In eternity at the center of the holy city, New Jerusalem, is the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:1). God and the Lamb are sitting on one throne, showing that the Lamb and God are one. In eternity He will be the Lamb-God, the redeeming God, to His redeemed people.
In eternity all the redeemed people will be the wife of the Lamb, and the Lamb will be their Husband (Rev. 21:9, 2). This indicates that all the redeemed ones throughout the ages came out of Him and return to Him to become His counterpart that He may gain His beloved, just as Eve came out of Adam and returned to Adam to be his counterpart (Gen. 2:21-24).
In the New Jerusalem God and the Lamb are the temple in the city (Rev. 21:22). In the Old Testament God’s chosen people first served Him in the tabernacle, then in the temple. In eternity the New Jerusalem will be the tabernacle of God (Rev. 21:3) as God’s dwelling place, and the temple therein, which is just God and the Lamb, will be the place where the redeemed serve Him.
The holy city has no need of the sun nor of the moon that they should shine in it, for the glory of God illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb (Rev. 21:23). In the holy city the Lamb is the lamp and God is the light shining from within to manifest God’s glory.
In the holy city a river of water of life proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street. And on this side and on that side of the river is the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, and yielding its fruit each month (Rev. 22:1-2). The river of water of life signifies the Spirit of Christ saturating the holy city, and the tree of life signifies Christ as the life and life supply to the entire city.
In eternity, the leaves of the tree of life, which signifies Christ, are for the healing of the nations around the holy city (Rev. 22:2), that their restored natural man may live forever. In the Bible leaves are a symbol of man’s deeds (Gen. 3:7). The leaves of the tree of life symbolize the deeds of Christ. The nations on the new earth will take the deeds of Christ as their guide and regulation outwardly, that they may live the human life forever.
The gospel revealed in the New Testament is not a kind of doctrine or ism, nor is it a theory or a philosophy; neither is it any kind of blessing or benefit. The gospel is concerning a living person, the God-man, concerning what He is and does, and all that He has attained and obtained. In the early days the apostles and believers preached this mysterious and wonderful One as the gospel (Acts 5:42; 8:5). Therefore this gospel is not only called the gospel of Jesus Christ (Mark 1:1) and the gospel of Christ (Rom. 15:19; 2 Cor. 10:14), but also the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). This gospel of glory, which is Christ Himself, is also called the gospel of God (Rom. 1:1; 2 Cor. 11:7), because it is planned and accomplished by God; the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 4:23; 24:14), because it brings in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens; the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24), because it brings to us the grace of life of the Triune God; the gospel of peace (Eph. 2:17; 6:15), because it brings peace between us and God and between man and man; and the gospel of salvation (Eph. 1:13), because it brings us salvation that we may be saved. This gospel is also called the glad tidings (Rom. 10:15) and is worthwhile for us to preach at every time and in every place throughout our whole life.