The Consummate Moment of the Church

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Rev. 21:1-4

The church is seen in this picture in Revelation in three metaphors: city, bride, and temple. This is the consummate moment that each and every local church awaits. The time when there is no longer two city's--the local church (God's people) in a local city (the world)--but One. The time when there is no longer giving in marriage between people made in the image of God, but God's restored people as His own Bride. The mystery of marriage reaches it's goal when the wedding of the Lamb takes place. The time when the temple, the dwelling place of God, is fully established. This temple full of God's kingdom of priests, every believing man and woman, under the great High Priest Jesus. The presence of the King encompassing all. The temple in many ways becomes all things for the presence of God permeates His land and His people. The tabernacle is not a built structure but all of creation. No more curse. No more tears. No more death. No more pain. The former is gone, the latter has come. The church, that was made known to the principalities and powers on earth, then reigns triumphing over all indwelled fully by the living Triune God as all that is evil burns in the lake of fire.

Therefore the church now is to live as God's City, separate from the world's system yet in the world's city being ambassadors of the City within the city; God's Bride, fully devoted to the Husband-King, being intimate with no idol only God; and God's Temple, proclaiming and living in the sacrifice of the Lamb, receiving God's Word, and dwelling with one another in love and mutual edification as God dwells in his church. The triple metaphors like parts of a diamond each edge gleaming a piece of the consummate moment yet none fulfilling all that the church is in her glory and that glory being illumined by the indwelling God.