Hebrews 13:14 “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.”
Jerusalem is the contextual “city” that is not “continuing”, for it would soon be utterly destroyed and the Jewish people and the Church of Jesus Christ would be scattered around the known world. Jerusalem and the rebuilt temple were the Jews’ icon for the Old Testament Law Service; and like the Law Service itself, the iconic “city” was going away. Paul explained the core problem, the Jewish religious leaders had “changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever” (Romans 1:25). They had “changed the truth of God into a lie”, they were worshiping themselves, the grand “city” of Jerusalem, the magnificent Temple, and their distorted views of the Law Service; but not God. Jerusalem was going away, and we need to know that there is still not an earthly “continuing city” in our day. Men are still building great cities, with great towers (Genesis 11:4), as icons for their own glory; but, “here have we no continuing [earthly] city”! Like the Jewish religious leaders in Biblical times, great religious institutions (cities) are built in our day which, in truth, glorify man and not God; but, “here have we no continuing city”! The Good News is that “we seek one to come”! The Church-Kingdom of Jesus is eternally secure under the Command and Care of our Lord Jesus Christ; for, He declared, “I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18); and, we “are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22). His “church” is the “continuing city” that we “seek” in this present life. John was highly blessed to see our “continuing city” as she was being extended “out of heaven from God”; He tells us that the Lord’s “angel” “carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:10). Her blessed presence on this earth always points us to her Eternal Glory in “heaven” (Revelation 21:11). We rejoice, knowing that there will be a great day in which we “shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (I Thessalonians 4:17) and we will see our Beloved Lord and Savior and His Holy City in her full glory, “as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2). Oh, “What a day that will be” (Jim Hill)!