“Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Believers and unbelievers are not the same. Yes, we are all still people. We are equally created in the image of God and are both inestimably valuable because of that. Jesus died for both groups. God loves us the same. But the former group have been transformed by the grace of God into citizens of heaven while the latter are still in the flesh and denizens of this world. Their trajectories are not the same, nor are their ends. Having talked about the latter yesterday, let’s join Paul today as he reflects a bit about the former.

Citizenship is a big deal. Depending on the nation where that citizenship lies, it can be a very big deal. If you are a U.S. citizen, for instance, anywhere you go in the world, you know you have the full weight and authority of the United States of America behind you. Now, that doesn’t mean you can take advantage of your situation and behave in ways unbecoming of an American citizen, but if you are walking the right path and things go sideways, you’ve got the most powerful nation in the world in your corner. That’s not a small thing.

As followers of Jesus, our citizenship is first and foremost in heaven. That is, it is in God’s eternal kingdom. I don’t think we always understand just how big of a deal that really is. The thing about the kingdom of God is that its ruler is the ruler over all of creation. He is the one who created it. It belongs to Him. His sovereignty extends to every part of it. Now, much of it exists in open rebellion to His just rule, but no matter where we go as citizens of the kingdom of God, we are entirely covered by our King.

This doesn’t mean we can take advantage of our situation. If we break the laws of the nation in which we reside as temporary residents, we are going to have to face the just penalty of our crimes. Our God won’t save us from that. But if we are walking the right path and things go sideways, we have not merely the most powerful nation in the world (arguably in history) on our side, we have the God who created the world and everything in it in our corner.

This means we can face whatever the world throws at us with courage and humble boldness because it can’t ultimately do anything to hurt us. Temporarily, sure, it can inflict some pain and misery. But in the final analysis. we’re good. Our King has our back, and He has already promised to restore all things one day including us. He has assured us that He will seek vengeance on all those who have wronged Him (and if someone wrongs one of His children, they have wronged Him).

This frees us from having to worry about responding to slights and unjust attacks. Instead, we can focus on living out the values and virtues of our true citizenship. We can love freely and work for justice courageously and pursue kindness and generosity radically and proclaim the coming of our kingdom and its King boldly. We can do all of this both with friends and with enemies alike because that’s what our King did and does.

All of this marks an important departure from the world. Those who are in the world are living only for this world, and so their relational and emotional calculus are entirely different from ours. They have to respond to slights because they can’t trust anyone else will. They have to seek vengeance when they are wronged because who else will do it? They can’t love freely because they have to protect themselves from harm. Generosity is out the window because they can’t rely on anyone else to provide for them other than themselves. It’s a bad situation.

Meanwhile, “we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” This waiting is not passive, though. It is active and intentional. We are active in building His kingdom wherever we go. We are intentional in living out the values of our King. We do this because His victory is already assured, and our redemption is guaranteed. “He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.”

What all of this means for us is hope. In Christ we have hope that the world can only envy. We have joy the world will never experience. We have peace the world can only dream of. And all of this is because of the love of our God. This makes us different. That’s not the same thing as saying it makes us better. It makes us redeemed. Any goodness we have is merely a reflection of the goodness of our God.

Today and yesterday we have seen Paul describe two different groups of people. In doing so, he has laid out two different paths we could follow. The choice between the two really doesn’t seem like a choice at all. Life or death? Joy or sorrow? Hope or despair? Glorification or destruction? If you have wisely chosen the former, then you need to do two things. First, you need to live it. Second, you need to share it. There are others who need to be on this path. Let’s help them get started.