The second implication in the wall is building. To be transformed is one matter and to be built up is another matter. It is wonderful that you have been transformed, but you have to learn how to be built together with others. When masons are building something with stone, they may need to cut some sharp edges off the stone to make it fit in the wall they are building. In like manner, our “sharpness” has to be cut off. Do not be so sharp in the church life. If you are too sharp, it will be hard for you to be built up with others. All of our sharp corners need to be cut off in order to get along with others.
According to my experience being transformed is easier than being built up with others. To be transformed is glorious, but to be cut off is a kind of humiliation. Why do I “cut” you and why do you “cut” me? The reason why is for us to fit into the building. Without being cut, you could never fit into the building. You may like to be in the building, but you may not like to be cut. However, as long as you will not agree to being cut, you cannot be built in. We all need to realize that we are under the transformation, but do not forget that following transformation is cutting. Thank the Lord that He is transforming us and cutting us that we may fit in the building of the wall of His eternal habitation.
The entire great and high wall of the city bears one image. In today’s Christendom each denomination bears a particular and different image from the others. Today, in the Lord’s recovery there are over six hundred churches in thirty-nine nations. I thank the Lord that all the churches bear one image. We do not have different images or flavors, but we are one in appearance and one in flavor. The entire wall of the great city bears one unique image—God’s image. The appearance of the city is the same as the One sitting on the throne.
The jasper wall signifies that the whole city, as the corporate expression of God in eternity, bears the appearance of God. Sometimes in our meetings, however, we hear testimonies that convey a little different flavor. Also, we may have seen some activities that bore some other kind of appearance. This signifies a lack of transformation and building. Argument or adjustment does not work in cases like these. You have to pray for the dear ones who voice different flavors and who express a different appearance that they may have the mercy and grace to experience more and more of transformation and building. Only transformation and building can bring all the saints into one image with one flavor. All of us need to have God’s image and God’s flavor. In the church there should not be the European, Asian, American, Mexican, Chinese, or any other flavor, but only the flavor of the Triune God expressed in His unique image.
The wall of the New Jerusalem also implies the expression of God. The great wall is the unique expression of the jasper God, and the jasper God is expressed in the jasper city through the jasper wall. A picture such as this is better than one thousand words. When we look at this city which is in the appearance of God for His expression, we can see that today’s Christianity does not match this. With the denominations there are too many different kinds of expressions, but in the church life, which will consummate in the coming New Jerusalem, there is only one expression—the expression of the divine image through transformation and building.
This expression of God in the New Jerusalem will be a testimony of Jesus. On the one hand, the book of Revelation gives us the revelation of Christ (1:1), and on the other hand it shows us the testimony of Jesus (1:9; 12:17; 19:10; 20:4). The expression of the greenish wall is the testimony of Jesus. Jesus was the embodiment of the Triune God. While He was on this earth He expressed the Triune God. The New Jerusalem will be His enlargement, His increase, and His expansion to express Him as God’s embodiment, and this is the testimony of Jesus. Today every local church must be such a testimony, but it depends upon the degree of transformation and building. The transformation and the building are the basic factors to have the testimony of Jesus expressing the Triune God.
Such a testimony is also for separation unto God. The surrounding wall separates what is in it from all other things. This separation in the New Jerusalem is the absolute sanctification. The designation “the holy city” means the separated city, a city that is separated from anything other than God. The city as the very embodiment of the Triune God is a separated, sanctified, holy city. No other city is as holy or as sanctified as this one because this city is the embodiment, the increase, and the expansion of God.