The Bible is the story of the City of God.
From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture reveals a city that God has been preparing for his people since the creation of the world. Abraham looked forward to it. David established his throne within it. The prophets saw it in visions and sang of its glory. Jesus is its eternal King. The Church experiences its reality today, and at the end of Scripture, John sees the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
In The City of God, David Jones traces this remarkable theme throughout the whole Bible, exploring the eternal city that stands at the heart of God's purposes for his people.
Along the way, the book examines the great contrast between two cities: the City of God and the city of man. From Cain and Babylon onwards, humanity has continually attempted to build its own cities, kingdoms and towers apart from God. Yet while the city of man is built from the earth upwards, the City of God comes down from heaven. It is not constructed through human ambition, ingenuity or power. Its architect and builder is God.
Through Jerusalem, Zion, the cities of refuge, the walls and gates of the Holy City, its foundations, sacrifices and even the enemies that besiege it, David uncovers a biblical picture of the character of God's true dwelling place and the people who belong there. The City of God is more than a geographical location. It is the place of God's presence, his name and his rule, ultimately revealed in Christ and his Church.
The journey finally leads to the New Jerusalem, the perfected City of God and the eternal home of the redeemed. Here the story that runs throughout Scripture reaches its glorious conclusion: God dwelling forever with his people in the city he has prepared for them.
The City of God is an invitation to see the Bible through the lens of this eternal city, to understand what it means to belong to it now, and to awaken within every believer a deeper longing for the city that is to come.
