Jerusalem holds an unmatched place in biblical history. Kings reigned there, prophets spoke there, the temple stood there, and Christ was crucified just outside its gates. Because of this weight of history, many Christians instinctively continue to call Jerusalem “holy” or refer to the land surrounding it as “the Holy Land.” Yet when Scripture is read through the finished revelation of Christ, an unavoidable question emerges: does the New Testament still treat earthly Jerusalem as holy in an ongoing covenantal sense?
To answer that, we have to follow holiness itself through the biblical narrative, from shadow to fulfillment.
Why Jerusalem Was Called Holy
Jerusalem was never holy by nature. Calling Jerusalem holy was always derivative, entirely dependent on God’s presence.
God chose the city as the place where He would cause His name to dwell. The temple, the altar, the priesthood, and the sacrifices were located there. Jerusalem functioned as the center of Israel’s covenant life because God localized His presence within that system.
This is why Scripture could call it “the holy city” under the Old Covenant [Psalm 48:1–2; Daniel 9:24]. The city was holy because God dwelt there, not because the geography itself possessed sacred qualities.
But designating Jerusalem holy was always conditional. The prophets repeatedly warned that if Jerusalem rejected the Lord, its status would not protect it from judgment [Jeremiah 7:3–14]. Holiness tied to a system could be withdrawn when the system failed.
Jerusalem’s Rejection and Jesus’ Verdict
By the time Jesus appeared, Jerusalem had become the very place where prophetic warning met resistance. Rather than reaffirming its holiness, Jesus exposed its failure.
He wept over the city because it did not recognize the time of its visitation [Luke 19:41–44]. He named it the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to it [Matthew 23:37]. He did not speak of renewal but of desolation.
The most decisive statement comes when Jesus declares that the house would be left desolate and that not one stone of the temple would remain upon another [Matthew 23:38; Matthew 24:1–2]. This was not merely a prediction of destruction. It was a theological announcement. The age of temple-centered holiness was ending.
The Relocation of Holiness
The New Testament does not abolish holiness or declare Jerusalem holy forever. It relocates holiness.
Jesus identifies His own body as the true temple [John 2:19–21]. What Jerusalem symbolized, Christ embodied. The dwelling place of God was no longer a structure in a city but a Person walking among humanity.
After the resurrection, this relocation intensifies. Those united to Christ are declared to be the dwelling place of God by the Spirit [1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:21–22]. Holiness moves from stone to flesh, from geography to union.
This is a critical turning point. Once holiness is fulfilled in Christ, no city can retain covenantal holiness apart from Him.
How the Apostles Speak of Jerusalem
If calling Jerusalem holy still held covenantal weight, the apostles would have said so. They never do.
Instead, Paul draws a sharp distinction between two Jerusalems. The Jerusalem “which now is” is associated with bondage, while the Jerusalem that matters is above and free [Galatians 4:25–26]. The contrast is intentional. Earthly Jerusalem is not elevated. It is relativized.
The author of Hebrews follows the same logic. Believers are not said to have come to Mount Zion as a physical location, but to a heavenly reality, the city of the living God [Hebrews 12:22]. The sacred destination is no longer on a map.
Even after the destruction of the temple in AD 70, the New Testament offers no instruction to mourn the loss of Jerusalem’s holiness or to anticipate its restoration as a sacred center. Silence here is not accidental. It is theological.
Why Many Christians Still Use the Language
Despite this clear shift, the language of “holy land” and “holy city” persists. This happens for several reasons.
First, many Christians inherit Old Testament terminology without following it through fulfillment. The words are biblical, but the framework is unfinished. Scripture is quoted accurately but interpreted incompletely.
Second, Jerusalem carries emotional and historical gravity. Events that occurred there matter deeply, but biblical importance is not the same as covenantal holiness. The cross happened in Jerusalem, yet holiness now flows from the cross outward, not back into the city.
Third, certain theological systems require Jerusalem to remain holy for prophetic scenarios to function. This preserves the city’s status not because the apostles do, but because modern end-times expectations demand it.
Finally, reverent language often goes unquestioned. “Holy Land” sounds pious. Few stop to ask whether the New Testament ever instructs believers to speak this way.
What Scripture Now Calls Holy
When the New Testament speaks plainly, holiness is no longer attached to a city.
Christ is holy [Acts 3:14].
Those in Christ are holy [1 Corinthians 1:2].
The Spirit’s dwelling is holy [1 Corinthians 6:19].
And when Scripture does speak of a holy city in its final vision, it is explicit that this city is new, not restored. The New Jerusalem descends from God, prepared as a bride, and God dwells with His people directly [Revelation 21:2–3].
There is no temple in that city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple [Revelation 21:22]. That single statement permanently ends the idea of holiness returning to an earthly Jerusalem.
Fulfillment Replaces the Shadow
Calling earthly Jerusalem holy today is not usually an act of rebellion. It is an act of theological delay.
Jerusalem was holy as a shadow.
Christ is holy as the substance.
Believers are holy by union.
The New Jerusalem is holy as the final reality.
Once fulfillment arrives, the shadow no longer governs meaning. To continue regarding Jerusalem holy in a covenantal sense after Christ is not reverence. It is misunderstanding fulfillment.
The gospel does not move us toward a city.
It moves us into a Person.
Holiness no longer dwells behind walls.
It dwells in Christ and in those who are in Him.
