Scripture Reading: Rev. 3:12; 21:2, 9-11; Acts 26:19; Col. 3:4; Eph. 4:16
Ⅰ
The central vision of God's economy is the experience of Christ as life for the producing and building up of the church as the Body of Christ—Acts 26:19; Eph. 3:10; 1 Tim. 1:4; Col. 3:4; Eph. 1:22-23.
Ⅱ
The governing vision of the Bible is the Triune God working Himself into His chosen and redeemed people in order to saturate their entire being with the Divine Trinity for the producing and building up of the church as the Body of Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem—Eph. 4:4-6; Rev. 21:2, 9-10.
Ⅲ
The high peak of the divine revelation is that God became man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce and build up the organic Body of Christ for the ful-fillment of God's economy to close this age and bring Christ back to set up His kingdom—Rom. 8:3; 12:4-5; Rev. 11:15:
A
God's economy is that God became man to make us God in life, nature, and expression so that we may have a God-man living and become the Body of Christ—Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; 8:4, 14, 29; 12:4-5.
B
It is only by God becoming man to make man God that the Body of Christ can be produced and built up; this is the high peak of the divine reve-lation given to us by God—8:3; 1:3-4; 8:14, 16, 29; 12:4-5.
Ⅳ
The New Jerusalem is the consummation of the central vision of God's economy and of the high peak of the divine revelation—the corporate God-man—Rev. 21:2, 9-11:
A
The New Jerusalem involves God becoming man and man becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead—v. 2; 3:12:
１
In Christ God has become man to make man God in His life and in His nature so that the redeeming God and the redeemed man can be mingled, constituted, together to be one entity—the New Jerusalem— 21:3, 22.
２
Eventually, the triune, eternal God becomes the New Jerusalem incor-porated with all of us, and we also become the New Jerusalem through the process of God's organic salvation—Rom. 5:10; Rev. 3:12.
B
The New Jerusalem is the corporate God-man—the enlargement, expan-sion, and expression of God—the corporate God; all the components have the same life, nature, and constitution and thus are a corporate person— Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10-12; Rev. 4:3; 21:10-11.
C
The New Jerusalem is the eternal golden lampstand, the consummation of all the golden lampstands—1:12, 20; 21:18b, 23.
D
The New Jerusalem is the real and consummate Shulammite—a corporate Shulammite, including all of God's chosen and redeemed people— S. S. 6:13; Rev. 21:2, 9-10; 22:17:
１
As Solomon's counterpart, the Shulammite became the same as Solo-mon in life, nature, and image, as Eve to Adam—Gen. 2:20-23.
２
The wonderful Shulammite, the duplication of Solomon, is the great-est and ultimate figure of the New Jerusalem as the counterpart of Christ—S. S. 6:13; Rev. 21:2, 9-10.
３
The wife of Christ and Christ will be joined together to be the New Jerusalem for God's expression; this is the consummated Shulam-mite—22:17.
Ⅴ
In His ministry in the stage of intensification, Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit produces the overcomers, who overcome the deg-radation of the church, build up the Body of Christ, and consum-mate the New Jerusalem—1:4; 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21:
A
Because of the degradation of the church, Christ as the life-giving Spirit has been intensified sevenfold to become the seven Spirits—3:1; 5:6.
B
The overcomers are for the building up of the Body of Christ to consum-mate the New Jerusalem—Eph. 4:12, 16; Rev. 2:7b; 3:12, 21:
１
Without the overcomers the Body of Christ cannot be built up, and unless the Body is built up, Christ cannot come for His bride—19:7-9.
２
The building up of the Body of Christ by the overcomers in this age is for the initial consummation of the New Jerusalem in the kingdom age and eventually for the full consummation of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth—2:7; 3:12; 21:2.
C
"I will write upon him [the overcomer] the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God, and My new name"—3:12b:
１
That the name of God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and the name of the Lord are written on the overcomer indicates that what God is, the nature of the New Jerusalem, and the person of the Lord have all been wrought into the overcomer.
２
The mentioning of the New Jerusalem as a prize to the overcomer indicates that this promise will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom; the New Jerusalem in the millennium will be a prize only to the overcomers.