The City of Man: Without God and Without Hope
Photo Credit: The Tower of Babel by Alexander Mikhalchyk; image from Wikimedia Commons
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When sin entered the beautiful and good world that God had created, the distinction was made between those who would follow in the rebellion of the devil, who did not submit to God, and those who by God’s grace would be saved to be friends with the Holy Triune God. The spiritual reality of those who are under the influence of the evil one, citizens of the city of man, is different—in fact, in complete antithesis—to those who are citizens of the kingdom of God, a kingdom of joy, peace, love, holiness, righteousness, and humility.
Those belonging to the city of man follow their own rules and judgments that fit their sinful desires.
Rather than submit to the Creator, those who either knowingly or unwittingly follow in the rebellion of Satan are “following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). They are functioning according to a different principle—the principle of pride which results in disobedience to the Lord.
When Satan deceived Eve in the garden of Eden, he was able to persuade her to trust her own understanding, and thereby make herself the judge of what was good and evil. She thought more highly of herself and her knowledge than of her Creator, who had made her and all other good things she had experienced. So, we see that pride is a principle of the city of man. Man does not want to listen to the precepts of God’s Word; rather, he wants to make his own rules that fit his own desires.
The city of man is a city filled with misery, faction, hate, unholiness and wickedness.
The prophet Isaiah had this to say about those who made their own rules in opposition to the Lord:
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight! (Isa. 5:20-21)
What will happen when such atrocious reversals happen, when God’s goodness and light are scorned and replaced with the precepts of man’s sinful heart? Well, we see it every day around us. The city of man, the spiritual city that functions in rebellion against God’s precepts, is a city filled with misery, faction, hate, unholiness and wickedness. This city is a spiritual reality that has physical implications.
The city of man is first a spiritual reality to which all peoples belong if they are not citizens of the kingdom of God. It is the spiritual kingdom of darkness, for such people have turned away from the light of Jesus and therefore dwell in spiritual darkness. Yet, it also has visible manifestations as the evil that comes out of the hearts of men takes shape in hateful and sinful words and deeds.
Every unbeliever is a member of this spiritual kingdom of the city of man. Unbelievers do not experience the peace that comes from knowing their sins are forgiven. They do not know the love of a merciful and yet just God. They do not know the joy of a permanent and lasting eternal blessedness in the presence of their heavenly Father. Rather, the citizens of the city of man are like those in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress who live in the City of Destruction: they labor endlessly under the hard toil of a decaying reality, a city that has no future other than death, a spiritual state of bondage to sin, ushered in by pride and rebellion against God.
We must both rejoice in the mercy of God toward us and devote ourselves to praying for unbelievers.
What then should we do as we interact with unbelievers whom we know and love? We understand they are in spiritual darkness—they are members of the city of man that in pride has raised itself up in defiance of God like the builders of the Tower of Babel. First, we must rejoice in the mercy of God toward us, undeserving sinners who also at one time were members of this doomed city of man, but as the apostle Paul reminds us of our changed status:
You are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. (1 Thess. 5:5)
And secondly, we must devote ourselves to praying for unbelievers. We must plead with our heavenly Father to extend his grace and mercy to them, and that the light of his Word by the power of the Holy Spirit would transform more citizens of the city of man into citizens of the kingdom of God.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Eph. 6:12)
This article was originally published in Beautiful Christian Life’s October 2024 monthly newsletter, “The City of Man.”
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