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WITNESS LEE QUOTES
Chapter Twelve
THE CONSUMMATION OF THE DISPENSING OF THE TRIUNE GOD
REVELATION 1:
12 And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me; and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands,
20 The mystery of the seven stars which you have seen on My right hand and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are seven churches.
Throughout the centuries, few Christians have touched the depths of the significance of the lampstand. In this message we must probe into the depths of this matter of the lampstands. Biblical symbols are difficult to comprehend, for we cannot understand a symbol like the lampstand according to our natural concept. According to our natural concept, a lampstand is simply an object holding a lamp that shines in the darkness. The lampstand in Exodus 25 is pure gold, and the lampstands in Zechariah 4 and Revelation also are golden. Substantially, the lampstand is golden. With the lampstand we see three important things: the gold, the stand, and the lamps. The lampstand implies the significance of the Triune God. Gold is the substance with which the lampstand is made, the stand is the embodiment of the gold, and the lamps are the expression of the stand. The gold signifies the Father as the substance, the stand signifies the Son as the embodiment of the Father, and the lamps signify the Spirit as the expression of the Father in the Son. Thus, the significance of the Triune God is implied in the lampstand.
(Witness Lee, LS of Revelation, 89-90)
In Exodus 25 the emphasis is upon the stand, in Zechariah 4 the emphasis is upon the lamps, and in Revelation I the emphasis is upon the reproduction. In both Exodus and Zechariah, the lampstand is one, but in Revelation it has been reproduced and has become seven. Firstly, in Exodus the emphasis is on the stand—on Christ. Secondly, in Zechariah the emphasis is on the lamps—on the Spirit. Eventually, in Revelation both the stand and the lamps, that is, both Christ and the Spirit, are reproduced as the churches. In Exodus and Zechariah there are just seven lamps, but here in Revelation there are forty-nine lamps, for every lampstand has seven lamps. Hence, the one lampstand has become seven and the seven lamps have become forty-nine. The lampstands with their lamps in Revelation are the reproduction of Christ and the Spirit. When Christ is realized, He is the Spirit, and when the Spirit is realized, we have the churches as the reproduction. The church is not only universally one but also expressed locally in many cities. In the whole universe there is only one Christ, one Spirit, and one church. Why then are there the seven churches? Because of the need for an expression. For existence, one is sufficient, but for expression, many are needed. If we would know the church, we must know its substance, existence, and expression. Substantially, the church, and even all the churches, are one. In expression, the many churches are the many lampstands. What is the church? The church is the expression of the Triune God, and this expression is seen in many localities on the earth. The church is signified not by just one lampstand—but by seven lampstands. In Revelation 1 there are seven lampstands with forty-nine lamps shining in the universe. This is the testimony of Jesus. The church is the testimony of Jesus. This means that the church is the expression of the Triune God substantially and expressively. Substantially, it is of one substance in the whole universe; expressively, it is many lampstands with the lamps shining in the darkness to express the Triune God. The Father as the substance is embodied in the Son, the Son as the embodiment is expressed through the Spirit, the Spirit is fully realized and reproduced as the churches, and the churches are the testimony of Jesus. If we see this vision, it will govern us and we shall never be divisive. This vision will hold us, guard us, and keep us in the testimony of Jesus.
(Witness Lee, LS of Revelation, 91-92)
We have seen that the lampstand is the divine gold embodied into a substantial form to fulfill God’s purpose in His move. The expression of the stand is in the shining of the light. As the expression shines, the shining fulfills God’s eternal purpose. Thus, the lampstand not only signifies the Triune God, but also the move of the Triune God in His embodiment and expression. We also have seen that the local churches are the reproduction of the embodiment and expression of the Triune God. This is not a small thing. We should not be satisfied with saying that the local churches are the lampstands shining in the dark night. Although this is correct, it is rather shallow. We must see that the local churches are the reproduction of the embodiment and expression of the Triune God.
(Witness Lee, LS of Revelation, 93)
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JOHN 15:
1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes it away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.
3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 1 am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is dried up; and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you abide in Me and My words abide in You, ask whatever you will, and it shall come to pass to you.
8 In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and you shall become My disciples.
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I appointed you that you should go forth and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give you.
THE ORGANISM OF THE TRIUNE GOD IN THE DIVINE DISPENSATION
The vine with the branches is the organism of the Triune God in the divine dispensation. One day the Lord showed me clearly that this vine is the unique organism in the universe. The vine in chapter fifteen is not a small, local, individual organism; it is a great, corporate, universal organism, the organism of the Triune God.
THE TRIUNE GOD IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
No other book in the Bible unveils the Trinity as fully as the Gospel of John does. This whole book concerns the Trinity. In no other book are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit revealed in such a practical way as They are here. The entire Gospel of John is a book on the Son with the Father and with the Spirit. Hence, the organism in chapter fifteen is not merely an organism of Christ, but of the Triune God.
In the opening word of this chapter the Lord Jesus, the Son, says, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.” You may wonder where the Spirit is in this chapter. The Spirit is the sap, the life juice, in the vine, Therefore, we see that the Trinity comprises this organism, which includes us. The organism of the vine is constituted not only with divinity, but also with humanity. Praise the Lord that this universal organism is composed of both the Triune God and us! In fact, we are the crucial part of this organism. This is a matter of great significance.
(Witness Lee, LS of John, 605-606)
GOD AS LIFE GROWING IN AN ORGANIC BODY
The organism of the vine tree in John 15 is the focus of the whole Bible. An organism is an organic body containing life and having organs. Many Christians think of John 15 merely as a parable used by the Lord to describe our relationship with Him. But it is not merely a parable; it is a reality that reveals the focus of God’s intention. God is life, and life needs an organic body in which to grow and express itself. Even the life element within the seed of a flower needs an organic body. The seed is the organic body whereby the life within it can grow and be fully expressed. God desires to grow within an organic body and to have Himself expressed by means of that body. This body is the organism of Christ and the church.
The focus of the Bible is God as life growing in an organic body. This means that God is the growing life and that the growing life needs an organism, an organic body, in which God can grow and through which He can express Himself. We have been told that God was our Creator, the object of our worship, and that we, the creatures, had to worship Him. Although this is not wrong, it is a very superficial understanding of the revelation in the Bible. It is definitely not the inner content of the focus of God’s revelation.
The inner content of the divine focus is that God is not only our Creator and the object of our worship, but that He is life. Life does not require worship. How foolish it would be to put a carnation seed on the table and worship it! If you did this and the carnation seed could speak, it would say, “Stupid man! What are you doing? The more you worship me, the more I suffer. Instead of worshipping me, please sow me into the soil. If you do this, I will be happy.” Ultimately, God… is life and He desires to grow in an organic body so that He may be expressed.
(Witness Lee, LS of John, 606-607)
CHRIST’S INDWELLING MAKING US A PART OF THE ORGANISM OF THE TRIUNE GOD
After the Lord Jesus died, resurrected, and secretly ascended to the Father, He came back on the same day and, with a physical body, entered a closed room in a mysterious way (20:19). No scientist or scholar can explain how Christ was able to enter into that room. According to 20:22, “He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” Apparently, this is the conclusion of the Gospel of John; actually, this Gospel has not yet been completed. The Lord’s breathing into His disciples indicates that this mysterious One, the all-inclusive One, had come into them. In John chapter twenty there is no record that the Lord left the disciples. He came, but He did not go away. After breathing into them, He did not say, “Goodbye. I will visit you again another day.” When I read this chapter as a young man, I was troubled by the fact that there is no record here telling us that the Lord went away from the disciples. Later I realized that when the Lord breathed into them, He came into them. He was no longer outside the disciples; He was within them.
In the beginning, that is, in eternity past, Christ was far away in both space and time. He existed as the Word, as God’s expression. But by the end of the Gospel of John, He has come into us in a mysterious way. Just as no one can define or explain how One with a physical body that could be touched and seen could enter into a closed room, so no one can explain how Christ indwells us. The principle is the same in each case. Christ’s indwelling is mysterious. At the beginning of this book, Christ was far away from us, but now He is within us. As far as space and time are concerned, there is no longer any distance between Him and us. He and we are one. Furthermore, Christ has made us a part of Himself. This oneness is the organism illustrated by the grapevine, the organism of the Triune God with humanity in the divine dispensation. Today we are in this organism. We all need a clear vision of this.
(Witness Lee, LS of John, 608-609)
To say that the church is the embodiment of the Triune God is not to make the church a part of deity, an object of worship. We mean the church is an entity born of God (John 1:12-13), possessing God’s life (1 John 5:11-12), and enjoying God’s nature (2 Pet. 1:4). The church has the divine substance, bears the likeness of Christ, and expresses the very God. Since we have been born of God, we surely have God’s life and possess His nature, and we enjoy this life and nature every day. We are learning by His mercy and grace not to live by our natural life but by the divine life and nature. As we are thus being transformed, there will be the fullness, the expression, the form, the appearance, of Christ, and we shall be shining, not by ourselves but by the sevenfold, intensified Spirit.
The church is the embodiment of the Triune God to express Him. We as members of Christ are the sons of God born of Him, having His life and possessing His nature. We are doing our best to live by this life and nature that we may be filled and saturated with this rich Christ to become His expression through the sevenfold, intensified Spirit.
This is a local church. It is not just an outward assembly. It is something inward, of life, yet expressing the very God. Dear saints, this is God’s goal.
(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 68-69)
THE BRANCHES, THE BELIEVERS IN THE SON
No plant other than the vine tree can illustrate adequately the living relationship between us and the Lord. We are the branches of the vine. What kind of relationship does this suggest to you? The branches are good for nothing except to express the vine. All that the vine is and has is expressed through the branches. Individually, the branches are the regenerated ones. Corporately, they are the church, the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23). The branches, the believers in the Son, are for the expression of the Son with the Father through the fruit-bearing.
What is fruit-bearing? It is the overflow of the riches of the inner life. Do not try to bring people to Christ by your own effort. Do not use schemes to win souls. Bearing fruit is a matter of the overflow of your inner life. We need continuously to enjoy Christ as everything to us. Then we shall have an abundance of inner life. Out of this abundance of inner life there will be a flow that will reach others, penetrating into their lives. This flow will bear much fruit. It is not just preaching or soul-winning; it must be fruit-bearing by the overflow of the riches of the inner life.
(Witness Lee, LS of John, 401-402)
Now we can understand what it means to bear fruit by the overflow of life. We need to see this vision. If we do, we shall say, “I am part of the organism of the Triune God. Daily I contact my God, drink of Him, eat of Him, and live by Him. Now, spontaneously, this very God is flowing out of me.” This overflow of life is our fruit-bearing. Our fruit-bearing is God being lived out of us. As we are with our relatives, neighbors, colleagues, and friends, we must have this kind of living and be this kind of person. Recently a sister shared about meeting a woman in an airport and spontaneously testifying to her of her rich supply in Christ. That woman surely must have been impressed by our sister’s testimony. Coming out of the mouth of our sister was not simply preaching; it was the Triune God being lived out of her. If we have such a testimony with our relatives and friends, they will be impressed with the overflow of life, and this flow will certainly get into some of them. They will be infused with the flow and become a fruit born by this organism. This is fruit-bearing by the overflow of the inner life.
We are the branches of the divine vine; we are part of the organism of the Triune God. In life, in nature, and in position we are the same as He. Hallelujah! Daily we are contacting our God. He is not simply the object of our worship, but the Spirit within us as the living water. As we drink of Him and eat of Him, we have the overflow of life. This overflow is our fruit-bearing in our daily living. Whether or not the ones we contact will receive this flow is a matter of God’s choice. But we can be assured that the chosen ones will receive it and become fruit born by the divine organism. This is the way to increase the organism, and to spread the kingdom of God. This is what it means to bear fruit by the overflow of the inner life.
(Witness Lee, LS of John, 611-612)
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REVELATION 21:
2 And I saw the holy city, 1New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
18 And the building material of its wall was 1jasper; and the city was 2pure 3gold, like 2pure glass.
21 “New Jerusalem” is a living composition of all the saints redeemed by God throughout all generations. It is the “bride” of Christ as His counterpart (John 3:29) and “the holy city” of God as His habitation. This is the city, the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22), which God has prepared for us and which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob longed after (Heb. 11:10, 16). This is also the Jerusalem which is above and which is the mother of us all (Gal. 4:26). As the bride of Christ, New Jerusalem comes out of Christ, “her Husband,” and becomes His counterpart, just as Eve came out of Adam, her husband, and became his counterpart (Gen. 2:21-24). She is “prepared” by participating in the riches of the life and nature of Christ. As the holy city of God, she is wholly sanctified unto God and fully saturated with God’s holy nature to be His habitation.
In both the Old and the New Testaments, God likens His chosen people to a spouse (Isa. 54:6; Jer. 3:1; Ezek. 16:8; Hosea 2:19; Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32) and a dwelling place for Himself (Exo. 29:45-46; Num. 5:3; Ezek. 43:7, 9; Psa. 68:18; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Tim. 3:15). The spouse is for His satisfaction in love, and the dwelling place is for His rest in expression. Both of these aspects will be ultimately consummated in the New Jerusalem. In her, God will have the fullest satisfaction in love and the utmost rest in expression for eternity.
(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 1417)
181 “Jasper” is the appearance of God (4:3). Hence, the jasper wall signifies that the whole city, as the corporate expression of God in eternity, bears the appearance of God.
182 Or, clear.
183 Since gold signifies the divine nature of God, the city being “pure gold” signifies that New Jerusalem is altogether of God’s divine nature. The “pure gold like pure glass” signifies that the whole city is transparent and not in the least opaque.
(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 1422)
Now we come to the last sign, the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the aggregate of all the lampstands. At the beginning of this book there are seven lampstands, local lampstands in this age. At the end of this book there is an aggregate, a composite lampstand, not the local ones but the eternal one, the universal one. Revelation begins with the lampstands and ends with the lampstand. The lampstands are signs of the churches; the New Jerusalem is also a lampstand, the sign of God’s dwelling place.
(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 118)
In studying and understanding the Holy Word, Christians often bring in their natural thought. In the new heaven and new earth we shall dwell in the New Jerusalem. But we must not think of the New Jerusalem as a physical city. It is God who will be our abode. When I was young, I heard some Bible teachers discussing what we would eat and where the restroom would be in the “heavenly mansion.” How poor it is to bring in our natural thought!
Today I asked some saints if they are in the church. When they answered yes, I asked them to show me the church. The New Testament tells us that the church is God’s house, and that God is abiding in His house; but where is the church? The church as God’s house and as our home is not a physical building, but a composition of living believers (1 Pet. 2:5). It is not a physical, lifeless entity, but an organic composition of living persons. It exists wherever the believers come together. What the church is today—God’s house as a composition of living persons, a corporate person—is what it will be in eternity.
(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 120-121)
CONSISTENT WITH THE WHOLE BIBLE
The thought of God’s house is also in the Old Testament. Moses says in Psalm 90:1, “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.”
The Lord Jesus said that if anyone loves Him, His Father and He will go to him and make an abode with him (John 14:23). We shall be His abode, and He will be our abode. In John 15 the Lord says, “Abide in Me and I in you” (v. 4). First John 3:24 and 4:15 say that we abide in God and God abides in us.
In this church age we are abiding in God, and God is abiding in us. Do you believe that when we enter into the new heaven and new earth we shall get out of God and God will get out of us? If in this age we can dwell in God, taking Him as our dwelling place, and can give God a place in us, it is not logical to think that in eternity we will no longer have Him as our dwelling place, but rather live in a golden city as our dwelling place.
We must believe that our abiding in the Lord and His abiding in us will be intensified, enlarged, and uplifted to the uttermost. This is why John says he saw that the city bad no temple in it, “for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Rev. 21:22). This is a strong indication that the city is not a physical place. In this city the temple is a Person. This Person is God and the Lamb. The very Triune God will be the temple. If the temple within the city is a Person, do you believe the city could be something lifeless?
Since the temple is a divine Person, the Triune God Himself, the city must be persons also. Actually the entire city is the Holy of Holies with three equal dimensions (1 Kings 6:20; Rev. 21:16). Since the Triune God will be the temple and the entire city will be the Holy of Holies, the city cannot be something physical. It must be an organic composition.
In New Testament times God’s dwelling on this earth was firstly a single Person, Jesus Christ. He was God’s tabernacle. Then following Him, the church is God’s temple (Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Cor. 3:16). Jesus, a single Person, was God’s tabernacle, His dwelling place. Then the church as a corporate person became the temple of God, God’s dwelling. This is the New Testament. After the New Testament age, when we get into eternity, God’s dwelling will not change from living persons to a lifeless, physical city. We must believe that these persons built together as God’s dwelling place will be enlarged and intensified. In the coming age there will be an enlargement of these living persons as God’s dwelling place.
(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 121-122)
NOT A LITERAL CITY
If the New Jerusalem were an actual city made of gold, pearls, and precious stones, it would mean that a physical city was the conclusion of the entire revelation. This is not logical. God has been working throughout the ages. First He created the universe. Then He created man. He afterwards became incarnate to redeem man; He lived on this earth, was crucified, and then resurrected, ascended, and poured Himself out as the Spirit upon His disciples. The disciples then went out to preach the gospel. Many have been saved and added to the church; they are being built up as a Body to express Christ. Do you believe the final outcome will be that God gains merely a physical city? Do you think this is God’s intention?
If this were the case, God would be a poor architect. Through His creation, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, through His building up of the churches and the perfecting of the saints in generation after generation, God is preparing something far greater than a big literal city. God has already created something more splendid than a city—the universe. The solar system is beautiful, but God is not satisfied with that. How could He be satisfied with a city, even a city which is half the size of the United States? To interpret such a vision, such a sign, in a natural way is wrong.
The church today is our home. When we come to the church, we come home. The church is in God. The church life with God is everywhere. There are churches in Dallas, Houston, Hong Kong, and all over the earth. Hallelujah! Wherever we go, our home is there. Our home is the church. Why worry about whether we will have a house in the New Jerusalem? We do not need to worry about this. God is not interested in these physical things. This physical thought has to go.
(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 122-123)
GOD’S DWELLING PLACE FOR ETERNITY
What God cares about is a living composition of His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people. All these will be built together to express God for eternity. This will satisfy God forever. Satan will be in the lake of fire. God will be in His living dwelling place. All those He created, chose, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed will be glorified into His image. He will be living in them, and they will be living in Him. No one can adequately explain such a profound concept. Marvelous! This will be God’s dwelling and the wife of His dear Son, Christ. No physical building can be a wife. A wife is something organic, a living person.
The New Jerusalem signifies God’s dwelling in the new heaven and new earth. In the New Testament God’s dwelling place on earth was first a single Man, Jesus Christ, signified by the tabernacle (John 1:14), and then a corporate man, the church, signified by the temple (1 Cor. 3:16). In the new heaven and new earth, God’s dwelling, as the wife of the Lamb (Rev. 21:9-10), is also a living composition of His redeemed people, composed of both the Old Testament saints, represented by the twelve tribes, and the New Testament saints, represented by the twelve apostles (Rev. 21:12, 14).
These people, built together to be God’s dwelling, firstly experienced regeneration through Christ’s death and resurrection. This is signified by the pearl gates, their entrance into the city. A pearl is produced by an oyster, a living creature in the death waters. When a grain of sand wounds the oyster, it secretes a substance around the sand, which makes the sand become a pearl. The wound of the oyster signifies death, and the secretion of life juice around the grain of sand signifies the resurrection life. Jesus' death and resurrection make us pearls through regeneration. No one can enter into the kingdom of God except by regeneration (John 3:5).
In the holy city God’s nature or God’s essence becomes our basic element, signified by gold (Rev. 21:18b, 21b); the city proper is gold and the street is gold. The essence of all believers is just God Himself.
By the Spirit’s work we shall be transformed into the image of God, signified by jasper. The Father’s nature (gold), the Son’s redemption and our regeneration (pearl), and the Spirit’s transforming work (precious stones) produce all the components that comprise this eternal dwelling of God. God’s dwelling is also our dwelling. We will also be built together to be God’s Holy of Holies, expressing Him in glory.
(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 123-124)
[T]he holy city is also the dwelling place of God (Rev. 21;3). God and Christ dwell in this city. On one hand They are the temple in which we dwell, and on the other hand They are also the Dwellers within the city. This means that the New Jerusalem is a mutual habitation. God dwells in us, and we dwell in God. The church today is a habitation where God may dwell (Eph. 2:22), and God is the home where we may dwell (Psa. 90:1). This is not a new concept. Christ said in John 15, “Abide in me, and I in you” (v. 4). He is saying in essence, “I am your abode, and you are My abode.” So together with God we become a mutual habitation. How profound! To God we are the city, and to us God and Christ are the temple. We have the presence of God and Christ as the temple to us. We are not just before God’s presence and Christ’s presence; we are in God’s presence and Christ’s presence. The presence of God and Christ becomes a dwelling place for us. If we would serve God and Christ in the church, we must be surrounded by God and Christ, and covered by God and Christ. We must serve God and Christ in God and Christ. Oh, how much we need Him! He is the One whom we serve, and He is even the temple in which we serve. Do you realize and experience God and Christ in such a way? Do you serve God and Christ in such a way? This is intensely subjective.
Human logic argues that such a mutual habitation is absurd. Some may ask, “Who then is within, and who is without? If God and Christ are within us, how can they ever be outside of us? If God and Christ are in us, we can never dwell in God and Christ.” The best logician can never comprehend this. But consider, the air is within us and the air is also outside of us. The air is in me, and I am in the air. If the air were not in me, I would soon expire. And if I were not in the air, I could never breathe. It is not difficult to believe this subjective fact.
God and Christ are in you, and you are in God and Christ. Praise Him! We may experience this as a reality in our life. One day, in the new heaven and new earth, we will realize this in the fullest way. We will see how much God and Christ are to us. He dwells in us, and we dwell in Him; so we will enjoy His presence to the uttermost!
(Witness Lee, Vision of God’s Building, 223-224)
A MINGLING OF THE TRIUNE GOD WITH THE TRIPARTITE MAN
In the New Jerusalem the Triune God is fully mingled with the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite man. This mingling is the eternal dwelling of God, signified by the number twelve. Twelve is three multiplied by four. We know this because the city is square with four sides. On each side are three gates (21:13). For eternity the New Jerusalem will be an absolute mingling, not just an addition. It is multiplication—the Triune God (three) multiplied by man (four).
In the New Jerusalem the number twelve is used fourteen times. Twelve foundations of twelve precious stones bear the names of the twelve apostles (21:14, 19-20). Twelve gates of twelve pearls with twelve angels bear the names of the twelve tribes (21:12, 21a). The city’s measurement is twelve thousand stadia in three dimensions (21:16). The height of the wall is one hundred forty-four cubits (21:17a), which is twelve multiplied by twelve cubits. The tree of life produces twelve fruits in each of the twelve months yearly (22:2). The number twelve, occurring so many times, means that the holy city is a mingling of the Triune God with the tripartite man.
(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 135)
THE MINGLING OF THE TRINITY WITH HIS REDEEMED
The New Jerusalem is a composition of the divine Trinity with God’s redeemed people. First of all it is composed of God the Father’s nature, signified by the gold. The city and its street are made of pure gold (21:18, 21b), denoting God the Father in His nature. The twelve gates of the New Jerusalem, which are twelve pearls (21:21a), signify God the Son’s overcoming death and His life-imparting resurrection. An oyster is a small animal which lives in the death waters. It has a life which overcomes the death waters, and by secreting a life element, it produces pearls. Christ’s overcoming death plus His life-imparting resurrection secretes the “juice” of the divine life to form us into pearls. So in the pearl we can see the Son in His death and resurrection. The pearl signifies God’s redeemed and regenerated people. According to John 3, regeneration is the entry into the kingdom. You cannot enter into the kingdom of God unless you are born of the Spirit (John 3:5). Regeneration is the entry, the gate, into the New Jerusalem.
The precious stones signify the transforming work of God the Spirit (Rev. 21:11, 18-20). After regeneration, the Spirit continues to transform the regenerated people of God to make every one of them a precious stone. By this you can see that the New Jerusalem is a composition of the Father as the substance, of the Son as the entry, and of the Spirit as the transformation. It is a building of the Trinity with redeemed, regenerated, and transformed humanity.
(Witness Lee, Divine Trinity, 144-145)
The entire New Jerusalem is saturated with God the Spirit as the river of living water which flows out of the throne of God the Father and of the Lamb, God the Son. In the river the tree of life grows (Rev. 22:1-2). The life water, God the Spirit, quenches thirst, and the life tree, God the Son, nourishes. The entire city, which is a composition of the Trinity with His redeemed people, is watered, nourished, and saturated with the divine life, which is nothing less than the Triune God (Rev. 22:1-2, 14, 17), dispensing Himself to saturate His redeemed people. What a picture this is! This is a blending of the Triune God with His redeemed people. The nature of the Father is the substance. The redemption of the Son, including His death and resurrection, is the entry. And the Spirit’s transformation is the work to make us divine and precious. Such a composition is the New Jerusalem. It is saturated by the eternal life, which is the Triune God Himself. This is the consummation of the divine dispensing.
I look to the Lord that through these messages you may see a vision of God’s economy, God’s goal, and what God is doing to reach His goal. What God is doing is dispensing Himself as the Father, the source, as the Son, the expression, and as the Spirit, the very entering in, into you and me. Day and night He is working on this one thing. He is working toward this one goal, that we all would be a lampstand in this age to express the Triune God, and eventually that we would be that bride in eternity, a composition of redeemed and regenerated humanity saturated with the Triune God as life.
(Witness Lee, Divine Trinity, 145-146)
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