Now we come to the fifth reason. The Bible is a book of building. First, God charged Noah to build the ark. Then we see in the Old Testament that Abraham was looking for a city and that his descendants, the children of Israel, built a tabernacle. Later, they entered into the good land and built a temple. In the New Testament the Lord said that He would build His church (Matt. 16:18). He also told the Jews in John 2:19 that if they would destroy “this temple,” referring to the temple of His body, He would raise it up in three days. Even Peter rebuked the Jews by saying that they, the builders, had rejected Christ as the cornerstone of God’s building (Acts 4:11). Also, Paul told us that we are the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15) and that we are God’s building (1 Cor. 3:9). Paul as the wise master builder laid the foundation, and we have to build upon the foundation, taking heed not to build with wood, grass, and stubble, but with gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:10-12). Then Peter told us in his first Epistle that Christ is the living stone for God’s building and we are like Him as the living stones to be built up into a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:4-5). We can see that God’s building is a line throughout the entire Bible, and the consummation of this building is the New Jerusalem.
Now we must see the final reason why the New Jerusalem could not be interpreted as a physical mansion. Our God is the great Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father has an eternal plan with a marvelous economy and the Son accomplished this economy by becoming incarnated, by His living on this earth, by His dying an all-inclusive death, and by His entering into resurrection and ascension. The Son’s achievements were excellent, marvelous, and very meaningful. Then the Spirit came to apply all that the Son had accomplished to us. The Spirit worked to regenerate us and is now working within us to transform us, to redeem our body, to transfigure us, to make us just like Christ. By all these the church will be produced and built up and there will be a kingdom for the overcomers of God’s chosen people to rule the world with Christ. The great Triune God with all of His achievements and workings throughout the ages surely needs a marvelous consummation. Could a physical city as a lodging place be a consummation of all these achievements? Absolutely not. The consummation of all that God is and has achieved and accomplished is the New Jerusalem. These six reasons show us that the New Jerusalem could not be a physical mansion or a physical city for God’s redeemed people to lodge in.
If any one would not accept this vision, how could he answer our questions concerning the New Jerusalem as a sign of the wife as a consummation of all the females in the Bible typifying God’s counterpart, and of the tabernacle of God as a consummation of all the tabernacles and temples in the entire Bible? How could he answer the questions concerning the building in the Bible needing a consummation, and the great God with His great economy and with all His great achievements needing an ultimate consummation? Without the New Jerusalem, there is no consummation to all these things. And how could he explain how a physical lodging place could contain billions of God’s redeemed people? I do not think anyone could answer these questions. And I do hope that these questions and the fellowship we have had would convince and subdue all of us. We must take this conclusion—that the New Jerusalem as the conclusion of the entire Bible is the ultimate consummation of God’s great planned economy and great achievements.
The consummation is a living composition of all God’s chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people. Such a living composition, with many wonderful living persons, is the consummation of the entire Bible, and this composition is a mutual abiding, a mutual dwelling, a mutual habitation. God inhabits His redeemed people and His redeemed people inhabit Him. His redeemed people as a composition will be His tabernacle and He and the Lamb will be their temple. This is marvelous, meaningful, and very significant.
Now we must see the contents of the New Jerusalem. From the throne of God and of the Lamb in the center of the city flows a river of water of life and in this river of life grows the tree of life. Also, the entire city is enlightened by the light of life. These three items are the intrinsic essence of the Triune God. The intrinsic essence of the Triune God is the divine life. The divine life will be the river (22:1), the divine life will be the tree (22:2), and the divine life will be the light (22:5). We will drink the river, we will eat the tree, and we will live in the light. These three items are of the intrinsic and basic essence of the Triune God. The light mainly denotes God the Father. Revelation tells us that in the New Jerusalem there is no need of the light of a lamp or of the sun because the Lord God will be the light and Christ the Lamb will be the lamp (21:23). The tree of life refers to God the Son and the river of water of life refers to God the Spirit. This is the Divine Trinity in the divine essence for our living and enjoyment in eternity.
The basic, intrinsic essence of the New Jerusalem is the divine life. The divine life with God the Father is the light, with God the Son is the tree, and with God the Spirit is the river. The light is for us to live in, the tree is for us to feed on, and the river is for us to drink of. This will be our living and our enjoyment of the intrinsic essence of the Triune God for eternity, and He will abide in us and we will abide in Him. There is a miniature of this mutual abiding in John 15: “Abide in Me and I in you” (15:4). This abiding in John 15 will be expanded and developed into the New Jerusalem, which will be the consummation of the divine mutual abiding. We abide in Him and He abides in us for eternity. We will serve Him and He will be served by us, and this will be the eternal kingdom, the eternal realm of the divine life.
This is the consummation of the entire Bible of all that God is and of all that God has accomplished, achieved, and attained. This is our vision. This is the typical, genuine, proper, unique eschatology. Praise the Lord for such an eschatology. The Triune God and all of His chosen and redeemed people will be part of this unique consummation.