We should not forget that God's work for the new creation began in Genesis 3. Eventually, both Adam and Abel became a part of God's new creation work, so they will be a part of the material for building up the New Jerusalem. God worked in Genesis with Adam, Abel, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that work was the work of God's new creation. The work of the New Jerusalem started from Adam and passed through the entire Old and New Testaments. The new creation work of God began with Adam in Genesis 3. God was moving even then to work Himself into man.

God's new creation work started from Genesis 3, but it was not realized in a full way until the New Testament. For God to work Himself into us, God needed to become a man. He had to come into man, making Himself a man. Matthew 1 says that the birth of Christ was directly of the Holy Spirit (vv. 18, 20), and Luke 1 says that John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb (v. 15). It was not until the New Testament age that the divine title the Holy Spirit was used. In Psalm 51:11 and Isaiah 63:10-11, the title of the Spirit should be translated the Spirit of holiness. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God was working in the old creation (Gen. 1:2). Then the Spirit of Jehovah is seen in God's relationship with man (Judg. 6:34). But in the New Testament, God came to become a man. His whole divine Being was brought into that little man Jesus. The Holy Spirit, mentioned in the conceptions of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus, is for sanctifying humanity for Christ's incarnation (Luke 1:15, 35; Matt. 1:20; also see Luke 1:35, note 352, second paragraph, for the difference in essence between the conception of John the Baptist and the conception of the Lord Jesus).

Now we need to consider how this little man, Jesus, could get into people. This is revealed in the Gospel of John. John 14 was the first part of His last message given to the disciples. In verse 10a He said, "I am in the Father and the Father is in Me." But at that time He was not yet in the disciples, so He prayed that the Father would give them another Comforter that He might be with them forever (v. 16). The Lord said that when this Comforter would come, He would be in the disciples as the Spirit of reality (v. 17). Furthermore, He told them that on the day of resurrection, they would know that He was in the Father, that they were in Him, and that He was in them (v. 20). Before that time, He was in the Father, and the Father was in Him, but He was not in the disciples. But in His resurrection He came into them as the Spirit of reality. This is God's dispensing of Himself into man for His new creation. It was for this purpose that He died and resurrected.

In John 14 the Lord's going was not for the purpose of going to heaven. He went through death and resurrection to the Father (v. 12b, 28b) to bring humanity into divinity. The issue of His going was that He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). In His resurrection He was begotten of God to be God's firstborn Son, and millions of believers were begotten to be the many sons of God as His many brothers (Rom. 8:29; Acts 13:33). At that time the Triune God had fully entered into man, and from that time the Triune God remains in man to operate in man for His growth in man. When He grows in us, His growth becomes our growth.