We all need to remember that the New Jerusalem has a base and this base is pure gold, which in typology refers to God’s divine nature. We believers have all been made partakers of this divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). It is a very hard task to define the divine nature. Simply speaking, the divine nature is what God is, just as the nature of anything is what that thing is. We have seen that the Bible tells us that God is Spirit (John 4:24), that God is love (1 John 4:8, 16), and that God is light (1 John 1:5). Then in a total way the Bible tells us that God is life (John 1:4; 5:26; 14:6). These four items of what God is are very basic. Spirit, love, and light are the very constituents of God’s being and life is God Himself. God Himself, God’s being, is our life and He is constituted with Spirit, love, and light. Spirit is the nature of God’s Person, love is the nature of God’s essence, and light is the nature of God’s expression.
God is Spirit in person, God is love in essence, God is light in expression, and God is life in love as its essence and in light as its expression. When we touch God, we touch Him as Spirit in His Person, as love in His essence, and as light in His expression. After touching God, we walk, we live, we have our being, in His Spirit as our person, in His love as our essence, and in His light as our expression.
Since we have defined the divine nature we need to see how to partake of it. Second Peter 1:4 is the only verse in the Bible which tells us directly that we are partakers of the divine nature. We do not merely partake of the divine nature, but need to be the partakers. We do not merely eat, but we are the eaters. The Christian life is a life of enjoying the divine nature.
We may have had some experiences of enjoying the divine nature without realizing it. Two hundred years ago people enjoyed vitamins without having any knowledge concerning them. Today, however, even many little children know what vitamins are. My hope is that one day even our children would know what the divine nature is and that this would be common knowledge. This is why we are burdened to see the basic element of gold in the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is God’s building and gold, which is the very symbol of His divine nature, is the base of His building. In fact, the divine nature is the base of all God’s building through all the generations.
We can see the partaking and enjoying of the divine nature in John’s line and in Peter’s line. These are the two lines of writings concerning the enjoyment of the divine nature. In Paul’s fourteen Epistles there are some implications concerning the enjoyment of the divine nature, but there is no clear word because Paul’s ministry is not centered on the enjoyment of the divine nature but is altogether concentrated on the law of life. The divine nature, which mainly refers to the constitution of the divine life, the constitution of God, is constituted with Spirit, love, and light. Paul’s burden, however, is to show us the working principle of the divine life which is the law of life. The law of a certain life is deeper than the element of that life. John and Peter deal with the nature, but Paul deals with the law. In Romans 8:2 he tells us that the law of the Spirit of life sets us free from the law of sin and of death. This law is the natural principle of the divine working.