Morning By Morning #192

You are…fellow citizens with God’s people.

Ephesians 2:19

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

What is the meaning of “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20)? It means we are subject to heaven’s government; Christ, the King of heaven, reigns in our hearts; and our daily prayer is, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). It means we freely receive the proclamations issued from God’s throne of glory and we cheerfully obey the Great King’s decrees.

Then, as citizens of the New Jerusalem, we share heaven’s honors. The glory belonging to the saints already glorified belongs to us, for we are already sons of God, already in the royal bloodline, already clothed in the spotless robe of Jesus’ righteousness. We already have angels as our servants, saints as our companions, Christ as our brother, God as our Father, and a crown of immortality as our reward. We share the honors of citizenship, for we “have come…to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven” (Heb. 12:22 – 23). As citizens we have public rights to all the property of heaven. The gates of pearl and walls of chrysolite are ours; the sky blue light of the city, which itself needs no candles or light of the sun, is ours; “the river of the water of life” is ours; and the “twelve crops of fruit” planted “on each side of the river” (Rev. 22:1 – 2) are ours. There is nothing in heaven that does not belong to us. “Whether…things present, or things to come; all are [ours]” (1 Cor. 3:22 KJV).

As citizens of heaven we also enjoy its delights. Isn’t there “rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:7) and prodigals who have returned? Then we share in that rejoicing. Don’t they sing the glories of triumphant grace? We do as well. Do “they lay their crowns” (Rev. 4:10) at Jesus’ feet? We share this honor too. Are they graced with His smile? It is no less sweet to us here below. Do they look forward to His second coming? We also “[long] for his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8).

Thus, since we are indeed citizens of heaven, may our walk and actions be consistent with our high nobility and heavenly status.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Spurgeon is saying, in essence, that we should walk in agreement with who we are, or as the saying goes: “walk our talk”! Paul also says this, not by accident, in the verses just before He wrote, “Our citizenship is in heaven.” Here is how he stated it:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:10 – 14

Paul realized he was in the process of being “made perfect”—that he had not “arrived.” Yet he goes on to admonish each of us: “Only let us live up to what we have already attained” (Phil. 3:16).

May this be our prayer to the Lord today!