“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” Philippians 3:20-21
Do you remember when you studied about amphibians in school?
They are cold-blooded creatures who have characteristics of fish and reptiles. They have the ability to live both on land and in water.
The word amphibious literally means “living a double life.”
We are spiritual amphibians who live a double life. We live on earth and in heaven at the same time.
We read this in Eph. 2:6: “For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”
We are unique people as believers. We are intended to be “earth people” because of our physical birth. We are “heaven people” because of our new birth.
We are people of two realms.
Our role on earth is to live out of the power of the heavenly realm; we are to live on earth to bring a touch of heaven wherever we go.
In order for us to be living like spiritual amphibians, we need to focus on 3 realities, which we will do in this 3 part blog.
First, we are citizens of heaven, vs. 20a-“For our citizenship is in heaven.”
Even though we are citizens of the USA, our allegiance cannot be to the flesh and temporal values.
The believer’s citizenship is in heaven and his allegiance is to the Spirit and to eternal values.
So, we as believers, while living on earth have our citizenship elsewhere – in heaven.
We are far from our home country, far from our King, the Lord Jesus.
We are a little colony of citizens of heaven in the midst of a godless and perverse generation among whom we shine as lights.
The Roman citizenship the Philippians enjoyed meant a great deal to them.
Our American citizenship should mean a great deal to us and we should enjoy it as well.
But we as believers need to learn to live as foreigners and pilgrims on this earth.
The temptation to become comfortable in this world, to settle down in it, may be the most difficult to resist.
Believers have always wrestled with how to be in the world and not of it—to hold a dual citizenship with our highest allegiance to our heavenly citizenship.
Beloved, we must all examine our hearts to see if our highest allegiance to King Jesus as citizens of heaven.
Blessings!
Pastor Ken Keeler, Director of Church Ministries