Here is a city of God, and it is at the same time a city of man. No reader thinks for a moment that it is literally described here in the dimensions of equal length and breadth and height. This is a figurative description, meant to convey spiritual conceptions....It is curiously described as though it were built of men. It is a community....This city, built of redeemed men, is open to all men, but only such as have an affinity for God will go in. It is also a Bridal City. The New Jerusalem is the Bride of the Lamb, and those who do not belong to the Lamb as a wife belongs to her husband, by the sacred espousal of faith and love, will never have, nor desire to have, a part in this City of God. (Dr. A. T. Pierson, in The Bible and Spiritual Criticism)
As the “holy temple” described in Ephesians 2:19-22 was built of “living stones,” so this glorious city is built of redeemed, glorified human beings. And here we see the diversity as well as unity. The buildings in a literal city are not uniform in size. Some are large and some are small; so in this city, some dwellings are of large dimensions and some are very small comparatively; but all alike partake of the glory of God and shine with light most precious, clear as crystal. We can think of the Apostles Paul, Peter and John as towering buildings compared with many saints, and we picture Enoch, Elijah and other Old Testament saints as structures of large dimensions; yet in all this City there is no dwelling that is lacking in perfect, finished proportions.
Best of all, this City is the habitation of God. In the beginning of our studies we noted several passages in which there was a strange blending of two figures, the architectural and the parental. Here we see them again in their complete unfolding. Here is a City “marked out” before the founding of the world, “whose Architect and Builder is God”; and here is the vast host of redeemed, glorified human beings whom He can clasp in His Arms and call His glorified sons. “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell in them and they shall be His people” (Rev. 21:3).
And now Christ can “see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied”; for the curse is removed, and His redeemed ones see His face, and His Name (meaning His Nature) is written on their foreheads, and they serve Him forever more.
Now we see the Paradise of God, of which the Edenic Paradise was a type; and here is “the river of water of life bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb”; and here also is the Tree of Life; not the literal tree of Eden, but that which the literal tree symbolized. No longer is it guarded by Cherubim and the revolving sword-flame, for Calvary’s Sacrifice has opened the way forever. It is interesting to observe that the Greek word used here (Rev. 22:2, 14) is not dendron, which is used to designate the literal tree of vegetable growth, but xylon, which denotes something made from the tree-literally timber or beam. It is the same word that is used in Galatians 3:13 [and] therefore suggests the Cross of Calvary. Very significant, then, is its use in this passage, for it reveals the fact that to sinful human beings, partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Life means the appropriation of all the Redemptive Work of Calvary. In other words, it speaks of identification with God’s Slain Lamb in His Death and Resurrection. And may not the expression “the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations,” refer to the beneficent results of the general appropriation of the fruits of Redemption in that happy time, as manifested in the absence of the selfishness, jealousy, hatred and strife that characterize the nations at the present time?
The created right to the Tree of Life was forfeited through sin, but those who have washed their robes in the Blood of the Lamb now have the Redemptive right to freely eat of the Tree of Life, and thus enter through the gates into the City. And the gates are not closed. They remain invitingly open; thus showing us that even to the age of the ages, Christ’s Redemptive Work at Calvary may be appropriated by whomsoever will take the Life of the Lamb.
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