Groaning for "The Lasting City"

by Matthew Chapman

 

 

For here we do not have a lasting city,

but we are seeking the city which is to come.

(Hebrews 13:14)

  Things of this life are not lasting, and we are not to put our hope and trust in them. Rather than security here, we are instead to seek what is eternal, particularly the city of God, New Jerusalem in habited by her King (Heb. 12:18-29). Even so, most everyone still exerts a great deal of effort to try to find or establish things of permanence in this life that they can feel assured will always be there and will not falter, fail, or change. This quest for what is lasting and certain can be focused in many different ways. Often it is applied to other people-perhaps parents, siblings, friends, Christian brothers or sisters, or even the church as a whole where you live. Some focus this longing on more material things like "putting down their roots" in association with a particular house or location in which they live, or a pet who is "part of the family," or their occupation or financial assets-their "life circumstances," you could say. Others are on a mission to attain a feeling that is lasting, like life always staying the same when times are good, or their family dynamic always being like it was when the children were younger and life seemed simpler, or always maintaining good health, etc. However we focus this pursuit, whether overtly or subtly, we err greatly when we engage ourselves in grasping for permanence in this life.

  The fact is this life is fraught with weakness, futility, change, and uncertainty. God may allow any number of those things mentioned above to have a good deal of longevity in this life. But ultimately, somewhere in the short term, mid-term, or long term of life, they will grow old, change, wear out, stumble, stagnate, fall away, betray, cease, die, move on, or fail. And when they do, the realizations of just how temporary and changeable this life really is come crashing in and upset our sense of security in what we thought was permanent. At these moments in life, those of "the household of the faith" have an opportunity to gain ground in their daily walk and revelation of the reality that our Lord clearly communicates to us: Here, in this life, we have no lasting city, but we are [to be] seeking the city which is to come. It's not that our longing for what is lasting is wrong-God Himself put that in us (Ecc. 3:11)-it's just imperative that we focus this longing correctly, otherwise we can really get off in running our race and go astray.

 

"In this house we groan"

  Many of you reading this know exactly what I am talking about, and I want to focus this article particularly in the area of trying to find that deeply satisfying, biblical, spiritual, life-giving experience of walking with other faithful believers. There are those bright spots here and there, but they are found among a great deal of disappointment and heartbreak. We don't live in the first century, we live in the 21st century where things are quite a mess. An experience of church life that is of the quality that Jesus and the apostles lay out in the scriptures is not readily available to most Christians. At best, because of the day in which we live, these are isolated and many times obscure works of recovery.

  The result is a painful and frustrating journey for so many of God's people. You try walking with these people over here and they are asleep to the kingdom of God . You leave the institution to try and find saints who gather in homes and walk more according to the example of the scriptures only to find that they are just as dead as the ones you moved on from. You then try gathering with those folks over there who really seem to have a heart for the Lord which you like, but then you discover rampant worldliness in their midst as well as foundational and doctrinal flaws among them, and so you feel that you cannot in good conscience continue to expose your family to them. And thus you "groan."

  Or maybe your experience has gone something like this. You have had the blessing of walking with a faithful group of saints. You have genuinely and consistently touched the Lord together. Folks have been equipped, marriages and families strengthened, and truths of God's word have been realized. But then, inevitably, "something happens." Some issue arises that cannot be resolved, and it is the type of matter that, in order to be faithful and maintain a good conscience before God, some must choose to part ways with others who are proceeding in error, or, conversely, those who are in error pull away from those who are seeking to continue in the truth. Or perhaps even worse, such issues are present and everyone just kind of agrees to continue on together anyway without dealing with them, and whatever life of the Spirit that was shared becomes a thing of the past. Or perhaps a leader fell in some way and caused havoc among the sheep. Or perhaps everything was going along great in God, and no big "thing" ever happened, but stagnation set in, and folks quit going forward and became stuck in a routine of lifelessness. Whatever the situation and whatever the particular twists associated with it, those who long for more will indeed "groan."

  Even the first century churches raised up by the apostles themselves were not exempt from such troubles. In the path of overcoming, those who were faithful had to endure all kinds of suffering and find the Lord's way through struggles of every kind. Legalistic brothers ("the Judaizers" as they have been called) spied out, moved in, imposed "another gospel," and spoiled the freedom in Christ of many new believers (read Galatians). Some lost their first love of Jesus, despite great works of faithfulness. Some became "lukewarm," holding to some form of the "prosperity gospel." Gnosticism became a real problem that had to be dealt with among the churches of God, as well as "the teaching of the Nicolaitans" and the leaven of Jezebel. Men described in the Book of Jude and 2 Peter 2 "crept in unnoticed" and deceived and led people astray. Some churches had problems with immorality, drunkenness, and spiritual gifts run amuck. Others were severely persecuted, and the saints were hunted like animals by predators intent on destroying them. Gifted leaders (Eph. 4:11-13), so badly needed, were killed or imprisoned. Even Paul, speaking to the elders from the church at Ephesus, that deep well of revelation and life in the Spirit that he had labored so hard for three years to bring forth, had to prophesy to them that "savage wolves" would come in and ravage the flock, warning that some of these wolves would even come from among the very elders whom he was talking to. Paul also prophesied of a day-our day!-when the churches would "not endure sound doctrine" but would actually "turn away their ears from the truth" and instead "turn aside to myths."

  If you study church history-not the history of the religious system but the lineage of the faithful, such as what is presented so well in The Torch of the Testimony by John W. Kennedy and also in The Kingdom That Turned The World Upside Down by David Bercot-you see that such struggles and hardships have been endured by our faithful brothers and sisters throughout time. They bore the testimony of Jesus for a season as a light in the circumstances of their day and then they passed and others took it up and carried it forward in living freshness in their generation. Such is the nature of this life, here, where "we have no lasting city."

  Is this a cynical view? Not at all if your embracing of the utter weakness and transitoriness of this life is coupled with faith and an understanding of God's eternal purpose. Was Peter, Paul, John, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, and the other anointed men of God of that day depressed about this? Certainly is was discouraging and disheartening for them at times, as they co-labored with the Lord in seeking to establish His lampstands in the world and cared for Jesus' lambs with great love and concern. But they kept right on laboring, and even with joy. Why?! They knew the nature of this life, and they were even God's mouthpieces to speak of things getting worse! Why bother then? What kept them encouraged and going forward? They knew they were serving a purpose greater than what is seen and experienced in this life. As far as this life is concerned, they understood that with the Father, His point really is the process, because the end (which is really a beginning-of eternal marriage with the Lamb!) was only arrived at in the age to come.

  The Father is fashioning a bride for His Son Jesus, and she is composed of faithful saints from throughout the annals of time who walked with God in such a way that they "overcame" during their little segment of world history (read Rev. 21:7 first, then go back and read verses 1-27; see also Rev. 2:7, 2:11, 2:17, 2:26-29, 3:5-6, 3:11-13, 3:21-22). Adorning the bride of Christ is "fine linen, bright and clean" which are "the righteous acts of the saints" that were lived out by His grace and Spirit during their time upon the earth (Rev. 19:5-10). The bride of Christ is also referred to as the holy city, New Jerusalem, which is described in detail in Revelation 21. And the all-encompassing amounts of "gold, silver, and precious stones" you read about in the balance of that chapter is the "treasure" that the set-apart ones have "laid up in heaven" just like Jesus talked about, as well as the fruit of all those precious lives in God that had been built together in righteousness and truth upon the foundation of Jesus Christ (Matt. 6:19-21, 1 Cor. 3:5-17, Rev. 14:13!). Amazingly, the Father uses the weakness, futility, change, and uncertainty of this life as the very context in which to bring forth such holy beauty and valuable treasure in the lasting and eternal city of our God.

 

Groaning and yet foretasting and seeking!

  We are to seek this city and the overcoming necessary to obtain an inheritance in it. And while, in this life, we "enter" the kingdom as children and seek to recover lampstand-quality testimonies of the life of Jesus among His set apart people, we must stay clear in our understanding that we do not get to "inherit" the fullness of the kingdom of God in this life, but only in the life to come (Matt. 18:3, John 3:1-12, 1 Cor. 15:35-58, 1 Pet. 1:3-9, Rev. 21:7, Rom. 8:14-25). Those who try to live the notion of inheriting the kingdom in this life get into all sorts of error, usually straying off into some variety of "dominion theology" and living in non-reality while calling it "faith." Remember, "here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come."

For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven; inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord-for we walk by faith, not by sight-we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

(2 Corinthians 5:1-10)

 

  The Holy Spirit, whom we have now, is Himself the "pledge"-the earnest, the guarantee, the down-payment-of this glorious inheritance to come (John 14:16-17, Eph. 1:13-14), and God has a great purpose in allowing us to remain for a time in this body of flesh in which we groan. Let's say you have $1,000,000,000.00 in cash coming to you and you have been given $1,000.00 in cash as the earnest guarantee or down-payment of it. Well that $1,000.00 of cash you now have is of the very same quality and essence and substance as the $1,000,000,000.00 of cash you will receive later, isn't it? It looks the same, feels the same, and has the same kind of purchasing power. It is, however, limited to $1,000.00, being only a small portion of what is to come.

  So it is with us and the Holy Spirit, except that the "$1,000.00 limitation" is not in Him but in us because of the dying earthen vessel in which we now dwell-a limitation established by God Himself. We taste of Him and partake of His limitless eternal life, and yet our pestering flesh is ever-ready to drag us down into some sort of sin and death. What, then, gets proven out in our little bit of time upon this earth is whether or not, like Jacob, we will do whatever it takes to lay hold of the inheritance, or, like Esau, we will settle for seeking what gratifies our flesh right now (Heb. 12:16-17).

  Even though now "we see as in a mirror dimly" and only "know in part" (1 Cor. 13:12-13), will we still choose to love Him "with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength," or will we "love the world and the things of the world"? Will we know Him "in the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" and, in our body of "flesh do our share. in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions," or will we sacrifice the glory of New Jerusalem for comfort in this world and acceptance by those who are perishing (Phil. 3:7-21, Col. 1:24, Rom. 8:16-18!!)? Will we persevere through all of the troubles, heartbreaks, and trials associated with this life, or will we forfeit our race and "be disqualified" (1 Cor. 9:24-27)? After we have "once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come," will we endure the suffering and tribulation and persecution associated with being faithful and living godly in Christ Jesus? Or, will we "fall away" and be "thrown away as a branch and dry up" and bear no "fruit that remains" as treasure laid up in the city of God (Heb. 6:1-6, 2 Pet. 2:20-22, Mark 4:16-17, John 15:1-17, 1 Tim. 3:12)? Our life and words and choices and actions in this life will prove out the answer to those questions, and we will be rewarded accordingly.

  Like Abraham, the father of our faith, we too are to follow the Holy Spirit's leadings and accomplish God's calling and purposes for our lives while we sojourn in this life. In doing this, we "overcome" all that is not of God and His kingdom in the process. And like Abraham, the father of our faith, even while we follow the Lord in accomplishing His very leadings and callings and purposes on this earth, our hearts are to be captured with something greater, something eternal and not of this world, something beyond life here.

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

 

The role of faith and hope

  So why the groaning while living in this "earthly tent which is our house"? It is because the pain and suffering and weakness and transitoriness associated with this life serve to sharpen our vision and hope of what the Lord has promised us in "the city which is to come." Why do you think such an important aspect of the inheritance in New Jerusalem is that "He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain" (Rev. 21:4)? Because "here," in this life, we have tears, death, mourning, crying, and pain-in abundance!

  Here is where it is very important for us to understand the clear difference between faith and hope, and to allow each their proper role in our lives. Faith-our believing God and expressing it with "works" (James 2:14-26)-is always what we are to have filling our hearts right now as a response to "hearing and hearing by the word of Christ" (Rom. 10:17). Thus true faith also carries with it a current tasting of the Lord, a present encounter with the "substance [and] evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1-2). Hope, on the other hand, has to do with what we do not now see but believe God will bring about in the future. Hope is also what keeps the compass of our heart set on God and His city while enduring all the troubles of the present time. You could say that faith is fellowshipping with the Lord and partaking of His life right now in the midst of the trial, while hope is you waiting patiently on Him to bring about His deliverance from/through the trial. Faith is finding joy in Jesus right now; hope is longing to see Him as He is, face to face, and to dwell with Him in His city forever.

Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

 

So let's not get sidetracked with trying to find things of permanence and a "lasting city" here where we have none. Embrace the futility and weakness of this life, facing it squarely and honestly, and do so with a heart of faith, abiding in Jesus right now and staying focused on fulfilling His calling and purposes for us in this life. And while we do this, and while we endure the pain and suffering of this life that comes at us from so many directions, let us find the groaning that comes from a sincere hope of "longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven" instead of grief from a complaining heart that leads to cynicism. It is in this stressful and yet joyful process that lasting fruit and treasure is brought forth to the glory of God and deposited into New Jerusalem! Are you ready to run the next leg of the race?

 

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