Citizenship

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which is able even to subdue all things to Himself." Philippians 3: 20-21

My oldest son is a high achiever - he does very well academically in school. For him, anything less than a 90% kind of bums him out. He recently came home from school with this perturbed look in eyes. I could tell something was bugging him because he had this indignant clenched jaw thing going on. So I asked him how his day at school went. He went on to tell me that in his 7th grade social studies class they were given a pop quiz for credit consisting of actual questions from the US citizenship test. My little perfectionist was definitely non-plussed about the 60% he scored. I actually thought it was pretty good, considering he is a Canadian and has only been in the US school system for 1 and a half years, but I could see how his youthful fairness meter would be tipping to unfair.

Me, being the clever Father that I am, suggested he obtain some questions from the Canadian citizenship test in order to quiz his teacher and if she failed to score better than he did on his US quiz - he could get a guaranteed A+ in the course...that was when I got the "Dad, you're a crazy man" look.

Citizenship is an interesting thing. In order to become a citizen of the US, you need to either be born here, or naturalized into one through a number of different means. It can often be a long and difficult process to become a naturalized citizen of the USA. However, once you are a citizen, you are a citizen, just as if you were born here, complete with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities that come with it. To become an American is to live into the ideals and precepts of freedom and democracy, as well as abiding by its constitution and bill of rights and the law of the land.

Paul describes Christians as having a citizenship in heaven. New life in Christ allows one to become a birth citizen in the Kingdom of God - this is an incredible privilege. It's also one that is not a difficult or onerous process - there are no tests, paperwork, fingerprinting, and time constraints. The entrance point is simply faith in Christ.

And citizenship in heaven trumps any type of earthly citizenship because it is eternal and our leader is a holy, all powerful God rather than a fallen worldly leader. So what is our responsibility as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven?

Just as American citizens are called to abide by the constitution and the bill of rights and the law of the land - Citizens of heaven are called to obey and abide by the Word of God, the Bible.
Just as American citizens are called to live into the precepts of democracy and freedom - Citizens of heaven are called to live into the precepts of love and mercy.

As citizens of heaven, we are called to allow our identity be swallowed up in the glorious identity of our head - Jesus. May we endeavor to do so, and as we do - may others recognize the amazing privilege of our citizenship and want to join in too.

Be God's, Scott