New Jerusalem is Pure Gold, God’s Nature (2)
Revelation 21:18b tells us that New Jerusalem “was pure gold, like clear glass.” Not merely gold but pure gold without any mixture. This gold is God Himself and God wrought into His people.
The outstanding feature of the New Jerusalem is that of gold, pure gold. There is nothing there which contains a mixture; everything is entirely of God. The one lesson which God wants us to learn today is to see that everything coming from us is but dross. Apart from the gold in us, everything which comes from us is refuse. When added to the gold, our goodness is dross; when added to the gold, our zeal is also dross….No one can stand before God and say that he has something to contribute to Him. God demands pure gold. In the New Jerusalem everything is pure gold, without any dross.*
First Corinthians 1:31 instructs us, “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord” and 3:21 “let no one boast in men.”
So many verses tell us that we have is “in Christ”— redemption (Rom. 3:24), life (Rom. 6:23), love of God (Rom. 8:39), grace (1 Cor. 1:4), and “every spiritual blessing” (Eph. 1:3). Furthermore, we are not individuals in Christ; “we who are many are one Body in Christ” (Rom. 12:5). In this Body, the new man created by and in Christ on the cross, “Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11).
Let us appreciate and experience Christ as everything now as He prepares us for New Jerusalem.
* From chapter 5 of The Glorious Church by Watchman Nee, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, available at www.ministrybooks.org/ and www.livingstream.com/en/the-church/8012401-glorious-church-the.html.
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Posted by Don on June 24, 2022
