Citizen of Heaven

In 1988, Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee flying to England, discovered he had lost his official refugee papers during a layover in France. Without his papers or a passport, Nasseri could not board a plane for England. Lacking the correct documentation, he also couldn’t leave Charles de Gaulle Airport and enter France. For 18 years, Nasseri lived in Terminal One as officials worked to resolve his case. 

The practical implications of living for nearly two decades stuck inside the confines of an airport terminal is almost impossible for me to grasp. Due to weather delays, I once spent a miserable day stuck in an airport terminal with unappealing food, uncomfortable sleeping options, and no access to fresh air. I can’t imagine having to live in an airport terminal for 18 years because no country was willing to grant me entrance to their country as a path toward citizenship. 

Most countries have strict procedures for granting citizenship because citizenship guarantees certain benefits. As a U.S. citizen, some of the benefits of citizenship are the right to vote, access to financial assistance programs, freedom to move around the country, and help when traveling overseas. I know I often take these rights for granted until stories like Nasseri’s desperate situation remind me to be grateful for my citizenship.

Citizenship is not only important in the country we call home on earth, but also a vital part of what it means to belong to the people of God, that is, to be citizens of heaven. 

Before we acknowledged our need for Jesus, we did not belong to the people of God. Using stark terms to describe the experiences of that life, Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:12–22 that we were “excluded . . . foreigners . . . without hope . . . without God . . . far away . . . [and] strangers.”

While we remained outside the community of faith, we were stuck in a miserable reality dominated by brokenness, hopelessness and fear—cut off from the benefits of being part of the people of God. But, unlike countries that put up barriers that make it difficult to claim citizenship, God offers every single person the opportunity to claim heavenly citizenship. 

Becoming a Christian by acknowledging our need for Jesus allows us to become “fellow citizens with God’s people” (Ephesians 2:19) and offers immediate access to all the rights and benefits of belonging to God’s people.

Some of the rights and benefits that come with being part of the people of God include:

• Reconciliation with God and peace with Him (Ephesians 2:16).

• Access to “the Father by one Spirit” (Ephesians 2:18), meaning we can boldly bring our concerns and needs to God anytime, and He promises to listen to us. 

• Eternal life in heaven with Jesus and all the other citizens of heaven (John 3:16).

• Freedom from the enslaving power of sin and death (Romans 8:2). 

• Complete forgiveness and release from shame and guilt (Ephesians 1:7).

• Membership in the visible community of faith when we participate in a local church (Ephesians 3:19–22). 

• The gift of God’s Spirit with and in us, who guides, teaches, and comforts us in our sorrow and difficulty (John 14:16–17, 26; 16:13–15). 

• Unrestricted access to the blessings of life lived under the control of God’s Spirit, including “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).

• The promise of the future transformation of our bodies to be like the resurrected Jesus (Philippians 3:20–21).

Paul reminds us that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20), giving us access now to all these amazing blessings. So let us live as citizens of heaven and celebrate the privileges and promises given freely to us in Jesus.

–Written by Lisa M. Samra. Used by permission from the author.