Second, the organic Body of Christ takes God the Son in His redemption as its element, as pearls (1 Cor. 3:12; Rev. 21:21a). Pearls signify Christ the Son in His overcoming death and life-imparting resurrection with all the virtues and attributes.
Third, the organic Body of Christ takes God the Spirit in His transforming work as its essence, as precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12; Rev. 21:18a, 19-20). Precious stones signify the transforming work of the Spirit with all its attributes. Gold, silver, and precious stones signify the believers’ various enjoyments and experiences of Christ in the virtues and attributes of the Triune God. All these precious materials are the products of our participation in and enjoyment of Christ in our spirit through the Holy Spirit. Only these are good for God’s building.
The organic Body of Christ, which is the church, is produced through the redeemed and regenerated saints’ experience of transformation by the consummated Triune God—the Spirit. Hence, we need to be filled with the Spirit, the essence of the Divine Trinity. Today the Spirit is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, and He is the realization of Christ. Christ, the last Adam, after passing through an all-inclusive death, became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection as the essence of the Divine Trinity to come into us to be our life and everything. Day by day we need to be filled with Him, saturated with Him, permeated by Him, infused by Him, and transfused by Him. Hence, as we read the New Testament, we cannot avoid the word Spirit. Especially in the Epistles, the emphasis is on the Spirit, and the Spirit is frequently linked with grace. When we teach and shepherd others, we do not exhort them to do something; that is the way of religion, not the Spirit. We need to be filled with the Spirit, the essence of the Divine Trinity, that our mind may become more sober, our will may become more firm, and our emotion may be filled with love. When we have the Spirit in us, we have the essence of the Triune God in us.
The Triune God passed through various processes. He became flesh, lived a human life, and passed through an all-inclusive death. With Adam, death is not good, but with Christ, death is very precious. The death of Christ, like today’s antibiotics, kills all the germs. Christ’s death terminated the old creation, the flesh, the old man, sin, Satan, the world, the ordinances, the commandments, and all the different customs in human living. Christ’s death also released the divine life from within Him. From this death He entered into the life-generating power, which is resurrection. In this resurrection He was begotten to be God’s firstborn Son. Originally, He was God’s only begotten Son without humanity. After His incarnation, because His flesh, His humanity, was not the Son of God, He had to pass through resurrection and be “sonized.” Now He is no longer merely the only begotten Son of God; He is also the firstborn Son of God. In eternity past He was the only begotten Son of God, having divinity but not humanity. Now in resurrection He was begotten to be the firstborn Son of God, having both divinity and humanity. Furthermore, in His resurrection He regenerated us that we may be born as children of God. He is God’s firstborn Son, and we are God’s many sons. In resurrection He was also transfigured into the life-giving Spirit. In eternity past He did not have all these items, but He passed through the various processes and became the all-inclusive, compound, indwelling, life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is the consummated Triune God, the processed Triune God, who is available for us to eat, drink, and enjoy. He Himself said that He is edible and that he who eats Him shall live because of Him (John 6:57).
The organic Body of Christ has absolutely neither man’s natural element nor man’s work by his own effort. Originally, we were men of clay; however, in the New Jerusalem there is no clay but gold, pearls, and precious stones. Since gold signifies God’s divine nature, the New Jerusalem’s being of pure gold signifies that the New Jerusalem is altogether of God’s divine nature and takes God’s divine nature as its element. Pearls are produced by oysters in the waters of death. This signifies that Christ came into the death waters, was wounded by us, and secreted His life over us to make us into precious pearls. Precious stones are not created but are produced by the transforming of things created. We were created as clay, but after we have passed through the intense heat and pressure of the work of the Holy Spirit in us and in our environment, we are transformed into precious stones good for God’s eternal building.
We all need to pass through regeneration and transformation, and then we can become a part of the New Jerusalem. In His economy God arranges the persons, things, and events around us in a wonderful way that we may learn the lessons of being burned and pressed and thereby transformed in life. Whether in the church life or in the family life, we all have experienced such burning and pressing. If we have not been burned and pressed, we remain natural wood, grass, and stubble and cannot be precious stones for building. In order to become precious stones we need to be transformed. Whether at home or in the church, once we begin to quarrel, the fire is extinguished and the pressure is gone. Then, we are all natural materials, not transformed materials for the building.
If we are not willing to be transformed by being burned or pressed today, we will not be able to enter the New Jerusalem. In His economy God sets aside the millennial kingdom as a reward to the transformed and overcoming believers. If we are transformed in life by receiving the Spirit’s exercise and God’s discipline today, we will be rewarded by the Lord at His coming back—we will receive the reward of the kingdom and enter into its glory. The believers who are not willing to have the transformation in life by receiving the Spirit’s exercise and God’s discipline will be cast into outer darkness at the Lord’s coming, where they will regret with weeping and gnashing of teeth. Today’s burning and pressing are, at most, for one hundred years, but in the future, the burning and pressing will be ten times greater, lasting a thousand years. This is the clear revelation of the Bible. Heaven and earth will pass away, but every iota and every serif of the words in the Scriptures shall by no means pass away (Matt. 5:18). The overcomers will reign with Christ in the millennial kingdom and receive the sonship. Furthermore, they will serve God and Christ as royal priests in the glory of Christ’s appearing. The overcomers will already be precious stones in the millennium, whereas the defeated ones as the natural materials that have not been transformed will be in the darkness, weeping and gnashing their teeth. After the millennium, all the saved ones will eventually be in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. However, during the millennium, only the overcomers will be in the New Jerusalem, and the defeated ones will not be there.