ENJOYING THE DIVINE TRINITY
TO THE FULLEST IN ETERNITY
Eventually, we will enjoy the Divine Trinity to the fullest in eternity (Rev. 22:1-5). Regardless of how much we are enjoying the Divine Trinity today, we are still not enjoying Him to the fullest extent. The fullest enjoyment of our wonderful Triune God will be in eternity in the new heaven and new earth.
In this enjoyment we will have God and the Lamb [the redeeming God in His trinity] as the temple for our dwelling (Rev. 21:22-23). The temple is the dwelling place and the serving place of the priests of God. In eternity we all will be God’s eternal priests, and God Himself will be our dwelling in whom we live and serve. The temple in Revelation 21 is not a material temple. The temple is a person. Verse 22 tells us that the temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb, the redeeming God. Verse 23 tells us that the lamp of the city is the Lamb, the person of Christ. Because of this revelation, we have the boldness to say that the holy city, the New Jerusalem, is not a material city, but a person.
The holy city is a corporate person, and this corporate person is a couple—the processed Triune God married to the transformed, tripartite man. This is the Spirit and the bride becoming one (Rev. 22:17a). Divinity and humanity are married together, mingled together, to be one entity. The holy city is a corporate person—a corporate, great God-man. The holy city as the tabernacle of God is for God to dwell in (21:2-3), and God and the Lamb as the temple are for us to dwell in. God is our temple, and we are His tabernacle. In the new heaven and new earth, the New Jerusalem will be a mutual dwelling place for both God and man for eternity.
The throne of God [the Triune God] and of the Lamb [the redeeming Son] is the center of the holy city for the divine administration and the source of the divine enjoyment to us (Rev. 22:1, 3). The throne of God and the Lamb is for the divine administration. It is also the source of our divine, eternal enjoyment because the river with the tree of life comes out of the throne. We will drink the river of water of life [the Spirit] proceeding out of the throne (v. 1). We will also eat the tree of life [the life-giving Son] growing on the two sides of the river, yielding fruit each month (v. 2). The life-giving Son yields fruit each month for our life supply. Thus, we have the redeeming God as our dwelling place, the throne as the source of our enjoyment, the Spirit as our drink, and the life-giving Son as our food.
We will also have the Lord God [the Triune God] illumining us (v. 5a). This means that our God will be our lamp. We will have the name of the Triune God on our forehead (v. 4b). The fact that we bear His name declares that we are one with Him. In a training, we may wear a badge to tell people who we are. In eternity we will have a "badge" on our forehead. That badge declares that we belong to the Triune God and that we are one with the Triune God. Praise the Lord that we will bear such a "badge" for eternity! For eternity we will be labeled with the Triune God.
We will also see the face of the Triune God (v. 4a). In eternity future in the new heaven and new earth and in the New Jerusalem we will see the face of our God. To see the face of the Triune God and to have His name on our forehead will be blessings to us in eternity. Furthermore, we will serve the Triune God as His priests (v. 3b), and reign to the ages of the ages as the kings of the Triune God (v. 5b). In eternity future all the preserved nations around the New Jerusalem will be the citizens (Rev. 21:24-27), the people of God’s eternal kingdom, but we will be the kings who reign forever and ever.
Through our study of the revelation concerning living in and with the Divine Trinity, we can see that the entire New Testament is composed with the Triune God as its structure. The last picture of the divine revelation in Revelation 21 and 22 shows us that the Triune God is not for our mental understanding, but for our enjoyment. He is our dwelling place, our drink, our food, and our light. To maintain life, we need a dwelling place, drink, food, and light. As long as we have these four necessities, we can have a proper living. We have a place to dwell, water to drink, food to eat, and light to enjoy. All of these are the Triune God. The Triune God is our dwelling place, the Son is our food, the Spirit is our drink, and the redeeming God is our light. This describes the coming life in eternity, which we will enjoy to the fullest.
(Living In and With the Divine Trinity, Chapter 13, by Witness Lee)
