Message Three

The New Jerusalem—
the Consummation of God’s New Creation
in Resurrection

Scripture Reading: Rev. 21:5a, 1-2; 3:12; 2 Cor. 5:17;
Gal. 6:15; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23; 2 Cor. 4:16; Rev. 21:17;
1 Cor. 15:20, 23, 45; 2 Cor. 1:9; Phil. 3:10-11

1. The New Jerusalem as God’s holy city is God’s universal building for His new creation out of His old creation; the New Jerusalem is the building of God’s new creation—Rev. 21:2, 10; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15:
   1. In the Bible there are two creations—the old creation and the new creation—2 Cor. 5:17:
      1. The old creation does not have the divine life and nature, but the new creation has God within it as its life, nature, appearance, and expression.
      2. The old creation as an empty vessel has no content of God, but the new creation as a corporate vessel has God as its content—Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19b.
      3. The old creation is old because God is not part of it; the new creation is new because God is in it— 4:22-24.
      4. God’s eternal purpose is not just to redeem, to bring back, to repossess, the fallen old creation, but to regenerate man to make him the new creation— John 3:3; 1:12-13; 2 Cor. 5:17.
      5. God’s goal is to produce the new creation out of the old creation.
      6. The new creation is the old creation transformed by the divine life—Gal. 6:15.
      7. The new creation—the mingling of God with man— takes place when the Triune God in Christ as the Spirit is wrought into our being; this is the mingling of divinity with humanity—1 Cor. 6:17; Eph. 3:16-17a.
   2. The New Jerusalem is the consummation of all the works of God’s new creation out of His old creation in four ages: the age before the law, the age of the law, the age of grace, and the age of the kingdom—Rev. 21:1-2.
   3. As the new creation, the New Jerusalem is new because it is full of God—vv. 10, 5a:
      1. Everything designated new in the New Testament indicates or implies that God has been wrought into these items—Matt. 9:16-17; Col. 3:10.
      2. The New Jerusalem is new because, as God’s new creation, it has God’s nature of newness—Rev. 21:2, 5a.
      3. Since newness is God, to become new is to become God by having God wrought into us—Rom. 6:4; 7:6; Eph. 4:24.
      4. The New Jerusalem will be the ultimate consummation of the realm of newness, which is Christ— 2 Cor. 5:17.
   4. We are in the process of being thoroughly and absolutely renewed to become the New Jerusalem—4:16; Rev. 3:12:
      1. To be renewed is to have God’s ever-new essence dispensed into us to replace and discharge our old element—Rom. 12:2.
      2. The mingled spirit—the renewing Spirit mingled with our regenerated spirit—is spreading into our mind to renew our entire being—Eph. 4:23.
      3. We are in transit from the old creation to the new creation; we are passing through a tunnel out of the old into the new.
      4. Through the process of renewing, we are transferred from the realm of the old creation into the realm of the new creation to become the New Jerusalem—Col. 3:10; Rev. 21:2.
   5. The new creation comes into being by resurrection— 2 Cor. 5:17; 1 Cor. 15:20, 23, 45:
      1. First Corinthians 15:45 implies the old creation with the soul as the center and the new creation with the Spirit as the center.
      2. The germinating element of the new creation is the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit.
      3. The life-giving Spirit is the center and lifeline of the new creation—v. 45; 2 Cor. 5:17.
2. In the New Jerusalem as the consummation of the new creation, everything will be in resurrection; the entire city will be in resurrection—Rev. 21:17:
   1. The principle of resurrection is that the natural life is killed and the divine life rises up to take its place— Gal. 2:20.
   2. God Himself is resurrection, and we need to know Him as the God of resurrection—John 11:25; 2 Cor. 1:9; 4:14.
   3. Christ’s resurrection is His transfiguration into the life-giving Spirit to enter into His believers, His germination of the new creation to impart the divine life into His believers for their regeneration, and His propagation to produce the church as His reproduction—1 Cor. 15:45b; 1 Pet. 1:3; John 12:24:
      1. The result of Christ’s transfiguration, germination, and propagation is that He lives in His believers—John 14:19b-20; Gal. 2:20.
      2. Christ’s germination of the new creation is His propagation, His multiplication; this germination is the reproduction of the pneumatic Christ—John 12:24; 14:17-18; 20:22.
   4. To be in resurrection means that our natural life is crucified and that the God-created part of our being is uplifted to be one with Christ in resurrection—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17a; 1 Cor. 6:17.
   5. We should aspire to “attain to the out-resurrection from the dead”—Phil. 3:11:
      1. To arrive at the out-resurrection indicates that our entire being—spirit, soul, and body—is gradually and continually resurrected.
      2. To be in the out-resurrection is to leave everything of the old creation and to be brought into God— 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15.
   6. The life-giving Spirit is the reality of resurrection— 1 Cor. 15:45b:
      1. If we are in the life-giving Spirit, we are in resurrection.
      2. When we walk by the Spirit, we walk in resurrection—Gal. 5:25.