Friday, July 12, 2024
You Have Dual Citizenship
Psalm 123:3  Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us,
                        for we have had more than enough of contempt.
 
            Part of being a Christian—a Christ follower—is that we live in this present evil age (Galatians 1:4). And because we exist in this present evil age, there are opponents who despise God and His Christ, Jesus. The Christian Church, and thus the Christian, is going to experience times of contempt and derision in life. That’s just a fact for the Christian who lives out his faith in this world. It’s not pleasant, but it’s a fact. It’s all the more hurtful when these attacks come from family members and friends who like to jeer us for following Jesus.
            This is nothing new. Paul, when he became a Christ follower, experienced this as well and then some! His life became way more difficult as he now suffered contempt and derision verbally and physically. In the end, Paul suffered death rather than renouncing Jesus Christ as the Savior.
            In this week’s reading in 2Corinthians, Paul recounts the experience God gave him to be transported to the Third Heaven (see Tuesday’s devotion). Paul not only experiences the Third Heaven, but He also sees Paradise. And what is Paradise? Well, it’s God’s New Creation, His restored Eden that He will usher in fully at Christ’s Jesus return.
            You have dual citizenship. You’re a citizen of this fallen, broken world, which includes the evil of hostility against Christians. Nevertheless, this is still the Father’s world, and you are one of His very dear children.
            You’re also a citizen of the God’s New Creation. This is your present reality right now too. The Bible tells us in Romans 6:5
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
            The word “united” in the Greek means “being grown together.”[1] Jesus is the Vine, and we are the branches (John 15:5). God intertwines the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus within you. This happened in your baptism, which is why we treasure Baptism as God’s precious gift to us.
            The Christian is on a journey. We are driven to trust and prayer. “The pilgrimage is a turning from the world’s words of contempt for trust and obedience to the one whose ways are gracious. … The pilgrims look from a world that questions their god to the God who rules the world.”[2]
            The wonderful old beloved Christian hymn brings comfort in times of lament when experiencing hostility:
 
I’m But a Stranger Here
1     I’m but a stranger here,
    Heav’n is my home;
Earth is a desert drear,
    Heav’n is my home.
Danger and sorrow stand
Round me on ev’ry hand;
Heav’n is my fatherland,
    Heav’n is my home.
 
2     What though the tempest rage,
    Heav’n is my home;
Short is my pilgrimage,
    Heav’n is my home;
And time’s wild wintry blast
Soon shall be overpast;
I shall reach home at last,
    Heav’n is my home.
 
3     Therefore I murmur not,
    Heav’n is my home;
Whate’er my earthly lot,
    Heav’n is my home;
And I shall surely stand
There at my Lord’s right hand;
Heav’n is my fatherland,
    Heav’n is my home.
Text: Public domain
 
You are a citizen of the New Creation, Paradise, right now!
 


[1] Σύμφυτος (symphytos);Bauer, W., F. W. Danker, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich, eds. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3d, Accordance electronic edition, version 2.8. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.; Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones, eds. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th; Accordance electronic edition, version 2.7. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1940.
[2] Mays, James Luther: Psalms. Louisville : John Knox Press, 1994 (Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching), S. 394