Jesus tells us that "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Luke 12:34). As we look around us and at the world in general, we can't help but see that the majority of mankind think they are laying up treasures in this world that will last and last. In fact, almost all men's thinking, planning and work is based upon the view that man is going to be in this world forever and ever, and that he will develop this world into the perfect society and solve all of its problems. This world is his treasure.
How different the view of the book of Hebrews:
"By faith [Abraham] sojourned in the land of promise. As in a strange country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. . . . These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, "n heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city... For here we have no continuing city, but seek one to come" (Hebrews 11:9, 10, 13-16; 13:14).
"Here we have no abiding city, but we seek the coming one." It is important that we be continually reminded of this in a world that thinks it will last forever! Though we enter into new eras from time to time (the ‘60's, the space age, the computer age, etc.), in another decade it quite possibly will be something else. It may be that the next age could be one of great tribulation. At any rate, we are still in the same old world in which the wise man of God, Solomon, has said, "There is nothing new under the sun" (cf. Eccl. 1:9,10). It is the same old world which cast out the Christ, and which will force those who are called by His name to bear His reproach and to confess that they are pilgrim Christians; to confess that here they have no abiding city, but seek one to come. Pilgrim Christians must be careful that they are not putting their roots down too deeply because they may be moving in the morning. Sometimes people get to talking about all the times they've moved. Each time they hope it will be the last time. It's so much work and one gets tired and just wants to stay put and settle down.
Yet that is exactly what the Christian pilgrim in this world is not to do. It is an heavenly object which the Christian pilgrim seeks: God's city, the heavenly Jerusalem. Of that city we only begin to have a glimpse and can have only a small understanding of it here in this present world. God's Word does give us such a glimpse, often using symbolic language (cf. Rev. 21).
This heavenly city is most glorious indeed! God is the chief joy of it. His presence fills the city and the temple. His blessed, perfect covenant is the very essence of all its joy and bliss. Its gates are set with pearls and precious stones, and its streets are paved with pure gold. It has no need for the light of the sun, for the glory of God and the Lamb enlighten it. It is the opposite of all that is earthly and has passed away; it is the realization of God's eternal plan of heavenly perfection. The gates thereof are never shut, and in it there is no night. Into this city shall nothing enter that defiles or makes a lie (cf. Rev. 21). It will be a new heaven and a new earth wherein righteousness shall dwell (cf. 2 Pet. 3:13). It's the home of the perfected saints! And the saints are the Lamb's bride, the elect church of God, loved by Him eternally, chosen by Him from before the foundation of the world (cf. Eph. 1:4), and predestined to be conformed to the image of God's Son (cf. Rom. 8:29). He is their Head and Redeemer. With Him they form one elect body.
That we have here no continuing or abiding city, but seek the coming one, must mean that the one we seek is in contrast to anything here below. And that contrast is very sharp. Nothing in this present world is permanent. The world and its institutions crumble and fall, kingdoms come and kingdoms go. Nations rise to the height of power, only to fall before the destructive power of another that is greater. Cities, it seems, can rise up over night, and then disappear like the morning dew. And man that dwells in them is as destructible as the world and its things. According to the Psalmist he is "like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth" (Ps. 90:5, 6); or "as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more" Ps. 103:15, 16). He lies silent and forgotten in the grave!
How foolish is our depraved nature that entices us to dig deeply and attempt to build a lasting place in this world! How easy it is, especially in times of affluence, to assume the position of the fool who had prospered materially and who said: "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry" (Luke 12:19), not realizing that at the end of the day he said this, his very soul would be required of him; or to take the position of Nebuchadnezzar who gloated over his amassed treasures, and said: "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built . . . by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?" (Dan. 4:30). And that very night the city was sacked and completely destroyed! Even Jerusalem, that mighty citadel of David, was left with not one stone standing upon another (cf. Mk. 13:2).
Not so the eternal, heavenly and abiding city! It shall never pass away. It has no destructive forces in it, nor is there any enemy that is able to bring it to destruction. The city of God shall stand forever!
God's city has foundations in the sense that no other city has, i.e., lasting foundations. Such foundations are peculiar only to the city of God. It alone strands securely. Its foundations were laid already in His eternal counsel and plan, and that is as sure as God Himself. And in that same counsel He, of His own good pleasure, purposed that in this city of everlasting foundations, the redeemed of all ages would dwell.
Think of it! An abiding city for pilgrim seekers! A pilgrim has no abiding place here below. He lives in a tent, a temporary abode. It rests only on the surface of the earth. It is collapsible, easily taken down and moved from place to place (reminiscent of the wandering Israelites on the way to the promised land). The Christian pilgrim has no desire to build a city in this world (like the tower of Babel, cf. Gen. 11). The Christian pilgrim tarries only for a night. He is traveling, always traveling toward the city which has foundations.
Along the way there are many temptations, many signs that call out to him to stop and abide here. The worldly Chambers of Commerce approach the weary pilgrim with many attractive appeals. They call their cities by such names as "Brotherly Love," "Havens of Rest," "A Place in the Sun," etc. With ensnaring words and pictures they attempt to create in the mind of the pilgrim a desire for the things of this world. And always there is in the old nature of the pilgrim the urge to listen to these appeals.
However, in his heart, the Christian is a pilgrim. He is a stranger here as were his fathers. He is born from above, and it is the life of the heavenly city that courses through his spiritual veins. It is the life of regeneration, the life of his resurrected Lord. Through grace he has become a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. And so he longs, hopes, yearns and presses forward on the narrow way until he enters that city he seeks.
What's more, the Christian pilgrim knows the way. It is the way that his Savior has shown him, for He walked that way before him. It is the way of sorrow and self-denial. It is the way of the cross that leads home! It leads to Calvary where Christ shed His life's blood for the pilgrim, where He was despised and rejected of men, and accounted as nothing and a reproach. In that fountain of blood drawn from Immanuel's veins, the pilgrim may be washed from all his guilty stains, from all unrighteousness, and come away wearing the pure and clean garments of Christ's righteousness, the only passport into that city which has everlasting foundations.
Praise God, the pilgrim knows the way! There is a light to lead him (remember the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night that led the Israelites in the wilderness, cf. Ex. 40:34f). The Christian pilgrim has the light of the Holy Spirit, which the Lord received without measure when He entered again the Holy City at His ascension, and which Spirit He pours out into the heart of the pilgrim. Moreover, that Light He also sheds in His Word, which serves the pilgrim as a lamp to his feet and a light upon his path (cf. Ps. 119:105). Just as we sing: "Open now the crystal fountain, whence the healing stream doth flow; Let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through" (from the hymn, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah).
We are Pilgrims in This World
In conclusion, do not misunderstand. The way of the pilgrim does not bypass this present world. Nowhere is the pilgrim told to flee to some lonely island or to isolationism. The Lord of the pilgrim prayed:
"I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil One." (Jn. 17:15)
We must firmly understand that while the pilgrim is in this world, he is not spiritually of it. Clearly the way leads through the world, where he will have to bear the reproach of Christ. The pilgrim knows that he is not greater than his Lord. As they hated Him, so they will hate and despise the pilgrim. Nonetheless, it is a certain, as well as a precious way. So precious, that the pilgrim seeks out his fellow pilgrims and talks with them of the object of their hope. Together they worship and proclaim that "Here we have no abiding city, but we seek the one to come." And in so doing, the pilgrim confesses that he is a stranger here in a foreign land, that there is no place in the whole world which he will call his own, and that heaven is his home. This confession does not imply that the pilgrim may own nothing, but when he possesses anything, he lives as though possessing nothing. He is not tied to anything that he cannot leave behind at a moment's notice. In the words of an old familiar spiritual:
"This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up Somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me From heaven's open door; And I can't feel at home in this world anymore."
Here is a confession of faith, the confession of our fathers:
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek . . . a better country, a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (cf. Heb. 11).
Is this also your confession? If it is, may your pilgrimage be blessed with peace and joy in 2007.
