The gate is the work of the Son. The street is the nature of the Father. Besides these, there is the wall. The wall is built of transformed precious stones. This is the transforming and building work of the Spirit. So in the pearl, the gold, and the precious stones we see the Triune God again. This city is the product of the working of the Triune God. The pearl signifies the regenerating work of the Son, the gold signifies the sanctifying work of the Father’s divine nature, and the precious stones signify the transforming work of the Spirit. Hallelujah!
While we are walking in the divine way, drinking the living water, and eating the tree of life, something is getting into us. We are being transformed into precious stones to be built up as the wall. The wall is made of jasper stone which bears the appearance and image of God (Rev. 4:3). This transforming work is the work of the Spirit, the third Person of the Triune God. We all with unveiled face are beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord to be transformed into the Lord’s image from glory to glory by the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). The Lord Spirit is doing this transforming work within us. Even now He is doing this work.
The whole New Jerusalem is the issue of the Triune God moving, living, working, and transforming us. The seed of the Triune God is sown in Genesis 1:26. “And God said, Let us make man.” Then in the New Testament, in the last chapter of Matthew, the Lord tells us to baptize His disciples into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19, Gk.). In the Gospel of John, Philip asked the Lord to show them the Father and they would be satisfied. “Jesus said to him, Am I so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How is it that you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words which I speak to you, I do not speak from Myself; but the Father Who abides in Me, He does His works” (John 14:9-10, Recovery Version). In a brief word the Lord is saying that He and the Father are one. Isaiah 9:6 says, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:...and his name shall be called...The mighty God, The everlasting Father.” A Son is given, yet His name is called the everlasting Father. Is He the Son or the Father? I simply cannot explain it. I can only say that it is wonderful. In the same chapter of John, the Lord tells the disciples that He will ask the Father to send the Spirit of Reality, who will abide in them forever (John 14:16-17). He seems to say that this Spirit of Reality is just Himself (John 14:18). It is really mysterious. This is the Triune God.
All these things concerning the Triune God are in the Bible, but the harvest of the Triune God is in the book of Revelation as seen in the New Jerusalem. The three gates on each side show the Triune God. The street, the river, and the tree signify the Triune God flowing within us. The three categories of precious materials—gold, pearl, and precious stones—also show us the work of the Triune God. He is working Himself into us and even replacing us with Himself. The end result is that we all become an eternal mingling of divinity with humanity. This is the New Jerusalem. Hallelujah for the Son’s regeneration! Hallelujah for the Father’s sanctification by His nature! Hallelujah for the Spirit’s transformation! In this way we are built up as gold, pearl, and precious stones for God’s eternal habitation.
In contrast to the New Jerusalem there is the Great Babylon in Revelation 17—18. All Bible scholars agree that this is the Roman Catholic Church. This counterfeit and falsehood is superficially gilded with the same precious materials of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 17:4). We should not think there is nothing real in the Roman Catholic Church. There are some real things, but in a subtle, superficial, and deceiving way. There are some real Christians there seeking God. In history Madame Guyon and Brother Lawrence were very spiritual, yet they remained in the Roman Catholic Church. They were there even after Martin Luther’s reformation. This harlot holds a golden cup. The appearance is of real gold, but within are abominations. This means idol worship and fornication. There is something real, but it is full of mixture. The Roman Catholic Church abounds with idol worship, yet undoubtedly some of her people are real brothers and sisters in the Lord. However, this does not justify Catholicism. The Lord says, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Rev. 18:4).
The Roman Catholic Church is the mother harlot, and this mother has many daughter harlots (Rev. 17:5). A harlot is a woman who will be a wife to anything. A proper wife could only be a wife to one husband. This is God’s governing principle. A harlot breaks this principle and causes confusion by committing fornication.
In the Bible there is the governing principle of one city, one church. This is for the oneness of Christ’s Bride, the church. The church has only one husband. But today’s Christianity does not abide by this governing principle. Instead, they take many different kinds of names as their husband. They say that they are broad-minded because they can have anybody as their husband, and they condemn us because we take the way of one city, one church. They all say that this is too narrow. But every genuine wife has to be narrow. She can only have one husband. The church has only one husband, and that is Christ. The proper unity is Christ, and this is described in the Bible as one city, one church. Anything that causes confusion and division is in the principle of the harlot. I have never seen such a confusion as in today’s Christianity. Many people leave the denominations and form free groups. But these many small free groups are just more confusion. They are the little daughters of the great harlot.
Praise the Lord that today He is recovering the proper church life! The genuine church is a genuine wife to Christ. We do have a definite husband on the ground of unity. All the principles of this church life are clearly portrayed in the New Jerusalem by the working of the Triune God within us. It is in this way that God will obtain His eternal dwelling place. May the Lord have mercy on us that we may take the narrow way of His purpose.