Galatians 4:26

But Jerusalem, which is above, is free.

Notes of the Church

The Church is--

1. Heavenly.

2. One.

3. Invisible.

4. Free.

5. Propagative.

6. Careful of her children.

Jerusalem a type of the Church

Cf. Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:2.

I. God chose Jerusalem above all places to dwell in; the catholic Church is composed of those in the midst of whom He dwells (Matthew 18:20; Matthew 28:20).

II. Jerusalem is a city compact in itself by reason of the bond of love and order among the citizens (Psalms 122:3); so the members of the Church are linked together by the bond of one Spirit.

III. In Jerusalem was the sanctuary, a place of God’s presence and worship and truth; the Church is now in the room of that sanctuary; in it we must seek the presence of God and the word of life (1 Timothy 3:15).

IV. In Jerusalem was the throne of David (Psalms 122:5); the Church, is the throne and sceptre of Christ (Revelation 3:7).

V. The commendation of a city, as Jerusalem, is the subjection and obedience of its citizens; in the Church all believers are citizens (Ephesians 2:19), and yield voluntary obedience and subjection to Christ the King (Psalms 110:2; Isaiah 2:5)

VI. As in Jerusalem the names of the citizens were enrolled in a register, so the names of Christians are recorded in the Book of Life (Revelation 20:15; Hebrews 12:23). (W. Perkins.)

The heavenly Jerusalem

The Church in the creed has three properties: holy; catholic; knit in a communion. The word “above” intimateth that she is holy; “mother,” that she is knit in a communion; “of all,” that she is catholic.

I. Jerusalem a type of the church.

1. In election (Psalms 132:13; cf. 1 Peter 2:9).

2. In collection (Isaiah 5:2; cf. Ephesians 4:3).

3. In nobility (Psalms 122:5; cf. Revelation 3:7).

II. This new jerusalem is heavenly.

1. In respect of her birth and heavenly beginning (James 1:18).

2. In respect of growth and continuance (Philippians 3:20).

3. In respect of the end (John 17:24). (T. Adams.)

The heavenly origin and nature of the Church

The Church is said to be above--

I. In respect of her beginning, which is from the grace of God.

II. Because she dwells by faith in heaven with Christ. Wherefore we are admonished--

1. To live in this world as pilgrims and strangers (1 Peter 2:21).

2. To carry ourselves as burgesses of heaven (Philippians 3:20).

(1) By seeking heavenly things;

(2) by leading a heavenly life. (W. Perkins.)

Characteristics of the Church

In that it is said she is above it signifies her heavenly origin; that she is Jerusalem, her peaceful multitude; that she is free, her great liberty; that she is mother, her abundant fecundity; that she is mother of us all, her wide charity. (Cardinal Hugo.)

Jerusalem our mother

The holy Church is our mother, and the most holy God our Father. She feeds us with sincere milk (1 Timothy 3:15) from her two breasts, the Scriptures of both Testaments, which God hath committed to her keeping. God doth beget us of immortal seed by the Word (1 Peter 1:23), but by the instrumentality of the Church. (T. Adams.)

The comprehensiveness of the Church

The city of God, of which the Stoics doubtfully and feebly spoke, was now set up before the eyes of men. It was no unsubstantial city, such as we fancy in the clouds; no invisible pattern, such as Plato thought might be laid up in heaven; but a visible corporation, whose members met together to eat bread and drink wine, and into which they were publicly initiated. Here the Gentile met the Jew whom he had been accustomed to regard as an enemy of the human race; the Roman met the lying Greek sophist; the Syrian slave the gladiator born beside the Danube. In brotherhood they met, the natural birth and kindred of each forgotten, the baptism alone remembered to which they had been born again to God and to each other. The edict of comprehension conferred citizenship upon every class. Under it, whatever law of mutual help and consideration had obtained between citizen and citizen obtained also between the citizen and his slaves. The words “foreign” and “barbarous” lost their meaning. All nations and tribes were gathered within the pomoerium of the City of God; and on the baptized earth the Rhine and the Thames became as Jordan, and ever sullen desert-girded settlement of German savages as sacred as Jerusalem. (Ecce Homo.)

The Judaizers would have made the Jerusalem which is above, which is free, and which is the mother of us all, a mere cramped and narrow faubourg in the metropolis of Jerusalem. (Paul of Tarsus.)

Christian freedom

Jesus Christ not only called Lazarus into life, but he commanded the grave-clothes to be taken off him, that he might have liberty in life. Life, without liberty from the grave-clothes, would scarcely have been a blessing. So Jesus Christ not only gives life to the soul which believes in Him; He also commands the Spirit to descend upon him, to set him free from all enslaving habits. “If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed,” (J. Bate.)

True Liberty.

“Who then is free? the wise who well maintains
An empire o’er himself; whom neither chains
Nor want nor death with slavish fear inspire,
Who boldly answers to his warm desire;
Who can ambition’s vainest gifts despise,
Firm in himself who on himself relies;
Polished and round who runs his proper course,
And breaks misfortune with superior force.

(Horace.)

St. Paul’s allegory

And because similitudes and figures will hold faster in the memory of the unlearned, who are the greater number, than powerful arguments; after weighty reasons premised, the apostle concludes with an allegory at the end of his disputation, as a banquet after a meal of solid meat. And thus it runs, that they who sought righteousness by the law were no better than Ishmael, the son of Hagar; they that sought righteousness by faith were as Isaac, the heir of his father. That the law came from Sinai, which was seated in Arabia, a mountain quite out of the confines of the Land of Promise; the gospel began at Sion, or Jerusalem, which was the heart of the Holy Land. In this little abstract of the excellency of the Church, six portions of its glory are contained in six words.

1. She is a Jerusalem, a visible fair city, that’s her external communion.

2. A Jerusalem above, that’s her internal sanctity.

3. A Jerusalem that is free, which is her supernal redemption.

4. A mother, that’s her fruitfulness.

5. The mother of us, which comprehends her unity.

6. The mother of us all, which expresseth the universality.

1. Jerusalem is the substantive or fundamental word that bears up the whole text, and it is as musical a word as most that run upon syllables; but it offers more pleasantness to the understanding than to the ear; full of happy signification; a name given, as the philosopher Plato was wont to say, so accommodate to the Church apostolical, that unless God had foreseen that His saving truth should first grow up within the walls thereof, it had never been called Jerusalem. And I refer myself to two things especially, how the name descended upon the Church.

(1) While the old tabernacle stood, Jerusalem was the chief place wherein men called upon the name of the Lord.

(2) Out of the same Sion went forth the new law, and Jerusalem was the mother of the first-born in Christ.

2. It was not enough in St. Paul’s judgment to denominate the spouse of Christ from the best habitation (for earth is but earth be it never so much a selected portion); therefore he carries her aloft in his praise, and adds, that it is Jerusalem which is above, an heavenly city (Hebrews 12:22), as if it had not its original here, but fell down from the starry firmament.

(1) Because Christ our head is ascended into heaven, and governs all things beneath from thence, sitting at the right hand of His Father. As a king, upon whose safety the weal of the kingdom depends, is said to carry the lives of his people with him, when he adventures his person into danger; so our souls do hang upon Christ our Redeemer in Him we live and move, wheresoever He goes He draws us after Him; if He be lifted up on high, so are we also by virtue of concommitancy; it is His will, and we have His word for it, that where He is, there should we be also. When we pray unto Him, if our spirit do not issue out from us, and prostrate itself before Him in heaven, that petition solicits faintly, and is not like to speed, because it comes not nearer to Him who is our advocate with the Father. When we come to His Holy Supper, unless we carry up our heart unto Him by strong devotion, and presume that we see that very Body which was crucified for us before our eyes, we pollute the Sacrament for want of faith. There are such joints and bands which knit the body unto the head, as mortal reason cannot express; but through faith and love we are often with Him by invisible ascensions; but most assured be we that there He intercedes for us, from thence He assists His sacraments, sanctifieth His ministry, gives grace unto His Word. And if they did not escape who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn from Him that speaketh from heaven.

(2) Our Jerusalem is above, not only in the head, but in the members. I do not say in all the members; for the Church is that great house in which are vessels of honour and dishonour. Terms of excellency, though indistinctly attributed to the whole, are agreeing oftentimes only to the chiefer or more refined part. Some there are in this body, whom though we salute not by the proud word of their sublimity, yet in true possession, which shall never be taken from them, they are those that are above. Witness that the angels make up one Church with us, being the chief citizens that are reckoned in the triumphant part; fellow servants with us under one Lord; adopted sons under one Father; elect under one Christ. This is the language of the Scripture, and surely members of one mystical body, for the same Jesus is the head of all principality and power (Colossians 2:10). Of this family also are the saints departed, even all those holy spirits that obey God in heavenly places, and do not imitate the devil and his angels.

(3) We have obtained this dignity, to be ranked as them that are above, because our calling is very holy: “He hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling” (2 Timothy 1:9); called to doctrine which is above, which flesh and blood did not reveal, but the Father that giveth wisdom plentifully.

(4) This holy city of God is above, because it pursues not the things beneath, but it seeks those things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God; it is above in its affections. The delights of the synagogue were victory over their enemies, length of days, a land of wine and olives, and flowing with milk and honey, poor accessories of a transitory happiness. This was tolerated unto them, when the first rudiments of the fear of God were taught; but these are too childish for us to look after, inasmuch as long continuance of time hath taught us to choose the better part.

(5) The Church evangelical is Jerusalem above in respect of the Jewish Hagar, propter sublime pactum, the covenant that is made with us is sublime and magnificent; not the dreadful law of works, but the mild and gentle covenant of faith in the blood of Christ.

3. Jerusalem, which is above, is free. The precedent praise of the Church adheres unto this word for the consummation thereof. If there be any that take upon them to belong to the New Jerusalem, and to the city which is above, let them show the copy of their freedom, that they are not led by the spirit of bondage, but by the spirit of adoption.

(1) What this freedom is. Our freedom consists in a manumission from a fourfold servitude.

(a) We are delivered from the yoke of ceremonies, called the bondage of the elements of this world, in this chapter, verse 4.

(b) We are most free for the new covenant’s sake, which is made with us. For salvation is not offered us through the works of the law, but through the promise of grace. We brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise (verse 28).

(c) We have not received the spirit of bondage to fear, but the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:25). Says Theophylact upon my text, The gospel exhorts us gently, it doth not affright us tyrannously.

(d) The rewards of the New Testament are not momentary things, such as the law propounded, but heavenly. Says the same author, We are not servants that do our duty for visible wages. And all these together make the copy of a perfect freedom.

(2) How we got this freedom. We all know the procurer, and what He did to gain it for us; it is a flower that grew out of the blood of Christ. We were not protected, as Joshua’s spies were, by a common woman; nor set at large, as Samaria was, by the tidings of lepers; our Deliverer is more honourable to us than our freedom. The Son of God was made a servant, that we servants might become sons. As God made nothing in nature but by His Son, by Him He made the worlds, so He did nothing for the restoration of the world without Him. He is all in all. He bath freed us from the bondage of shadows by taking a body; from the covenant of works by satisfying His Father’s justice; from the dread of fear by the sweetness of His mercy; from the sordid desire of earthly things by the operation of His holy Spirit.

(3) How we should use this freedom. No blessing hath been more abused than this. Under colour hereof the Galileans would be free from tribute, the Nicolaitans from the bond of marriage, the Gnostics from all justice and temperance, the clerks of the Roman Church from the courts of the civil magistrate, and the Anabaptists from all moral duties. No, says St. Peter to all these, “As free, but not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.” It was St. Austin’s by word, You are free, therefore love God, and do what you will. If ye love Him keep His commandments. We are not so soon loosed but we are tied again, both freed and bound at once. We must recompense His goodness with our imperfect obedience. It is the law of gratitude; it is the bond of nature. As we commonly say, that nothing is more dearly bought than that which comes by gift; so we owe the greater service to Him of whom we got our freedom. Nay, we are bound to endure all for His sake. We feel the pain as much as they that curse and rage in their sufferings, but our love unto Christ doth overcome it. A free man, that will thrive, follows his trade as close as any apprentice, though not by austere compulsion. So our freedom will not make our hands slack from working, if we mean to lay up a treasure in heaven.

4. And as the Church hath taken upon it the proper name of Jerusalem, yet without any contract to the local and material building of Jerusalem, so she hath taken up the appellation of a mother, yet without any respect to nature, no way bending to natural causes, or natural affections. For not only our parents in the flesh, ,but the whole world, hath quite lost us in this word. As Moses remembered the great devotion of Levi, that he said of his father and mother, I have not seen them, or I respect them not, and of his brethren, I do not acknowledge them (Deuteronomy 33:9); so by deriving ourselves from this mother, we east our fleshly parentage aside, and we say to her, who did give us to suck from her breasts, as oar Saviour did to the blessed Virgin; “What have I to do with thee?” Jerusalem is ours, and we are hers, First, to know our mother, that we may not be ignorant either of her fruitfulness or our own obedience. He is a wise son, says Telemachus, in Homer, that knows his father; but he is a foolish son that doth not know his mother. Secondly, note the unity and indivision of the children of this mother. They are a cluster of grapes hanging upon one stalk, a brood of chickens clockt under the wings of one hen; there is but one stem and one progeny; one in relation to this parent, the mother of us. The third and last part puts us to observe, that the note of universality was large in Paul’s days, but now much more amplified than in those times--the mother of us all. (Bishop Hacker.)

The new Jerusalem

Liberty is the element of a Christian. The fall placed nature under the bondage of sin; but then the law placed sin under the bondage of fear; but Christ first delivers sin from fear, and then delivers nature from sin. That the “Jerusalem above” means the present Church militant, as well as the Church triumphant the kingdom of heaven within you, as well as the kingdom of heaven above you--both grace and glory--is evident from the manner in which the expression “Jerusalem,” or “Zion,” is used in its connection of thought in many other parts of Scripture; as, for example, in the Psalms; or Isaiah 62:1; or Hebrews 12:22; or Revelation 3:12; or Revelation 21:2. Of all this Jerusalem, then, or Church-state, the character, the determining character, is liberty. If I wanted a proof of this, I might see it in the fact that everything which is not free is from beneath. Every machination of Satan against God’s people--every dark heresy that comes to confine the Church--every spiritual temptation which ensnares a man’s conscience--every distress which cramps a believer’s mind--is from beneath; therefore, because it is from beneath, it is bondage. Bondage is from below. “Jerusalem above,”--that which your citizenship is--“is free.” Endeavour now to catch, for a moment or two, a feature, one or two features, in the liberty of the Church in heaven, that we may, by God’s grace, copy it into our liberty of the Church below. I observe that in heaven everything is very large, to us infinite. The room is boundless; the inhabitants are beyond computation--even as those stars in the heavens, which no man can reckon. But yet, as God does with those stars, so God does with everything in heaven. The gates, the fruits, the seats, the elders, the crowns, are all numbered--so that I see in heaven at once vastness and accuracy; the freest scope with the minutest observation. So be out freedom here. Our mercies are infinite. Still, every one of my mercies is known, and written down in God’s book, as a separate item. It is written; it is catalogued, and responsible. The multitude is vast; but, for each one that goes to make that multitude, I have to give a separate account how I have used it in this world. That is my liberty. Again, look at the cervices of heaven. I note that they use forms in heaven. We are told the very words, which they cease not day and night to say (never weary, though)--“Worthy is the Lamb!--Amen!--Alleluia!--For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!” But oh! what a freshness, what spirit there is in those celestial formularies! Let us take our liberty. Free thoughts and full affections, in prescribed currents of regulated words, go to send up our separate feelings in all the individualities of unpremeditated prayer; and now we blend in social worship, as in the beautiful prayer and language of the holy services in which we have been this night engaged; and, in all, with the equal liberty of Zion’s children. That is heaven’s free worship, and that is the liberty of the Church around. There must be law to have freedom. The greater the law, the greater liberty; but the deeper that law is engraven in the heart’s fine feelings, and the more a man is the spring of his own obedience, the more of habit, the more of anticipation’s boundings, the less of misapprehensions without a man, and the more felt presence of the love of Christ in a man, the nearer are we to the “Jerusalem which is above,” which is free, and which is the mother of us all. “The mother of us all.” There is no confidence which the world ever shows, so intimate and so tender, as that which a son feels for his mother. There are feelings which a man will deposit nowhere but with his mother. “The mother of us all!” Children of “the New Jerusalem”--children of the Church--set much by your Church. She is to you no other than a parent. Children of “the new Jerusalem”--children of heaven--remember into what a registry your name is now, by your second birth, enrolled. Demean it not; sully it not; sit loose to this world in the spirit of your minds; for, behold! she, which is your “mother,” will come presently, in her perfect beauty; and where should your eye be, and where should your anticipation daily be, but to that “new Jerusalem,” which shall come from heaven. Children of “the new Jerusalem”--children of liberty--take the image of your parent’s features. “Be free” in the spirit of your minds. Have freer prayer--freer hope--freely take the freedom so freely given you. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The liberties of the Church

We must understand St. Paul here to speak of the Church; and not of the Church triumphant in heaven, as some of the schoolmen have asserted, but the Church militant here on earth, that glorious edifice of the faithful, whose names are written in the book of life, and who are united with Christ above in a fellowship of His sufferings. But the word “above” is not to mislead you, as Luther has well observed; for all the processes of spiritual generation and adoption are from above; all intercourse between God and His faithful worshippers is from above; and “our conversation is in heaven.” All, then, that are allowed to see the kingdom of God, are to be born from above: this is the decree of the Head of the Church. As Christ, therefore, is in heaven, and as He is Head of the Church, so is the Church spiritually in heaven, even whilst she is militant here below; for the Church is an unmeasured edifice, and never can be measured till some one by searching can find out the limits of the Almighty: “It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell, what canst thou know?” The Head of the Church is at the right hand of God; the feet are walking here on earth; and yet one mighty eternal Spirit animates the whole, one will and principle of action pervades the immense body; one thought and intention directs and disciplines all the mass;--for in Him “we live, and move, and have our being;” and the whole company of true and faithful believers, from the day that Christ was crucified, down to the hour when the last trumpet shall sound from heaven, do form but one mystical body, with one soul and One spirit, entire in union and perfect in co-operation. But the beauty of this city is her freedom: the real Church of Christ has ample privileges; and all her laws are comprehensive and liberal. There is no spirit of bigotry, no local attachments, no exclusive jealousy, no straining on the conscience, no turning of the fancies of man into the decrees of God. St. Paul, the illustrious scribe of that holy city, lays no heavier burthen on the chartered inhabitants than this--“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free; and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1.) How easy, one would think it must be, to love the freedom which God has given us I But, alas! that which has been given us as our freedom by God, has been, by the world in general, considered irksome and intolerable. The world cannot endure a spiritual Church; it loves neither a spiritual worship nor a spiritual faith; and to worship God in spirit is what it can neither understand nor tolerate. (R. M. Beverley.)