The Everlasting Covenant

A Heavenly Country

Remember that it was an heavenly country that Abraham looked for. Nevertheless, the promise of God to give him and his seed (including us, if we are Christ’s, Galatians 3:16, 29) the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, will be fulfilled to the very letter. EVCO 424.1

When the Lord comes for His people to take them to Himself, to the place which He has prepared for them (see John 14:3), the righteous dead will be raised incorruptible, and the righteous living ones will likewise be changed to immortality, and both together will be caught up “in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” ¹ The place to which they will be taken is the free Jerusalem above, “which is the mother of us all” (Galatians 4:26); for that is where Christ now is, and where He is preparing a place for us. EVCO 424.2

A few texts may be quoted to show this fact more clearly. That the heavenly Jerusalem is the place where Christ is now “in the presence of God for us,” is evident from Hebrews 12:22-24, where we are told that those who believe are now come to Mount Zion, unto “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,” “to God the Judge of all,” and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant.” Christ “is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,” ² and from this throne, it will be well to remember, proceeds “the river of water of life.” ³ EVCO 424.3