Our Unique and Ultimate Goal is the New Jerusalem, the Mingling of God and Man

The degradation of the church today is mainly due to the fact that many Christian workers – many saints burdened by God and with a certain capacity to serve God – have taken another goal than the New Jerusalem for their Christian work.

But God today does only one thing: He is building up the church for the adornment, preparation, and building up of the New Jerusalem. We need to answer the Lord’s call for overcomers today by taking God’s goal as our goal – our unique goal should be the New Jerusalem!

Christ is building His church today (Matt. 16:18) – He is building up the New Jerusalem! God is the architect and the builder of this city with foundations (Heb. 11:10), and today we are in the process of becoming the New Jerusalem.

We need to live out and work out the New Jerusalem in our Christian life. Just like Daniel, when we pray we open the windows toward the New Jerusalem, aiming all our prayers not at people, situations, problems, things, and not even the enemy – our prayers are aimed at God’s interest, His economy, Christ and the church, the New Jerusalem.

The New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation of God’s eternal economy is simply the mingling of God and man, and today we are in this process of mingling, renewing, transformation, sanctification, conformation and glorification!

The New Jerusalem is New

As the name says it, first of all the New Jerusalem is new. In this universe, there’s nothing new except God.

The new fashion, the new technologies, the new gadgets, the new cars, etc they all are old, and in just a few minutes from their coming out they are already old. But God is NEW, and He is always fresh, new, and living! We as believers in Christ are not becoming “the old city” but the New Jerusalem!

Since newness is God Himself, to become the New Jerusalem means that we are filled with God: we become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead! Today in our Christian life we need to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4) and serve in newness of spirit (Rom. 7:6) to live out and work out the New Jerusalem!

Every day we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23), so that our mind may be filled with new thoughts from the Triune God. Outwardly our physical being, our outer man, is decaying, but inwardly, our inner man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16).

We are being daily reconditioned with the divine life, the zoe life of God (Titus 3:5). This means that we become new as God is new as a result of God’s mingling of Himself with us.

The New Jerusalem is the Mingling of God and Man

In Rev. 21:3 we see that the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven from God – this city is heavenly, from God, with the element of God.

On the other hand, the New Jerusalem is God abiding among man, God tabernacling with man – this city is composed of redeemed human beings who have been completely transformed, renewed, sanctified, conformed, and glorified.

As the consummation of God’s work in His eternal economy, the New Jerusalem is the complete mingling of God and man. Today we believers are in the process of the mingling of God and man, and this process will consummate in the New Jerusalem!

As we see in Gen. 28:17 and John 1, Christ is the heavenly ladder bringing God to man and man to God, and this heavenly ladder is in our spirit. In Heb. 4:16 we can come forward to the throne of grace with boldness – though living on earth, we have Christ in our spirit as the heavenly ladder joining earth to heaven and bringing heaven to earth!

Christ is on the throne in the heaven (Rom. 8:34) and He is also in us, in our spirit (Rom. 8:10; 2 Tim. 4:22), making us God’s habitation, His dwelling place, in spirit (Eph. 2:22). Whenever we turn to our spirit – where Christ dwells – we are joined to heaven, the heaven is joined to us, and we are mingled more with God.

Wherever we are, whatever we do, we can be joined to God organically in our spirit and God can mingle Himself with us.

We are daily in this process of turning to our spirit, loving the Lord, opening to Him, and enjoying God mingling Himself with us a little more every day, until we become the New Jerusalem, the mingling of God and man!

Our Unique Goal should be the New Jerusalem

God’s goal is the New Jerusalem; Abraham’s goal was “the city which has the foundations”; David’s goal was Zion, God’s temple, God’s city; Daniel’s goal was Jerusalem; and John’s goal was the New Jerusalem.

Throughout the centuries many of the dear believers that sought God’s face had different goals than the New Jerusalem, and instead of doing a work for the building up of the Body, they tore down the Body and created division upon division.

Degradation creeps in the church and spreads everywhere because most Christian believers take many things other than the New Jerusalem as their goal. They may even go to seminaries and Bible schools, but their goal is not the New Jerusalem.

Satan’s strategy is to distract the believers from God’s goal to many other goals, and thus bring in division and confusion.

But today in the degradation of the church we need to be the overcomers answering the Lord’s call (Rev. 2-3) by overcoming not only the negative things, but also even the positive things that replace the New Jerusalem as the goal.

Our unique goal in our Christian life and work should be the New Jerusalem, which is the goal of God’s purpose. When God’s goal becomes our goal, He has a free way to mingle Himself with us and He can build up His church for the bringing in of the New Jerusalem!

Lord, we open to You! May we see Your eternal goal, the goal of Your economy, the New Jerusalem. Save us from taking other things – even good and spiritual things – as our goal. Make the New Jerusalem be our unique and ultimate goal. Lord, mingle Yourself with us more today. More mingling. More renewing. More transformation. We want to set our mind on the spirit and mind the things which are above, so that we may live in the organic union with You and enjoy more mingling with God. O, Lord, we desire what You desire: the New Jerusalem!

References and Further Reading

• This sharing is inspired from brother Ed Marks’ speaking in this message and portions in, How to Be a Co-worker and an Elder and How to Fulfill Their Obligations (ch. 3), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, ITERO spring 2013 “The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body“, week 7 entitled, Growing unto Maturity to Become the New Jerusalem as the Ultimate Consummation of the Church.
• Further reading:
  # The Way for a Christian to Mature in Life, ch. 4.
  # Heb. 4:16, footnote 1 in the Recovery Version.
  # New Jerusalem: a corporate person (Ed Marks, Affirmation and Critique).
• Similar sharing online:
  # New Jerusalem is God’s unique goal (newjerusalem12.wordpress.com)
  # Heavens or the New Jerusalem – what is the difference? (holdingtotruth.com)
• Hymns on this topic:
  # The New Jerusalem—ultimate sign; / The ultimate goal of God’s economy; / Incorporation, ’tis human-divine; / Deified, we with God one building will be.
  # God’s economy and goal / According to His heart’s desire / Are to build Himself into our being / And to build us into His being / In order to mingle His divinity with our humanity / Into one entity (one entity)— / The Body of Christ, / Which consummates the New Jerusalem.
  # Our goal divine—the new Jerusalem— / That holy city made for God with men.