Furthermore, this city is built with the divine materials. First Corinthians 3:12 tells us that in this age, the church age, we should build the church with gold, silver, and precious stones. In the coming age, silver becomes pearl, and the materials in the New Jerusalem are gold, pearl, and precious stones. Paul surely does not mean for us to build the church with actual, literal pieces of gold. If this were the case, no one could afford to build the church. Paul had laid the unique foundation of Christ and now we need to build on the foundation, not with wood, hay, or stubble, but with gold, silver, and precious stones. These are signs, not physical materials. Gold signifies God’s nature, silver signifies Christ’s redemption, and the precious stones signify the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. These signs signify the divine work of the divine Trinity who is being wrought into our being through His divine work. We are now building the church with God the Father’s nature, with God the Son’s redemption, and with God the Spirit’s transforming work. Again, by this we can see that the New Jerusalem should not be a physical city.
This city is also built with solid foundations which are unshakable (Heb. 11:10; Rev. 21:19-20). These foundations are composed of twelve kinds of precious stones. These twelve pieces of precious stones are represented by the twelve apostles. All the apostles were created pieces of clay (John 1:42), but they were regenerated and transformed into precious stones for God’s eternal building. Ephesians 2:20 tells us that the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Hebrews 11:10 tells us that the city has foundations and in Revelation 21:19-20 we see the twelve foundations of the city.
This city is also a heavenly and better country (Heb. 11:14-16; 12:22). Our country is not a wilderness but a builded city. Although Abraham was expecting and waiting for a city, he may not have received a vision that the city he was expecting would be something divine and spiritual. By the help of the book of Revelation we can see that the very heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, is not a physical city but absolutely a spiritual and divine entity. What God has actually prepared for Abraham is far better than what Abraham expected. Together with Abraham we all will enjoy this spiritual and divine city. This is really a better country.
Revelation also tells us that the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God (21:3a). In the New Testament the taber- nacle is firstly Christ and then Christ enlarged. John 1:14 tells us that the Word who became flesh tabernacled among us. When Jesus Christ was incarnated, He was a tabernacle. The tabernacle in the Old Testament was a material building, but the tabernacle in the New Testament is a Person. Furthermore, the temple in the Old Testament was a material building, but in John 2 the Lord Jesus indicates that He Himself is the temple (vv. 19-21). The temple is now a Person in the New Testament. In the Old Testament the tabernacle and the temple were both material buildings, but in the New Testament both the tabernacle and the temple are a Person. After His resurrection, this Person was enlarged, multiplied, and propagated, so this Person became a corporate Person. This is why Paul calls the church the temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16). In the Gospels Christ is called the temple and in the Epistles the church is called the temple. Both are a Person, not physical things. Since this is the case, how could the consummation of the New Testament be a physical building? This is altogether illogical. The tabernacle and the temple in the Gospels are a Person, the temple in the Epistles is a corporate Person, the church, and the New Jerusalem in Revelation as a consummation of the New Testament is a corporate Person, not a material building.
The New Jerusalem as the tabernacle of God is built with humanity and divinity combined together as typified by the acacia wood overlaid with gold (Exo. 26:15, 29). Without the type of the tabernacle in Exodus, we could not realize so clearly that the New Testament tabernacle is a combination of humanity with divinity. The standing boards in the tabernacle are made of acacia wood, which is hard, strong, and fine wood, overlaid with gold. The wood and the gold are combined together to be one entity—the standing boards. Gold always signifies God’s divinity and wood signifies man’s humanity. This shows us clearly that Christ as the tabernacle is composed with His divinity plus His humanity. He is the God-man in whom humanity and divinity are combined together.
In the tabernacle, of course, we cannot see the mingling of divinity with humanity so there is another wonderful type in the Scriptures to reveal this matter to us—the meal offering. The meal offering shows us two elements not merely added together but mingled one with the other. In this offering we see the fine flour mingled with oil (Lev. 2:4). In the tabernacle we can only see the combination or addition of gold with wood. In God’s incarnation divinity came into humanity and was added to humanity. In this God-man’s resurrection humanity was brought into divinity and added to divinity. This is a wonderful two-way traffic. These two natures, the human and divine, are not only added together but also mingled together as one entity, as one Person, without a third nature being produced.
Eventually, the New Jerusalem will be a dwelling for both God and His serving ones. In the Old Testament the picture is very clear. The tabernacle was God’s dwelling and at the same time it was also the priests’ dwelling in which they served. Both God and His serving priests dwell in the same tabernacle. To God the New Jerusalem is His dwelling and to us God is our dwelling because Revelation tells us that in the New Jerusalem there is no temple “for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (21:22). This means that we are those serving God in God. God is the object of our service and of our worship, yet God is also our temple in which we serve God. The holy city is God’s dwelling and the holy city as the temple is God Himself as our dwelling. The New Jerusalem could never be a physical city because the temple in the city is the Triune God. Actually, the entire city is a mingling of God with His redeemed people and this mingling is a mutual dwelling for God and His redeemed. God lives in us and we live in Him. He and we become one mingled entity for eternity. The New Jerusalem is a spiritual, divine, and corporate Person and we are in Him because we have come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem!