In order to enter into the full significance of the divine allegory of the New Jerusalem, we must have a revelation of its wall, its foundation, and its street.
Revelation 21:18a tells us that the wall was built with jasper, signifying the appearance of God (4:3a) for His expression. God sitting on His throne looks like jasper and the entire wall, a great and high wall, is built with jasper. Also, the first foundation of the wall is jasper. Jasper, according to Revelation 21:11, is “a most precious stone...clear as crystal.” Its color must be dark green, which signifies life in its richness. God’s appearance being like jasper means that His very appearance is life in its richness. Jasper is the appearance of God, which will also be the appearance of the holy city, New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:11). The entire city, in appearance, looks the same as God is. We all need to see the wonderful picture portrayed in this city. The center of the city is God on the throne who appears as jasper and the circumference of the city is its wall which is built with jasper. This means that the entire city from its center to its circumference is an expression of the very God of life in His richness.
Revelation 21:12 tells us that the wall is great and high for separation unto God and for protection of God’s interest. The height of the wall is one hundred forty-four cubits. A cubit is approximately eighteen inches, so on that basis the wall would be two hundred sixteen feet high. Also, Revelation tells us that the wall is twelve thousand stadia long. Since one stadion is approximately 600 feet, the wall is approximately one thousand three hundred and sixty-four miles long. This is approximately the distance from Los Angeles to Dallas. China boasts of its Great Wall, but the Great Wall of China is not as high as the wall of the New Jerusalem. The wall of the New Jerusalem is at least seven times higher than the great wall of China. We need to boast concerning our great wall which is in the book of Revelation. The Great Wall of China is built with old bricks but our great wall is built with jasper, and this jasper is clear as crystal (Rev. 21:11). The Great Wall of China is opaque, but our great wall is transparent. No wall on earth can compare with the wall of the New Jerusalem.
With the wall of the New Jerusalem there are seven implications. The wall implies transformation, building, the image of God, the expression of God, the testimony of Jesus, separation, and protection. A wall always separates a particular piece of space from all the other spaces. A wall also protects what is in it from all sorts of negative and evil things. In order to fully understand this allegory of the New Jerusalem we need to get into these seven implications. We can never exhaust all the significances and all the meaningful and crucial points of this allegory since it is the ultimate consummation and conclusion of the sixty-six divine books of the Bible.
The foundations of the wall bear the names of the twelve apostles. Each apostle is signified by a precious stone. Peter should be the first of the twelve apostles and he was named by the Lord Jesus in a “renewing way.” The name Peter means a stone. A stone is something created by God but not transformed. All the precious stones are transformed entities. Peter was originally a stone but eventually he became jasper, the first foundation of the New Jerusalem. The wall itself is jasper and the first foundation of the wall is also jasper. Peter was merely a stone, but in the New Jerusalem he is a jasper stone, the first layer of the wall’s foundation. This implies transformation.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3 that he had laid a foundation as a wise master builder and that we believers needed to build upon this foundation with gold, silver, and precious stones (vv. 10-12). Our building of the church needs to be not merely with stones but with precious stones. These are not natural stones but transformed stones which became precious. Peter could never forget the Lord’s changing of his name, so in his first Epistle he indicated that the Lord was a living stone and that we also as living stones are being built up into a spiritual house (2:4-5). Peter’s word implies that once he was dead, but the Lord changed him into a living stone. As a living stone, Peter was always under the transforming work of the Spirit. Transformation is a metabolic change. With such a change, there is always the need of some new element to discharge and replace the old elements. From the day the Lord Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter, He was doing His best to add Himself into Peter. As a result of being under the Lord’s transforming work, eventually Peter became jasper, a precious stone, the first layer of the foundation of the New Jerusalem.
The wall is not built with natural materials merely created by God, but the wall is built with transformed items. We all are God’s old creation, but God put us into Christ to make us His new creation. We all were natural beings, but we have been transformed from the old creation into the new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). In the New Jerusalem there will be no Chinese, American, Spanish, Mexican, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, German or any other culture or race. All of us will be fully transformed. I believe that even our color will be transformed. In that day we will all be “green.” We will all be jasper! We will be one people in one color— “green”! All the different colors and all the different cultures will be swallowed up by the rich divine life of the Triune God. This is transformation.
All of us must realize that the church life is a transformed life, a life under transformation. The church life is not a life of a good, natural life, but the church life must be a transformed life. This is why Colossians 3:11 tells us that in the new man there cannot be Greek, Jew, circumcision, uncircumcision, Barbarian, or Scythian, because all of us are under transformation. We are not practicing the church life according to our natural status, but according to the transformed life. Transformation is implied in the wall. In the wall of the New Jerusalem there is no piece of natural material. The entire wall is built with jasper, transformed material.