January 25, 2023: Philippians 3:20-21 - Our Citizenship is in Heaven

“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 He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” - Philippians 3:20-21

Have you ever been in a place or a situation where you felt like you just didn’t belong there, that you didn’t fit in? That is the life of a believer in Jesus Christ, in one who has put their faith and trust in Him for redemption of all their sins. I can tell you from my own personal experience that it took me a while after I got saved to realize that this place, the earth, is not my true Home. Prior to getting saved, my earthly home was extremely valuable to me, and I loved decorating it and buying new things for it. I loved the way it made me feel safe, safe from the elements, keeping me warm during the cold of winter, cool in the summer heat, and dry during the rare rainstorms in the Southwest where we lived. And, I must honestly admit that my home made me feel a certain status because I lived in a desirable area of town. Then I got saved. I turned to Jesus as my Savior, and slowly, my perspective started to change.

Going back to 2001 when 9/11 happened, it rocked my world, like it did for many people. It made me realize that everything can change in an instant. I wasn’t saved at that time, but it was then that I was starting to realize my own mortality. A few years later, I had this strong urge to learn about the Bible, to learn about Christianity and why it claimed to be the only way to heaven. In my readiness to learn about Jesus, Satan himself was right there, ready to mislead me and sent two Jehovah’s Witnesses to my house, knocking on the door. Long-story short: I studied with them for about four years when my husband, who is not a believer in Jesus Christ, called an end to it. I thank God that he did, and I believe it was God’s intervention. I eventually threw away all of their materials that they had given me, including their version of the Bible, one which denies the divinity of Jesus Christ, and I began a journey of reading the Bible, one that I had purchased. After finally finishing the Bible, I was absolutely, 100 percent convinced that it is the true word of God and that belief in Jesus Christ as your Savior is the only way to God the Father in heaven. I accepted Jesus as my Savior.

I estimate it was in 2016 or 2017 that God put a longing in my heart to go Home, to my true Home, in heaven with Him. It was also during this time that our family went through some extremely difficult times, and I leaned on God like never before. The more I suffered emotionally, the more alone I felt in this world, the closer I got to Him, and I realized I cannot get through a single day of my life without Him. As my dependence on Him grew, I started having this longing to go to my true home, Home with Him. He even put a song in my heart to write and record. The title of the song is called “Home.” The first verse and the chorus are:

Verse 1

We feel it all around us, that You’re coming soon. We hear You when You call us. We feel Your presence, You’re right beside us. We know that soon we’ll see You, when You take us…

Chorus

Home, where death, sorrow, and tears are no more. Home, where heaven and earth are made new. Jesus is calling us…Home.

I also began to feel like I just don’t fit in here. As I continued in my Bible reading, I realized why. The world approves and promotes that which God calls evil and it hates what God calls good. The world’s ways are not His ways, and as long as I am following Him and not the world, I won’t ever fit in, and that is a good thing for believers in Jesus Christ. As the Bible tells us in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Yes, we still have to live our lives while we are here on earth but our goal mustn’t be to live “our best lives now” as one who claims to be a pastor said, but to know that our best lives are yet to come. Our lives here on earth are just a temporary stopping place on our way to our eternity and where our true Home is. We must ask ourselves: Is our treasure here on earth or is it in heaven? When you have a span of eternity and you see one dot in the middle of it, how important is all that happened on that one dot compared to what happens in eternity? Our lives here on earth are that one dot. I could have everything in this world that I ever wanted, but what happens to it all when I die? Can I take it with me? No, all the things I have ever accumulated will go to someone else, and my body will be dead.

When a believer dies, his or her soul goes to heaven immediately but their bodies stay in the graves or where they were at their point of death. Our soul is separated from our body at the time of death. This is because the Bible tells us that we cannot be with Christ in our corrupted bodies: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit corruption.” (1 Corinthians 15:50)

As Paul states in Philippians 3:20-21, our citizenship - our true Home - is not here on earth: “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 He is able to subdue all things to Himself.”

So, how do the bodies of believers in Jesus become transformed? The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:51-57:

“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep [die], but we shall all be changed - in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written:

‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your string? O Hades, where is your victory?’

The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

There is a similar passage in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18. Death will not have victory over us like it does for unbelievers. Our souls will be united with our new glorified bodies through our resurrection in Christ.

The Bible tells us that Jesus is coming again, but the second time He comes, it won’t be to offer redemption of sins to all who would believe in Him but to defeat all who come against Him, including the coming Antichrist and the False Prophet. After their defeat, all believers in Christ will be allowed entry into Jesus’ kingdom on earth that will last 1,000 years. After that, He will destroy the earth by fire and will create a new heaven, a new earth, and a New Jerusalem, and it is there that we will spend our eternity with Him, where as the apostle John wrote, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

However, for unbelievers, when they are resurrected at the end of Jesus’ 1,000-year reign on earth, He will judge them based on their works. Why are they judged by their works? Because they rejected His free gift of salvation; they rejected His way and chose their way instead. It will be like a courtroom scene, with books that are opened. When an unbeliever stands before God, another book will be opened, the Book of Life. None of the unbelievers’ names will be found in the Book of Life, because they all rejected Jesus’ gift. They will be found guilty because no one could ever do anything “good enough” that could save them from their sins - only the sinless, precious blood of Jesus could have redeemed them. But it will be too late for them to accept that gift. They did not make heaven their citizenship, but the earth. Thus, “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:11-15)

I ask you to consider your own mortality. What if you were to die today, or even within the hour? Where would you spend your eternity - in heaven with Jesus and all who put their faith and trust in Him, or will you spend it in hell, with the majority of the world, a place where Jesus said several times there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth?” Is your citizenship in this world, or is it in heaven? Think of all the people who died suddenly, who did not have another minute to decide where they will spend their eternity - will the next person be you? ✝️