The New Jerusalem is also the dwelling place of the processed and consummated Triune God, signified by the tabernacle (Rev. 21:3). Revelation 21:3 says clearly that the New Jerusalem, the holy city, is the tabernacle of God. This indicates that the New Jerusalem is God’s dwelling place. The tabernacle made by Moses was a type of this tabernacle (Exo. 25:8-9; Lev. 26:11). This type was first fulfilled in Christ as God’s tabernacle among men (John 1:14). He was God’s tabernacle. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, God dwelt in Him as a tabernacle. Eventually, the type of the tabernacle will be fulfilled in the fullest way in the New Jerusalem, which will be the enlargement of Christ as God’s dwelling place.
The book of Revelation shows us that the New Jerusalem is the counterpart of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, indicated by the bride in Christ’s one-thousand-year wedding day and the wife in eternity, the precursor of which is the church as the Body of Christ (21:2, 9; 19:7, 9; Eph. 5:25-32). On the wedding day the New Jerusalem will be only the bride, but in eternity the New Jerusalem will be the wife of the Lamb as the embodied God. Since the New Jerusalem is the wife of the Lamb, it would be ridiculous to say that the New Jerusalem is a material city. It would be impossible for the embodied Triune God to marry a physical city.
The universal woman in Revelation 21:1 is a “great sign,” signifying all the people of God (note 1, second paragraph) in the first three of the four ages, the age of the forefathers, the age of the law, and the age of grace. She has a crown of twelve stars on her head, signifying God’s people in the age of the forefathers; she stands on the moon, signifying God’s people in the age of the law; and she is clothed with the sun, signifying the people of God in the age of grace. This is a sign of her in the great tribulation at the end of the age of grace.
The New Jerusalem, as the greatest sign, is the ultimate consummation of the universal woman in Revelation 12:1. The New Jerusalem signifies the aggregate of all the chosen and redeemed people of God from all the four ages of the forefathers, the law, grace, and the kingdom (21:12, 14).
The New Jerusalem is also the spreading of the processed and consummated Triune God through His redeemed, transformed, and glorified people as His increase for His eternal purpose. This spreading is illustrated by the vine with its branches in John 15. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (v. 5a). The branching out of the vine is the spreading of the vine. In this chapter the Lord Jesus charged us as His branches to bear fruit, that is, to produce new believers as the further spreading of the vine tree. For the spreading of the vine, we all must endeavor to help others to be regenerated to become members of Christ. Such a work is not merely a matter of winning souls but of spreading the Triune God.
The New Jerusalem is also the reflection and fulfillment of the divine revelation concerning the garden of Eden.
The divine revelation concerning the garden of Eden, created by the eternal Triune God, and the divine revelation concerning the New Jerusalem, builded by the processed and consummated Triune God, reflect each other.
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