Message Ten

The New Jerusalem—
the Ultimate Consummation
(2)
The New Covenant, the New Creation,
and the Mingling of the Triune God
with the Tripartite Man

Scripture Reading: Heb. 13:20; Gal. 4:22-26; 6:15;
Rev. 21:2-3, 5, 12, 14, 21-22

1. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of the new covenant—Heb. 8:7-13; 12:22-24; 13:20; Gal. 4:22-26:
   1. God brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead to be the great Shepherd of the sheep to consummate the New Jerusalem according to God’s eternal covenant—Heb. 13:20.
   2. The Jerusalem above—the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22), the New Jerusalem—is the mother of the believers, and this mother is the new covenant of grace—Gal. 4:22-26:
      1. As the mother of the believers, the Jerusalem above is the new covenant of grace symbolized by Sarah; thus, our mother is the grace of God—v. 26.
      2. On the one hand, we have been born of this mother; on the other hand, this mother is composed of all the sons—Rev. 21:7.
      3. To come to the new covenant is to come to the New Jerusalem and to the church—Heb. 8:7-13; 12:22-24.
      4. The New Jerusalem is produced by the dispensing of the processed and consummated Triune God into us as grace to bring us forth as God’s many sons to compose the New Jerusalem, which is our mother:
         1. In this grace are the Triune God, His plan, His economy, His redemption, His salvation, and all His achievements wrought into His chosen people—1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Cor. 13:14; Heb. 10:29.
         2. As the mother of the believers, the New Jerusalem is the Triune God with His redemption and salvation, including regeneration, transformation, and glorification, wrought into His chosen ones.
      5. The Father, the grace, the mother, the sons, the city, and the covenant will become one entity—the New Jerusalem.
      6. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God passing through the long process of His covenant.
2. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of the new creation—Rev. 21:2-3, 5; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15:
   1. 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.
   2. God’s goal is to produce the new creation out of the old creation—Gal. 6:15:
      1. The old creation does not have the divine life and nature, but the new creation does—John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4.
      2. The new creation has God within it as its life, nature, appearance, and expression—Gal. 6:15.
      3. The new creation is new because God has been wrought into it; the New Jerusalem is new because it is full of God—Rev. 21:2, 5.
   3. As believers we must be thoroughly and absolutely renewed so that we may be the new creation of God and for God—Rom. 12:2; Gal. 6:15:
      1. Christ is the realm of newness; the New Jerusalem will be the ultimate consummation of the realm of newness, which is Christ—2 Cor. 5:17.
      2. Newness is God; therefore, to become new is to become God—Rom. 6:4; 7:6.
      3. To be renewed is to have God’s element added into our being daily to replace and discharage our old element—Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 4:16.
      4. The renewing Spirit imparts something new— the divine essence of the new man—into our being to make us a new creation with the divine life—Titus 3:5; Eph. 4:24.
      5. 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.
3. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of the mingling of the Triune God with the tripartite man—2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Thes. 5:23:
   1. The number twelve, which represents the New Jerusalem, indicates that the New Jerusalem is the mingling of the Triune God (three) with His creature man (four)—Rev. 21:12, 14, 21; 22:2.
   2. The New Jerusalem is the mingling of divinity and humanity to be the expansion, enlargement, and expression of the processed and consummated Triune God in humanity for eternity—21:11.
   3. The New Jerusalem is the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite man—22:17a:
      1. He is triune, we are tripartite, and we are mingled with Him.
      2. He mingles with us, and we mingle with Him to be one entity—21:22, 3.
   4. As the mingling of the Triune God with the tripartite man, the New Jerusalem will be a great meal offering—Lev. 2:4:
      1. In typology, the mingling of God with man is seen in the meal offering, composed of fine flour (humanity) mingled with oil (God).
      2. The Triune God is now being mingled with us, and this mingling will consummate in the New Jerusalem as a great meal offering composed of fine flour mingled with oil.
   5. The ultimate consummation of the divine revelation in the holy Scriptures and of everything the Triune God has done and achieved is the New Jerusalem—the composition of the Triune God mingled with the tripartite man—Rev. 21:2, 10.
   6. The history of the entire universe is focused on the Triune God dispensing Himself into His tripartite people and mingling Himself with them to produce the New Jerusalem as His eternal corporate expression—v. 11.