The New Jerusalem as the tabernacle of God (Rev. 21:3) indicates that all the redeemed and perfected ones will become God’s eternal dwelling place. In both the Old and New Testaments God likens His chosen people to a dwelling place (Exo. 29:45-46; Num. 5:3; Ezek. 43:7, 9; Psa. 68:18; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Tim. 3:15). The spouse is for God’s satisfaction in love, and the dwelling place is for His rest in expression. The New Jerusalem is God’s dwelling place among men (His peoples on the new earth—Rev. 21:3) for Him to be expressed for eternity.
The New Jerusalem is a mountain of gold (Rev. 21:18). In typology gold signifies the divine nature. Therefore, this city as God’s dwelling place is absolutely composed of God’s divine nature. The New Jerusalem itself comes out of God’s divine nature.
The twelve gates of the New Jerusalem are twelve pearls; each one of the gates is, respectively, of one pearl (Rev. 21:21). Pearl signifies Christ passing through death and secreting His resurrection life in resurrection that His believers may have the life of God and enter into the New Jerusalem to be God’s dwelling place.
The wall of the New Jerusalem is built with jasper (Rev. 21:18). Jasper is a transformed precious stone (1 Cor. 3:12) that bears the appearance of God (Rev. 4:3) to express God. Hence, the jasper wall signifies that the New Jerusalem, as the corporate expression of God in eternity, bears the appearance of God. The believers were created clay (Gen. 2:7), but they have been regenerated and have the very element of God, and they are being transformed into precious stones—jasper—as the expression of God’s appearance.
The New Jerusalem is a city which has the foundations (Heb. 11:10). The wall of the city has twelve foundations which are adorned with every precious stone (Rev. 21:14, 19-20). The first layer of the wall’s foundation, like the wall, is built with jasper. This indicates that the main material in the building of the holy city is jasper, which signifies God expressed in His glory (Rev. 21:11). Twelve different kinds of precious stones signify the unsearchable riches of Christ in different aspects (Eph. 3:8) for a full expression of all the riches of God’s glory.
There is no temple in the New Jerusalem, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb (Rev. 21:22). The Greek word for temple here denotes the inner temple, the Holy of Holies, signifying that God and the Lamb Themselves will be the place in which we serve God. The holy city as the tabernacle of God is for God to dwell in, and God and the Lamb as the temple are for us to dwell in. In eternity we will not dwell in a material city; we will dwell in the Triune God. We are God’s tabernacle, and He is our temple; He dwells in us, and we dwell in Him. In the new heaven and new earth, the New Jerusalem will be a mutual dwelling place for God and man for eternity.
In the New Jerusalem there is no need of the sun nor of the moon that they should shine in it, for the glory of God illumines it, and its lamp is the Lamb (Rev. 21:23). God is the light of the holy city, and the Lamb is the lamp; God is the content of the lamp, and the Lamb is the light-bearer. This indicates that, as the light of the holy city, God in Christ shines with His glory to illumine the city. Since such a divine light will illumine the holy city, it has no need of any natural light (Rev. 22:5). Although the sun and the moon will be in the new heaven and new earth, the dwelling place for both God and us will be much brighter than either of them, even subduing their brightness. Hence, in the New Jerusalem there will be no night. Outside the city there will still be the distinction between day and night, but within the city there will be no such distinction. There will be no night within the city because we shall have God Himself as the eternal, unchanging light.