“But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11:16
IN his classic work City of God, St. Augustine developed the idea that “all human history and culture may be viewed as the interplay of the competing values” of the City of God and the city of men. “The members of the two cities are intermingled in actual human societies on earth, throughout the course of time.” In his foreword to an edition of the work, Etienne Gilson writes “Augustine has differentiated the two societies in several ways: love of God or love of the world; love of God to the point of self-contempt or love of self-carried to a contempt of God; love of the flesh or love of the spirit.” As a Father of the universal church, respected by Protestants and Catholics, Augustine’s famous work was founded on Biblical teachings. From the beginnings in Genesis, we see two families and two cities arising: those who honour the God of the Bible, like Abel, and those, like Cain, who follow their own ways and the leading of Satan, the enemy of God and humanity.
Hebrews 11 is the great Bible chapter on faith. At the heart of the Gospel is the teaching of justification, God’s declaration of righteousness, through faith alone in Christ alone. (Ephesians 2:8,9). This is the gift of God’s grace. The great heroes of Scripture are identified by believing and accepting the promises of God, “for by it the elders obtained a good testimony.” (Hebrews 11:2). The very cornerstone of their faith is belief in God the Creator Who has spoken to men and called them to dwell with Him in His City.
The City of God is made up of those who live in obedience to God. In the Book of Hebrews, many are called heroes of faith like Abraham. They, like us who are citizens of this City, have all come from the far city of prodigal sinners. The classic Bible verse that describes the conversion of sinful citizens of the rebellious world is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The Bible offers no hope of salvation to those who live under the kingship of the Devil, ruler of the city of the world, hating the God of the Bible, hating His Son the Saviour, mocking and despising His ways of holiness.
Abraham, the “father of the faithful” once worshipped idols in Mesopotamia. But called by God to leave the far city of men, “he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” (Hebrews 11:10). The catalogue of “heroes of faith” in this New Testament book details the many who forsook the city of prodigals and sinful men to live as citizens of God’s Holy City by faith.
Many today (as they have always done) mock the Biblical promises of an afterlife in which both Heaven and Hell (eternal separation from God) are set out everywhere. Jesus, as did the earlier prophets, spoke clearly of a world beyond this earthly one. Hours before His cruel crucifixion, He comforted His disciples: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3). His Father’s house is the City of God to which Abraham and all saints from the beginning, have looked forward.
Are we on our way to the City of God? God’s true people, then and now, are “strangers and exiles on the earth.” (Hebrews 11:13). Though they were once citizens of the city of the world, indulging in its sinfulness, enemies of God, they have now, by God’s grace, been delivered from the inherent death of the world’s life-styles, and brought into the City of God. Like Bible heroes of faith, their lives now, separated from worldliness, sin, idolatries, atheism, false religions, materialisms, political divisiveness etc, show that these redeemed souls are “seeking a homeland” (Heb 11:14). Somewhere else, not here on this sin-plagued earth, filled with violence and corruption, as in the days of Noah. The believer in the God of the Bible, in the Lord Jesus Christ, asserts, “This world is not my home!”.
The writer of Hebrews says if they had preferred the world and behaviour from which God had saved them, they would have returned to that far city. As, sadly, many who once professed faith in Christ have done (Heb.11:15). Truly converted persons, born again by God’s redeeming grace, chosen, called, justified, reconciled to God, will NOT go back to the cursed city and its sin-filled corruptions. Which are deceitful in their attractiveness and how they cater to our fleshly lusts. If citizens of the Holy City of God do sin, they will repent, they cannot continue in sin as they once did (1 John 1:8-10).
The heart and mind of God’s true people, redeemed by Christ Jesus, are set upon a better country, a perfect, holy world, a heavenly one. Their God has prepared a City for them (Heb. 11:16). The City of God is ready but still hidden from the saints on earth who believe in it by faith in the revelation of Scripture. But it will be revealed in due time.
A day of judgement is also coming for God’s enemies in the city of men, this sin-filled world (2 Peter 3:10-13). It is called The Day of the Lord. On that Day the city of men will come to an end, with its destruction and the final defeat of its king, Satan. For the faithful people of God, a new heaven and earth, the City of God will be opened. Are we ready for that? Are we among the people of God, of Christ Jesus the Lord, strangers and pilgrims here, who have left behind the far city of prodigals, the city of men, the god of this world the Devil who exists? Are we journeying steadily to the City of God where our Saviour Lord Jesus Christ is King?
Let us make our calling and election sure now! Time is running out! The signs are everywhere if we have eyes to see and understand that the world is collapsing. As in the days of Noah, violence and corruption again fill the earth. Anti-Christ figures are on the rise everywhere. “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1,2).
Let us come out of the far city of prodigals, the sinful world, and enter with joy and thanksgiving the City of God where Jesus Christ our Saviour is Lord.