HIS ETERNITY FUTURE

In His second coming Christ will use nearly one thousand years to thoroughly clean up the whole universe and put it in order. Then the new heaven and new earth will be brought in, and its center will be the New Jerusalem composed of all the people redeemed by God throughout all generations. Everything of Christ’s eternal future is in the New Jerusalem.

BEING THE ENTRANCE INTO THE NEWJERUSALEM

The coming New Jerusalem is the ultimate crystallization of the mingling of the processed Triune God with men who have been redeemed and transformed by God with the divine elements of His Divine Trinity in the different dispensations of the old creation, to be an organism to express Him in eternity future. The essence of the divine nature of God the Father, who is the origin and source of everything, like the precious and pure gold, is the very substance of the divine organism. The all-inclusive, glorious Christ as the embodiment of the Divine Trinity, who has passed through an all-inclusive death and has entered into a resurrection which is rich in the divine life and the life-generating power to produce a result like pearls with glory and beauty, is the entrance into the divine organism. The saints, who are regenerated and transformed with all the divine elements by the Spirit, as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God, like the valuable and splendid precious stones, constitute the wall and the wall’s foundation. Christ as the entrance into this divine organism is the key uniting factor of this divine organism. Christ as such an entrance will be completely and fully expressed in His eternity.

BEING THE HUSBAND OF THE NEWJERUSALEM

Revelation 21:9 refers to the New Jerusalem as the wife of the Lamb, indicating that Christ is the Husband of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2). The New Jerusalem comes out of the Lamb, who has accomplished an eternal redemption, and returns to Him to be one with Him, as Eve came out of Adam and returned to Adam to be one with him.

BEING THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLYCITY

Revelation 21:22 says, “And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” There is no temple in the New Jerusalem; the Lord God the Almighty and Christ the Lamb are its temple. This temple, according to the original text, does not refer to the entire temple including the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies; rather, it refers to the inner temple, the Holy of Holies. This inner temple is the almighty God and Christ as the Lamb, signifying that God and Christ Themselves will be the place in which we serve God in the new heaven and new earth. The holy city as the tabernacle of God (Rev. 21:3) is for God to

the new heaven and new earth, the holy city New Jerusalem will be a mutual dwelling place for both God and man for eternity.

BEING THE LAMP OF THE HOLYCITY

Revelation 21:23 says, “And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon that they should shine in it, for the glory of God illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.” The glory of God illuminating the city indicates that God is the light shining in the holy city. The Lamb as the lamp shines with God as the light to illumine the city with the glory of God, and through the city He shines over the nations around it (Rev. 21:24). In the millennium the light of the sun and the moon will be intensified (Isa. 30:26). The sun and the moon will be in the new heaven and new earth, but they will not be needed in the New Jerusalem, for God, the divine light, will shine much more brightly, far above the natural light of the sun and moon. In eternity future, God as the transcendent light will shine over the entire city through the Lamb-Christ, and He will also shine out of the holy city over the nations, the citizens on the new earth. Thus, the nations will walk in the shining of the holy city.

BEING THE CENTER OF THE HOLYCITY

Revelation 22:1 says, “A river of water of life…proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” God and the Lamb are one, because God is the light and the Lamb is the lamp;

the light is in the lamp, and the two are one. God and the Lamb are just one—the redeeming God. The throne of God and the Lamb is the throne of the redeeming God, the throne of the Lamb-Christ. The river of water of life in the holy city flows as a spiral through the entire city.

This indicates that the throne, out from which flows the river of water of life, is the center of the holy city; the redeeming God who sits on the throne is the Lamb-Christ, who of course will be the center of the holy city. The temple is for God’s expression; the throne is for God’s administration. God’s throne of administration is in the temple of His expression. This indicates that in the coming eternity the Lamb-Christ will be God’s Administrator in the center of the New Jerusalem, that God’s expression may extend to the circumference of the holy city.

BEING THE SUPPLY OF THE HOLYCITY

In the preceding text we have seen that there is a river of water of life flowing as a spiral through the entire city. On this side and on that side of the river is the tree of life, signifying Christ as life, producing twelve fruits for the supply and satisfaction of the entire city (Rev.

22:2)—all the redeemed ones throughout all generations. This portrays how the processed Triune God—God, the Lamb, and the Spirit, symbolized by the water of life—dispenses Himself as the immeasurable One, embodied in the all-inclusive Christ, to His redeemed under His headship to be their supply and satisfaction unto eternity. Furthermore, the leaves of the tree of life, which tree signifies Christ, will be for the healing of the restored nations, who will be God’s people forever on the new earth (Rev. 22:2), to enable them to live forever.

(Truth Lessons, level 1, vol. 2, pp. 113-119)

Questions:

1. According to the Bible, explain the work of Christ in His all-transcending ascension.

2. According to the Bible, explain the work of Christ in His coming again.

3. According to the Bible, explain what Christ will be in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity.

Lesson Fifty-eight