New Jerusalem: Emmanuel, God with Us
Matthew 1:23, speaking about the child to be born, quotes Isaiah 7:14, “they shall call His name Emmanuel” (which is translated, God with us).” And at the end of Matthew, Jesus announced to the disciples “behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age.”
He is on the throne in the heavens and He is also inside us as our life. We abide in Him and He abides in us (John 15:5). Commenting on this mutual indwelling, Richard Lenski wrote,
“The Holy City, Jerusalem,” is not many houses or palaces with streets, a surrounding wall with portals and angel guards, etc.; it is “Immanuel,” “God with us,” symbolizing [“God is with men, —with them — with them”] (v. 3), “together and in company with” us forever.*
He also wrote that New Jerusalem symbolizes the eternal transcendent union with men which God designed and consummated through the Lamb.*
The New Testament begins with the incarnation bringing us Emmanuel, “God with us,” develops with mutual indwelling—Christ in us and we in Christ— from the time of His resurrection, and concludes with New Jerusalem, the eternal mutuality.
* R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John’s Revelation, The Augsburg Publishing House, Minnesota © 1943, digitized by the Internet Archive (2025), https://archive.org, p. 631; the English words in [ ] replace the Greek words in Lenski’s book; also p. 636.
Photo courtesy of pixabay.com.
Posted by Don on August 24, 2026
https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2026/08/24/new-jerusalem-emmanuel-god-with-us/
