Now we must consider the New Jerusalem, which shows the completion of God’s building work. In 1 Corinthians 3:9 Paul says, “We are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s cultivated land, God’s building.” All those who serve God throughout the ages are God’s fellow workers. We work together with God for the building of His dwelling place on earth, and this dwelling place will ultimately become a city. In the church age God’s building is a dwelling place, but in eternity it will become a city. This dwelling place is the dwelling place of God in spirit (Eph. 2:22). The city will be a dwelling place. The church in the New Testament age does not include the saved ones in the Old Testament, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. The church age does not include those in the Old Testament; it includes only the saved ones in the New Testament.
Ephesians 2:20 says that the church is “being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.” This means that the church was not produced prior to the apostles’ time. At that time, no stone had been built on the foundation. However, the work of building God’s dwelling place did not begin only in the New Testament. We cannot say that there was no working in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When the New Jerusalem appears, it will not be merely a dwelling place; it will be a city, and the dwelling place will be included in it. In this city the twelve apostles are the foundations and the twelve tribes of Israel are the gates. The New Jerusalem is the aggregate of all the saved ones in both the Old and New Testaments, and the church is a part of it; the church is a dwelling place. The New Jerusalem is a city, and the church is part of it; although the two are different in scope, they are the same in nature.
Revelation 21 clearly shows that the New Jerusalem is of pure gold; it is constituted with and full of God’s life and nature. Her appearance and light are like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone (v. 11). The foundations of the wall of the city are adorned with every precious stone, and the first foundation is jasper (v. 19). Revelation 4:2-3 says that the One who is sitting on the throne is like a jasper stone in appearance. Hence, the appearance of the city is God. The city proper refers to its content, which is pure gold; the wall refers to its appearance, which is precious stones. This matches the definition in the Bible. The inward nature of those who are saved is absolutely God’s golden nature, and the outward appearance is precious stones, the appearance of God. The content of the city is gold, and her appearance before the nations is precious stones; she has God’s glorious nature within and God’s glorious image without.
Furthermore, this city has pearls rather than silver. Having no silver implies that sin and the old creation are no longer present because the cross has terminated everything. The old heaven and old earth have passed away, and everything has become new, so there is no further need for the redemption of the cross. Because the redemption accomplished by the Lord is eternally effective and will not pass away, however, He is still called the Lamb in the New Jerusalem (21:22; 22:1). In brief, there is no part of the old creation in the New Jerusalem, so there is no need for the cross; hence, there is no silver. Redemption came in because of the fall, because of sin. But if there had not been the fall or even sins, God would still need to attain to His goal. God’s eternal purpose is for His life to be mingled with man. Therefore, in eternity we cannot see redemption and we do not need redemption, because the old creation has passed away. However, we can still see God’s goal, which is God’s life.
In the New Jerusalem everything is God’s glory, God’s appearance. There are twelve gates in the city; each of the gates is, respectively, of one pearl (21:21). The pearls are gates, on which the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel are inscribed (v. 12). What does this mean? First, a gate is an entrance. Without gates, we would have no way to enter into a city; if we want to enter into a city, we need to pass through the gates. We have a part in the city because of an entrance; this entrance has been passed on to us from the Jews in the Old Testament. John 4:22 and Romans 1:16 say that salvation is of the Jews. Hence, the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel represent an introduction to salvation. Second, this entrance leads us into the new city. Third, the pearl gates are produced from oysters in the sea. When an oyster is wounded by a grain of sand, it secretes its life-juice around the grain of sand and makes it into a pearl. This signifies regeneration; regeneration is an entrance. The oyster signifies the Lord Jesus who was wounded in the sea of the world; as grains of sand, we fell into Him. From that day on, He has been secreting His life-juice around us to make us pearls. Formerly, we were sand and clay, but the Lord came to the world and was wounded; we fell into Him and have been nourished by His life. Now we are becoming pearls. This entire picture shows that there is nothing natural or of the old creation in the New Jerusalem. Everything begins with regeneration and eventually becomes God, having God’s life, nature, and glory, becoming the new creation, being of pure gold and precious stones.
Since the entire city is of pure gold, the street of the city is surely of gold; this denotes that God’s life and nature are our spiritual way. The more we have God’s life and nature, the more we are inwardly clear concerning God’s way. Our participation in this city begins with regeneration; we enter the gates through regeneration. We should consider this picture: the gates of the New Jerusalem are pearls, and upon entering through the gates of regeneration, we walk on a street of pure gold. The city proper is of pure gold, and the appearance of the city is precious stones. The meaning of this picture is that we enter through the gate and receive God’s life by regeneration, and after entering through the gate, we walk on the street according to God’s life and nature.
In Revelation 22 there is only one street in the New Jerusalem, and in the middle of this street there is a river of water of life, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb (v. 1). The throne is the center; the twelve gates are on four sides; the street is not straight but a spiral that goes upward. This means that if we enter through this gate, we will step onto this street; if we enter through another gate, we will step onto the same street. In the end, the street spirals up to the throne. In the middle of this street there is the flowing of the river of water of life, signifying that if we depart from the divine life, we will lose our way. On both sides of the river of water of life is the tree of life, and this tree of life is a vine that spreads and grows on both sides of the river of water of life and produces fruits continually (v. 2). In the middle of the street are the water of life and the tree of life, indicating that life is the only way. In order for God to reach the goal in His work, man must enter through the gate to obtain God’s life by regeneration; then this life will continue to spiral and spread in him, and in the end, God’s glorious, heavenly image will be produced and expressed through precious stones.
This is God’s eternal intention. Today we need to lead people to enter the gate through regeneration. After they enter the gate, we need to show them that God’s life and nature are the way they must take, and that they must eat and drink the life of God so that their entire being is filled with this life. We still need the cross, however, because the New Jerusalem has not yet come, and we are still in the church age. The cross terminates sins, the world, and everything of the earth and causes us to become pure gold. The issue of this will be pure gold within and precious stones without. This picture—the street of pure gold, the wall of precious stones, and the gates of pearl—is unveiled to us so that we may see the materials that we need for building and serving the church.
When we go to the record in Genesis before man’s fall, we can see that the garden of Eden was a miniature of the New Jerusalem. In the middle of the garden was the tree of life, and a river went forth and divided into four branches. In the river flowed gold, bdellium, and onyx, a precious stone. This is a beautiful picture. In this garden was a man who was made of dust, a man of clay, and by his side were gold, bdellium, and precious stones. Genesis 2 is a picture full of meaning. God’s intention is that through eating the fruit of the tree of life and drinking from the river of the water of life, Adam would be transformed to become gold, pearl, and precious stone. Sadly, the evil one, Satan, came and seduced man to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This distanced man from God’s life. However, through the cross of Christ, God will eventually attain His goal of producing the city of gold, pearl, and precious stones in Revelation.
May God open our eyes so that we may see the work that God has intended from the very beginning and the materials He is using to reach His intention. In the process of God’s work, we have received mercy to become His fellow workers. With much humility, we must work together with Him.