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Glorification Glorification n the previous issue of A&C (see “Transformation,” for which is our being conformed to the image of Christ, IVI.2 (October 2001): 69-72), we pointed out that the the sealing Spirit saturates our entire being, especially our New Jerusalem, as the consummation of the entire divine mortal body, with the glorious life-element of God, revelation of the Scriptures and the goal of God’s eternal resulting in the redemption of our body (Eph. 1:14; 4:30; economy, is the embodiment of God’s full salvation, Rom. 8:23), i.e., the transfiguration, or transformation, of including its judicial and organic aspects (Rom. 5:10). our body (Phil. 3:21) at the Lord’s coming back, at which According to the revelation of the New Testament, the time we will have God’s divine image in full and will be complete salvation of God includes God’s judicial manifested with the Lord in glory (Col. 3:4). The glorifi- redemption, accomplished through Christ’s redeeming cation of the sons of God, as the consummation and goal death on the cross (Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Heb. 9:12, of God’s eternal salvation (Rom. 8:30; 2 Thes. 2:14; 2 15), and God’s organic salvation, comprising regenera- Tim. 2:10; 1 Pet. 5:10), will be manifested in full in the tion, sanctification, renewing, transformation, con- New Jerusalem for eternity (Rev. 21:11). formation, and glorification. In regeneration, the com- mencement and the base of God’s salvation in its organic Having the Glory of God aspect, the Spirit of God as the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2) and Being Illumined by the Glory of God imparts the divine life, the eternal, uncreated life of God (John 3:16, 36; Eph. 4:18), into our spirit, causing us to A full description of the New Jerusalem is given by the be born of God and thus to become the children of God apostle John in Revelation 21:11—22:5. An outstanding (John 3:6; 1:12-13; Rom. 8:16; 1 John 3:1-2). In sanctifi- feature of the New Jerusalem is that it has the glory of cation, the Holy Spirit of God (Rom. 15:16) saturates our God, and its “light [lit. luminary] is like a most precious tripartite being—our spirit and soul and body (1 Thes. stone, like a jasper stone, as clear as crystal” (21:11). The 5:23)—with God’s divine, holy nature (2 Pet. 1:4) that glory of God will be the content of the New Jerusalem, we may be made holy unto God (Rom. 6:19, 22) with the for this city will be completely filled with God’s glory. The result that we ultimately become as holy as the holy The Spirit will saturate our entire being with the glorious life-element city, New Jerusalem (Rev. of God at the Lord’s coming back. The glorification of the sons 21:2, 10; 22:19). In renew- ing, the renewing Spirit of God, as the consummation and goal of God’s eternal salvation, (Titus 3:5) spreads from our will be manifested in full in the New Jerusalem for eternity. spirit into our mind (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23) and infuses our inward parts with God’s wall of the New Jerusalem, being the appearance of the divine attributes, which are forever new, thereby renew- city—what one sees when he looks at the city—is con- ing our entire being and making us collectively God’s new structed of jasper, a transformed precious stone (v. 18). creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15) and the new man (Eph. Hence, the appearance of the New Jerusalem is the 2:15; Col. 3:10-11), consummating in our being as new as appearance of jasper, and jasper is the appearance of the the New Jerusalem. In transformation, the pneumatic redeeming God, the Lamb-God, who sits on the throne Christ as the transforming Spirit transforms us into the within the city (22:1, 3; 4:3—the red color of the sardius glorious image of Christ through the metabolic function in this verse signifies redemption; hence, the sardius signi- of the life of God in us (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18), there- fies the God of redemption, the redeeming God). This by making us the mass reproduction of the firstborn Son indicates that the New Jerusalem is the expression of of God, the first God-man. In conformation, the matur- God, that is, the glory of God, God Himself expressed in ing Spirit in our spirit continues to dispense the divine splendor, having the appearance of God in His glory. The essence into our entire being until we are mature, full- color of jasper is dark green, signifying life in its richness. grown, in the divine life (Heb. 6:1; Col. 1:28; Eph. 4:13) Hence, jasper signifies God’s communicable glory in His and are fully conformed to the image of Christ, the rich life (John 17:2, 22). That the jasper God within the Firstborn (Rom. 8:29). In glorification, the preparation city is expressed through the jasper wall indicates that the Volume VII No. 1 April 2002 55 jasper God has been wrought into the jasper wall, making God shines in the New Jerusalem first in Christ and the two one. through Christ as the lamp to illuminate the city with the glory of God, and then in the city and through the city’s As a luminary, a light-bearer, the New Jerusalem shines transparent wall as the diffuser to express Himself in forth God Himself as the divine light (1 John 1:5) over glory and to illuminate the nations around the city. the nations, who live around the city (Rev. 21:24). This shining of the divine light is the divine glory, which is God The New Jerusalem is a great corporate vessel to contain Himself (Acts 7:2) expressed through the New God in Christ and to shine forth God through Christ. Jerusalem. Thus, the fact that the New Jerusalem has the God is the light, the Lamb is the lamp within the city to glory of God means that the God of glory, who sits on the be the content of the city, and the city is the diffuser, a throne in the center of the city, shines through the city great lamp to diffuse God as the light of glory over all the for His eternal, radiant expression in His redeemed, nations around her. Thus, the New Jerusalem is the regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, con- enlargement, increase, and expansion of Christ to express formed, and glorified elect. The city does not have light Him as God’s embodiment, which in turn issues in the in itself, but the light, which is God, has been constitut- glorification, the glorious manifestation, of the Triune ed into the city and shines out through it. Today the God, who is embodied in Him (Col. 2:9). believers in Christ, who are the children of light and are even light itself in the Lord (Eph. 5:8), are the light of the The Heading Up of All Things in Christ world, a city situated upon a mountain (Matt. 5:14). As such, they shine as luminaries in the present age in the The shining of God’s glory in and through the New midst of a crooked and perverted generation (Phil. 2:15). Jerusalem will bring in an eternal administration in which Eventually, they will consummate in the holy city, New all things, both in the heavens and on the earth, will be Jerusalem, as the universal light-bearer, shining forth God headed up in Christ. In Ephesians 1:10 this administration for His glorious, corporate expression in eternity. is called “the economy [administration] of the fullness of the times.” The consummate goal of God in His eternal ccording to Revelation 21:23 and 22:5, the entire economy is the heading up of all things in Christ in the A city of the New Jerusalem is illuminated by the glory economy of the fullness of the times (i.e., the ages). The of God, the shining of God as the divine light from with- fullness of the times will be the new heaven and the new in the Lamb, Christ, as the lamp. Because God Himself earth with the New Jerusalem as the center, which will as the genuine divine light shines within the city, it has no appear after all the dispensations of God in all the ages need of the sun or of the moon, the natural God-created have been completed (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1-2). light, or of a lamp, the artificial, man-made light, to shine in it. The Lamb as the lamp shines with God as the light he heading up of all things in Christ as the universal to illumine the city with the glory of God, the expression THead was planned by God in eternity, but it was frus- of the divine light. trated temporarily by Satan’s rebellion and man’s fall. Lucifer, the archangel and the God-anointed head of the In the New Jerusalem the very God as the divine light is preadamic age (cf. Luke 4:6), rebelled against God contained, embodied, in the Redeemer, Christ the Lamb, because of his pride, and he was joined in his rebellion by as the lamp, and He shines within and through the many of his fellow angels and by the preadamic creatures redeeming Christ to enlighten the city.
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