Revelation Day 57 - The City of God

DAY 57
The City of God
Revelation 21:9-14, 22-27

A second picture Revelation shows us of the future is a CITY.

John sees the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven to Earth. This city of God has streets of gold and a crystal-clear river. Unlike the earthly Jerusalem, it has no temple. The city’s size is ridiculously large: a cube that is 1500 miles long, wide, and high!

This is another symbol. Rev. 21:9 says that the city is “the bride of the Lamb.” The city is us! It’s all God’s people from all over the world, all over history. The city’s size is bigger than the whole Roman Empire, God’s way of saying, “My city is better than that city built on idolatry and injustice.” 

Will there be cities in the new creation? Nobody knows for sure, but there are hints in Scripture that “the age to come” recycles all that is good in the present age and glorifies it in the age to come. There’s a suggestive line in Rev. 21:26, “The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.” Will we see great works of art like the Sistine Chapel? Will the tree planted in our backyard somehow find its way there? Who’s to say, but we can hope and trust that the good we do here will be, in some sense, elevated to new glory.

More importantly, the city of God is the better city than Rome, Britain, and even the USA. This is a true city of nations, a people of every color. The city shows us unity in diversity that lasts forever. 

The New Jerusalem promises true reconciliation, true diversity, and true unity around Jesus. If that city of God is our destiny, shouldn’t we work for unity in diversity today? Shouldn’t we seek reconciliation and harmony? The end is a new chapter of unity in diversity.

REFLECT
How does the unity in diversity of the future influence how we live today?

PRAY
Lord, help us to live in ways that reflect our future as the city of God. Help us even now to celebrate and cultivate diversity united around Jesus. Amen.