By Chaplain (Col) Stephen W. Leonard, USA, Ret.
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the LORD Jesus Christ.” Philippians 3:20
If you are a native-born American, you can easily claim that you were fortunate to be born into the greatest earthly citizenship that any can claim by virtue of being born in America. Its history is exceptional in world accomplishment, service to others, and service to itself! Some may take exception to this claim, but they would be mistaken on the face of the facts, including winning two World Wars, a national Civil War to free a race of people, and serving other nations in the cause and reason they are free! There is no nation which has accomplished as much. God used America as His instrument in bringing about good in a world set on self-destruction.
So, July 4th is a day to celebrate our nation for what it is and has been by virtue of God’s providence. Without God, none of this would be possible.
But when Paul claims, as a citizen of Rome, one of the greatest empires of earth, that his and his fellow Christians’ citizenship is in Heaven, his statement is literally earth-shattering! It eschews citizenship in any empire or nation of earth for a citizenship which never ends or is destructible, citizenship in an eternal kingdom. It is hardly imaginable! We really cannot see to the outer margins of what this citizenship means for us who are in Christ. Its benefits to us are unending and beyond all thought or description.
Knowing this, you should be daily relishing the thought that you are a part of this, that you are a “card-carrying” citizen of the greatest empire ever. Stamped on your heart are the words “citizen of heaven.” And you have all rights to all that that means! You can say that you don’t know the half of it. And when you’ve been there 10,000 years, you still won’t know the half of it.
Actually, we will know as soon as we see Jesus face-to-face. But we will not have experienced it as long as we shall. But you need to act now as if you know and love that you are already a citizen of Heaven!
Rejoice in that fact today! Live like you know it, and in the joy of that truth, no matter your circumstances. Praise the LORD for my citizenship!
Encouragement
“Elect from every nation, yet One o’er all the earth, her charter of salvation one LORD, one faith, one birth; one holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food, and to one hope she presses, with every grace endued.”
(2nd verse of Samuel Stone’s hymn, “The Church’s One Foundation,” 1866)
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