consummated Triune God.
   3. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate manifestation of the processed and consummated Triune God for His expression for eternity.
3. The New Jerusalem is a sign—the greatest and ultimate sign in the Scriptures (Rev. 1:1)—of the aggregate of God's work of the new creation in all the dispensations within the old creation:
   1. God's work in the dispensation of the patriarchs on the patriarchs.
   2. God's work in the dispensation of the law on the children of Israel.
   3. God's work in the dispensation of grace on the New Testament believers.
   4. God's work in the dispensation of righteousness on the saved Israelites and on the rest of the New Testament believers not yet perfected.
4. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate goal of God's economy:
   1. God has only one ultimate goal—the New Jerusalem, God's enlargement, expansion, and expression.
   2. According to the entire revelation of the New Testament, the unique goal of the Christian work should be the New Jerusalem:
      1. The New Jerusalem was the highest point of the apostles' living and work.
      2. We must take the goal of God's eternal economy—the New Jerusalem—as our unique and ultimate goal.
5. The New Jerusalem is built according to the apostles' teaching:
   1. The twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem bear the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, representing the apostles' teaching—Rev. 21:14; Acts 2:42.
   2. The teaching of the apostles is the entire speaking of God in the New Testament concerning God's New Testament economy, which is to gain a universal incorporation of the union and mingling of divinity with humanity.
   3. The New Jerusalem is built upon the apostles and prophets with their revelation received of Christ as the rock—Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:20; 3:4-5.
   4. We need to continue steadfastly in and closely follow the apostles' teaching to build up the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem—2 Tim. 3:10, 14; 2:2; Titus 1:9.
6. The New Jerusalem is the embodiment of God's complete salvation:
   1. God's complete salvation is a composition of God's righteousness as the base and God's life as the consummation—Rom. 5:18; 8:10.
   2. The foundation of the New Jerusalem is the righteousness of God with God's faithfulness, and the consummation is God's life with God's nature.
   3. The entire New Jerusalem is a matter of life built on the foundation of God's righteousness.
7. The New Jerusalem is the Jerusalem above, the heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of the believers—Gal. 4:26; Heb. 12:22:
   1. The Jerusalem above as the mother of the believers is the new covenant of grace symbolized by Sarah.
   2. The New Jerusalem is produced by the dispensing of the processed Triune God into the believers as grace to bring them forth as the many sons to compose the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:7), which is their mother.
   3. The Father (the source of grace), the grace, the mother, the sons, the city, and the new covenant will become one entity—the New Jerusalem.
8. The New Jerusalem is the totality of the divine sonship—Rev. 21:7:
   1. The New Jerusalem is a composition of all the sons of God, who have God's life and nature and who inherit all that the processed Triune God is.
   2. In Revelation 21:7 we have the conclusion of the entire revelation in the New Testament concerning sonship:
      1. God predestinated us unto sonship—Eph. 1:5.
      2. We were sinners, but we have been made sons by God and are being conformed to the image of God's firstborn Son—Rom. 8:29.
      3. God is leading many sons into glory—Heb. 2:10.
      4. Hence, the New Testament reveals that God's intention is to produce sons and that the New Jerusalem is the totality of the divine sonship.
9. The New Jerusalem is the destination of the flowing Triune God—John 4:14b:
   1. John 4:14b says, "The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water gushing up into eternal life":
      1. Into speaks of destination, indicating that eternal life is the destination of the flowing Triune God.
      2. The eternal life eventually will become the New Jerusalem, the totality of the divine life; hence, into eternal life means into the New Jerusalem.
   2. The New Jerusalem is the issue of God's flowing in three stages: in the Father's stage, in the Son's stage, and in the Spirit's stage:
      1. The Father is the fountain as the source, the Son is the spring, the Spirit is the flowing river, and this flowing issues in the eternal life, which is the New Jerusalem.
      2. The fountain emerges, the spring gushes, and the gushing is the flowing as a river into the New Jerusalem.
10. The New Jerusalem, which is both the tabernacle and the temple, is a mutual dwelling place for the redeeming God and His redeemed—Rev. 21:2-3, 22:
    1. The tabernacle is God's redeemed, and the temple is the redeeming God:
       1. The tabernacle is built mostly with the humanity of God's redeemed to be God's dwelling place.
       2. The temple is built mostly with divinity to be the dwelling place of God's redeemed.
    2. The New Jerusalem is the mingling of God with His redeemed, and this mingling is a mutual dwelling place.
    3. The processed Triune God and His redeemed will be one mingled entity for eternity.
11. The New Jerusalem is a universal couple—"a loving pair eternally"—the consummation of the divine romance—Rev. 22:17:
    1. According to its humanity the New Jerusalem is the human wife (with the divine life and nature) of the Lamb—Rev. 21:2, 9.
    2. According to its divinity the New Jerusalem is the divine Husband (the redeeming God in His consummated embodiment, Christ, with His human life and nature) of God's redeemed elect.
    3. Revelation 22:17 indicates that Christ and the New Jerusalem as His wife will be a universal couple for eternity:
    1. The Spirit, who is the totality of the processed Triune God, becomes one with the believers, who are now fully matured to be the bride.
    2. The consummation of the processed Triune God and the consummation of God's chosen, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people will be a universal couple expressing the Triune God for eternity.
12. The New Jerusalem is the consummate incorporation of God and man—the processed and consummated Triune God incorporated into an incorporation with His redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified elect:
    1. God's intention is that all the believers in Christ would be incorporated into Himself as an incorporation to be an enlarged, divine and human incorporation.
    2. The Bible unveils to us that God's economy is to have God and man incorporated into an incorporation, which is first the Body of Christ and then the New Jerusalem.
    3. The union, mingling, and incorporation of the processed and consummated Triune God with the regenerated believers consummates as the New Jerusalem.