Citizens of Heaven and Pilgrims on Earth

Those who have genuinely believed in the Lord Jesus and made him their Lord and Savior are no longer citizens of earth, but citizens of heaven. Jesus said of those who believe in him:

“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”

John 17:16

The born-again experience God the Father offers us through Jesus Christ translates those who believe in him, from the Kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of heaven. Not only are our sins forgiven, our natures changed, but our citizenship is changed as well; we become henceforth strangers and aliens on earth.

“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son”

Colossians 1:13

All men are born under the dominion of sin, as citizens of the Kingdom of Satan, disconnected from God and without hope. Sin separates us from God. But Jesus came to offer us a new destiny, and a reconciliation back to the Father, restoring what was lost in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned. We are now in Christ, Sons of God and co-heirs with Christ of our Father’s kingdom.

“And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ”

Romans 8:17

So, what does it mean to be a citizen of heaven?

1. Citizens of heaven live holy

As citizens of heaven, our conduct must reflect our Father and his kingdom. Our Father is holy and his kingdom is holy. No unclean thing dwells in heaven and no unclean thing can enter heaven. If we are truly citizens of heaven, then our conduct will represent this. We will be children of light and not darkness. Our father says, “Be ye holy for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16)

“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul”

1 Peter 2:11

2. Citizens of heaven are dead to the world

As citizens of heaven, the world is now dead to us. We no longer identify with it because we have been born of God. The Bible says that this world belongs to Satan. Jesus called him “the prince of this world” (John 14:30).

A citizen of heaven does not feel at home in this world because his citizenship has changed.

“(God) hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Ephesians 2:6

“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Galatians 6:14

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

Hebrews 11:13

3. The world hates the citizens of heaven

Beloved if you have placed your trust in Jesus, you are no longer of this world. And Jesus said that because you are not of this world, the world will hate you. It will hate you because your nature is opposed to its nature which is evil and darkness. The world loves its own.

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you”

John 15:18-19

4. You are a fellow citizen with the saints in heaven

As citizens of heaven, our family extends to the saints who have gone before us to heaven. The world and its citizens, and even our fellow countrymen on earth and fellow tribesmen…these are not our fellow citizens. Our fellow citizens are all who name the name of the Lord in truth and this extends to the saints in heaven. We are one family and they long for us to overcome this world and join them.

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us”

Hebrews 11:1

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect”

Hebrews 11:22-23

5. Citizens of heaven are ambassadors of Christ on earth

As citizens of heaven, we are ambassadors of Christ. Just as we have been saved and born again into the kingdom of God, we are expected to tell others the good news as well and invite more to join the Kingdom of God. It is not God’s desire for any to perish. Jesus died for the whole world. We are his hands, feet, and mouth here on earth. He has entrusted the message of reconciliation to us. We are the preachers to carry his good news and bring more sons to God’s kingdom.

“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”

2 Corinthians 5:20 

6. Citizens of heaven live in this world as strangers and pilgrims

As citizens of heaven, we will live on earth as strangers knowing this is not our home. As pilgrims we are aware that we are on a journey here, but are not here to stay. What does this mean? This chiefly means that we will not lay up treasures for ourselves on earth, but in heaven.

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Matthew 6:19-21

Someone who is passing by a foreign land, does not set up permanent residence there because he knows that he will soon leave. This is how Abraham lived while on earth, as a stranger in tents with Isaac and Jacob looking forward to the city whose maker and builder is God.

“By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

Hebrews 11:9-10

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.

But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”

Hebrews 11:13-16

We should live in this world and make use of it lightly, knowing that it is passing away and there is an eternal home prepared and waiting for us. We must not lose focus because if we love this world, we shall perish with it.

“But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away”

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

7. Citizens of heaven long for the Lord’s return

As citizens of heaven, we long for the Lord’s return to take us home to be with him forever. Apostle Paul called this the blessed hope. Jesus said that he has gone to prepare a place for us and will come back to receive us to himself that we may be where he is forever.

“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

John 14:2-3

“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ”

Philippians 3:20

We also long for the day the Lord shall put an end to sin, death, and this wicked world once and for all, and make all things new.

“We long for the new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells”

2 Peter 3:13

And because we have this hope, we purify ourselves so that we may not miss out on the glorious inheritance God the Father has prepared for those who love his son Jesus and obey him.

“And everyone who has this hope upon him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”

1 John 3:3

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ”

Titus 2:13

“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

2 Timothy 4:8

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