We all have seen that the basic elements of the structure of the New Jerusalem are gold, pearls, and precious stones. Gold refers to the divine nature of God the Father, and pearls refer to the produce of Christ in His overcoming death and life-secreting resurrection. In this chapter we want to see the third item of the basic elements of the structure of the New Jerusalem—precious stones. Precious stones (Rev. 21:11, 18a, 19-20) signify the produce of the Spirit in His transforming work with His divine element for the building up of God’s building (Gen. 2:12b; 1 Cor. 3:12a, 1 Pet. 2:4-5; 2 Cor. 3:18).
Gold only refers to the nature of God the Father, not to any of His work. Gold is God Himself as the divine nature given to us as a gift of which we may partake and which we may enjoy. Pearls, however, do not refer to Christ Himself directly, but to the produce of His work of redemption through His death and resurrection. The work of the Son is His redemptive work, of which there are mainly two aspects— one aspect is to wash away all our negative things through His death and the other aspect is to germinate us, to make us alive, with the divine life through His resurrection. This work produces the pearls. The precious stones are also a kind of produce. The work of Christ produces pearls and the work of the Spirit of Christ produces precious stones. It is difficult to differentiate between these two kinds of works. Christ’s work is to secrete His life over us, and the Spirit’s work is to transform us into precious stones.
Even though Christianity has been on the earth for nearly two thousand years and the Bible has been given to God’s children, the depth of the divine revelation has been missed, lost, and even buried by the traditional concept, teaching, and knowledge. It is not easy for us to stay away from the traditional teaching and knowledge which we picked up in the past. In Acts 5 we see a great teacher of the law named Gamaliel (v. 34), under whom the Apostle Paul received his education (Acts 22:3). Gamaliel was a great teacher among the Jews and was respected by them. Do you believe, however, that Gamaliel had any concept or any share in God’s New Testament economy? God’s economy in the New Testament began on the day of Pentecost under the leadership of a Galilean fisherman named Peter. God’s economy was being carried out in a marvelous way, but all the Pharisees, including Gamaliel, did not have any idea that this was God’s move on the earth. Gamaliel was a godly man who feared God, yet he did not know anything concerning God’s economy and had no share in God’s economy. This godly man was fully blinded by his Judaic, traditional theology and actually he was in darkness. Gamaliel and the other Pharisees were content with the knowledge of God that they had received according to their traditional teaching. When the Pharisees were intending to do away with the apostles, Gamaliel advised them not to do this but to leave them and the entire situation in God’s hands (Acts 5:38-39). His advice was very good, godly, and wise, yet he did not have any share in God’s New Testament economy.
Today there are many Gamaliels who are godly and prayerful and yet hold on to their traditional theology. Actually, the Judaic theology is not wrong, but it is short. In the same way, many people today who have doctor’s degrees in theology and many theological professors in today’s seminaries are just like Gamaliel. They are short of the knowledge and vision of God’s New Testament economy. We may be “Galilean fishermen,” yet we must testify that we know what God’s New Testament economy is. We do not have the burden to minister the “Judaic theology,” which is so fundamental and scriptural, yet has nothing to do with God’s New Testament economy.
The situation of Gamaliel is a warning to us. We may be godly and even respected and revered by other people, and yet have no share in or knowledge of God’s New Testament economy. The Lord Jesus promised us that He would come quickly and yet nearly two thousand years have passed since His ascension because very few of His believers throughout the centuries entered into God’s New Testament economy. Rather, they all were “caught” and occupied by traditional theology. Today’s seminaries teach the traditional theology and yet they know nearly nothing concerning God’s New Testament economy. In today’s theological teaching there is not such a term as God’s New Testament economy. Gamaliel did not know anything about Jesus Christ moving as the very embodiment of the Triune God to dispense the divine Trinity into God’s chosen people and how this dispensing produces a corporate vessel which is the church, the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all, to express God in a corporate way consummating in the New Jerusalem.