OUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST

CONTINUED

Abigail Sumeracki

Michigan 

We are Citizens of Heaven

Phil. 2:20 – “For our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Citizenship in the natural is something that we are fairly familiar with simply because most people are born citizens of a country where we have certain rights, privileges, and responsibilities towards. Citizenship is also something that we lay claim to. I am an America, people identify themselves by their country they are – Canadian, Brazilian etc.

In the natural our citizenship really is a central part of our natural identity. Certain countries have certain holidays and cultural expectations. Every county in the world has a 4th of July on the calendar but America celebrates the 4th of July as a holiday because to us it is a special day, it is our nations birthday. When the Bible says we are citizens of heaven what it is saying is that we are to see our identity as citizens of heaven, we are to see ourselves as a heavenly people. I am a citizen of Heaven.

In the natural there are two ways a person is a citizen of a country. They are either NATURAL BORN or NATURALIZED citizens. A person who is a natural born citizen is one who was born with the citizenship of their home country. A person who is naturalized was not born with citizenship in their country, but through a legal process EARNED the right to be a citizen of their country.

The Apostle Paul, a Jew, lived in the Roman empire and was a free born citizen of the Roman Empire. Paul was arrested and the chief captain asked Paul if he was a citizen of Rome. Under Roman law a citizen of Rome had certain rights such as not being beaten to get information. This chief captain was also a citizen of Rome. However he paid a lot of money to become a citizen of Rome. He was a NATURALIZED citizen where as Paul was a NATURAL born citizen.

The first question about our heavenly citizenship that we need to answer is are we NATURAL born or are we NATURALIZED citizen of Heaven. Because we are born into this world, it would be easy to think we are naturalized citizens of Heaven, but a naturalized citizen has to EARN their citizenship. The chief captain said that he paid money to become a Roman citizen. 

If anyone wants to know the application fee to become an American citizen costs $710 if filed on line – and that is just the filing fee for the one application. The person who is applying must also have been a green card holder for 5 years, pass a background check, speak English, and pass a test. As to our heavenly citizenship, if we were naturalized citizens we would have all failed the background check – we are all sinners. We could not pay the necessary fee to become a citizen of heaven, Jesus had to pay that fee for us. We are NOT naturalized citizens of heaven – heaven actually has no naturalization process or naturalized citizens.

We are NATURAL BORN citizens of heaven. There are two ways someone is born a citizen of a country – “jus sanguinis” which means because of blood (because our parents were citizens) and “jus solis” which means by soil (we were born inside of the country). The first and most common way to be a natural born citizen of a country that is found in the world is the first one “jus sasanguinis” – Children inherit their citizenship from their parent…if my son was born in Canada he would still have been a U.S. citizen because both me and my husband are U. S. citizens, he would have inherited at birth our citizenship.

Matthew 6:9, I Corinthians 1:3, Galatians 4:6 are just a few verses that show God is our heavenly Father. The Bible makes it very clear that we are God’s children. We have inherited our heavenly Fathers citizenship in Heaven. We meet the legal requirements of “jus sanguinis” to be a natural born citizen of Heaven.

The second way of being a natural born citizen of a country “jus solis” is not a very common way to be a citizen of a country. Only 33 countries in the world are like the U. S. in that almost everyone born in that country is a citizen and of those 33 countries the only that is comparable to the U. S. is Canada.

Yet we meet this legal requirement for our heavenly citizenship as well. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3 – “Verily verily I say unto you, except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” We have been born again; we have had a spiritual birth in the spiritual heavenly realm. Therefore we meet the “jus solis” requirements to be a natural born citizen of heaven as well…

The second thing we need to determine about our heavenly citizenship is do we have duel citizenship with the world sense we have been born in this world…The supreme court case that gave us birthright citizenship was called Wong Kim Ark vs United States…What is important in that decision is that children who are born in the U. S. to parents who work in their countries embassies are not U. S. citizens…

II Corinthians 5:20 says that we are ambassadors for Christ. Not everyone who works for their countries embassy is the ambassador…there are people who work in support positions but all are employed by their country and are in our country and no child born to any of them is a citizen of the U. S. – they are citizens of their parents’ home country. 

We may have been born in this world but we do not have dual citizenship with this world. All of us  would be considered in some way, shape or form part of the embassy staff…and all of us are important for the vital functions of the church – that would be the embassy – within this world. So when we look at our spiritual credit report we see that we are natural born citizens of heaven and we do not have dual citizenship with this world.

When we agree with God that we are citizens of heaven and not of this world we end up walking in this world like we are citizens of heaven.

Yet, we meet this legal requirement for our heavenly citizenship as well.

The End 

 OUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST

Abigail Sumeracki

Michigan 

One thing that we are looking at when we look at our identity in Christ - is we are looking at WHO GOD SAYS WE ARE…. II Cor. 3:18 says, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed in the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

We are looking at the mirror of God’s Word to ourselves and looking in it to see WHAT GOD SEES IN US and as we do that the result is we will begin to see ourselves as God sees us. There are natural examples as to why this is important for us to see ourselves as God says we are, for there is the crime of identity theft. 

Some of the problems associated with identity theft for victims include:

Financial…

Emotional…

Physical…

Social… 

OUR SPIRITUAL CREDIT REPORT

Just like there are things that we can do in the natural to protect ourselves against identity theft, we also have to protect ourselves against spiritual identity theft as well because Satan wants to:

1. Steal our heavenly rewards which corresponds to financial problems

2. Steal our rest and peace in Christ – emotional problems

3. Keep us bound to sin - this is the physical problems

4. Keep us from having fellowship with God and His people – the social problems.

To protect ourselves against natural identity theft we also need to be valiant and recognize what should be on our spiritual credit report as well…

1. We are made in God’s image – Gen. 1:17

2. We are children of God – Rom. 8:17

3. We are loved – John 3:16

4. We are a New Creation – II Cor. 5:17

5. We are righteous – II Cor. 5:21

6. We are God’s workmanship – Eph. 2:10

7. We are redeemed – I Cor. 6:20

8. We are chosen – I Peter 2:9-10

9. We are citizens of heaven – Phil. 3:20

10. We are light – Matthew 5:14

11. We are dead to sin – Rom. 6:1-4

12. We are part of the body of  Christ – I Cor. 12:12

13. We are saints – Eph. 1:1

14. We are free – Gal. 5:1

These are some of the things that God says are – on our spiritual credit report…

Keep in mind with spiritual identity theft, just like with  natural identity theft, the victim is still themselves. The identity thief…did not change the correct information on the credit report. They only added false information to it – that false information to it – that false info causes a lot of problems, but IT DOES NOT CHANGE THE CORRECT INFORMATION–-SATAN CANNOT REMOVE OR CHANGE ALL OF THE CORRECT INFORMATION… ALL HE CAN DO IS TRY TO WEIGH US DOWN WITH LIES AND FALSEHOODS ABOUT US.

When we know what God says about us, we will begin the process of removing the lies and falsehoods and spiritual fraud that Satan wants us to see on our spiritual credit report. In order to have a clean and correct spiritual credit report we need to see ourselves as God sees us…”

   – continued in next issue