My Jerusalem
“The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name. The whole land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. But Jerusalem will be raised up high from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses, and will remain in its place. It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure.”
Today’s Text: Zechariah 14:9-15 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God, will return one day. “On that day there will be one LORD, and His name the only name.”
That day could be today.
But Jesus came once already, and His message was as follows:
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
— Mark 1:15
And with His resurrection and ascension, He was enthroned at the right hand of the Father as “one Lord” over all.
So then, since I claim to have faith and call myself “Christian,” is Jesus the “one Lord” of all my life? Is the name of Jesus the only name that I call upon for salvation, for hope, for life?
One day, the Father will present the “Holy City,” the “New Jerusalem,” the “bride, the wife of the Lamb” (Revelation 21:9-10)—not to us, but to Christ.
Metaphorically, we will dwell in the New Jerusalem, but the greater spiritual reality is that we will be the New Jerusalem.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
— Revelation 21:3
Until that day, the world is filled with chaos and calamity because of sin. And yet, through faith, we are “secure,” not only as the Church, but as the “Jerusalem” that Zechariah speaks of in this prophecy. The spiritual reality is that we are the precursor to the New Jerusalem that is to come.
A life of faith is living in the hope of the New Jerusalem that is to come and exercising that hope in the “Jerusalem” of this world right now, which is the Church.
And every church (little “c”) is a God-ordained manifestation of the Church (big “C”). But it’s not really that helpful to make too great of a distinction between “church” and “Church.” We ought to think of our little “c” as the big “C” because we belong to the big “G”!
What am I trying to say? By God’s grace and power, our church, GCC Canvas, is at the front-and-center of His great plan of salvation for the world, which includes you and me, in Christ Jesus. Every church is. But by God’s sovereign grace, and by our response to His sovereign grace in our lives, we find ourselves here in our “Jerusalem.”
Through faith and obedience in Jesus Christ, let us be the “New Jerusalem” here and today.
Father, You made the heavens and the earth, and You know the end from the beginning. All things are in Your hands. How can we fathom Your power and wisdom. But You have revealed great things to us through Your word. You have sparked our imaginations of what life would be like without any sin, without death, without pain. I long for that day. But let us experience the power of hope in Your promise here and now. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
