Message Two

The New Jerusalem—
the Reflection and Fulfillment
of the Divine Revelation
concerning the Garden of Eden

Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26; 2:7-14, 22;
Rev. 22:1-2; 21:2, 9, 18-21; 22:17a

1. God’s eternal intention for us to become the New Jerusalem is seen in Genesis 1—2 as the organic blueprint, the architectural plan of the Triune God, and in Revelation 21—22 as the finished product, the organic masterpiece of the Triune God, to be the model of what we are and how we work—Heb. 11:10; Eph. 2:10:
   1. Man is a vessel created according to God’s kind that man might contain and express Him—Gen. 2:7; Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:6-7; Rev. 22:5:
      1. God created man in His image and according to His likeness, making man a duplicate, a copy, of Himself for His glory, His expression—Gen. 1:26; Acts 17:28-29a; Isa. 43:7; Rev. 4:3; 21:11.
      2. God created man to represent Him with His dominion, His authority—Gen. 1:26; Rom. 5:17; Rev. 20:4, 6; 22:5.
      3. God created man with a human spirit to contact, receive, and contain God—Gen. 2:7; Prov. 20:27; 2 Tim. 4:22:
         1. Within us we have two lamps, the Spirit of God and our spirit, shining and enlightening our inward parts to supply us with the divine life so that we can become the city of life—Rev. 4:5; Prov. 20:27.
         2. We become the New Jerusalem by exercising our spirit to enjoy the Triune God—Jude 19-21; John 4:14b, 24; 1 Tim. 4:7; 3:15.
      4. God has implanted eternity in man’s heart—Eccl. 3:11:
         1. Man has a deep desire for permanent things, and the only things which are permanent are the eternal things, the life of eternity, the life of God—2 Cor. 4:16-18; Eph. 3:17.
         2. The Lord’s recovery is to recover us, His church, from things seen to things unseen, from things which are temporary to things which are eternal—Rom. 8:24-25; Heb. 11:27; 1 Pet. 1:8.
   2. The tree of life is the center of God’s economy—Gen. 2:7-9; Rev. 22:2:
      1. The tree of life signifies the crucified and resurrected Christ who imparts life to man and who pleases and satisfies man in an edible form—John 14:6; 15:1; Exo. 15:25; Rev. 2:7; John 6:57.
      2. The principle of the tree of life is the principle of dependence on God for everything—cf. Heb. 11:8; Josh. 9:14; Isa. 9:6; Psa. 16:7-8; Matt. 14:19.
      3. Anything we do independently of the Lord is in the principle of the tree of knowledge—John 5:39-40; 2 Cor. 3:6.
      4. Every genuine believer in Christ is a miniature garden of Eden, with God as the tree of life in his spirit and Satan as the tree of knowledge in his flesh—Rom. 8:2, 6.
   3. A river of water of life is flowing in four branches to reach the four directions of the earth—Gen. 2:10-14; Rev. 22:1; cf. 21:13:
      1. The first branch is Pishon, which means flowing free, revealing that the river of water of life flows freely to cause everything of life to grow—Gen. 2:11-12; cf. Isa. 55:1; Rev. 22:17.
      2. The second branch is Gihon, which means a bursting forth, implying the fullness of the flow of the divine life—Gen. 2:13; cf. John 4:14; 7:38.
      3. The third branch is Hiddekel, which means a rapid, implying power—Gen. 2:14a; Phil. 3:10; Eph. 1:19-23.
      4. The fourth branch is Perath (Euphrates), meaning sweet, making fertile or fruitful, revealing that the flow of the living water makes us sweet, fertile, and fruitful—Gen. 2:14b; cf. 2 Cor. 2:14; 2 Pet. 1:3-8, 11; Gal. 5:22-23; John 15:8, 16.
   4. At the flow of the river are three kinds of precious materials for God’s building—Gen. 2:11-12; Rev. 21:11-14, 18-21:
      1. The New Jerusalem is built by the Triune God, as the divine Architect and Builder, with Himself and His deified people as the material to be a miraculous structure of treasure; He is God in us to make us God in Him—Heb. 11:10; 1 Cor. 3:12; 1 Pet. 2:4-5; Rev. 21:3, 22; Eph. 1:11a, 18b; 3:21:
         1. We need to pay the price to buy gold, signifying God in His divine nature—Rev. 3:18; Zech. 4:12-14, 6; Matt. 25:8-9.
         2. We need to abide in the death of Christ and enjoy His life-secreting resurrection to make us pearls for the building of God’s eternal expression—Phil. 3:10; 1:19; cf. John 19:34; S. S. 2:8-9, 14.
         3. We need to experience the riches of Christ through sufferings, consuming pressures, and the killing work of the cross to be transformed into precious stones for God’s building—2 Cor. 3:18; 4:10-11, 16; Rom. 8:28-29.
      2. We need to build the New Jerusalem by ministering the Triune God into others for their transformation—Acts 6:4; S. S. 1:10-11.
   5. The goal is the producing of a couple, a corporate, great God-man—Gen. 2:22; Rev. 21:2, 9; 22:17a:
      1. The Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God marries the bride as the consummation of the processed tripartite man—22:17a.
      2. The processed man will match the processed God forever for His full expression and satisfaction— 21:11, 23.
      3. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate and eternal Eve, the corporate bride, the wife of the Lamb, built up with precious materials produced by the flowing, transforming, and building resurrection life of Christ— Gen. 2:22:
         1. The building of Eve with the rib taken out of Adam’s side typifies the building of the church with the resurrection life of Christ—cf. John 19:34.
         2. Just as Eve was a pure product out of Adam, the church is a pure product out of Christ; anything that is other than Christ is not the church— Gen. 5:2; Eph. 5:28-32; cf. 1 Cor. 1:9.
2. What is revealed in these two parts of the divine revelation in the holy Scripture is the central line of the divine revelation throughout the entire holy Scripture; this central line should be a controlling principle to our interpreting and understanding of the holy Scripture.