When I was in college, one of my friends, who immigrated to this country from South Korea with his family when he was 14, became a citizen of the U.S. First he lived in this country for some time, learning the language and gaining familiarity with its customs. Then he went through a period of formal instruction, learning some of the basics that every citizen of the U.S. is expected to know. Then he was examined, and his readiness to gain citizenship was evaluated. Then the big day finally came, and he stood before a judge, took an oath of allegiance, and was declared a citizen of the United States of America.
He will always remember that day—his citizenship day. On that day, his identity changed; his name remained the same, but a new people claimed him as one of its own. On that day, his place of belonging changed.
For Christians, there is an even more important citizenship day—not the day we became citizens of the U.S. or whatever other country we call home, but the day we were granted citizenship in heaven—our baptism day.
Today is Tony T.’s baptism day. On this day, he will be granted citizenship in heaven. On this day, his place of belonging will change. On this day, a new people will claim him as one of its own. On this day, his identity will change.
He has lived among this new people for some time, learning the language of faith and gaining familiarity with the customs of the church. He has gone through a period of formal instruction, learning some of the basics that every citizen of heaven is expected to know. He has been examined, and his readiness to gain citizenship has been evaluated. (This, by the way, is one of the tasks of session.) Finally, his big day has come. He will stand before God, take an oath of allegiance, and be declared a citizen of heaven.
And all the baptized will celebrate with him, for our citizenship is in heaven also.
That’s what the Bible says—we are citizens of heaven, resident aliens here on earth.
In his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes: “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20).
Peter says the same thing slightly differently in his first letter: “Dear friends, I urge you, aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from the sinful desires, which war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11).
As long as we are on this earth, we are not in our homeland. We are citizens of heaven, still physically residing in the kingdom of darkness (the land of our birth). Whether we were born in the U.S. or Japan or Nigeria or France, the land of our birth is this fallen world.
Paul writes that, “he saved us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (Colossians 1:13). Before we belonged to the kingdom of God’s Son, we belonged to the power of darkness. Paul emphasizes the same idea in Ephesians: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:1-2).
It’s not the type of thing most of us like to think about. I mean, weren’t we basically good people even before we were baptized? Were we really dead in our trespasses and sins?
It may not be pleasant to think about, but that’s what the Bible says. The Bible does not say that we were bad people who suddenly became good people when we were baptized. The Bible says that ultimately there are only two kingdoms in creation, the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. We are all born with citizenship in the kingdom of darkness. That is our heritage from Adam and Eve. By God’s grace, through baptism, our citizenship is transferred, and we become citizens of the Kingdom of God.
Just like accents and customs linger in those who change their earthly citizenship, the accent and custom of sin clings to us, but our passport has changed. Through baptism, we get a passport from heaven, and we walk the rest of our days on this earth as resident aliens.
About 100 years before Jesus was born, a group of people who lived near the Dead Sea had in their library a scroll called the “Angelic Liturgy.” We now call these scrolls the Dead Sea Scrolls. This scroll contains an order of worship for the angels in heaven. Now why would people on earth have such a book? Most scholars now think that the people who lived at Qumran believed that when they were gathered in worship, they were participating in the very worship of the angels in heaven. They needed to know how the angels worshiped, so they could join in without disrupting the angels. What the people of Qumran correctly understood was that when God’s people are gathered together in worship and service, he is there in their midst. And where he is, heaven is, along with the heavenly angels. Jesus told us that where two or three are gathered in His name, he is there in their midst (Matthew 18:20). We can be sure that he is here among us now.
How can we be in heaven? Look around you. Do you see anything that looks like heaven? Does it feel like heaven? There is a little poem that may be relevant:
To dwell above
with the saints we love,
oh, that will be glory.
But to live below
with the saints we know,
well, that’s another story.
We imagine that it will be so glorious to finally reach heaven, but according to Ephesians, we are already spiritually there. This may not seem like glory to you, but it does to God. We have not gone to heaven; heaven has come to us by virtue of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Paul writes more about this in Ephesians: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is fitted together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22).
Heaven is where God is - it is God’s temple, his dwelling place.
John describes his vision of heaven in the book of Revelation: “At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it” (Revelation 4:2). John then goes on to describe his vision of God on the throne surrounded by angelic worshipers who continually praise God, saying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8).
This is not all there is to heaven; it’s a snapshot in a vision. The important point of John’s vision of heaven is that heaven is where God sits on his throne and receives the worship of the holy angels and saints.
What Ephesians tells us is that we are that temple—we are God’s throne room. We used to be alienated from heaven; now we are aliens on this earth. Now we are God’s holy temple, his dwelling in the Spirit. Notice that we are not each a little temple—we are being fitted together and growing into a holy temple.
Paul writes about this in his first letter to the Corinthians: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
What is not apparent in the English translation is that this is in the plural. When I lived in Georgia, we would have said, “Y’all are a temple.” We are not each a little temple in which God’s Spirit lives, even though he does live in each one of us who trusts in Christ. We are together, as the body of Christ, the temple of God in whom the Spirit dwells. These verses in 1 Corinthians are not an argument that we should take good care of our physical bodies (though that’s not a bad idea), they are an argument that we should preserve the purity of the body of Christ, the Church.
So we together are a holy temple of God in which God’s Spirit dwells. As such we represent heaven on earth.
The really amazing thing about all this is that God himself makes us fit to be citizens of heaven!
Paul writes: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Ephesians 1:3-4).
Again, Peter writes about the same idea: “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:3-4).
It’s one thing to say that we are citizens of heaven and that when we gather together in Christ’s name, heaven surrounds us. But to claim that we are fit for heaven, that we should be holy and blameless, that we partake of the divine nature seems too much to believe. How can this be?
Remember the advice of 1 Peter 2:11? “Dear friends, I urge you, aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from the sinful desires, which war against your soul.” The avoidance of the desires of the flesh is a common refrain in the New Testament. In Galatians 5 Paul explains how we can do this.
“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
“The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:16-25)
We have the Spirit, and we have the flesh. Two opposing forces at work within us; citizens of heaven, but the habits of our old residence still clinging to us.
Let’s take a look at the deeds of the flesh: “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft.” Most of us aren’t doing too badly. Let’s go on: “hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy.” Well, maybe we aren’t doing all that well either. These negative attitudes and ways of dealing with others result from the desires of the flesh, the sinful nature.
But the Spirit can overcome the flesh and replace the negative attitudes with positive ones—“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” It is not up to us to generate these attitudes—that is the Spirit’s job. Our job is only to choose. It is the Spirit’s job to make us holy and blameless before God.
I close with two prayers of Paul.
“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.” (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13)
“May the God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. Maay your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
It is not our job to be holy and blameless. That is up to God. He is faithful, and his Spirit will work these things in us, if we only choose his ways instead of the ways of the world and of the flesh. Our job is not to be holy but to choose the Spirit over this flesh—to choose to live according to our new citizenship and not our old one.
Remember who you are, who we are together. Remember your baptism. Choose the things that belong to heaven; prefer them to all the things that belong to this world. God has called us, he has transferred us to the kingdom of Christ, he has given us precious and magnificent promises, and through the knowledge of God, he gives us all we need for life and godliness. Let us focus on knowing him. We are all in this together. We are God’s holy temple. May God make us truly holy through his Spirit.
