What we will enjoy together are not physical things, but we will enjoy the Triune God wrought into His chosen people in at least five ways. First, the Triune God is wrought into His chosen people as their Creator, their Redeemer, and their Regenerator to give them a threefold triune existence— created, redeemed, and regenerated. Second, the Triune God has been wrought into His redeemed for their being constituted with the divine nature for the building up of the New Jerusalem with gold, pearls, and precious stones. Third, the Triune God is His redeemed people’s entry into the divine composition as the three gates on the four sides of the city. Fourth, He is for their living in the divine nature, in the divine tree, and in the divine river. Lastly, He is for their enjoyment of the divine life as the light, the tree, and the river. The Triune God has been wrought into His redeemed people in these five ways: for their existence, for their constitution, for their entry into the divine composition, for their living in this composition, and for their enjoyment in this composition. The New Jerusalem is not a physical building. It is a composition of God’s redeemed ones who have the Triune God wrought into them in these five ways. This is the very significance of the ultimate consummation of the entire Bible, of the entire revelation, of the entire Triune God, and of His entire economy. Abraham was waiting for such a blessing even though by that time he probably did not understand the fullness of such a blessing.
In the same way, today we have received eternal life but we do not understand what is involved in the blessing of the eternal life. In the New Jerusalem there is one main item of the ultimate consummation—the ultimate consummation of life. Based upon this, I would ask you young brothers to go back to study the Bible concerning the divine life. The Gospels tell us clearly that when we believe in the Lord Jesus, we receive eternal life. The Gospels also tell us that we need to inherit the eternal life (Matt. 19:29 cf. Luke 18:29-30). We must also know what the difference is between receiving the eternal life and inheriting the eternal life.
The eternal life as a blessing from God to us is in three stages. In the first stage we receive the eternal life and we enjoy the eternal life in this age. The second stage is in the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens in the millennium, in the kingdom age, where we will inherit the eternal life. In the third stage it is not to receive nor to inherit the eternal life but to enjoy the eternal life in its consummation. In this age of grace the eternal life is for us to receive and then to live by. Then in the coming age of the kingdom the eternal life is for us to inherit. This life becomes our inheritance in the kingdom. We have seen that the divine life is the kingdom. When you inherit this eternal life, you inherit the kingdom. Finally, this eternal life will consummate in eternity in the new heaven and the new earth. There is the need of much study to find out what the blessings are in the receiving stage of the eternal life, in the inheriting stage of the eternal life, and in the consummating stage of the eternal life. I do not believe that such a study could be finished within half a year.
Probably Abraham did not know or realize the blessings he would inherit during his time. We must admit, though, that most of us do not know either what the eternal life will be to us in the millennium or what it will be to us in eternity. We just infer what it will be like by our natural mentality. The fact that we do not understand fully what is written in the Bible is shown by our ascribing the blessings to the peoples on the new earth in Revelation 21:3-4 to ourselves. To have the Lord wipe away our tears and the taking away of sorrows, crying, and pain is all according to our natural understanding. In Revelation 21:7, though, it indicates that God’s sons will participate in the New Jerusalem with all its enjoyment. The Recovery Version of Revelation has clearly pointed out the differences between the blessings assigned to the unsaved nations and the blessings inherited by or consummating in the sons of God. This shows that in our understanding of the Bible and in our reading of the Bible we remain in our natural mentality. We do not desire to be transferred out of the natural kingdom into the spiritual kingdom. We mostly understand the verses in the Bible in the natural kingdom. We do not understand the divine word in the divine kingdom. This is the problem. Many teachers of the Bible have written many books according to the Bible concerning ethics, morality, human behavior, and the improvement of character. How many books, however, have we seen written concerning the blessings of the eternal life in the new heaven and the new earth as portrayed by the New Jerusalem? The New Jerusalem is a full portrait of the blessings of the eternal life to the fullest. It is the consummation of the eternal life in its fullest blessing. The eternal life is full of divine blessings. We have received the eternal life at the time of our regeneration and we are now living by it. We will inherit it as a kind of kingdom blessing, a blessing in full, in the millennium. Also, this life will consummate in its fullest blessing and this consummation ultimately is the New Jerusalem. We must see that the New Jerusalem is not a physical city, but that it is the ultimate consummation of the eternal life in its fullest blessing.
Every aspect of the ultimately consummated eternal life needs our study. We must study based upon the last one and a half chapters in the Bible—Revelation 21 and the first half of Revelation 22. We must study this portion with the entire Bible as our reference, as our library. Do not go to other libraries. Also, the books that we have written and published over the years will help you study this portion of the word. I must say again that this New Jerusalem is not a physical building. It is the ultimate consummation of the eternal life which we have received and are still living by in its fullest blessing. The New Testament age is the age for us to receive this eternal life and to live by it. The second age, the age of the millennium, is the age for us to inherit the blessings of this eternal life in full as a kingdom. Then eternity will be the age for us to enjoy the ultimate consummation of all the blessings of this eternal life to the fullest. Therefore, the New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of this eternal life in its fullest blessing. If we understand this, this solves all our problems and answers all our questions concerning the New Jerusalem as a city of God to be our eternal portion.