What isThe City of God?

First of all, God speaks of the City of Zion, the City of God. A blessed thing that City of God is, because it means, first of all, the place of the house of God. It means the place where God dwells; nay, "Zion," the very name, means His "fixed" abode. It is where He has fixed His abode eternally. It is the place of which He says: "I have chosen Zion"; He has chosen it for Himself, His place upon earth, His place, therefore, amongst men. Beloved, how blessed it is to realize that!

Having begun with the sovereign grace that meets man in his utter ruin, we now pass by faith into heavenly scenes, and find ourselves in the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. This city is symbolic both of the heavenly saints and their dwelling in the world to come. The earthly blessing of millennial days will be administered through this city — the nations will walk in the light of it. In contrast with earthly cities, it is called the city of the living God. Earthly cities are composed of dying men, and therefore, like themselves, their cities are subject to death and decay. This city derives its life from the living God, and is therefore beyond the power of death and decay. In faith this glorious city rises up before our souls; we see what is coming. By sight we look around and see the misery, the squalor, the violence and the corruption of men's cities: by faith we look on and see this glorious city where sin-soiled feet have never trod. It comforts our hearts to know that, when the nations walk in the light of this city, the misery will be gone and the blessing of the world to come will be established.

The last vision of Revelation is now before us: it is that of the city of God itself. But here, where one would desire above all to see clearly, we become most conscious of how feeble and dull is our apprehension of eternal things. They are words of an apostle which remind us that "we see through a glass darkly " - en ainigmati, in a riddle. Such a riddle, then, it is no wonder if the vision presents to us: the dream that we have here a literal description, even to the measurements, of the saints' eternal home, is one too foolish to need much comment. All other visions throughout the book have been symbolic: how much more here how little need we expect that the glimpse which is here given us into the unseen would reveal to us the shape of buildings, or the material used! Scripture is reticent all through upon such subjects; and the impress to be left upon our souls is plainly spiritual, not of lines and hues, as for the natural senses. "Things which eye hath not seen" are not put before the eye. On the other hand, that the "city" revealed to us here is not simply a figure of the saints themselves, as, from the term used for it, "the Bride, the Lamb's Wife," some have taken it to be, there are other scriptures which seem definitely to assure us. " Jerusalem., which is above, which is our mother" (Gal. iv.) could hardly be used in this way, though the Church is indeed so conceived of in patristic and mediceval thought. But even thus it would not be spoken of naturally as "above." In Heb. xii. we have a still more definite testimony. For there the "Church of the firstborn ones which are written in heaven," as well as "the spirits of just men made perfect " - in other words, both Christians and the saints of the Old Testament - are mentioned as distinct from "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem;" and this will not allow them to be the same thing, although, in another way, the identification of a city with its inhabitants is easy. We are led in the same direction by the mention of the "tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God," - something to which the apostle thought he might have been caught even bodily (2 Cor. xii.) - and here is the tree of life in the midst of the city beside the "river of the water of life" which flows from the throne of God. Figurative language all this surely; yet these passages combine to give us the thought of a heavenly abode, already existing, and which will be in due time revealed as the metropolis of the heavenly kingdom - what Jerusalem restored will be in the lower sphere. Indeed the earthly here so parallels and illustrates the heavenly as to be a most useful help in fixing, if not enlarging, our thoughts about it, - always while we realize, of course, the essential difference that Scripture itself makes clear to be between them. But this we shall have to look at as we proceed. "The holy city, Jerusalem.," is certainly intended to be a plain comparison with the earthly city. But that is the type only; this is the antitype, the true "foundation of peace," as the word means. What more comforting title, after all the scenes of strife, the fruit of the lusts that war in our members, which we have had to look upon! Here is "peace" at last, and on a foundation that shall not be removed, but that stands fast forever. For this is emphatically "the city that hath foundations," and "whose builder and maker is God." (Heb. xi. io.) How blessed it is, too, that it should be just one of the seven angels that had the seven last plagues that shows John the city! for no mere executioner of judgment we see is he: judgment (as with God, for it is God's) is also his "strange work." It had to come, and it has come: there was no help, no hope without it; thus the stroke of the "rod of iron" was that of the shepherd's rod; it was the destruction of the destroyers only. But it is past, and here is the scene wherein his own heart rests, to which it returns with loyalty and devotion: here, where the water of life flows from the throne of God, - eternal, from the Eternal; refreshment, gladness, fruitfulness, and power are found in obedience. But the city is the "Bride, the Lamb's wife." In the Old Testament, the figure of marriage is used in a similar way. Israel was thus Jehovah's "married wife" (Is. liv. x, Jer. xxxi. 33), now divorced indeed for her unfaithfulness, but yet to return (Hos. ii.), and be received and reinstated. Her Maker will be then once more her husband, and more than the old blessing be restored. In the forty-fifth psalm, Israel 's King, Messiah, is the Bride­groom; the Song of Solomon is the mystic song of His espousals. Jerusalem thus bears His name: "This is the name whereby she shall be called: 'Jehovah our Righteousness.'" (Jer. xxxiii. i6, comp. xxiii. 6.) The land too shall be "married." (Is. lxii. 4.) In the New Testament, the same figure is still used in the same way.

Out of harmony with the course of things in Adam's world, Abraham, and others looked for the city which has foundations, of which the architect and builder is God. Not here, but above, is that city found, — "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb. 11:10; Heb. 12:12). There holiness and peace prevail; there too will be realised that fellowship which a city may suggest — all the fruit of redeeming love. To that sacred centre God will shortly bring the willing feet of all His beloved people. Earth's cities, with all their monuments of human pride, will come to nought when God arises to "shake terribly the earth"; God's city will abide for ever. Happy the man who has part therein!

Yet God has from the first entertained the thought of a city for man. Out of harmony in spirit with the course of things here, Abraham and others have looked for the city of which the architect and builder is God. Not here, but above, is that city found — "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb. 11:10; Heb. 12:22). There holiness and blessing will abide — the fruit of redeeming love. To this sacred rest God will in His own time bring the willing feet of every sinner saved by grace.

(2) The world to come (Ps. 46:4-5). Not only does faith overcome the present world, but it walks in the light of the world to come with all its peace and blessing. Faith looks beyond "the waters" of this world that "roar" and make "trouble," and it sees the river of God, and streams of refreshing that "make glad." It looks beyond the imposing cities of men and sees "the city of God." The Psalmist looked for the establishment of Zion — the earthly city — from which blessing will flow to the nations. Abraham, in his day, "looked for the city" whose "builder and maker is God." In our day, believers can say, we "are come unto mount Zion; and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem." Under present conditions we see the great cities of this world assaulted and desolated by ruthless violence and corruption. Looking on to the heavenly Jerusalem we see the city into which there shall in no wise enter "anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination; or maketh a lie," and no enemy will ever scale its wall "great and high" (Rev. 21:12, 27). Moreover, the Psalmist, speaking of the earthly Zion, reminds us that "God is in the midst of her." So of the heavenly city, we read "the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it," and again, we learn that "the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the lamp thereof" (Rev. 21:23). Moreover, if the cities and empires of this world are breaking up and falling into ruin, of the city of God we read, "she shall not be moved." We see that the cities of men have no righteous foundation, and are therefore marked by change and decay. But, like Abraham, we look for the city "which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." What God has founded will never be moved. No power of the enemy will assault it; no evil of man will pass through its gates; no night will ever dim its light; no shadow of death will bring any change; no curse will lead to decay. The "pure river of water of life" will for ever "make glad the city of God."

It is just here that the difference of the Church's place is seen. If Jerusalem is made the centre of the whole earth, the heavenly city is the metropolis of the whole creation. It is an aggregate of intelligent people, a vast corporation which is seen as the crown of all the work of God in His dealings with mankind, a city whose founder and builder is God. The city speaks of centralisation, and has been defined to be "the most perfect realisation and the most convenient representation of society in its maturity." What thinking person can fail to see right from the building of the Cain city, the tendency on the part of man for centralisation. The closing book of the Bible sets before us two cities: one the climax of civilisation, fruit of the industry, ingenuity, and device of man, as having departed from God; the other, the blessed expression of the wisdom, skill, and resource of God.

How great is the contrast between man's city and God's city! Man has reared his city to display himself, and has brought into it everything his inventive genius could conceive to gratify his fallen nature. But he can never find satisfaction in anything that proceeds from himself, and very soon all that he has devised and constructed will be brought down in eternal ruin. God's city, whether seen in its millennial or eternal character, will bring delight to the heart of God and to Christ; and will bring joy, rest and bliss to those whom God has brought there through the work of His Son, and whose precious blood has given them title to be there.

Thirdly, the City comes "from God." The Church is heavenly in character and is divine in origin. In contrast the great religious systems of Christendom, finding their extreme expression in Babylon, not only stand condemned by their earthly character, but by their obviously human origin.

First, here, we are shown that He has prepared for us a city — "the holy city." The new Jerusalem is surely, what its earthly type is, a "city of habitation:" it is not simply a figure for the saints themselves. The patriarchs of old, content to await in patient faith the end of their pilgrim-journey, "looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God," and He will not disappoint their expectations, — "He hath prepared for them a city." (Heb. 11:10, 16.) At the very beginning of the world's history we find, in one who manifested a totally opposite spirit, still the desire of the human heart which this promise meets. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, fugitive and vagabond as he was, to build a city. Without faith or patience, he only shows the natural craving of the heart, but not in itself evil because natural. Ever since, the history of man has connected itself mainly with its cities. From Babel on to Rome, these have been the centres of power and progress ever, and (the world being what it is) they have exhibited in the most developed way its opposition to God. But God too has His city, and makes much of it, "beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth," and with it associates (Ps. 87) the One great name which eclipses that of all others.