In the eternal age, in the new heaven and new earth, Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God will be life, symbolized by the tree of life growing in the river of water of life, to all God's redeemed (Rev. 21:1-2, 10-11; 22:1-2).
God's redeemed people include three different groups: those who were saved before the church age, such as Adam, Abel, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham; those who were saved during the church age; and those Jews who will be saved after the Lord's return. When the Lord Jesus returns, the church age will close, and thousands of Jews, including the entire nation of Israel, will be saved. They will be saved, but they will not be in the church. The saints of the Old Testament, the New Testament saints, and the Jews saved after the Lord's return, added together, will be the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth.
During the millennium, the New Jerusalem will consist of the overcomers of the Old Testament saints and the overcomers of the New Testament saints. In Matthew 8:11 the Lord Jesus said that many shall come from the east and the west and shall recline (feast) with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom. Today, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others are waiting on us. They have been invited to the wedding feast, and we also have been invited. They are ready to begin the feast, but we are not yet ready. According to Hebrews 11:40, the saints of the Old Testament are not complete without us; therefore, they must wait until we are ready. When we are ready, the wedding feast will begin (Rev. 19:7-9), and the entire one thousand years of the millennium will be a wedding day feast. A wedding day lasts for only one day, but the marriage life is for the whole course of one's life. The wedding day of Christ and the church will last one thousand years. During the millennium, the enjoyment of the New Jerusalem, as a special portion for the overcomers in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, will last for one day of one thousand years (2 Pet. 3:8). After this wedding day, the marriage life will begin in the new heaven and new earth for eternity in the New Jerusalem.
All God's redeemed people, including the Old Testament saints, the New Testament saints, and the saved Jews in the millennium, will be kings reigning in the realm of the eternal life over the nations (Rev. 22:5b; 21:24) who will continue to remain in the new heaven and new earth for eternity. We as kings will eat the fruit of the tree of life, and the people, the nations, will eat the leaves of the tree of life (22:2). We have the life of the tree of life, but they will not have that life. The tree of life will be the very processed and consummated Triune God as our life forever.
In the present age, the Triune God is life to us in the way of His living within us to make us the members of the new man. In the kingdom age, He will be life to us in the way of mingling Himself with us to make us a reigning body, the enlargement of Christ, to rule over the earth as kings. This will be a reward to us in the coming age. In the eternal age of the new heaven and new earth, the consummated Triune God will still be life to us, in the way of mingling Himself with His redeemed, transformed, and tripartite man in order to have the New Jerusalem. Thus, we will enjoy Him as life forever.
What we have presented in these four messages is the thought of the Triune God to be life to the tripartite man running through the entire divine revelation, from Genesis to Revelation. These messages are an extract of the entire New Testament revelation and economy of God, from the incarnation to the New Jerusalem.