God could have picked any name for his future city here on earth. He chose New Jerusalem. Why that particular name? The history of the current earthly city of Jerusalem is not the point of this article. What follows is much more profound.
Man’s Future
The reason for that naming may be found in Ephesians 3:14-19. Paul prays for something extraordinary to happen to all of us, culminating in the climax “that you may be filled with all fullness of God.”
What does “that you may be filled with all fullness of God” mean?
Filled with All Fullness
“You may be filled” means to be complete, whole, to be satisfied.1 To experience perfect joy.2
“With all fullness of God” means the full contents of what God is.1 What are those contents?
In Ephesians 3:8, Paul writes that he will preach, “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” In 3:10 Paul describes those riches as “the manifold wisdom of God.” The contents that God will fill us with is the “manifold wisdom of God”.
Stay with me…
Manifold Wisdom
“Manifold” means various, variegated, intricate.1 Better described as “many-folded.” Picture a fan, it’s folded back and forth. It has many visible and known parts—the outer folds of a fan; and many hidden or unknown parts—the inner folds of a fan. It can expand and contract, open and close.
“Wisdom” is defined as the right application of knowledge which resides in the mind.1 In this case it will be the full contents in God’s mind—known and unknown—which the Bible calls “the fullness of God.” That is the kind of wisdom we are talking about. The wisdom in God’s mind.
Paul says, that wisdom is going to be give to us.
Our Future with God
Summarizing Paul’s statement, “that you may be filled with all fullness of God,” I will restate:
We shall experience the joy of feeling complete and satisfied when God fills us with all his wisdom.
We will be the living embodiment of that statement! His wisdom will enter our minds. Each and every one of us in Christ will be filled with God’s wisdom. We will have God’s mind in our mind. Which means, all that his mind knows we will have access to as well.
That is the pinnacle of the Gospel of God which Paul preaches. That is the endpoint where our faith in Jesus is taking us. God will fill believer’s in Jesus with his wisdom. That experience will give us great joy and satisfaction. We shall be “complete” human beings when we are filled with God’s fullness, also called, the wisdom of God.
It is hard to wrap our minds around that kind of a future waiting for us, but that is what Paul says is going to take place. The Bible says we will experience that kind of a life in a place called New Jerusalem (see Revelation 3:12; chap. 21, 22).
With that in mind, onto the name Jerusalem.
What “Jerusalem” Means
Jerusalem is Yerushalayim in Hebrew. It is composed of two words, “yeru” and “shalayim or sha-lem.”3
The core word in this name is, “sha-lem,” which means completeness, a wholeness. The word “shalom” meaning peace, comes from this word, because any peace depends on both completeness and wholeness.4
The first part of the name Jerusalem “yeru,” pronounced “yir-oo,” means “they will feel the awe.” When you put these two parts together, the name Jerusalem means, “they will feel the awe of completeness.”4
What?
That is exactly what Paul says in Ephesians 3:19, “that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” We will experience the joy of feeling complete and satisfied when God fills us with all his wisdom.
Jerusalem means “They will feel the awe of completeness.” A state where one is so in touch with God as to be in constant rapture.3
New Jerusalem
In New Jerusalem, we will experience knowing the wisdom of God, fully and completely. It will be our daily experience. Nothing short of a rapturous bliss! Something so far beyond any earthly experience in the here and now. Not only will that be our new reality, we will also be living in a city whose name means that exact experience.
God names things he creates for what they are. New Jerusalem will be just that. The place where we live with the wisdom of God inside us. At all moments, for ever! — vkw
1. Bullinger, E.W. A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament, 1999, Kregel Publications
2. Kittel, G. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume, 1985, Eerdmans
3. https://www.chabad.org/
4. https://hebrew.jerusalemprayerteam.org/jerusalem/
