The Bride, the Wife, the Holy City New Jerusalem
Revelation 21:9-10 says, “And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, Come here; I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in spirit onto a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.”
The angel said to John, “I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb” (21:9). The angel said that he would show him the wife of the Lamb, but John saw “the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (v. 10). The wife of the Lamb whom John saw was the holy city, Jerusalem. Therefore, the description of the city is also the description of the wife of the Lamb. The city is a figure, describing the characteristics and spiritual condition of the corporate Body whom God chose before creation.*
The holy city, New Jerusalem, being the bride, the wife, of the Lamb Jesus Christ is perhaps the strongest indicator that New Jerusalem is not a physical city. This is not only in Revelation 21. Ephesians 5:25-27 speaks of the church being purchased by Christ’s death, sanctified by the washing of the water in the word, and presented glorious to Him.
Other verses which present New Jerusalem as a spiritual entity include:
• Revelation 1:1 – Revelation is a book of signs
• Revelation 21:2 – New Jerusalem is heavenly and divine in nature
• Revelation 21:22 – the Lord God and the Lamb are the temple of the city
• Revelation 21:23 – there is no physical light in the city
• Galatians 4:26 – the heavenly Jerusalem is the mother of the believers
• all God’s New Testament building is spiritual (e.g. the Body of Christ)
Lord, carry us away in spirit and give us a higher, fuller vision of 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 May 16, 2022
