Who Is “Jerusalem Which Now Is?”

Dear Mike,

Thank you for your reply to my email which I found very helpful.

I have some difficulty in understanding whether this piece of scripture is trying to say that two towns are simply corresponding to one another or whether one is subordinate to the other, since the subject of the verse is connected with slavery. Perhaps you have a perspective on this.

I would like to tell you, however, that I have found your site very informative, despite that I now think I understand fewer of the meanings in the scriptures than I believed I did in the first place.

Yours Sincerely,

S____

Hi S____,

Thank you for your question,

I, too feel that I now have more to learn about God and His Word than ever. But that is a good position to be in for this very reason:

Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

The Pharisees to who Christ made this statement did not perceive their own spiritually blinded condition. They were part of the blinded multitudes who come to Christ yet are not given eyes to see or ears to hear;

Mat 13:2 And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

The reason they are not given eyes to see and ears to hear is that they refuse to admit that spiritually speaking they cannot see their own hand in front of their face. This fact is the message behind the three day blindness of that great Pharisee Saul of Tarsus.

Look at the reaction Christ’s words elicited from the Pharisees concerning Him blinding those who thought they could see:

Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Becoming ‘blind’ is a prerequisite to receiving spiritual vision and being able to spiritually discern God’s Word.

1Co 2:13 Which [ spiritual] things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

So to answer your question: Jerusalem which is above is contrasted with Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children. The city of Jerusalem is used to let us know that we are talking about two separate groups of people, both of whom are in a covenant, called out relationship with God. We are not talking about Rome, which at this time had no special relationship with God; we are talking about a group of people who claim to be God’s chosen people, free from the bondage of the “element of this world.” They claim that they are the seed of Abraham and that they have never been in bondage to anyone. This group of people are “Jews which believed on Him.” Many today claim to be “spiritual Jews.” But as it was with the physical Jew of Christ’s day, Christ’s Words have no place in them:

Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [ then] are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33 They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

Everything that happened to Christ is a spiritual shadow of what was to happen to “His body which is the church” today (Col 1:24).

Joh 15:18 If the [ church] world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

So “Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children” is, to this day, those who say they see when in reality they are spiritually blind. ‘Jerusalem which now is’ is all those who believe in Christ, claim to be the spiritual descendants of Abraham and yet have no place in them for all the changes to the old law, all the “but I say unto you… reforms, which Christ, the great reformer, came to make. Here is the spiritual condition of ‘Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children:

Joh 8:37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed [ You do “believe in Christ” and therefore can claim to be ‘Abraham’s seed’ Gal 3:16-29); but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
Joh 8:38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
Joh 8:39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
Joh 8:40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, [ even] God.
Joh 8:42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? [ even] because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44 Ye are of [ your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

So you see it is spiritual “Jews which believe on Him” which also “seek to kill Him” and “are of their father the Devil.” All the while they claim to be the spiritual seed of Abraham.

Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

All Christians claim to be ‘Christ’s.’ But in reality they are the “son of the bondwoman… the seed of the serpent… of their father the Devil… seeking to kill God’s elect” who have the unmitigated gall to say that we should “resist not evil and love our enemies.”

I hope you can now see who is “Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children.”

Joh 8:33 They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

Mike