The New Jerusalem will be a Corporate Shulammite including all God’s Chosen People

The New Jerusalem will be a corporate Shulammite, including all of God’s chosen and redeemed people; God became man to court us and become like us, and we are becoming the same as He is in our loving relationship with Him to court Him for our married life together. Amen!

The subject of the entire Bible is the romance of God and man, a universal couple.

From the very beginning of the Bible to the end, we see that God loves man and does many things to court man, woo man, and draw man to Himself so that man would be His counterpart.

How can God marry man? How can the infinite, almighty, and omniscient God marry one of His creatures?

This is a paradox that we are unable to solve, but the Bible tells us clearly that God is our Husband and we are His wife.

In both the Old Testament and the New Testament we are told that God is the male in this universal couple, and we as God’s chosen and redeemed people are the female.

In the Old Testament God chose a particular people to be His possession, His treasure, His wife, but they left Him and went to other idols.

However, the Lord always sent them prophets to remind them to come back to Him, and many of them returned.

In the New Testament we see that God chooses a new people, a spiritual people, the church; whoever believes into the Lord becomes part of the church to be the wife of Christ.

We are now in a divine romance of a universal couple: the male is God Himself, and the female is God’s chosen and redeemed people.

Even though many times we go after idols and things that replace Him in our life, the Lord still comes to us in love to court us, woo us, and bring us back to Himself.

He is working both outside of us and within us to arrange all things to work together for good for us, for we love the Lord. Hallelujah!

Little by little, day by day, our outer man is decaying and is being consumed, and our inner man is being renewed so that we may become the bride of Christ. Amen.

Day by day we need to ask the Lord to keep us loving Him so that we may remain in the divine romance.

As we remain in the divine romance, loving the Lord and cooperating with Him for what He wants to do in us, we are being conformed to the image of Christ and we become the same as He is.

He became the same as we are to gain us, and we are becoming the same as He is to court Him; He is so happy to see that we are “bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh.”

May we remain daily in the sweet, intimate, affectionate, and personal contact with the Lord so that we may remain in the divine romance until we become the New Jerusalem, the bride of the Lamb.

The New Jerusalem will be a Corporate Shulammite including all of God’s Chosen and Redeemed People

The Song of Songs poetically portrays the divine romance (Song of Songs 1:2; 8:14).

In this book we see how Solomon fell in love with a country girl, and he loved her so much that he lowered himself to her level to court her and woo her and gain her as his beloved for their marriage.

The seeker, the country girl, is a type of us, the believers in Christ.

The seeker passes through a process to become the Sulammite, the duplication of Solomon – and a figure of the New Jerusalem (6:13, 4).

She goes through many things with spiritual significance in order to become the female version of Solomon to be his reproduction and duplication to match him.

She is becoming the same as Solomon in life, nature, and image, even as Eve was to Adam (Gen. 2:20-23).

Eve came out of Adam and was his duplication and increase to match him; the Shulammite went through a process to become the same as Solomon in life, nature, and image to match him.

It is the same with us; we are the loving seekers of Christ going through a lifelong process of transformation, sanctification, renewing, conformation, and glorification in order to become the same as Christ in life, nature, and image to match Him.

The New Jerusalem will be a corporate Shulammite, including all of God’s chosen and redeemed people.

We are the Lord’s lovers, His loving seekers, and we are going through a process to become the same as He is in life, nature, and image to match Him as His counterpart, His duplication, and His reproduction (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29) for our marriage.

What we see in the New Jerusalem is the redeeming God (signified by Solomon in the Song of Songs) and all His redeemed (signified by the Shulammite) becoming one.

The New Jerusalem is the mingling of divinity and humanity to express the processed and consummated Triune God in human virtues.

The consummated Shulammite, the corporate Shulammite, is the New Jerusalem; in the holy city, Christ and His wife will be joined together for God’s expression.

The Shulammite is the greatest figure of the New Jerusalem as the counterpart of Christ.

We all are being conformed to be the wonderful Shulammite, even a corporate Shulammite, to be the duplication of Christ and match Him for our marriage.

How did we get into this divine romance, and how can we remain in the divine romance so that we can become a corporate Shulammite, the New Jerusalem?

As seen in Song of Songs as type and in the New Testament as the reality, God in Christ became a man to court man so that He would make man God in life, nature, expression, and function but not in the Godhead, to be the bride of Christ (Matt. 9:15; Rev. 19:7; cf. Psa. 45:1-3, 9, 13-14).

Just as Solomon did in Song of Songs, God in Christ became a man, and by His incarnation, He courted us, wooed us, and drew us to Himself.

When we read the Gospels and hear the gospel, we are captured by this One and we are instantly drawn to Him.

Now that we have been drawn to Him and fell in love with Him, we also court Him by becoming divine for His expression through our personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual relationship with Him (Song of Songs 1:1-8; 2 Cor. 2:10; Exo. 33:11; Rom. 8:4, 6; 2 Cor. 2:15). Amen!

We start as a country girl and we end up being the same as Christ in every possible way.

We as the many lovers of Christ are becoming duplications of God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. Hallelujah!

According to the high peak of the divine revelation, God became man to court us so that we may become God in life and nature to court Him with the result that we become His duplication to match Him as His counterpart.

This is what we see in type in Song of Songs, where the country girl became the Shulammite, the feminine form of Solomon, and this is what we see in reality in Revelation with the New Jerusalem, a corporate Shulammite.

The Shulammite was a country girl but she became the counterpart of Solomon, the same as Solomon in life, nature, expression, and function to match him for their marriage.

We also were sinners but were attracted and wooed by the Lord to be His lovers, and we are becoming the same as He is in life, nature, and expression to match Him for our marriage.

Some say that it is impossible for us to become the same as God, and others say it is a heresy to become gods.

However, to say that we are the same as God in His Godhead is indeed blasphemy, but to say that we cannot be the same as God in life, nature, expression, and function, is unbelief.

May we come to the Lord’s word with an open heart and unveiled face to see Him, enjoy Him, love Him, and receive His dispensing day by day.

As we remain in the divine romance, we become one with God and He becomes one with us.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for becoming a man to court us in order to make us the same as You are in life and nature for our marriage. Hallelujah, we are becoming a corporate Shulammite, the New Jerusalem, to be the counterpart of Christ, matching Him for our marriage life for eternity. Thank You, dear Lord, for falling in love with us and becoming a man to court us and bring us into the divine romance. We want to remain in the divine romance all the days of our life, loving You and spending time with You in a personal, intimate, and affectionate way so that we become the same as You are. Amen, Lord, we want to develop our personal and affectionate relationship with You so that we may court You by becoming the same as You are, even a corporate Shulammite, the New Jerusalem! Praise the Lord, we sinners are becoming sons of God, even God-men who are the same as Christ in life and nature to match You for our marriage!

As those Engaged to Christ, we Aspire to be the Overcomers, the Bride of Christ, to Enter the Wedding Feast

As believers in Christ, we are not only children of God having His divine life and nature; we are also lovers of Christ, those who pursue Him in love.

We not only believe into the Lord: we also love Him, and our relationship with the Lord is one of love.

When we wake up in the morning, we come to Him and tell Him that we love Him.

Throughout the day we tell the Lord again and again, Lord Jesus, I love You! We are the “Lord Jesus, I love You” kind of people.

Actually, when we believed into the Lord and were baptized, we were engaged to Christ.

He captivated us, we opened to Him, and He opened His heart to us; we were engaged to Him.

Each and every believer in Christ is and should be a lover of Christ, one who loves the Lord and pursues Him to enjoy Him and develop their love for Him.

Our Christian life started with a kiss; when we heard the gospel, the Lord kissed us, showing His love and affection toward us.

Though we were dead in sins and offenses, He came and died for us. His dying love is so prevailing and constraining.

When we see His love toward us, we simply respond to Him in love.

Like the lover in Song of Songs, we tell the Lord, Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth, for Your love is more pleasant than wine.

And even after many experiences of Christ, after much transformation and many dealings with the self, we still tell the Lord, When I see You, I will kiss You.

We are the lovers of Christ who are becoming a corporate Shulammite in the divine romance to be the same as Christ in life and nature.

Our faith is developing, and our love toward Him is growing.

Christ’s espousal and marriage life covers the church age, the kingdom age, and the eternal age.

Today in the church age we are betrothed to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2).

When we hear the gospel and respond to the Lord in love, we are betrothed to Him.

But there is a wedding day coming, and not all believers will participate in this day.

The woman is a bride for just one day, which is the wedding day.

Only the overcomers will be part of the bride, for only the overcomers are those who will enter the wedding feast (Rev. 19:7).

The bride makes herself ready; we as believers in Christ aspire to be the bride of Christ, those who are not only engaged to Christ but even more, are given the reward of being in the wedding feast with Christ for one thousand years in the age of the millennium.

The marriage life will be in the New Jerusalem eternally (21:2, 9-10).

But today we want to be the overcomers so that we will be rewarded with being in the wedding feast.

The New Jerusalem will be the bride in the millennium for one thousand years as one day (2 Pet. 3:8), and then the wife in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:2).

God is very wise. He has given us the incentive of the millennium if we overcome.

The bride in the millennium will include only the overcoming saints (3:12).

We want to be these overcoming saints, those who overcome in this age to be part of the bride of Christ in the age of the millennium.

We need to daily love the Lord and enjoy Him with the purpose of becoming His overcomers, part of His overcoming bride.

Whether or not we will be among the overcoming saints, we will participate in the wife for eternity.

But we want to be the bride. The wife in the new heaven and new earth will include all the redeemed and regenerated sons of God (Rev. 21:7).

Rev. 22:17 indicates that Christ and the New Jerusalem as His wife will be a universal couple for eternity.

The Spirit, who is the totality of the processed Triune God, becomes one with the believers, who are now mature to be the bride of Christ (see Eph. 4:13, 15-16).

The consummation of the processed Triune God and the consummation of God’s chosen, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people will be one and will be a universal couple expressing the Triune God for eternity. Hallelujah!

However, the overcomers in the recovered church will be the New Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom (Rev. 3:7-8, 12). We want to be these overcomers in this age today.

Lord Jesus, we want to be Your overcomers today so that we may be part of the bride of Christ in the next age! Amen, Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You today; produce us as Your overcoming bride. We do not want to live a routine church life or a defeated Christian life. Vitalize us. Make us living and active, one with You as the living and active One. Amen, Lord, we want to be not only the wife of Christ for eternity as a corporate Shulammite but even more, we want to participate in the wedding feast in the coming age! Overcome in us. Make us Your overcomers. Keep us loving You, opening to You, and allowing You to work Yourself into us. Make us those who overcome anything that replaces Christ. May we overcome any degradation and loss of the first love for the Lord. Amen, Lord Jesus, gain Your bride!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament (msg. 258) by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, An Overview of the Central Burden and Present Truth of the Lord’s Recovery Before His Appearing (2023 July Semiannual Training), week 12, entitled, Becoming the New Jerusalem.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Christ will make His seeking lover / Pillar, couch, and palanquin, / E’en a crown, His boast and glory; / He will do it all! Amen! / His beloved—how He loves her, / So attractive, His delight. / He is captivated wholly; / She is comely in His sight. / “Thou art fair, my love, as Tirzah, / Comely as Jerusalem.” / O Lord Jesus, Hallelujah, / Thou wilt do it all! Amen! (Hymns #1161 stanzas 1, 6 and chorus)
  – As we eat Jesus, praise the Lord, / The transformation’s done, / Until at last, the work’s complete— / Christ and His Bride are one! (Hymns #1241 stanza 14)
  – Oh, what a joy it is preparing / For our wedding with the Lord, / E’en in the tribulations sharing / For the bliss of such reward! / Oh, with what rapture and rejoicing / Shall the wedding day begin; / And then a thousand years of dining / At the marriage feast with Him! (Hymns #1315 stanzas 3-4)