The Heavenly Jerusalem, 2

The Heavenly Jerusalem

Word of Righteousness

But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. (Galatians 4:26)

The new Jerusalem is in Heaven today. It is free in God. It is the mother of every member of the Body of Christ.

"All" refers to the members of the Body of Christ whether Jewish or Gentile by race. The current idea that Christianity is Gentile by nature is false. Christianity is first, last, and always of the Jews and for the Jews. We Gentiles are added when we place our trust in Christ.

Christianity began with the Jews (the New Testament was written by Jews) and will end with the Jews. It is we Gentiles who are the strangers, not the Jews.

The heavenly Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem, will come down from God from the new heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. This will take place after the Millennium, the thousand-year Kingdom Age, has been concluded.

The holy city will come down out of Heaven from God because it is formed in Heaven. The Church, the new Jerusalem, the Body of Christ, the Wife of the Lamb, is not being fashioned from the flesh and blood of the earth. It is being constructed by the Holy Spirit of God working in heavenly places, using the Divine Virtues that come from the Tree of Life—the Lord Jesus Christ.

Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:13)

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3)

The members of the Church, of the new Jerusalem, began their existence as flesh and blood people. Through the various workings of the grace of God in Christ the members of the Church are transformed—spirit, soul, and (in the day of resurrection) body—into heavenly creatures, into the complement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. (I Corinthians 15:46-49)

Christ, the Divine Son of God, partook of human nature. We who are human are partaking of the Divine Nature. Christ and His Bride are an eternal union, a marriage, of what is Divine with what is human and material. Such is the glorious destiny of the Church, the Body of Christ, the Wife of the Lamb, the new Jerusalem.

O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. (Isaiah 54:11-13)

The above is the Word of the Lord for us today. The Church, the Body of Christ, must be "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." There must be preparation and adornment.

The Heavenly Jerusalem, #2

That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:27)

Those who are teaching that the churches of today will be caught up to Heaven before the great tribulation, and married to the Lord Jesus Christ during a brief period of time occurring between a conjectured second and third advent of Christ, surely must realize God's people are by no means ready for such an event.

The explanation that we are complete in Christ and that God sees us in Christ is to make the Kingdom of God an intangible illusion, a collection of unformed creatures who have no real righteousness, holiness, or obedience in their personalities. In that case there would be no new creatures except in a legal, imputed (ascribed) sense.

The teaching that God sees us as holy, while the world views us as unrighteous, unclean, filled with jealousy, gossip, hatred, moral filth, and self-seeking, is a misunderstanding of the role of imputed righteousness in the plan of redemption.

Is the glorious Kingdom that is coming a kingdom of imputed righteousness and not actual righteousness and holiness? No, it is not. The teachers of today are carrying the role of imputation (assigned righteousness) far beyond the Divine intention. The Kingdom of God is not imputed righteousness, it is a new creation.

Current Christian teaching concerning the role of grace is a misinterpretation of Paul's doctrine, as he brought forth the transition from the Law of Moses to the grace of God that is in Christ.

The Church today is not a bride without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. It is a valley of dry bones. Only the Lord God of Heaven will be able to bring the bones together, give them sinew and flesh, cover them with skin, and breathe life into them.

It is true that in the churches there is a handful of victorious Christians, a firstfruits of the Bride, who no doubt are the saints referred to in the nineteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation:

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness [righteous deeds] of saints. (Revelation 19:7,8)

It seems it is this handful of victorious saints who compose the "firstfruits to God and to the Lamb" mentioned in Revelation, Chapter 14. The victorious saints indeed are making themselves ready today, and they will be clothed with their own righteous conduct—a righteous conduct derived from the working of the Holy Spirit as He gives them the things of Christ.

These are God's kings and priests, the judges of men and angels, the pillars of the eternal Temple of God.

To be continued. The Heavenly Jerusalem 3