The more I engage in the crystallization-study of the New Jerusalem as it is unveiled in Revelation 21 and 22, the more I worship God for His revelation. Only He, the omnipotent and omniscient One, could write such a word.

Before we consider further aspects of the New Jerusalem, I would like to review the main points we have covered thus far regarding the New Jerusalem as the unique, divine, and organic building in the entire universe. We have seen that the New Jerusalem itself is of six aspects: its base with its street; its gates with its availability; its wall with its foundations; its center with its administration and supply; its temple with its dwellers; and its light with its shining. In reviewing these matters I am burdened to point out that every aspect of the New Jerusalem as an organic building is nothing other than the Triune God as the redeeming God with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people. It is crucial that we see this.

Of the six aspects, the first three-the base, the gates, and the wall-are a group. The base with its street, the gates, and the wall are for the complete building on the base. Without the base there could not be a building. As an illustration of what we mean by base we may refer to the building of a house in the housing development called Grace Gardens in Anaheim. Before we were allowed to build a house on the site, we first had to build the base of the house. The base is not the building site but the ground under the foundation of the house. This ground, this base, must be strong enough to support the house. The base, therefore, is the ground under the house that has been prepared, strengthened, and reinforced to bear the weight of the building. Just as a house in Grace Gardens has a base, so the New Jerusalem has a base. The base of the New Jerusalem is a golden mountain. The street of the city, which is part of the base, is also gold. Gold signifies God the Father, the First of the Trinity, in His nature. This indicates that the divine nature is both the base and the street of the New Jerusalem.

The pearl gates are produced by God the Son, the Second of the Trinity, through His redeeming and life-releasing death and His life-dispensing resurrection. This indicates that Christ created the New Jerusalem through His terminating, redeeming, and life-releasing death and His life-dispensing resurrection. In brief, Christ created the New Jerusalem through His death and resurrection and with Himself as the element. According to Ephesians 2:15 on the cross Christ created the new man in Himself, that is, with Himself as the element. In Ephesians 2:15 “in Himself” indicates that Christ is the element with which the new man was created. Christ created the New Jerusalem through His death, which is joined to His resurrection.

After the creation of the New Jerusalem, there is the need of consummation, which is related to the wall with its foundations. This points to the Spirit, the Third of the Trinity, in His transforming and building work. Now we have the complete building, consisting of the base with its street, the gates, and the wall with its foundations.

We need to see that this complete building is built by the Triune God with each of the three of the Trinity being something. God the Father in His nature is the base and the street; God the Son in His death and resurrection and with Himself as the element produces the gates; and God the Spirit in His transforming and building work builds up the wall with its foundations. But what are the materials for this building? Ephesians 2:15 reveals that the materials are “the two,” the Jews and the Gentiles, whom Christ created “in Himself into one new man.” For this reason the gates bear the twelve names of the twelve tribes of Israel, signifying the Old Testament saints, and the foundations of the wall bear the names of the twelve apostles, signifying the New Testament believers. Therefore, the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints are the materials.
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