Some people say that the Lord is building the church, not the New Jerusalem. This kind of thought is foolish. Ephesians 2, 1 Peter 2, and Matthew 16 show us that today God is saving us and working on us to build us into God’s habitation. Today we are the habitation that God is building. One day the new heaven and new earth will appear in which will be the habitation, the New Jerusalem. Therefore, the habitation that God is building today is the church, and the habitation in the future will be the New Jerusalem. These are not two habitations but one habitation. If they were two habitations, I am afraid that in the future we would be abandoned. If they were two habitations, then today in the age of grace God would build us into the church, His habitation, and then in the future God would abandon us and build the New Jerusalem, a larger habitation. God is not like this. The church as His habitation today is a precursor of the New Jerusalem as His habitation in the future. The church is a miniature of the ultimate habitation. The New Jerusalem as God’s habitation is the full consummation of the church as His habitation.
Throughout the generations, God has not been building two habitations in the universe—one on the earth as the church and one in the heavens as the New Jerusalem. In all the generations, God has not had two works but one work. The Lord Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for us, and He also said that He would build the church upon Himself as the rock. These two statements do not mean that the Lord had two works—one work of building the church on the earth and one work of preparing the New Jerusalem in heaven. Rather, the Lord has only one work—the church that He is building on the earth is the New Jerusalem that He is preparing in the heavens.
Hebrews 11 says that God is building a city. That building is the spiritual house mentioned in 1 Peter 2 and also God’s habitation mentioned in Ephesians 2. Today the building is being built on a small scale. Today it is merely a house, a spiritual house, but when it reaches full completion in the future, it will be a city, something much larger in scale. Therefore, we can see that God has only one work in the universe today, that is, to build an abode for Himself. The miniature of this abode is the church today, the spiritual house which is His habitation. Ultimately, at the time of completion, it will be a holy city and a tabernacle, the mutual abode of God and man. Please remember that the church and the New Jerusalem are not two parallel entities. Rather, the church and the New Jerusalem are connected to one another. The church is a precursor of the New Jerusalem, and the New Jerusalem is the consummation of the church. The two are one. God’s building of the church is also His building of the New Jerusalem. God’s building in us is the building of the church and also the building of the eternal abode in the future. This is a very mysterious concept. One day we will all realize that the habitation or abode that God is building in every age is a union of three entities—Him, us, and heaven. The New Jerusalem in the future will be our eternal abode, a city built by God through all the generations.
What kind of material is God using to build His habitation? God is mingling Himself into our being and also adding heaven into us. Thus, the material is the union of three entities—God, man, and heaven. This is like the materials that a cement worker uses to make concrete, which is a mixture of sand, crushed stones, and cement. The three—God, man, and heaven—are being mingled and built together, and one day, when they are ready and manifested, they will be the New Jerusalem. Therefore, the eternal abode that we will ultimately enter into is not something unrelated to us today or something completely objective to us.
We who are stones are the materials of the city that God has been building throughout the ages. God will keep working on us and building us, the stones, until a city is built at the end. God, man, and also heaven will be in that city. Heaven will be in it, God will be in it, and man will also be in it. However, the heaven in the New Jerusalem will not merely be heaven; it will be heaven mingled within man. God will be there, as well as His glory, life, nature, and image. However, in the New Jerusalem God will not be purely God but God mingled within man. Man will also be there. The twelve foundations of the wall of the city have the twelve names of the twelve apostles. The stone that has Peter’s name signifies the man Peter. Therefore, man will truly be there. Not only the ones in the New Testament will be there, but the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel in the Old Testament are also there, indicating that they will be there as well.