Going Out to the Cross

Here is a tale of two cities. One yet to be revealed (heaven) but prepared and ready to be occupied when the time comes for God's people to be glorified. The other 'city' here is the 'camp' or 'Jerusalem', symbolic of all that seeks to reject Christ, the city of worldliness and sinful human hostility to God and his claims. Jesus was crucified outside the city of Jerusalem, fulfilling the typology of those animal carcases taken and burned outside the camp of Israel after their blood had been used in the holy place in sacrificial sprinkling. So to get to the first city we need to leave the second one and go out to the cross. We need to identify with the cross of Christ and all that it stands for against a hostile world. It will mean bearing reproach, but then it's the same kind of reproach which he bore for us.

So we look at (1) leaving the city to go out to Jesus, and then at (2) Looking forward to the city where Jesus now is.