Citizenship of Heaven
“Tove heaven. Let your heart be in it. Up, up and visit the new land and view the fair city, and the white throne and the Lamb — run fast for it is late.’
SAMUEL RUTHERFORD.
r “HE Bible puts our citizenship in heaven by such a naturalization force, that we are expatriated from earth, and have always
the sighings of an exile for native land, and the weariness, longings and loneliness of pilgrims and strangers. The Bible puts all true Christians in the attitude of groaning after heaven, on a stretch for living for heaven. To them it is the only life, life indeed — to live for heaven, and to live in heaven.
The term heaven signifies a place of exaltation and glory. It is God’s dwelling place. The immediate presence of God is there. It is the land of a higher order of beings and a higher order of things than exist on earth.
It is called “the third heaven” from its loftiness and supremacy, in contrast with the lower heavens. This term has been fully accepted in modern piety as the designation of the place. The good man is ERTY (¢
N 2): PALO Tvs + £ ENSTITUTE fir to lay up his treasures in heaven, on which his heart and eye are to be constantly fixed. Heaven is the place to which Jesus has gone, where He is preparing a place for us. Heaven is a place, a land very dear to the Christian’s heart. Heaven! how the heart ‘beats quicker and the eye grows brighter at the mention of it! The eye of faith holds it in vision, and to it the prayer of faith is lifted. ‘‘ Our Father” dwells there. Jesus came from heaven on His great mission. ‘The Holy Spirit came down from heaven. The bodies of Enoch and Elijah and of Christ are there. Perhaps the bodies of the saints who-came out of their graves when Jesus was raised from the dead are in heaven. The spirits of all the holy dead are there. A holy place is heaven, a happy place it is. An innumerable company are there, safe, blessed, tearless, and immortal.
How heaven ought to draw on our hearts and lift us above earth! How it should fill our thoughts and brighten our hopes! Heaven ought to assuage our griefs, banish our fears, lift care from our hearts and make us immune to the ills of this life. Jesus was ever lifting His eye and heart to heaven, ever speaking and thinking of His Father in heaven, ever looking at heaven, that, supported by its sight and joy, He might “endure the cross and despise the shame.” He made much of heaven. .So also ought we to make much of heaven. It ought to be the land in which we live, its atmosphere should surround us, its glories allure us and its deathless beauties fill eye and heart. It should be the aim of our lives, the goal of our ambition, the stimulant of every exertion. Our names should ‘be written there, our treasures laid up there.
Heaven in symbol is native land, fatherland, home.
“For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20).
The word, “conversation,” the Revised Version changes to “citizenship,” and in the margin it has “commonwealth.” ‘The word has to do with a state, a commonwealth, its laws, regulations and citizens.
“To-day,” said Jesus to the dying thief, “shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Paul said he “was caught up into paradise,” the paradise of God, a place enclosed and beautiful, like the abode of our first parents, another name for Eden. ‘The name is transferred to the abode of the saints in heaven, which is called the “‘ Paradise of God.” ‘The first paradise was made for man, with every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. Beauty and purity and innocence were there. These all will be in the second paradise in larger proportion. The first paradise: “The Lord God planted a garden.” ‘The second paradise: “God hath prepared for them a city.” The contrast and advance are from a garden to a city. The first was man’s paradise. ‘The second, the “paradise of God.” Man was in the first paradise. God is in the second paradise. God visited the first paradise. He dwells in the second paradise!
It involves the common well-being and happiness of the whole people, and not of any favored caste or class. The perfection of government is heaven, in which the well-being and happiness of each and all are secured and enjoyed to the fullest measure.
In the last part of the above quotation, we have the idea of heaven as a place brought strongly out, “heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour.” Jesus with His human body must occupy a place, so represented constantly in the New Testament, and that place, heaven, and from that place, heaven, we look for Him to come and do His work of raising the dead and changing the bodies of His saints.
“Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil. 3:21).
The Christian has his citizenship in heaven. His allegiance is to God, his loyalty to heaven. ‘The laws of heaven he is bound to obey. ‘The best citizen of heaven is the best citizen of earth. He is bound by highest obligations to obedience, to virtue, to government. How it exalts to be a citizen of such a divine commonwealth! “I ama Roman,” carried with it in the days of Rome’s power, dignity and honor, safety and sacredness. “I am a citizen of heaven.” What dignity and nobility, purity and heavenliness, such citizenship ought to represent!
O Paradise! O Paradise!
I want to sin no more,
I want to be as pure on earth
As on thy spotless shore;
O Paradise! O Paradise!
I greatly long to see
The special place my dearest Lord
In love prepares for me;
Lord Jesus, King of Paradise,
O keep me in thy love,
And guide me to that happy land
Of perfect rest above.