A person is not a city.
Who would even think that? A person…a city. It takes thousands and thousands of us to make a city.
Anyone knows that.
Yet, Revelation 21:2 says:
“And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
John the Revelator saw the entire city as one person. One, not a hundred or a thousand, or even thousands and thousands.
He’s personified the New Jerusalem, giving it human characteristics. The city has become one person, acting as one person, and reflecting the desires and aspirations of one person.
We do this all the time with countries, groups of people (think armies, teenagers, or protesters), or technology. We talk about a large quantity as if it’s one.
We do this with the Church, also. The Church is one, yet the Church is many. Each individual has cognition, will, and choice. Yet, our behaviors combine to make us into one.
We are the city of God. We are the New Jerusalem. We, each individual Christian, make up the singular entity that will one day exemplify the second coming of Christ our Lord.
Hebrews 11:16 tells us:
“But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”
We come to God as individuals. We choose him one at a time. In the same vein, we elect to give up our individuality to him, to become like him morally and spiritually, so that he might use us for his singular goal: to lead this world to him.
Matthew 5:14 cries out:
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
The plan of God will come full circle in that day. From one city, a man was born, one who was the incarnation of God, to bring salvation to a world, that his followers should become one in him, that they would be transformed into the New City, to come shining into the world to change it with his eternal glory.
Luke 2:11 gives us that moment of glorious inception:
“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
We who walk with Jesus are the New Jerusalem. We are individuals, but we are a single unit in him. We are the city on the hill that is the light of the world.
Let’s live like it.
We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and it takes all of us to become one in him.
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