September 30, 2025
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 3:20–21
According to Philippians 3:20, “our citizenship is in heaven.” This does not mean simply that we get to go to heaven after we die. Rather, it means that we are to live on this earth according to the values of heaven. We are committed to the agenda of the one who is sovereign in heaven, the King of kings and Lord of lords. In all we do, we are to seek God’s justice and mercy, for God’s purposes and glory.…
Though we are also citizens of nations on earth, we are supremely citizens of heaven, people whose ultimate loyalty and submission is to our Lord Jesus Christ. Because our citizenship is in heaven, we have a perspective from which to evaluate the countries of our earthly citizenship. We can celebrate when they reflect God’s goodness and grieve when they fall short. In all we do we can seek “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly” with God (Micah 6:8).
I’ve heard it said that our heavenly citizenship is mainly a matter of what we experience after death. I have no doubt that this is part of what it means to be a citizen of heaven. But, from a biblical perspective, heavenly citizenship is not just about the afterlife. It’s also about how we live on this earth in our cities and countries, companies and churches.
Consider the example of the Philippians. … The Philippians had a kind of dual citizenship in that they were citizens of their local city, Philippi, and also the imperial capital, Rome. This was uncommon in the Roman Empire. Because of their special class of citizenship, the Philippians received blessings from the Roman government and they were expected to live in a distinctly Roman way. They were an outpost of Roman power, law, and society in northern Greece. The fact that they were citizens of Rome did not mean they should move to the capital city. On the contrary, they were expected to remain in Philippi in order to advance the Roman agenda in that location.
So it is with those who are citizens of heaven. Our loyalty to heaven and to heaven’s Lord is something we live out right now, each day, in real, earthly time. In everything we do, we seek to honor God and advance his kingdom agenda on earth. …
Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Jesus wants us to ask for the coming of God’s kingdom, both now and in the future. Moreover, right now, we are to ask for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. How is God’s will done on earth? Mostly, it is done by those on earth who are citizens of heaven, whose allegiance is to the Lord of lords. In other words, it’s done by you and me as we live out our heavenly citizenship right here and now.—Mark D. Roberts1
The reminder to each of us as believers in Christ of our heavenly citizenship should encourage us and challenge us daily to walk in such a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ (Philippians 1:27). Because of our profession of faith in Christ, our conduct should be different than those who do not know God, and our primary focus should be on eternal things rather than worldly or temporal passions. This wonderful citizenship grants us the promise of eternal life and glorification through faith in Jesus Christ.
In his letter to the saints at Philippi, the Apostle Paul reminds them of this certainty and promise, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). The second coming of Jesus Christ will result in the glorification of physical bodies for those in Christ Jesus, and it will be by His power (Philippians 3:21).
When speaking of being citizens of heaven, Gregory Brown said, “People should be able to identify us as citizens of heaven because of the clothes (righteousness, patience, forgiveness, compassion, humility, and love) that we wear, the attitudes we display. Our position in Christ should affect everything.”
Being a citizen of heaven leaves us as sojourners in this world. We are temporary residents, awaiting a heavenly city much like those described in the letter to the Hebrews. Charles Spurgeon said, “If our citizenship be in heaven, then we are aliens here; we are strangers and foreigners, pilgrims and sojourners in the earth, as all our fathers were.” …
As sojourners, we realize that this world is not our home. We do not set our hearts on the things of this world nor do we store up treasure where moth and rust can destroy. We, as citizens of heaven, do what Colossians 3:1–2 tells us to do, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Rather than having an expectation for the things of this world, we have an eager expectation for the return of our Savior.
The promise of our citizenship leaves us in a state of now but not yet. As believers in Christ, we are justified before God. At the same time, we have not yet received our glorified bodies, nor have we realized being seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, a future promise of our eternal security as citizens in the heavenly city. … As citizens of heaven, Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3). We are a new creation, and the old has passed away (2 Corinthians 5:17). We have such glorious promises both now and in the future to come as citizens of heaven and Christ Jesus as our King.—Dawn Hill2
All God’s children of faith since the beginning of time have been looking for “a city that has foundations”—eternal foundations—“whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). They were not satisfied with being citizens of this world, but rather they looked for a country made by God, a heavenly city built by God.
For these all “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they came out, they would have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:13–16).
If you’re looking for the perfect country and the perfect government, look to the only country where we as Christians truly belong—the kingdom of God. That’s our nationality, our citizenship, our country—a country that has never persecuted the poor or oppressed the weak or discriminated against ethnic or racial minorities; a country that has never fought an unjust war.
We are citizens of the only righteous nation in the universe, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. We, in effect, renounced our citizenship in this world when we received the King of kings and the Prince of Peace, Lord of lords, God of heaven, Son of Righteousness and His kingdom into our hearts.—The Family International
Heaven is not an imaginary place, an idea, or a celestial dream that you and I will experience forever and ever and ever. Jesus said, “I’m going to prepare a place.” That is, a place where a glorified, literal body is going to communicate with other people and walk around and be somebody, and where we’re going to know each other. God, the ultimate Creator, is making this heaven for us. Our citizenship is in this place (Philippians 3:20).
God said our citizenship is in heaven. He also said in Luke 10 that our names have been written in heaven, in the Lamb’s book of life (Luke 10: 20; also Revelation 21:27). So, if we have received Christ’s gift of salvation, our citizenship is in this place and our names are recorded there, which means we will be there one of these days. …
Dear God,
Thank You for loving us enough to prepare heaven for us. Thank You for giving us Your only Son as a door into this heavenly home, this place where You have allowed us to belong. You have created the sun, the moon, the stars, and worlds beyond ours that are unimaginable and brilliant. …
You have prepared us for heaven by giving us glimpses of the wonder and grace, the community and the fellowship, that will exist in heaven. We are excited to live forever inside our relationship with You. We want that oneness and that closeness and that fulfillment and that love. Please guide us on earth now, so that we may live eternally by Your side. Thank You for this miracle. Thank You, God, for our heavenly home, amen.—Charles Stanley3
Published on Anchor September 2025. Read by Lenore Welsh. Music by Michael Fogarty.
1 Mark D. Roberts, “Living as Citizens on Earth as in Heaven,” Fuller, De Pree Center, July 5, 2020, https://depree.org/life-for-leaders/living-as-citizens-on-earth-as-in-heaven/
2 Dawn Hill, “What Does It Mean That Our Citizenship Is in Heaven?” Christianity.com, March 18, 2022, https://www.christianity.com/wiki/heaven-and-hell/what-does-it-mean-that-our-citizenship-is-in-heaven.html
3 Charles Stanley, The Gift of Heaven (Thomas Nelson, 2017).
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