Heaven and The New Jerusalem: What’s the Difference?

Although some of the articles I have written here over the years get repeated occasionally, as a general rule, pieces written by third parties do not. However, I noticed this 2011 piece has had what is, for this site, a fair number of comments, including a recent question, and I thought we’d make an exception.

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While the blog The Pursuit of the Deeper Truth and Proper Christian Experience has a rather long title, and a bias toward the writings of Witness Lee and Watchman Nee, here at Christianity 201, we’re an equal opportunity blog with a bias toward anything that gets us thinking and studying. In today’s spiritual climate, there is much interest in heaven and the afterlife, and it’s so easy to hear a phrase like “New Jerusalem” and rush to the conclusion “New Jerusalem = Heaven.” Thomas Marvin sees each differently and clarifies that with this post originally titled

Heaven or the New Jerusalem — Is There a Difference?

“And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Rev. 21:2)

Fundamentally Different, Not Just a Matter of Semantics

Many people unintentionally, mistake the New Jerusalem for heaven. When I was a child, I remember singing a song that says:

“I’ve got a mansion just over the hill top
in that bright land where we’ll never grow old
and some day yonder, we’ll never more wander,
but walk those streets that are paved with gold.”

I may have gotten a few words wrong, but the gist of the song is pretty clear. That is, that we’re going to heaven—“to that bright land where we’ll never grow old” and “walk those streets that are paved with gold.” However, in aspiring to heaven, the writer was, in referring to golden streets, addressing an attribute of the holy city, New Jerusalem.

In the many years since my childhood days of singing that song, I’ve never once read in the Bible where it says that heaven has golden streets. However, Revelation 21:21, in speaking of the New Jerusalem, does say “the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.” You can see from this illustration, the thought of heaven having golden streets, is just one example of the confusion of heaven and the New Jerusalem.

Well, someone may say, “Aren’t they one and the same—heaven and the New Jerusalem? I say heaven. You say New Jerusalem. It’s all about the same.” However, the opening verse I referenced points to a distinction. In Revelation 21:2 it says that the holy city, New Jerusalem is coming down out of heaven. This verse directly indicates a difference, for the New Jerusalem to come down out of heaven indicates that the two expressions are not synonymous.

Then what is the distinction?

Heaven, God’s dwelling (1 Kings 8:50), the place of His throne (Isa. 66:1), and the place where Christ ascended physically after His resurrection (Acts 1:9-11) is no doubt a physical place. However, the New Jerusalem is not a physical place “to which we go” but the greatest sign in the entire Bible (see Rev. 1:1) signifying, God’s spiritual, eternal building of divinity and humanity. It is the eternal, consummation of all God’s work in humanity throughout the ages, a mingling of God and man to be the mutual dwelling place for both God and all His redeemed people for eternity.

What difference does it make anyway?

The view you have between the heaven and the New Jerusalem can change your entire Christian life. If your view is that a Christian’s eternal destiny is simply to “go to heaven” when we die, you may feel that as long as you are born again or regenerated, you are basically waiting to go to heaven. In addition, one with this concept might consider their service to God in this age ends with helping as many perishing people as possible to also go to heaven when they die. This heaven or hell gospel has unfortunately caused many a well-intended Christian to miss out on the deeper meaning of their Christian life on earth today. This kind of view of a Christian’s eternal destiny is “locational,” basically a change of place, from earth to heaven, instead of hell.

From Revelation 21:2, however, we can see that the New Jerusalem is “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” From verses 9-10, we can see that the bride, the wife of Lamb is the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. I’d like to point out again that this city is “out of heaven,” so it is not heaven. Second, I’d like to point out that this city is married to the Lamb, Christ (John 1:29). Such a bride is adorned for her husband (v. 2). This implies that a process of getting ready is necessary. A bride must match her husband, to be his counterpart.

Likewise, we must be “adorned” to marry Christ, to be His corporate counterpart, His wife. Anyone you marry must be “bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh,” even as Eve was to Adam (Gen. 2:23). To be bone of Christ’s bones, and flesh of His flesh, we must be the same as Christ in life and nature. We also must grow up in His life unto maturity (Eph 4:13, 15-16). Christ, would be humiliated to marry an immature bride. He would rather wait. Such has been the case for nearly 2,000 years of church history. Christ is waiting for His bride to be prepared.

Where is the bride for Christ to come back for?

So to make my point, the New Jerusalem is not a “locational” matter—a change in location, but an “intrinsic” or “essential” matter—a change of essence or constitution. We’re not just going to the New Jerusalem, we’re becoming the New Jerusalem. To be in the New Jerusalem, one must first become the New Jerusalem. Through the process of God’s complete salvation—the regeneration of our spirit (John 3:6), the transformation of our soul (Rom. 12:2), and the glorification of our body (Rom. 8:30), we must become the same as Christ in life and nature but not in His Godhead, being conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). Such a change in essence requires that once we are saved, we cooperate with God’s central work, that is to allow God to work Himself into our entire being (1 Thes. 5:23; Eph. 3:17). Only in this way can we become the proper constituents for the building of Christ’s Body today and of the New Jerusalem for eternity. Only in such a way can we be Christ’s bride, adorned for our dear Husband.

How is this Bride-city being prepared today?

In between the type of Adam and Eve, the first couple, in Genesis 2:18-23 and the fulfillment of this type, in the eternal couple in Revelation 21-22, we have the process of preparation in Ephesians 5:25-32. Here we can see the church, for whom Christ died in the past (v. 25), being sanctified in the present (v. 26), and presented to Christ, as His glorious bride in the future (v. 27). If we see that our eternal destiny is to become Christ’s bride, the holy city, the New Jerusalem, we will not foolishly waste our precious time today. Rather we will redeem every day to pursue Christ (Phil. 3:12), to gain Him and be found in Him (vv. 8-9) and to be sanctified by Christ, by enjoying the daily washing of the water in His word (v. 26). In this way we will be daily renewed (2 Cor. 4:16) to become as “new” as the New Jerusalem.

Such a life of redeeming the time, by understanding what the will of the Lord is (Eph 5:15-18), will bring us onward to God’s eternal goal and cause us to daily live a bride-preparing life, a life of preparing ourselves to become Christ’s bride, the New Jerusalem, for our eternal marriage.

I believe, I’ve made my point, that is, that we need to be spiritually preparing today for our coming marriage to Christ. For those who still have some concerns about believers going to heaven, and how that fits with the New Jerusalem, Witness Lee does a better job than I can of addressing the matter in chapter 18 of his book, The Church as the Body of Christ.

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I’ve closed comments here this time, in order that you can respond if you wish at the original post, as it appeared in August, 2011. Click here. See especially the comment/question at #20

Distinguishing Between Transformation and Sanctification

We just got one of those annual reports WordPress sends out to let you know all the yearly stats on what you’re posting online.  This year, the 3rd most popular article here was Is Heaven and the New Jerusalem One and the Same, which also got an unusually large number of comments.  At the time in 2011, we noted that the author, Tom Smith, is very much influenced by the writings of Witness Lee and Watchman Nee. We decided to pay a return visit (the blog is now at a new address) where we found today’s post. Click the title below to read at source; there were a number of other articles — including a couple about man’s spirit — that were on the short list for inclusion here, so there’s much to see at the blog, which is now named Holding to Truth in Love.

What’s the Difference between Sanctification and Transformation?

What are sanctification and transformation?  What’s the difference between these two aspects of God’s saving work? And how can you experience sanctification and transformation in your daily Christian life?By considering these questions you will be equipped with the truth of God’s Word and better able to experience and grow in your Christian life.

First, we need to see the meaning of sanctification and transformation and realize the relationship or distinction between them. Second, we need to learn how to progressively experience God’s sanctifying and transforming work in our daily life.

Sanctification and Transformation in the Bible

What is sanctification?

In the original Greek, the word for “sanctification” (hagiasmos) comes from the same root word as for “holy” (hagios).  “Holy” means separated, set apart.  So to sanctify a person is to make them holy and sanctification to God is the practical effect and the resulting state produced from being sanctified.

God Himself is holy and He wants His people to be holy. First Peter 1:15-16 says,

“But according to the Holy One who called you, you yourselves also be holy in all you manner of life; because it is written, “You shall be holy because I am holy.”

Holiness is what God is. It’s His nature. So the more we contact God and enjoy Him the holier we are.

God’s sanctifying work begins with a change in our position, our being separated unto Him. Then  it progresses to a change in our disposition, our being saturated with the Him.

So sanctification involves both an outward change in our position and an inward change in our disposition.

As believers in Christ, God has such a complete salvation planned for us. His salvation is carried out in the sphere of the Spirit’s sanctification. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 says,

“But we ought to thank God always concerning you, beloved of the Lord because God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”

Footnote 3 on this verse in the Recovery Version points out that the sanctification of the Spirit consists of three steps:

 1. The Spirit’s seeking us and convicting us before we are saved—1 Pet 1:2; Luke 15:8-10.

Before we were saved, our heart was turned away from God. But then His Spirit came to brood over us.

This aspect of sanctification is like the woman in the parable of the ten coins who lit a lamp and swept the house to find her lost coin. It is in this way that the Holy Spirit came to seek us, to brood over us, so that we might turn our heart to God.

The Spirit used God’s Word to shine in our hearts (Psalm 119:105, 130) and to enlighten us within so that we might realize our pitiful condition, repent, and return to God. This was God’s seeking sanctification.

To respond to His seeking it’s good to pray,

 “Oh Father, forgive me. I’ve wandered far away from You. I turn my heart back to You right now. I need You and come to You.”

Here’s a hymn that captures the sentiment of this point.

2. The Spirit’s sanctifying us positionally and dispositionally at the time we are saved—Heb. 13:12; 1 Cor. 6:11.

Then when we believed into Christ, we experienced a further sanctifying through Christ’s blood. By Christ’s redeeming blood we were separated unto God for His purpose. Hebrews 13:12 says,

“Therefore also Jesus, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.”

Through faith and baptism, our position was fully changed. We were delivered out of  Satan’s kingdom–the authority of darkness and transferred into God’s kingdom–the kingdom of the Son of God’s love (Col. 1:13).

Also, at that moment, an inward, dispositional sanctifying began within us. Our spirit was sanctified through regeneration. That is, we were reborn, or born again, with God’s divine life and nature.  John 3:6 says,

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

We may call this divine birth God’s regenerating sanctification.

3. The Spirit’s dispositional sanctifying as we pursue to grow in God’s life—Rom. 6:19, 22.

But that’s not the end. God’s Spirit does not stop with regenerating our spirit. He progressively spreads out from our spirit into all the parts of our soul. Here is where transformation comes in.

As believers, we should not be content simply to be born again or regenerated. We need to pursue the sanctification of our soul. This is God’s transforming sanctification.

Transformation is the greater part of our daily experience of God’s sanctifying work. It is the aspect of sanctification that we should continually participate in throughout our entire Christian life.

 What is transformation?

W.E. Vine, in his Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, points out that the word “transform” in the original Greek is metamorphoo, which literally means to change into another form and morphe  here “lays stress on the inward change.”

Romans 12:2a says,

“And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind…”

 Footnote 3 on this verse in the Recovery Version gives a further development to this understanding of transformation:

 “Transformation is the inward, metabolic process in which God works to spread His divine life and nature throughout every part of our being, particularly our soul, bringing Christ and His riches into our being as our new element and causing our old, natural element to be gradually discharged. As a result we will be transformed into His image (2 Cor. 3:18)…”

For a further appreciation of transformation, you may want to read this post on the Amazing Process of Transformation Revealed in the Bible.

So what is the difference between sanctification and transformation?

Transformation is the third aspect of the Spirit’s sanctifying work mentioned above. It’s the dispositional aspect of sanctification that we experience daily as we grow in Christ’s life.

Footnote 2 on Romans 6:19 points out,

Sanctification…involves not only a change in position, that is, a separation from a common, worldly position to a position for God, as illustrated in Matt. 23:17, 19 and in 1 Tim. 4:3-5; it involves also a transformation in disposition, that is, a transformation from the natural disposition to a spiritual one by Christ as the life-giving Spirit saturating all the inward parts of our being with God’s nature of holiness, as mentioned in [Rom.] 12:2 and 2 Cor. 3:18.

So for a believer to “be sanctified” does not automatically mean that they are “being transformed.” They may only be separated unto God by the redeeming blood of Jesus. But if a believer is “being transformed” they are definitely “being sanctified”—especially in their soul.

How can we experience sanctification and transformation right now?

As believers, the Lord is continually working to sanctify us—both outwardly and inwardly. Here are two ways that we can cooperate with God to be experience sanctification and transformation in our daily life.

Negatively, the Holy Spirit may bother us when we do things that are contrary to God’s holy nature. That is, when we sin, pursue the pleasures of the world or of the flesh, the Spirit will let us know that He is grieved by our actions.

At such times we need to pray to confess and deal with the Lord  concerning what is contrary to His holiness. When we repent, confess, and deal with the Lord according to His touching we are further sanctified.

Positively, we need to pursue fellowship with the Lord through prayer and God’s Word. By having living contact with the Holy Spirit in our spirit and with the Holy Word in the Bible we experience a further dispositional sanctification and transformation bringing in more of God’s element to renew our mind and our entire soul.

In 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul said,

“But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory even as from the Lord Spirit.”

By setting aside time with the Lord each day to turn our heart to Him, behold Him, and fellowship with Him, He will gradually transform us into His image. In this way, the Spirit will spread God’s holy nature into all our inward parts to sanctify us.

“Lord Jesus, thank you for showing me Your desire to not only redeem and regenerate me, but to sanctify and transform me. Lord, touch me deeply concerning my need to be sanctified–both separated unto You and saturated with Your holy nature. Daily transform me with Your life and nature into Your image so that I can express You and  have a share in fulfilling Your purpose.”

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References and Further Resources:

• Bible verses quoted in these posts are from, the Holy Bible Recovery Version published and © by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim CA, 2003. The New Testament of this Bible, with its outlines, footnotes, and cross-references, may be viewed at Recovery Version Online, also © by Living Stream Ministry.
• Here are two hymns on sanctification and transformation that will enrich your appreciation for this truth:
  • God’s intention is to have us all conformed to His dear Son and View Lyrics.
  • Thou art all my life, Lord and View Lyrics.

Is Heaven and The New Jerusalem One and the Same?

While the blog The Pursuit of the Deeper Truth and Proper Christian Experience has a rather long title, and a bias toward the writings of Witness Lee and Watchman Nee, here at Christianity 201, we’re an equal opportunity blog with a bias toward anything that gets us thinking and studying.  In today’s spiritual climate, there is much interest in heaven and the afterlife, and it’s so easy to hear a phrase like “New Jerusalem” and rush to the conclusion “New Jerusalem = Heaven.”  Thomas Marvin sees each differently and clarifies that with this post originally titled Heaven or the New Jerusalem — Is There a Difference?

“And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Rev. 21:2)

 Fundamentally Different, Not Just a Matter of Semantics

Many people unintentionally, mistake the New Jerusalem for heaven. When I was a child, I remember singing a song that says:

“I’ve got a mansion just over the hill top

 in that bright land where we’ll never grow old

and some day yonder, we’ll never more wander,

but walk those streets that are paved with gold.”

I may have gotten a few words wrong, but the gist of the song is pretty clear.  That is, that we’re going to heaven—“to that bright land where we’ll never grow old” and “walk those streets that are paved with gold.” However, in aspiring to heaven,  the writer was, in referring to golden streets,  addressing an attribute of the holy city, New Jerusalem.

In the many years since my childhood days of singing that song, I’ve never once read in the Bible where it says that heaven has golden streets. However,  Revelation  21:21, in speaking of the New Jerusalem, does say “the  street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.” You can see from this illustration, the thought of heaven having golden streets,  is just one example of the confusion of heaven and the New Jerusalem.

Well, someone may say, “Aren’t they one and the same—heaven and the New Jerusalem? I say heaven. You say New Jerusalem. It’s all about the same.” However, the opening verse I referenced points to a distinction. In Revelation 21:2 it says that the holy city, New Jerusalem is coming down out of heaven. This verse directly indicates a difference, for the New Jerusalem to come down out of heaven indicates that the two expressions are not synonymous.

Then what is the distinction?

Heaven, God’s dwelling (1 Kings 8:50), the place of His throne (Isa. 66:1), and the place where Christ ascended physically after His resurrection (Acts 1:9-11)  is no doubt a physical place. However, the New Jerusalem is not a physical place “to which we go” but the greatest sign in the entire Bible (see Rev. 1:1) signifying, God’s spiritual, eternal building of divinity and humanity.  It is the eternal, consummation of all God’s work in humanity throughout the ages, a mingling of God and man to be the mutual dwelling place for both God and all His redeemed people for eternity.

What difference does it make anyway?

 The view you have between the heaven and the New Jerusalem can change your entire Christian life. If your view is that a Christian’s eternal destiny is simply to “go to heaven” when we die, you may feel that as long as you are born again or regenerated, you are basically waiting to go to heaven. In addition, one with this concept might consider their service to God in this age ends with helping as many perishing people as possible to also go to heaven when they die. This heaven or hell gospel has unfortunately caused many a well-intended Christian to miss out on the deeper meaning of their Christian life on earth today. This kind of view of a Christian’s eternal destiny is “locational,” basically a change of place, from earth to heaven, instead of hell.

From Revelation 21:2, however, we can see that the New Jerusalem is “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”  From verses 9-10, we can see that the bride, the wife of Lamb is the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. I’d like to point out again that this city is “out of heaven,” so it is not heaven. Second, I’d like to point out that this city is married to the Lamb, Christ (John 1:29). Such a bride is adorned for her husband (v. 2). This implies that a process of getting ready is necessary. A bride must match her husband, to be his counterpart.

Likewise, we must be “adorned” to marry Christ, to be His corporate counterpart, His wife. Anyone you marry must be “bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh, even as Eve was to Adam (Gen. 2:23). To be bone of Christ’s bones, and flesh of His flesh, we must be the same as Christ in life and nature. We also must grow up in His life unto maturity (Eph 4:13, 15-16). Christ, would be humiliated to marry an immature bride. He would rather wait. Such has been the case for nearly 2,000 years of church history. Christ is waiting for His bride to be prepared.

Where is the bride for Christ to come back for?

So to make my point, the New Jerusalem is not a “locational” matter—a change in location, but an “intrinsic” or “essential” matter—a change of essence or constitution. We’re not just going to the New Jerusalem, we’re becoming the New Jerusalem. To be in the New Jerusalem, one must first become the New Jerusalem.  Through the process of God’s complete salvation—the regeneration of our spirit (John 3:6), the transformation of our soul (Rom. 12:2), and the glorification of our body (Rom. 8:30), we must become the same as Christ in life and nature but not in His Godhead, being conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). Such a change in essence requires that once we are saved, we cooperate with God’s central work, that is to allow God to work Himself into our entire being (1 Thes. 5:23; Eph. 3:17). Only in this way can we become the proper constituents for the building of Christ’s Body today and of the New Jerusalem for eternity. Only in such a way can we be Christ’s bride, adorned for our dear Husband.

How is this Bride-city being prepared today?

In between the type of Adam and Eve, the first couple, in Genesis 2:18-23 and the fulfillment of this type, in the eternal couple in Revelation 21-22, we have the process of preparation in Ephesians 5:25-32. Here we can see the church, for whom Christ died in the past (v. 25), being sanctified in the present (v. 26), and presented to Christ,  as His glorious bride in the future (v. 27). If we see that our eternal destiny is to become Christ’s bride, the holy city, the New Jerusalem, we will not foolishly waste our precious time today. Rather we will redeem every day to pursue Christ (Phil. 3:12), to gain Him and be found in Him (vv. 8-9) and to be sanctified by Christ, by enjoying the daily washing of the water in His word (v. 26). In this way we will be daily renewed (2 Cor. 4:16) to become as “new” as the New Jerusalem.

Such a life of redeeming the time, by understanding what the will of the Lord is (Eph 5:15-18), will bring us onward to God’s eternal goal and cause us to daily live a bride-preparing life, a life of preparing ourselves to become Christ’s bride, the New Jerusalem,  for our eternal marriage.

I believe, I’ve made my point, that is, that we need to be spiritually preparing today for our coming marriage to Christ. For those who still have some concerns about believers going to heaven, and how that fits with the New Jerusalem, Witness Lee does a better job than I can of addressing the matter in chapter 18 of his book, The Church as the Body of Christ.