Our Citizenship Is In Heaven Encourages Us To Endure Sufferings On The Earth.As We Have Eternal Home Where We Will Live Happily Forever.
A citizen or resident is one who lawfully dwells in a country and gets all the facilities of that country. We all are dwelling on this temporal earth but the followers of Jesus Christ will inherit the citizenship in heaven.
The ruler of this earth has blinded the minds of people. They are hiding from the light of the Gospel which should shine upon them( 2 Corinthians 4:4).
The gospel of Jesus Christ enables people to leave their sinful life and make them alive. It encourages us to walk with Jesus as we have citizenship in heaven.
Paul encouraged the believers at Philippi that they should not live like the people of the world who do not have any hope. As they are the children of this world so the wrath of God will come upon them.
But those who will put their faith in Jesus Christ and walk according to his guidance and teachings will get a wonderful gift from him.
The idea of our citizenship in heaven gives us another perspective on our Christian life. After knowing this we can live seriously and will be careful in our every deed. On the other hand, those who do not have this certainty will have a different perspective towards the world.
Many people on this earth live their lives according to their own intentions and the lord also gave us the freedom to lead our lives.
If we do not turn back to Jesus then we will have to pay the consequence in hell. At that time no one will be able to deliver us from there. Paul encouraged believers to learn from him so that we all can get permission to enter heaven.
In (Philippians 3:18-19) Paul said that many are away from the Lord and they are the enemy of the cross.
These people were pleased with the worldly objects rather than Jesus. They live for their belly and they will perish due to their indifference.
The Earth Is Our Temporary Home
Most of the time we don’t understand the Bible and we miss the golden promises in it. As the Bible says that once we were obedient to the Lord and we were slaves of sin.
Through Jesus we are no longer slaves of sin but we found life.
Jesus taught us that this world is not permanent, so we should not think too much about this world and our life on this earth.
In (Matthew 6:19-29)we can see that Jesus warns us not to store treasures in this world, but he taught us to store in heaven by doing righteous works.
Those who do not know Jesus are busy collecting worldly treasures as they think it is the real meaning of life to be enriched with worldly possessions.
The Bible does not teach us so, rather it warns us not to store anything for our future. If we look around us we can find that so many people before us were well known due to their renowned works but while they left the earth they took nothing from here.
It should be noted that running after worldly things will not give us citizenship in heaven.
The word of God tells us that one day the Lord will destroy this earth by fire.
So all the beauties and all the glorious things in this world will not last anymore.
We believe that all the promises that the Lord had made in the Old Testament had been fulfilled and we also expect that he will renovate this universe again.
We know that the Lord never changes and his words are true.
Jesus also says that in this world righteous and unrighteous both are living together but when the time will come, the unrighteous will be separated from the righteous and they will be thrown into the lake of fire.
We Are Called To Be In Heaven
The Bible says that our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20).
So we can say that we are called to be in heaven where we will live with our Lord Jesus Christ forever.
We may not see it by our naked eyes as it is designed for the righteous who will faithfully follow Jesus Christ till death. As the Bible is the word of God so we can believe it and if we live according to its instructions then we can be assured that we will inherit the Kingdom of God.
In Jesus, we all have the hope that we will live forever and our hopes will be fulfilled in him by reaching our final destination and we are eagerly waiting to see that city which is to come (Hebrews 1314).
So we need to read the scriptures to understand that our citizenship is in heaven. Jesus says that he came on this earth to give us life and he also says that if we believe in him then we will never see death.
Adam and Eve used to live with the Lord in the garden of Eden before sin entered into the world. They got the privilege to live with the creator but they were separated due to their disobedience.
And till today we the entire mankind is separated from the presence of the Lord. The Lord came on this earth to prepare away so that we can again get the privilege to live with him.
The Lord requires us to leave all our wickedness and evil deeds to renew in the spirit of our mind by which we can put on the new man who is created according to God’s righteousness and holiness(Ephesians4:22-24).
We are raised with Christ Jesus to seek the heavenly things as our permanent residence is in heaven. We are no longer slaves of sin and we need to set our mind on God’s point of view.
We are no longer strangers and foreigners but we are to inherit the citizenship which is in heaven (Ephesians 2:18-19).
Faith Is Required To Inherit Citizenship In Heaven
We cannot see our eternal home with our human eyes. we need faith by which we can be able to see our final destination.
We believe that Jesus died for our sake on the cross and Jesus was not just a mere human being but he was God in flesh and his story can be read from everywhere throughout the world.
His disciples had seen his resurrected body which encouraged them to proclaim the gospel to the world. And once Peter asked Jesus about what he would receive as he left behind everything for him. Jesus answered him that he will get a hundredfold of what he lost for him and he will also get eternal life.
In the Old Testament when the Lord called Abraham to make a great nation from him and to give him a land, Abraham completely believed the Lord without knowing where he was going. And we see from his life that he was blessed with the land that was promised by the Lord(Hebrews 11:8-10).
We can understand that to be in heaven we need faith in the Lord. The Bible says everyone will be resurrected but all will not inherit the kingdom of God.