So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. (Ephesians 2:19)
“I passed!” said Natnael as he burst into the doorway of my classroom. “Dr. Cobourn, I passed! I am going to be a citizen of the United States of America!” To emphasize his point, he saluted the small American flag that hung above my blackboard.
Natnael and his father had emigrated to the United States three years ago and learning to adjust to a new culture and a new language had not been easy for either of them. For the last two years, Natnael had continually expressed a desire to return to Ethiopia. That had changed last Fall when Mr. Fatan had been offered employment at a University that would guarantee his son a college education. It was, as Mr. Fatan said, an offer he could not refuse.
Natnael was determined to fit into college. Thus, we began to prepare for the U.S. Citizenship test. There is both a civics and an English component to the test. It was the need to respond to ten questions, orally and in English, that terrified my student.
How different is the entrance exam to become a citizen of Heaven! It does not matter what language we speak; we need to answer no civics questions; we can still retain our earthly citizenship. We do not even need to meet with an official who will stamp our papers with a seal and allow us access.
All that is needed is our belief.
The Gentiles Paul refers to in the Book of Ephesians previously had no privileges in the young Christian Church. They were unknown, spiritually dead, and not part of the chosen nation of Israel. They might live in the holy city of Jerusalem, but they were still strangers, goyim who had not been descended from Jacob. And in the Roman Empire, citizenship was important; many rights came with citizenship. Paul reminded the Gentiles that they had been “separated from Messiah, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:11-12).
Gee, how depressing can it get? God had provided a path for the nation of Israel to get to God, but the other nations were left out in the cold.
But Paul made it clear that Jesus had not come explicitly to the Jewish people, but to ALL people. Ephesians 2:13 tells us “we have been brought near by the blood of Messiah” and our “citizenship is in Heaven” (Philippians 3:21).
We may live on earth, but we are already citizens of Heaven!
91% of those born in foreign countries pass the test to become U.S. Citizens, just as Natnael did. He took his responsibilities as a new citizen very seriously. It was his desire, he told me, to be a credit to the country that had welcomed him and his father. Once his own citizenship papers were stamped, Natnael took it upon himself to work with other Ethiopian immigrants and help them to become citizens.
The heavy price of our own citizenship in heaven was paid by Jesus, but that does not mean we do not have responsibilities to the nation in which we currently live. Quite the contrary. As dual citizens of both Heaven and America, we should:
- Be people of hope
- Obey scripture
- Follow God, not the world
- Pray for our leaders
- Be obedient to God
- Become the voices of truth
Natnael and his father left for Mr. Fatan’s new position before the end of the school year, but Natnael came to see me before he left, carrying a red American Beauty rose and a small American flag because, “I wouldn’t have become a citizen without you.”
And none of us would be citizens of Heaven without Jesus.
