We also need to see that in the whole universe there are two kinds of worlds. One is the old world, the physical world. This evil world started from Cain. It developed into a kingdom with Nimrod in Genesis 10. Eventually, Egypt became a world power, and the children of Abraham lived there for more than four hundred years. Then Israel was brought into Canaan, and God charged them to destroy all the Canaanites. They did not carry this out absolutely, and eventually they themselves were brought into captivity, first by Assyria, then by Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. These are the kingdoms that controlled Israel for the past centuries. Today there is still a quarrel among the nations of the world concerning the land of Israel.
Those in the physical world do not know that on this earth there is another world being built up by God. This is the spiritual world. When we were saved, we were brought into another world. We were in the evil world of Satan, but Christ saved us and transferred us from that world to another world, from the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of God. In this world everything is spiritual. Today those in the United Nations know only the evil world, which is built up by Satan mingled with the fallen life of man. In one sense, we are in this world, but in another sense we are not in it. We are in the spirit to build up the spiritual world.
When the Lord Jesus came to man, He came to the fallen world, so He came with a body as a physical person. He Himself was under the Roman Empire and was even sentenced to death and executed by the Roman Empire. Today this evil world knows only the physical Jesus. They do not know the very Christ whom we know today. The Christ whom we know today is the pneumatic Christ.
When I was at the end of my teenage years, the Lord regenerated me, and something new within me started. That was God’s new creation. In this universe two worlds are building up themselves. One is the evil world built up by Satan mingled with the fallen people. The other is the spiritual world, which is called by the New Testament the new creation. The building up of the new creation is going on with Christ as the Spirit and with us. Whatever is going on and whatever is done in the new creation is private and spiritual.
My classmates saw me change after I was regenerated, but they did not know what happened. In the spiritual world many unseen things take place in and with us that no one in the physical world can understand. We must realize that in the universe two worlds are going on. The first evil world will go to the lake of fire. Everything in the physical world from Cain through Nimrod and through Antichrist will be burned in the lake of fire. But we shall be consummated in the city of water, not the lake of fire. This city of water is the New Jerusalem. Actually, the upcoming New Jerusalem will be our consummation.
First, God saves us; then the Lord leads us to know how to contact Him in our spirit privately and spiritually. Because we want to enjoy His rich presence with His rest and satisfaction, He tells us clearly that He is only with His flock, the church. The essence of the church is the organic Body of Christ which consummates the New Jerusalem. After we were saved, our concern was merely for our satisfaction, but Christ’s concern is God’s satisfaction, to have His eternal economy accomplished by having us as the members of the church, the essence of which is the organic Body of Christ, which ultimately consummates in the New Jerusalem. We have to learn to say that our concern is God’s concern for the church, for the Body of Christ, and for the New Jerusalem.
What I am doing is building the New Jerusalem and will be consummated in the New Jerusalem. My concern is not soul-winning, nor is it just for us to have satisfaction. My concern is for others to be brought into the church life through Christ’s private, spiritual fellowship. When we fellowship with Christ privately and spiritually, He will direct our feet to go forth on the footsteps of the flock. Then we will be in the church for the Body of Christ and for the consummation of the New Jerusalem.