FOUNDATIONS PART 3: Where Am I Going?

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. (Heb 13:12-14)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. (Rev 21:1-3)

By God’s grace I hope that I am going to live forever in the city that is to come and in the presence of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This world is not my home … but neither is heaven. My home is the New Jerusalem which will descend from heaven (thus heaven is not my home) and be established upon this new earth (thus this current world is not my home either).

But that is a teleological answer … that is, this is the final destination. But where am I to go now? Hebrews tells me that Jesus went “outside the gate.” That is where Jesus went to suffer for and sanctify a people. Therefore, since that is where Jesus is, I want to be where he is so my life must move from the safety and comfort of this earthly city to go outside … to risk even life itself to be where he is. I am to join him in the reproach … the slander … the mistreatment … the persecution … and not to see this as loss, but as gain! To rejoice, knowing that great is my reward in heaven (Mat 5:11-12).

Therefore, Jesus does not offer me a life of hardship but of deep and enduring joy! For the joy set before him he endured the cross (Heb 12:2). And for the joy set before me I am to “go outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.” For this is not my home … this is not the end of the story. There is a lasting city and that is where I am going. Oh come Lord Jesus, come.