New Jerusalem is a Spiritual Sign (2)
Revelation is a book with many signs and New Jerusalem is a great spiritual sign. It portrays the building of God with His people to have a corporate expression of Himself. New Jerusalem is this expression—a city “having the glory of God” (Rev. 21:11).
In Revelation the Lord Jesus is described as the Lamb (5:6, 8, 12-13…).…Of course, the Lord Jesus was not a physical lamb with four legs and a little tail. The Lamb of God is a figure of speech…There are also many other signs in the book of Revelation. At the end of this book there is a great sign—the New Jerusalem. This should help us to realize that the New Jerusalem is not something physical. It must be something mysterious, something very intrinsic, something spiritual, and something that can never be apprehended by the human mind and seen by the physical eyes.*
All God’s New Testament building work is spiritual. The physical tabernacle and temple in the Old Testament were pictures. The NT building is mentioned in Ephesians 2:22, “In whom [Christ Jesus] you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.”
This is also seen in Jude 20-21, “you, beloved, building up yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God…” We are being built up in faith by praying in the Holy Spirit. Surely this is not a physical building. And neither is New Jerusalem; it is a city in spirit, based on faith, and full of love.
* This is the second of a series with quotes from chapter 28 of The Central Line of the Divine Revelation by Witness Lee, copyright by Living Stream Ministry.
Posted by Don on July 14, 2021
