At the end of the Bible we see the New Jerusalem, the wife of the Lamb, the city-bride who marries Christ and the place where God dwells, is expressed, and reigns (see Rev. 21-22).
If the New Jerusalem is the consummation of God’s work throughout the ages and from eternity to eternity, it is impossible to be a physical city – God Himself is Spirit, and He can have “any city” He wants to. Rather, as revealed in the entire Bible, the New Jerusalem is a composition and a mingling of God with His people, a union, mingling, and incorporation of God with man.
All of God’s redeemed people are in the New Jerusalem, and both the Old Testament saints and the New Testament believers are there. It is a spiritual city which God chose to describe and present with human pictures and types.
Based on the revelation in the Bible concerning the New Jerusalem, we today as believers in Christ in the church life need to enjoy and experience all the aspects and features of the New Jerusalem, at least as a foretaste.
In the center of our being there needs to be the throne of God and on the Lamb: we need to experience being under God’s throne, allowing Him to reign in our being and bring everything under His headship.
In our daily Christian life and church life we need to drink the river of water of life and eat the tree of life, having the eating of Christ as the tree of life as the main focus of our church life.
Our Christian walk and our living in the church life should be according to God’s divine nature of which we partake through the many promises in the Word, so that we may experience walking on the golden street.
We need to stay in the death of Christ to experience the power of resurrection so that we may have a rich entrance into the city, thus experiencing the gates of pearl.
We need to pay attention to the sense of life and peace, doing everything in the fellowship of life and maintaining our vertical and horizontal fellowship, thus experiencing the one unique fellowship / flow of life in the New Jerusalem.
We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind and we need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our heart so that we may be the NEW Jerusalem, experiencing God in a new way every day.
Furthermore, today we want to see how the dimensions of the New Jerusalem apply to our Christian experience – we can experience the Triune God as the gates reaching out and bringing man into the New Jerusalem. How wonderful: the New Jerusalem with all its aspects and features can be our experience today!
There are Three Gates on Each of the Four Sides in the New Jerusalem
Nothing in the Bible is written at random, and specifically, no detail of the New Jerusalem is meaningless.
Rather, in His wisdom God is working on building a masterpiece, the New Jerusalem, an entity with the foundations of precious stones, wall of jasper, street of gold, a throne in the middle, a river of life flowing in the middle of the one street, twelve gates – three on each of the four sides, the tree of life growing along the river, and the whole city has the glory of God.
What is the significance of the twelve gates into the New Jerusalem? Why twelve and not four, one on each side? How can we apply the dimensions of the holy city to our living out and working out the New Jerusalem?
As seen in Rev. 21:13, the city lies square, and there are three gates on each of its four sides, facing all the four corners of the earth. Most likely, the east side is at the front (since it is toward the glory of the sunrise, see Luke 1:78-79), then the north side at the top, then the south side at the bottom, then the west side at the rear.
The fact that there are three gates on each of the four sides facing all the earth means that God welcomes everyone into the city, making the entrance into the city available to all men. This is His original intention – He put the tree of life in the middle of the garden of Eden (you couldn’t miss it!) and the river flowing from Eden split into four branches reaching out the whole earth (see Gen. 2:10-14).
In our natural man we are narrow and we accept only those we like, but God is wide open, welcoming everyone who desires to come – just come into the city! There’s plenty of gates on all the sides, just come in!
We need to have our heart enlarged so that we may accept all those whom God accepts, receiving people according to Christ. Christ loves every human being and He desires to save every man on earth. We should accept man, welcome man, and become an entrance into the New Jerusalem for every man!
The Divine Trinity is Working Together to Bring People into the Holy City, in His Eternal Economy
If we would look deeper into the meaning of the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem – three on each of the four sides – we will realize that the three of the Divine Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Spirit) work together in order to bring people into the holy city.
There are a few portions in the Bible telling us of how the Father, the Son, and the Spirit work together in oneness in order to bring sinners into God’s kingdom, bringing men back into God’s economy.
In Luke 15 we have three parables: the shepherd looking for the one lost sheep, the woman searching for the one lost coin, and the father waiting for the return of the one prodigal son.
Christ is the Redeeming and Finding Son of God, the Shepherd, to bring people into the reality of the New Jerusalem. God the Spirit is a seeking and convicting Spirit searching and finding the lost sinner, bringing him back to God. The Father receives the prodigal son, being expectant that he would come back and running to him to receive Him.
The entire Triune God works together to reach out to man wherever he is, and then works within man and outside of man to bring man into the New Jerusalem, the consummation of the flock, the house, and the father’s house.
In Matt. 28:19 the Lord Jesus commissions us to go and disciple all the nations by baptizing them into the Triune God – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Our real entrance into the holy city is to be baptized into the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
Our commission is not to make our own disciples but to disciple people by baptizing them into the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Triune God mingles Himself with us to such an extent that through us He reaches out to man and brings man into the Triune God, making us an entrance into the holy city for many of those around us.
In 2 Cor. 13:14 we see that, in His economy, the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father come to us as grace and love through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. In His economy God reaches out in His Divine Trinity to come to man and be man’s enjoyment, loving man, and transmitting all that He is in His communicable attributes to man as a fellowship, a communication, to bring man back into His economy in His enjoyment.
The three in the God head have come out in God’s economy to reach us and bring us back into His economy, His dispensing, to make us His New Jerusalem, His masterpiece.
Eph. 3:16-17 That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith…
In Eph. 3:14-17 Paul prays to the Father to strengthen us, according to the riches of His glory, through His Spirit into our inner man, so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith. The Father strengthens us into our inner man with power through His Spirit so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith.
This should be our prayer every day, opening to the Triune God who reaches out in His Divine Trinity to come to us where we are and strengthen us, empower us, and make His home in our heart, so that we may become the New Jerusalem, His masterpiece.
Three gates on four sides – not three plus four, as in addition, but three times four, as in multiplication – implies that the Triune God is mingling Himself with man. God is three (yet one), and man is represented by four (Rev. 4:6).
The Triune God reaches man, mingles Himself with man, and becomes together with man a composition, a building, the holy city – New Jerusalem. How we praise the Triune God for all He is doing to obtain the New Jerusalem!
Father, strengthen us with power through Your Spirit into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith. Thank You for coming to us where we are, in our low estate, and saving us, infusing us with Yourself, and making Your home in our heart. Mingle Yourself more with us and make us one with You to the point that we become in You and with You gates into the New Jerusalem for many others. We want to have a rich entrance into the New Jerusalem and be one with You to welcome and bring others into the holy city, into the full enjoyment of the Triune God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Revelation (msg. 63), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Aspects of the Christian Life and Church Life Seen in the New Jerusalem, week 5 / msg 5, The Intrinsic Significance of the Name New Jerusalem and the Dimensions of the Holy City.
- Hymns on this topic:
# But the gospel is to me / The Triune God within humanity / As the Spirit reaching me to be in me / The one reality; / Love untold—Gospel Thee / Never getting old—story told eternally. (Song on Luke 15)
# O that Christ may make His home my heart, / Spread Himself in every part! / Saturate and life impart! / That with all saints, I may apprehend / All the vast dimensions of my loving Christ. (Song on Eph. 3)
# All aspects of New Jerusalem / Were by the apostles perceived and conveyed. / Their teaching was the whole New Testament; / All their living and work this vision displayed. (Song on the Aspects of the New Jerusalem)
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