In the foregoing message
we saw that God’s good pleasure, God’s heart’s desire,
is to have many sons for the expression of His Son
so that He may be expressed
in the Son through the Spirit.
For this purpose,
God has manifested Himself,
first in Christ
as an individual expression in the flesh
and then in the church, the Body of Christ,
as the enlarged corporate expression in the flesh.
Ultimately, God will be manifested in the New Jerusalem
as the consummated corporate expression
in the new heaven and new earth.
In this message
we shall consider God’s manifestation in these three stages.
God’s manifestation was first in Christ
as an individual expression in the flesh.
Concerning this, Colossians 2:9 says,
“In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”
In this verse
“fullness” does not refer to the riches of God;
instead, it refers to the expression of the riches of God.
What dwells in Christ
is the expression of the riches
of what God is.
We need to see
that the fullness of the Godhead
is the expression of the Godhead
and that this expression
is in Christ individually.
Christ is the embodiment
of the fullness of the Godhead.
This means
that the fullness of the Triune God
dwells in Christ
in a bodily form.
The fact that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily
means that it dwells in Him in a way
that is both real and practical.
This implies the physical body
which Christ put on in His humanity.
It indicates
that all the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in Christ
as the One who has a human body.
Before His incarnation,
the fullness of the Godhead
dwelt in Him
as the eternal Word,
but it did not dwell in Him bodily.
After He became incarnate,
the fullness of the Godhead
began to dwell in Him
in a bodily way.
Thus, He is the manifestation of God,
the individual expression of God,
in the flesh.
The expression “the fullness of the Godhead”
refers to the entire Godhead,
to the complete God,
including the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Because the Godhead comprises the Father, the Son, and the Spirit,
it would not be correct to say
that the fullness of the Godhead includes only God the Son
and not also God the Father and God the Spirit.
Since the Godhead comprises the Father, the Son, and the Spirit,
the fullness of the Godhead
must be the fullness of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
As the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead,
Christ is not only the Son of God
but the entire God.
John 1:1 and 14 also reveal
that God was manifested in Christ
as an individual expression in the flesh.
Verse 1 says,
“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.”
In verse 14,
this Word, which is God,
became flesh.
This refers to the incarnated Christ.
In the beginning
He was not only with God
but He is the very God.
The incarnated Christ
is God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16).
John 1 further says,
“No one has ever seen God;
the only begotten Son,
who is in the bosom of the Father,
He has declared Him” (v. 18).
This tells us
that Christ, being the only begotten Son of God,
is the expression of God.
No one has ever seen God,
yet He declares God.
The Father is the invisible God,
the hidden God;
Christ is the manifested God.
When we say
that Christ is the Word,
we are saying
that He is the expression of God.
I may have a great deal of feeling within me,
but if I have no words,
my feelings cannot be expressed.
But when my feelings are expressed in words,
then you are able to understand them.
Christ is the Word of God.
Although no one knows God,
Christ as the Word
speaks for God,
defines God,
and even declares God.
Because God is abstract, mysterious, and invisible,
there is the need for God to be the Word
in order to explain Himself, define Himself, and reveal Himself.
The Word in John 1:1
refers to the defined God, the explained and expressed God,
the God revealed and made known to human beings.
This Word is our Lord Jesus Christ,
the living Word of God.
The Word is the embodiment of the Triune God.
Although the Triune God is mysterious,
He is nonetheless embodied in the Word.
The Word is the definition, explanation, and expression
of the mysterious and invisible God.
The Triune God embodied in the Word
is explained, defined, and expressed.
In John 1:14,
the Word, the embodiment of the Triune God,
became flesh.
In the incarnated Christ
God is expressed in a man in the flesh.
This is according to God’s plan.
God’s plan is to manifest Himself
in man and through man in the flesh.
John 1:14 continues to say
that the Word, after becoming flesh
“tabernacled among us
(and we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten from a father),
full of grace and reality.”
This indicates
that the Word was incarnated to declare God.
As the manifestation of God,
Christ declared God in a way
that was full of grace and reality.
He declared God
by presenting Himself as grace and reality.
God, the very God of enjoyment,
becomes grace and reality to us
in Christ
for our enjoyment.
Through enjoying Him
we gain Him as grace and reality.
He declares God to man
in the way of enjoyment.
When we enjoy God in Christ as grace
and realize Him in Christ as reality,
we find the unsearchable riches of Christ.
John 1:16 says,
“Of His fullness
we all received,
and grace upon grace.”
In the incarnated Christ
dwells all the fullness, the expression of the riches of God (Col. 2:9).
Through His incarnation in Christ,
we can receive the riches of grace and reality
out of His divine fullness.
Christ as the Father’s only begotten Son
declared God
by the Word, life, light, grace, and reality (John 1:1, 4, 9, 14).
The Word is God expressed,
life is God imparted,
light is God shining,
grace is God enjoyed,
and reality is God realized.
It is by these things
that God is declared in the Son
as His individual expression.
Christ explained, defined, declared, and expressed God,
by being the Word
incarnated to be life and light to man
with grace and reality
for man’s enjoyment.
It is in this way,
God was declared to man
in the Son.
We have pointed out
that the fullness of God
is the expression of God.
According to John 1:16,
the fullness of God
came with Christ,
who is the embodiment of God’s fullness.
With Christ,
the expression of God
was an individual matter.
This expression needs to be enlarged
from an individual to a corporate expression.
The church is to be
the enlarged corporate expression of God in the flesh.
This means
that the church should be
the fullness, the expression of God, in a corporate way.
In the church
God is expressed
not through an individual
but corporately through the Body of Christ.
Because the fullness of God
is embodied in the church,
the church is
the corporate expression of the Triune God.
First Timothy 3:15 and 16
indicate that God is manifested in the church—the Body of Christ—
as the enlarged corporate expression in the flesh:
“The house of God,
which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and base of the truth.
And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness,
who was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated in the Spirit,
seen by angels,
preached among the nations,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.”
In Greek
the antecedent of “who” is omitted
but easily recognized,
that is, Christ who was God manifested in the flesh
as the mystery of godliness.
The transition from “the mystery…” to “who”
implies that Christ as the manifestation of God in the flesh
is the mystery of godliness (Col. 1:27; Gal. 2:20).
This mystery of godliness
is the living of a proper church,
and such a living
is also the manifestation of God in the flesh.
These verses imply
that not only Christ Himself as the Head
but also the church as the Body
is the manifestation of God in the flesh.
When a church grows in Christ with the growth of God (Col. 2:19),
it will function
as the house and household of the living God
for His move on the earth
and as the supporting pillar and holding base of the truth,
bearing the divine reality of Christ and His Body
as a testimony to the world.
Then the church becomes
the continuation of Christ’s manifestation of God in the flesh.
This is the great mystery of godliness—
Christ lived out of the church
as the manifestation of God in the flesh.
In 1 Timothy 3:15,
the Greek word for “house”
may also be translated “household.”
The household, the family, of God
is the house of God.
The house and the household
are one thing
—the assembly of the believers (Eph. 2:19; Heb. 3:6).
The reality of this house
as the dwelling place of the living God
is in our spirit (Eph. 2:22).
We need to live in our spirit
so that God can be manifested in this house
as the living God.
The church, as the house and household of the living God,
is the pillar and base of the truth.
The pillar supports the building,
and the base holds the pillar.
The church is
such a supporting pillar and holding base of the truth.
The truth is the reality,
referring to the real things
which are revealed in the New Testament
concerning Christ and the church
according to God’s New Testament economy.
This economy is composed
of Christ as the mystery of God (Col. 2:2)
and the church as the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4).
Christ and the church, the Head and the Body,
are the contents of the reality of God’s New Testament economy.
The church as the house and household of the living God
is both the pillar
which bears the truth, the reality of God’s New Testament economy,
and the base which upholds the pillar.
Such a church is
the continuation, the enlargement and expansion
of God manifested in the flesh.
This manifestation of God
is the church
as the house of God
and the pillar and base of the truth.
The church is, then,
the increase, the enlargement, of the manifestation of God in the flesh.
This is God manifested in the flesh in a wider way.
This is according to the New Testament principle of incarnation,
which is God manifested in the flesh.
First Timothy 3:16
begins with the words,
“And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness.”
The conjunction “and” here
indicates that the speaking about the church in verse 15
is not finished yet,
and that the church is something
even more than the house of the living God
and the pillar and base of the truth.
The church is also
the mystery of godliness.
According to the context,
godliness refers to
the living of God in the church,
that is, God as life lived out in the church to be expressed.
The church life is the expression of God.
Both Christ and the church, the Head and the Body,
are the mystery of godliness,
expressing God in the flesh.
The final stage of God’s manifestation
will be in the New Jerusalem
as the consummated corporate expression in the new creation.
Revelation 21:1-3 says,
“I saw a new heaven and a new earth;
for the first heaven and the first earth passed away,
and the sea is no more.
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice out of the throne, saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men
and He shall tabernacle with them.”
In eternity past
God purposed
to have a corporate expression
so that He might be fully expressed and glorified (Eph. 3:9-11; 1:9-11).
For this,
He created the heavens, the earth, and mankind.
Eventually,
the old heaven and the old earth will pass away through fire
and be renewed into the new heaven and new earth (2 Pet. 3:10-13)
into which the New Jerusalem will come for God’s eternal expression.
The New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth
will be the holy city,
“the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22).
The designation “holy city”
signifies that the New Jerusalem is a city
sanctified and separated unto God
for fulfilling His purpose.
It is both sanctified and separated unto God positionally
and sanctified and saturated with God dispositionally.
It is holy
both extrinsically and intrinsically.
It is an entity,
entirely and thoroughly holy,
that fits in with God’s holy nature
for God’s expression
to fulfill His heart’s desire.
Today the church, as the manifestation of God in the flesh,
is the house of God,
whereas in the new heaven and new earth the New Jerusalem,
as the manifestation of God in the new creation,
will be the city of God.
The city is much bigger than the house,
signifying that the New Jerusalem, as the manifestation of God in His new creation,
will be the enlargement and consummation of the church
to express God in eternity.
As the old Jerusalem was
the center and capital of God’s kingdom in the nation of Israel,
the New Jerusalem will be
the administrative center of the eternal kingdom of God in the new universe
for the manifestation of God for the ages to come.
At the beginning of the Scripture in God’s old creation
there was a garden, the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:8).
At the end of the Scripture in God’s new creation
there will be a city, the city of the New Jerusalem.
The garden and the city at the two ends of the Scripture
reflect each other,
with the tree of life
which is in both of them as the link (Gen. 2:9; Rev. 22:2).
The garden was the issue of God’s creation;
whereas the city will be the consummation of God’s building,
a building which God has been carrying out through all the dispensations:
the dispensation of the patriarchs,
the dispensation of the law,
the dispensation of grace,
and the dispensation of the kingdom,
of the old creation.
Out of His old creation through all the dispensations,
God has been doing His building work
in the way of regeneration and resurrection.
The ultimate result and the ultimate consummation of this building work
will be the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth
as God’s manifestation in His new creation for eternity.
It is not a creation by God’s divine power
in the way to call things not being as being;
but it is a building by God’s divine life
in the way to regenerate the things which exist
with the resurrection life
that they may be one with God
in His divine life and nature
for His expression.
The New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth
is the bride, the wife (Rev. 21:9) of the Lamb Christ as His counterpart (John 3:29)
and the tabernacle of God as His habitation (Rev. 21:3).
Christ and God are one.
They are one God, but triune.
And the tabernacle is one entity with two aspects
to meet the different needs of its Triune God.
To Christ, the Lamb, the Redeemer,
the New Jerusalem is His bride as His counterpart for His satisfaction.
To God, the Originator, the Creator,
the New Jerusalem is His tabernacle as His habitation for His rest.
As the bride of the Lamb,
the New Jerusalem comes out of Christ, her Husband,
and becomes His counterpart,
just as Eve came out of Adam, her husband,
and became His counterpart (Gen. 2:21-24).
She is prepared
by participating in the riches of the life and nature of Christ the Lamb.
As the tabernacle of God,
the New Jerusalem is built by God with what He is.
It is wholly constituted of the nature of God
to be His habitation.
In both the Old and the New Testaments
God likens His chosen people
to a spouse (Isa. 54:6; Jer. 3:1; Ezek. 16:8; Hosea 2:19; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32)
and a dwelling place for Himself (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 His satisfaction in love,
and the dwelling place is for His rest in expression.
Both aspects will be ultimately consummated in the New Jerusalem.
In her, God will have the fullest satisfaction in love
and the uttermost rest in expression for eternity.
Revelation 21:12 says
that on the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem
are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel,
and Revelation 21:14 tells us
that on the twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem
are the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The twelve tribes represent the Old Testament saints
and the twelve apostles, the New Testament saints.
This indicates
that all the saints of both the Old Testament and New Testament
are the components, the constituent, of the New Jerusalem for God’s expression.
All the saints are God’s regenerated and transformed children.
They are the sons of God
spoken of in Revelation 21:7,
having God’s life and nature,
different from the peoples
spoken of in Revelation 21:3,
who are the nations around the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:24 and 22:2.
The New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth
will be the aggregate of all the sons of God,
who have been redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, transformed, and glorified
for the building of the New Jerusalem
as God’s consummate manifestation for eternity.
Revelation 21:18 says,
“The city was pure gold, like pure glass,”
and Revelation 21:21 says,
“The street of the city
was pure gold as transparent glass.”
Since the street of the city is gold,
gold must be the base of the city,
on which is the street.
Gold, in typology,
signifies God in His divine nature.
The divine nature of God
is the base of the city.
This indicates
that the New Jerusalem is wholly constituted of the nature of God,
which is pure and transparent
as the pure and transparent glass without any mixture,
with which and in which nothing can be covered.
This affords God a pure and transparent expression
for His consummate manifestation in the New Jerusalem.
Revelation 21:13 and 21 tell us
that the New Jerusalem has
“on the east three gates, and on the north three gates,
and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates
…and the twelve gates were twelve pearls;
each one of the gates was, respectively, of one pearl.”
Pearl signifies Christ
with His life-releasing death and His life-secreting resurrection
to cause the sinners to be regenerated with His divine life
that they may become parts of the New Jerusalem as its entrance.
This entrance brings in the blending (signified by the number twelve)
of the Triune God (signified by the number three)
with the created man (signified by the number four, implied in the four times of three gates)
for the manifestation of the Triune God.
Revelation 21:18-20 tell us
that the building material of its wall was jasper,
and that the foundation of the wall of the city
was adorned with twelve precious stones
the first of which was also jasper.
Jasper, with its dark green color, a sign of being rich in life,
signifies the appearance of the very God
who is rich in life.
This indicates that the New Jerusalem is built with all the redeemed saints
who have been transformed into precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12; 1 Peter 2:2-5),
the leading category of which is jasper,
bearing the very appearance of their God
who is rich in life,
and shining with the light like a most precious stone, even jasper stone,
clear as crystal,
for the expression of the transforming God
in His manifestation in the new creation for eternity.
The transformation of the saints,
from their natural being into precious stones,
which signify the riches of Christ in different splendors
with the appearance of God’s life in its richness,
is done by the Spirit.
The New Jerusalem is composed of three categories of precious materials:
gold, signifying God in His divine nature;
pearls, signifying Christ in His life-releasing death and life-secreting resurrection;
and precious stones, signifying the Spirit in His transforming work.
God is embodied in Christ (Col. 2:9),
and Christ is realized as the Spirit (John 14:16-20).
The Three are one,
especially in the believers’ experience of life.
God’s nature is His divine life
which is the very life
Christ released through His death and is secreting in His resurrection into His believers.
With this life
the Spirit transforms the believers,
making them precious materials for the building of the New Jerusalem
to express the processed Triune God
in what the Three of the Godhead are and have done,
in His marvelous manifestation
in the ages to come in eternity.
In Revelation 21:22 the Apostle John tells us
that he saw no temple in the New Jerusalem,
for the temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
Since God and the Lamb are the temple,
they could not dwell in it,
and it is not their dwelling place.
It is the dwelling place of all the redeemed saints
who serve the Triune God
by dwelling in Him.
On the one hand,
the New Jerusalem, which is composed of all the redeemed saints,
as the habitation of God,
is the tabernacle;
on the other hand,
the New Jerusalem, which is constituted of the processed Triune God,
as the dwelling place of all the redeemed saints,
is the temple.
Thus, the New Jerusalem is the mutual dwelling
of both the redeeming God and His redeemed.
It is both the tabernacle and the temple;
the tabernacle is the redeemed
and the temple is the redeeming God.
This indicates strongly
that the redeeming God is mingled with His redeemed,
through the processes He has gone through
and the procedures they have shared in,
for His expression
in His eternal manifestation.
Revelation 21:11 and 23 tell us
that the New Jerusalem has the glory of God
and her light was like a most precious stone,
as jasper stone, clear as crystal.
It has no need of the sun or of the moon
that they should shine in it,
for the glory of God illumines it,
and its lamp is the Lamb.
The glory of God, which is God expressed,
illumines the New Jerusalem.
Hence, the glory of God, with God as its substance, essence, and elements,
is the light of the New Jerusalem,
which shines in the Lamb as its lamp.
The expressed glory of God, or the God of glory expressed,
is the light
shining in Christ as the lamp
through the jasper wall of the New Jerusalem
like the most precious jasper,
which bears God’s appearance rich in life.
The appearance of God rich in life
goes with the shining for God’s expression
in His final and consummated manifestation.
Revelation 22:1 and 3 tell us
that the throne of God and of the Lamb
shall be in the New Jerusalem
and that a river of water of life
proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
According to the context of this portion of the Word,
the throne of God and of the Lamb
is the center of the New Jerusalem,
on which the redeeming God,
as indicated by the expression “God and the Lamb”,
carries out His administration,
based upon His redemption,
in His eternal kingdom in the new heaven and new earth,
to keep everything in the universe in the order
that serves the purpose
for His expression in His eternal manifestation.
This is the goal of His redemption.
Revelation 21:21 says,
“The street of the city
was pure gold
as transparent glass,”
and Revelation 22:1 says
that a river of water of life, bright as crystal,
proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb
in the middle of the street of the city.
The street signifies the way,
and the street being pure gold
indicates that the nature of God is the way in the New Jerusalem.
Everything in the New Jerusalem
which is constituted of God in His nature,
is according to the divine nature and corresponds to it.
Hence, the river of water of life,
which is the Spirit
as the consummation of the Triune God,
proceeds in the middle of this street
and is bright as crystal,
without any opaqueness and obscureness.
Because it is one street
that proceeds out of the throne
to reach all the twelve gates of the city,
it should be spiral
that passes through the entire city.
In this way
the one street, proceeding out of one throne,
is able to reach and serve the twelve gates,
indicating that the genuine oneness is kept
in the holy city.
The redeemed came into the city
through twelve gates from four directions,
but they all are gathered into one street
which is according to the nature of God and corresponds to it.
Revelation 22:1-2 says,
“A river of water of life, bright as crystal,
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb
in the middle of its street.
And on this side and on that side of the river
was the tree of life,
producing twelve fruits,
yielding its fruits each month.”
The river of water of life,
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,
signifies the Spirit
as the consummation of the processed Triune God,
flowing out of God and the Lamb.
In the flow of the river
is the water of life
with the tree of life as a vine
going on the two sides of the river.
The water of life
signifies the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2)
as the spiritual drink (Rev. 21:6),
and the tree of life
signifies Christ
as the spiritual food (Rev. 22:14),
to supply the entire New Jerusalem,
which is composed of all the saints, the sons of God,
that they may be nourished and sustained forever.
This kind of supply
with the Spirit as the spiritual drink and Christ as the spiritual food
began in the individual manifestation of God in John 7:33-39 and 6:35, 51.
This supply indicates
that the processed Triune God is the supply of the New Jerusalem,
and that this supply is the dispensing of the redeeming God into His redeemed
for His expression in His eternal manifestation.
The river of the water of life with the tree of life growing in it
comes out of the throne of God’s administration
and flows in the middle of the golden street.
This indicates
that the divine supply for the New Jerusalem is related to
the authority (throne) and nature (gold) of God.
Apart from God’s authority and God’s nature
there is no possibility for God to have an expression in His manifestation.
According to the intrinsic significance of all the above points,
the New Jerusalem is really a marvelous mingling
of the processed Triune God
with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, transformed, conformed, built and glorified tripartite people
for His glorious and utmost expression
in His consummated manifestation for eternity,
in the new creation of resurrection,
no longer in the natural flesh,
as His individual manifestation in Christ and His corporate manifestation were in the past.
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