Sufferings and Transformation for New Jerusalem (3)
Second Peter 1:4 tells us that God has given us great promises that through these we might become partakers of the divine nature. This is the gold of New Jerusalem. But the city also has twelve kinds of precious stones, named in Revelation 21:19-20.
When you were saved, you obtained God’s nature…In this regard, all Christians are the same; they all have obtained God’s nature. But in the ensuing days, God may have put you into certain circumstances in order to give you certain kinds of experience. He may have let you go through certain trials, certain difficulties, and certain sufferings so that you will become a Christian like chrysolite, chalcedony, sardius, or some other precious stone. God is working in every Christian so that each one may become a certain kind of precious stone. We all have gold in common before God, but after we become precious stones before Him, we will each be a certain form.*
Second Corinthians 4:17 says concerning our sufferings, “For our momentary lightness of affliction works out for us, more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory.” The eternal glory certainly speaks of New Jerusalem, for which we are being constituted now.
The next verse says, “Because we do not regard the things which are seen but the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Our gaze is not on the difficulties which are seen and understood naturally. Instead we look away to the eternal blessings of the new creation and New Jerusalem.
The extent to which New Jerusalem is a reality to us is the extent to which we look away to that which is eternal.
* 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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Bible verses quoted in these posts are from The Holy Bible, Recovery Version, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim CA, 2003. The New Testament of this Bible, with its outlines, is at online.recoveryversion.org; this too is © by LSM.
Posted by Don on July 1, 2022
