ASPECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHURCH LIFE

SEEN IN THE NEW JERUSALEM

Message Five
The Intrinsic Significance of the Name New Jerusalem
and the Dimensions of the Holy City
Scripture Reading: Rev. 21:2, 9-10, 13, 16

I. The intrinsic significance of the name New Jerusalem applies to our living out and working out
the New Jerusalem—Rev. 21:2, 9-10:
A. The holy city is “new”:
1. The New Jerusalem, the holy city, is created in Christ as the new creation with the divine
element—2 Cor. 5:17:
a. The Bible reveals to us two creations—the old creation and the new creation; the old
creation does not have the divine life and nature, but the new creation, constituted of the
believers, who are born again of God, does—John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4.
b. Hence, the believers are a new creation (Gal. 6:15), not according to the old nature of the
flesh but according to the new nature of the divine life.
c. The old creation is our old man in Adam (Eph. 4:22), our natural being by birth, without
God’s life and the divine nature; the new creation is the new man in Christ (v. 24), our
being that is regenerated by the Spirit (John 3:6), having God’s life and the divine nature
wrought into it (v. 36; 2 Pet. 1:4), having Christ as its constituent (Col. 3:10-11), and
having become a new constitution.
d. Only God is “new”; the old creation is old because it does not have God’s element, but
the new creation is new because it has God as its element:
1) Our new heart and new spirit are something of God (Ezek. 36:26); for our mind to be
renewed means that God has been wrought into our mind.
2) Everything that is designated new in the New Testament indicates that God has been
wrought into these items (such as the new wine, the new wineskins, the new garment,
and the new testament).
3) God is revealed in the New Testament, and the New Testament conveys God to us;
God is newness, and newness is God.
e. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things
have passed away; behold, they have become new”:
1) To say that all things have become new means that they have become divine.
2) Furthermore, to say that all things have become new means that all things have
become God since God is new and since God is newness.
f. Every day we need to have a new beginning of life, an “Abib” (Exo. 13:4), and we need
to be saved from staleness to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4) and serve in newness of
spirit (7:6).
g. Those who are sanctified by taking Christ as their Substitute (Exo. 13:2), who have a new
beginning of life (v. 4), and who eliminate all exposed sin (vv. 6-7) will have a daily
living that is worthy of being a memorial, an eternal remembrance (v. 9).
2. The New Jerusalem as a new creation has God in Christ, possessing the divine life and the
divine nature:
a. In the New Jerusalem there are the river of water of life and the tree of life (Rev. 22:1-2);
besides the divine life the New Jerusalem does not display any other kind of life:
 1) Daily we need to drink of the one Spirit as the river of water of life (1 Cor. 12:13)
and eat Christ as the tree of life (Rev. 2:7; John 6:35, 57b).
2) Daily we need to give the preeminence to the inner flow of life (Ezek. 47:1-2) and
live in the principle of dependence, the principle of the tree of life (2 Cor. 1:8-9, 12).
b. Also, the city itself and the street of the New Jerusalem are pure gold, like transparent
glass (Rev. 21:18b, 21b); in typology gold signifies the divine nature:
1) God is Spirit, the nature of God’s person; daily we need to enjoy God’s person by
exercising our spirit—John 4:24.
2) God is love, the nature of God’s essence, and God is light, the nature of God’s
expression; daily we need to enjoy God as love and light by remaining in the
fellowship, the flow, of the divine life—1 John 4:8, 16; 1:5, 3; cf. Rev. 22:1.
3. The New Jerusalem is constituted with Christ as the new man with the divine nature and the
divine life—Col. 3:10-11:
a. Not only is there no natural person in the new man, but also there is no possibility, no
room, for any natural person; in the new man there is only room for Christ.
b. Christ is all the members of the new man, and He is in all the members; He is everything
in the new man; actually, He is the new man, His Body—1 Cor. 12:12.
c. Because we have been born of Christ and constituted with Christ, we can say that we are
Christ (in life and in nature); how much we live Christ depends upon how much of Christ
has been constituted into our being—Phil. 1:19-21a; Eph. 3:16-17a.
B. The title Jerusalem is composed of two Hebrew words—Jeru means “foundation,” and Salem
means “peace”; thus, Jerusalem means “the foundation of peace”:
1. In the New Testament there are two titles—the God of peace (Phil. 4:9; 1 Thes. 5:23) and the
peace of God (Phil. 4:7); both of these titles indicate that God Himself is our peace.
2. Ephesians 2:14 says that Christ Himself is our peace; He is the arbitrating peace of the new
man—Col. 3:15.
3. The Lord Jesus told us, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world
gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid”—John 14:27.
4. Our Lord also said, “These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the
world you have affliction, but take courage; I have overcome the world”—16:33.
5. Since the Lord has given us His peace and left us His peace, today we should live in His
peace—Isa. 26:3; Rom. 8:6.
6. Jerusalem is the Triune God to be our peace, to be our safety; the whole New Jerusalem will
be an entity of peace—cf. Isa. 66:12.
7. The New Jerusalem will be solidly grounded and safeguarded in the Triune God as peace and
safety, and we will enjoy the Triune God as peace forever.
II. The dimensions of the holy city apply to our living out and working out the New Jerusalem:
A. The city has three gates on each of the four sides—Rev. 21:13:
1. The east side, at the front, toward the glory of the sunrise (cf. Luke 1:78-79), ranks first; the
north side, at the top, ranks second; the south side, at the bottom, ranks third; and the west
side, at the rear, ranks fourth.
2. The gates on the four sides face the four directions of the earth, signifying that the entrance
into the holy city is available to all the peoples on earth (cf. the four heads of the river in
Genesis 2:10-14).
3. That there are three gates on each side signifies that the three of the Divine
B. Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—work together to bring people into the holy city;
this is indicated in the three parables in Luke 15 and implied in the Lord’s word in Matthew
28:19; to be baptized into the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is the real entrance into the holy
city.
4. The three gates indicate that the Triune God has come to reach us and bring us into His
eternal economy—Eph. 3:14-17; 2 Cor. 13:14; Num. 6:22-27.
 5. That there are three gates on each of the four sides, three times four being twelve, also
implies that the Triune God is mingled with man, the creature (the number four signifying the
creature—Rev. 4:6).
C. The length, breadth, and height of the New Jerusalem are equal; it is twelve thousand stadia in
each dimension—21:16:
1. According to its measurements, the New Jerusalem is a cube; the dimensions of the Holy of
Holies, both in the tabernacle and in the temple, were equal in length, breadth, and height; the
Holy of Holies in the tabernacle was a cube measuring ten cubits in each dimension, and the
Holy of Holies in the temple was a cube of twenty cubits in each dimension (signifying that
our experience of Christ in the church must be balanced, like that of a cube)—Exo. 26:2-8; 1
Kings 6:20; Eph. 3:18.
2. That the length, breadth, and height of the New Jerusalem are equal signifies that the entire
New Jerusalem will be the Holy of Holies.
3. In the New Jerusalem all God’s redeemed ones will serve and worship God, will see and
touch God’s presence, and will live and dwell in God’s presence for eternity:
a. In our Christian life and church life, we must hold on to this principle: God’s presence is
the criterion for every matter; regardless of what we do, we must pay attention to whether
or not we have God’s presence.
b. We should aspire to be like Moses and Paul, ones who had God’s presence to a full extent
for God’s building, God’s corporate expression—Exo. 33:11, 14; 2 Cor. 2:10; 4:6-7; 1
Cor. 3:9.

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