New Jerusalem is the Holy City
In Revelation 21:2, 10 New Jerusalem is named “the holy city.” In 1 Peter 1:15 God is “the Holy One.” New Jerusalem is holy because the city is constituted with God wrought into His people.
What is the meaning of holiness? Since God alone is holy, anything which issues from Him must also be holy. Saying that “both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One” means that Christ is holy because He is of the One and that we also are holy because we also are of the One. Only those who are of the One are holy. Only that which issues from God is of value; that which comes out from God, and only that, is the New Jerusalem. Everything that is of man must be left aside.*
First Peter 1:15 also exhorts us, “you yourselves also be holy in all your manner of life.” This is not by our own effort. Only God is holy; any “holiness” apart from God is a behavior, a performance, but it is not the reality.
Second Peter 1:3-4 shows us God’s supply for us to become holy with His holiness. “His divine power has granted to us all things which relate to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and virtue, through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature.”
Also, Hebrews 12:10, “For they [our human parents] disciplined for a few days as it seemed good to them; but He, for what is profitable that we might partake of His holiness.” This partaking prepares us for the holy city, 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.
Posted by Don on May 20, 2022
