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The Daily Word of Righteousness
The New Jerusalem, #19
And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:2,3)
God has prepared for us a city, and it is a "heavenly" city—a city founded on the Rock, Christ.
But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:16)
Abraham, and the patriarchs and prophets, are in Heaven with God. Yet, they have not attained the object of their pilgrimage:
And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: (Hebrews 11:39)
"Received not the promise."
They are in Heaven above; yet it is written that they have not received the promise.
What, then, is the promise? The promise is the spiritual counterpart of the land of promise. The spiritual counterpart of the land of promise is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God, of Heaven, is the filling of the saints with the fullness of the Glory of God in Christ, including the resurrection of the body. This is the "city that hath foundations."
All the saints, those of the old covenant and those of the new covenant, will come into the resurrection and into the Kingdom together.
God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:40)
"Made perfect."
In order for the new Jerusalem, the Kingdom of Heaven, the "city that hath foundations," to be perfect, every inhabitant of it must be made perfect.
The central theme of the Scriptures is the forming, through the Lord Jesus Christ, of the new Jerusalem, the Tabernacle of God, the Wife of the Lamb, the Body of Christ, the Kingdom of God—the Kingdom from Heaven.
The Kingdom of Heaven is God in Christ in the saints performing the will of God. This is the nature of the new Jerusalem.
The external environment, the Paradise in which the Kingdom of Heaven is located, has little glory of its own. Paradise reflects the Glory of God in Christ in the saints. The glory of Paradise, of Heaven, is being formed today wherever Christ is coming to maturity in a human heart.
The new Jerusalem, the Kingdom of Heaven, is the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because this is so, the new Jerusalem, as well as being a glorious external city the nations of the earth will be able to behold and visit, is a symbolic portrayal of each victorious saint.
Abraham was in the land of promise all the time. We too are closer to "home" than we understand in the present hour. The relationships we are forming now may be—to the extent they are of the Lord and perfectly joyous—relationships for eternity. We are not referring to flesh and blood relationships. The relationships of the future kingdom will be infinitely stronger than flesh and blood relationships.
We shall reap then what we are sowing now.
The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Let us serve the Lord Jesus now and enter the Kingdom, preparing ourselves for the new world of righteousness that soon is to come to the earth. (from The New Jerusalem)