In the New Jerusalem we have God the Father in His nature as the base and the street, God the Son as the Creator through His death and resurrection and with Himself as the element producing the gates, God the Spirit with His transforming and building work building the wall with its foundations, and the Old and New Testament saints as the materials. When we put all this together, we have the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people. This is the New Jerusalem.

How can the materials, from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, be consummated and built to become the New Jerusalem? The answer to this question is that we must pass through the death and resurrection of Christ to have our fallen humanity terminated and to have our original, God-created humanity redeemed and recovered so that Christ can use us as the materials. Through the death of Christ on the cross, our fallen humanity was terminated and our original humanity was redeemed that the divine life released in His death could be dispensed into this redeemed humanity. Then in Christ’s resurrection the Spirit dispenses the released divine life into the redeemed humanity to regenerate us. This is the creation of the New Jerusalem. Now, in the consummation, the regenerating Spirit works as the sanctifying, renewing, transforming, conforming, and glorifying Spirit to consummate the entire building.

I hope that through this review you will have a clear view of what the New Jerusalem is. The New Jerusalem is the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with the believers through Christ’s death and resurrection and the Spirit’s regenerating, sanctifying, renewing, transforming, conforming, and glorifying work.

This consummated building is now ready for use, but it still needs certain furnishings. The first item of the furnishings of the New Jerusalem is the throne of God and the Lamb as its center. This throne is joined to the street, on which flows the river of life with the tree of life as the supply. With the street we have the communication for administration, and with the river we have the water of life and the fruit of the tree of life for supply. The water of life is for drinking and the fruit of the tree of life is for eating. This is a matter of provision. For administration this throne is the throne of authority, and for provision this throne is the throne of grace. Hebrews 4:16 tells us that we may come to the throne of grace to “receive mercy and find grace for timely help.” If there were not such a throne, then in the New Jerusalem there would be no administration, no communication, no food, and no water. Thus, there is the need of the throne as the first item of the furnishings.

The second item is the sanctuary, the temple. The redeeming God Himself is the temple in which His priests live and where they serve Him. The throne is for administration and provision, and the sanctuary is our dwelling place and our serving place.

The last of the furnishings is the light with its shining. The glory of God as the light is in the redeeming Lamb as the lamp.

The three furnishings all involve the Triune God. The Triune God is the basic structure of the building, and the Triune God becomes the redeeming God who possesses the throne, who is the sanctuary, and who is the lamp with the light. The structure is the Triune God, and the furnishings are the redeeming God. This is the New Jerusalem, and this is also us. To be parts of the New Jerusalem, we need to be created, consummated, and furnished with the Triune God and the redeeming God.

To be constituted into such persons is not merely to be improved, remodeled, or changed. No matter how much a natural person is improved, remodeled, or changed, he is still a natural person, not a God-man like Jesus Christ. Christ is the God-man who is now producing many God-men to be created, consummated, and furnished to be the New Jerusalem. If we see that we are part of this New Jerusalem, we will see what kind of person we should be today. We should not be a good man like Confucius or Socrates. Rather, we should be a God-man for the New Jerusalem. We all need to see this.

Let us now go on to consider another matter related to the New Jerusalem as the unique, organic building.
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