For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come—Hebrews 13:14

On January 1 we enter another year, 2026. We wonder how many more we will see. We are, after all, pilgrims in the earth, on our journey to our heavenly home. Here we have no continuing city. In a city one abides, digs foundations and builds structures. A city is where people establish themselves, gather their treasures, seek their pleasures. And while we know the life of the city by our passing through, the fact remains, we are just passing through. Even if our lifetime is spent in one area, we are yet strangers, only passing through. From an outward point of view we have all earthly things in common with the children of this world. We eat the same foods and drink the same drinks. We wear the same clothes— sometimes, even to our shame, the same styles. We work in the same jobs, buy in the same stores, breathe the same air. But God’s grace has distinguished us as different. Not because of anything in us; certainly not because we are better—but God’s grace has made us strangers in this earth. We differ radically, absolutely. The difference is spiritual. We have another life, are governed by different principles, maintain other standards, have different desires and purposes. That must be our remembrance, that must be our life, also in 2026.

THE GOAL

The Christian’s goal, according to the text, is an abiding city. The heavenly Jerusalem, the city of God, is the place for which we aim. We do not know much about that city. We have a partial picture of it. It is found in the Book of Revelation, as given to the apostle John. There are also glimpses found elsewhere in the Bible. But all we have seen is a glimpse, in picture form. We know only a little of its glory and beauty. The earthly images of streets of gold and gates of pearl and walls of precious stones are only earthly images of a glorious heavenly reality. The fact is, earthly language cannot even begin to describe the magnificence of that city toward which we travel. But even those earthly images fill us with earnest expectation and longing. It is, after all, the city of God, our heavenly Father. What more needs to be said? He is everything to us! Because He made everything for His glory, that entire city is the perfect revelation of everything that God is. Everything about it shall be adapted unto the purpose of magnifying God and revealing His glory. Because in Him there is no darkness at all, there will be no night in that city. There will be no sin, no death, not even any tears. And the glory of that city will be our own joy. We will experience in a way far beyond our earthly comprehension or expectation what it is to live in the shelter of God’s glory and to enjoy His fellowship and love.

A faint picture of its glory was given the people of God in the Old Testament temple. Once upon a time, you could enter the gates of Jerusalem, and ask directions to the dwelling place of God. They would point you to the temple, that great structure built to reflect the glory of Solomon’s kingdom. And if, having approached that temple and entering through its outer gates, you asked again where you might find the place where God was, they would point toward the inner sanctuary. But they would also warn you that you may not enter there into the presence of the Holy God! It was all such a faint picture of the tabernacle of God that is now with men.

Then Christ came! He came to fulfill the promise of God’s covenant. He came as God in the flesh, to dwell with us in the fellowship of love. He went to the cross in order to establish that covenant and to reconcile us unto God. And He ascended into heaven to prepare a place for us in that city which we now seek. Meanwhile, He continues to dwell with us by His Spirit. Each Lord’s Day He calls us together in order that we might receive a taste of His blessed fellowship and be renewed in the spirit of our minds, called to the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. But also this is only a faint picture of the reality that awaits us in that heavenly city for which we long.

That city which is our goal is most glorious because it is the place where we shall see God in the face of Jesus Christ our Redeemer. There we will see Him who came into this world for us and in our flesh. There we will see Him who suffered and died for us, who went to the cross in our place and for our salvation, and who rose again that we might have life and a place in that city. We will see Him who is our Bridegroom, the Bridegroom of the church. We will see Him whose love for us has no bounds. And in Him God Himself shall be with us and be our God! In and with Jesus we shall enjoy the fellowship of the God of our salvation!

And because this Savior is the Savior of a people, the heavenly Jerusalem shall be the home and place of reunion and communion for all the elect of God throughout the ages. Think of that! There we shall enjoy fellowship and communion with all the saints who have gone before us. There shall be Adam and Abel and Seth, Enoch and Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and Solomon. There will be Rahab and Ruth, Mary the mother of our Lord, and Mary Magdalene. Mary and Martha and Lazarus will be there. Peter and Paul, James and John and all Jesus’ disciples, Aquila and Priscilla, Phebe that blessed sister in Christ, Timothy and Silas. There will be the unnamed saints, who gave their lives for the testimony of Jesus Christ, of whom the writer to the Hebrews spoke in Hebrews 11. There will be the men whom God used for the great reformation of His church in the sixteenth century. There will be our own spiritual forefathers. There will be those little ones of Jesus, who served their purpose on earth in but a short time. And though all had sinned, we shall see that all guilt and shame had been removed from them. We all shall be clothed in the whites robes of Christ’s righteousness.

Furthermore, that city is the victorious city, the city of perfection. No enemy shall be able to enter her gates. All those who formerly harassed and opposed and persecuted those who sojourned to that city, all the unbelieving and abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and liars shall have no part in that city, according to Revelation 21:8, but shall have their part with the old Serpent in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. In the city of God there shall be peace, perfect peace. God Himself shall have dried the eyes of His tear-stained children, and shall have filled their hearts with everlasting joy. By the light of His glory we shall see. In His light we shall walk. The glorious city of God, the chief joy of all God’s children—that is the pilgrim’s goal, the place toward which we journey. It is, for you, is it not?

THE PILGRIMAGE

But for now the pilgrimage continues. Press on, Christian! Here we have no continuing city. That we must remember as we enter the year 2026. That is not merely because everything here is consumed by death. That is true enough. “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Ps. 90:10). Death is a stark reality. The life of generation after generation is like a passing show, set on the conveyor belt of time. The son of this world might dig deeply and lay his foundations ever so solidly. He might close his eyes to the reality of fleeting things and proudly raise his kingdom. But all things loudly preach to all men: Get your house in order, for you shall die. Yet a little while and the world and the things of this world shall perish. That is true, but that is not the perspective here.

The writer to the Hebrews writes to the church. He points to the fact that we have no abiding city here. And therefore his emphasis is on the truth that we have nothing here spiritually. We are pilgrims—not only because all things pass away, but because of the very state and condition of our souls and because our perspective is different. We are strangers here because we have been born from above. “Being born from above”—unbelievers do not know that language. But we have received a new life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and by the work of His Holy Spirit. That new life is from above, from heaven. It is the life of that city for which we look and toward which we travel. Because of that new life, no matter where we look in this world, we cannot find that which can satisfy and where we would say, “This is where I would establish myself and find my permanence.”

So we continue our journey, seeking the city that abides and which is our home. Our pilgrimage is a necessity. “We seek.” The inspired writer states this as a simple fact. That we have here no continuing city is a fact. But for that very reason it is also a fact that we seek one to come. That is the life of Christ in us! We who are citizens of that new city, and who therefore know our bond of fellowship with Him who owns that city, do indeed long for and press toward that goal. That is the life of the Christian. Yes, our old man yet clings to the things of this earth. But in Christ, by that new life that is ours, we love God, His Christ, and His people. And therefore it is the irresistible longing of our hearts to be delivered from that which is earthly and to enjoy the liberty of the children of God in the new heavens and the new earth. We sing it with the psalmist: “When I in righteousness at last Thy glorious face shall see; when all the weary night is past and I awake with thee to view the glories that abide, then, then, I shall be satisfied” (Ps. 17).

So we seek the city that abides, which God has prepared for us. Though we have only a faint picture of that city, the way to that city has been clearly marked out for us by our heavenly Father. It starts outside the gate. That is the context of Hebrews 13:14. Outside the gate and outside the camp is the starting point for our journey toward the heavenly Jerusalem. Outside Jerusalem, on a hill, at a place called Golgotha, you and I begin our journey to heaven. For there, on a cross, the Man of sorrows shed His blood, in order that we might have properly washed garments to enter the abiding city of life and joy. That the place is outside the gate means it was the place of a castaway. The world would not have that Christ of God. Jerusalem, whose spiritual name is Sodom and Gomorrah, would not have Him. They cast Him out, outside the gate, outside the camp. But that is the way, the starting point, to the city that abides. That is the connection between our text and what precedes. Go outside the gate, therefore, by faith. Have your garments washed in His blood. That is the way that leads home, also today.

Understand well, to go that way you will also bear His reproach. That also is the guide on the way that leads to heaven. Jesus said, “The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20). Paul confirms that when we writes to Timothy, “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12). Set your affection on the things above. Know that you will have to bear reproach for it. If you are walking the way the world walks, you are on the wrong pathway. Of that you may be certain. The way of heaven is the straight and narrow way, the way of the minority, the way marked out by the Word. And it is the way of mockery and reproach and tribulation. But seek the city. Know that it is more precious than all the treasures of this world. Know that there and there alone are pleasures forevermore. Long for it. Strive for it. Fight for it. Suffer for it. The way of the cross is the way that leads home. And so we seek. You do, do you not? Having no continuing city here, we seek one to come.

THE PROMISE

God promises that it shall surely come. It is literally the coming city. Its glory is not yet revealed. Before that happens, many things must yet be fulfilled. The year 2026 will serve its coming, as have all the years gone by. We watch, taking it all in, not knowing just when we shall see that heavenly city. But we live in hope. And in hope we are saved.

But the coming of that city is sure. It is sure because God has prepared the city in eternity. From before the foundation of the world He determined that a people should serve Him and live with Him in heavenly and everlasting perfection. He prepared the people and the city, even writing the names of its citizens on the palms of His hands (Is. 49:16). Do not forget that. But He has also realized His counsel in Christ. In His death the foundations of the city were laid. And He rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven to prepare a place for us—for us personally. Do you believe that? And when He has prepared a place for us, He will come again, and receive us unto Himself, that where He is, we may be also (John 14:2-3). That is His sure promise.

We enter another year. It is but another step in the journey. Look ahead. Look for the abiding city, the coming city. It is coming. Christ is coming! Yet a little suffering, a little struggle, and this present sojourn shall be over. The goal lies before us, as does the crown. It is a crown of victory. Then we shall see that city, the city which has foundations, where God shall be all in all, and where we shall live in His glorious presence forevermore. Press on toward the goal!

You can access the Spanish version of this article, translated by Jorge Carbajal, by clicking the following link. LA META DEL PEREGRINO