We Have Come to the City and the Church of the Living God

Hebrews 12:22-23: “You have come forward to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…and to the church of the firstborn…” First Timothy 3:15 “…the house of God, which is the church of the living God…”

The fact that, according to Hebrews 12:22, we have already come to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, indicates that it is not a material city….We need to realize that we have come to the New Jerusalem already. The church is the house of the living God (1 Tim. 3:15). Hence, the church is God’s home, and it is also our home today. When the church is enlarged to be a city, it becomes a heavenly country [Heb. 11:14]. Our heavenly country is a city—the heavenly Jerusalem—to which we have already come.*

In Hebrews 11:10-16 the better country is synonymous with the city God has prepared. To live in the church, in the fellowship with many believers in Christ, is our present foretaste of New Jerusalem.

This fellowship is not human conversation about physical things and situations. Rather, fellowship is as expressed in 1 John 1:1-3; it is sharing what we have seen and heard of Christ as the living Word of God. And our fellowship with one another is also fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. This is our current realization of New Jerusalem!

* Life-Study of the New Testament, Conclusion Messages: The Church, the Kingdom, and the New Jerusalem, message 256, p. 2685, by Witness Lee. Published 1998 and © by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, California.

Photo courtesy of pexels.com

Posted by Don on October 21, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/10/21/we-have-come-to-the-city-and-the-church-of-the-living-god/

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