Philippians 3:20-21 NLT
[20] “But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. [21] He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.”

If the counterfeit Christians demonstrated by their behaviour that they were citizens of this world, by contrast, said Paul, “We are citizens of heaven.”

What’s the difference?

First, heaven is the realm or dimension of God’s presence and rule. Where is heaven? As difficult as it is to explain or describe heaven, we know that heaven is, in a sense, everywhere since, if heaven is God’s dwelling place and God is omnipresent, then heaven is where God is.

Heaven is a spiritual dimension which we cannot see because we are physical and sinful. However, we can live in the realm of heaven by faith through God’s Spirit in us since He reveals God’s kingdom to us and administers God’s rule in us when we have submitted to Jesus as Lord.

Jesus told Nicodemus that he could not see or enter this realm unless he was born from above by the power of the Holy Spirit.

John 3:3, 5 NLT
[3] “Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”…
[5] Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.”

This new birth gives us the ability to perceive the spiritual dimension of God’s realm and relate to Him through faith in Jesus. New birth also provides a new nature that loves and responds to God and desires to do His will.

In the spirit, we are given citizenship in this kingdom, with all the benefits and responsibilities of citizenship. We are no longer citizens of the world and under the world’s dominion. We live under Jesus’ supreme authority as Lord and submit to Him in all things.

When we were spiritually dead because of our sin, we were cut off from the realm of heaven but…

Colossians 1:13-14 NLT
[13] “He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, [14] who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.”

This transfer means that…

Ephesians 2:6 NLT
[6] “… He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”

The realm in which we now live is God’s realm, under His rule and according to His standards. The Holy Spirit in us guides and helps us to live under His government and teaches us what His standards are and how to apply them in our lives day by day.

Everything that has happened in the lives of those who have believed in Jesus and submitted to Him as Lord because of the cross is supernatural. They have become new people.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT
[17] “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

This new life means… new Master, new meaning, new thinking, new behaving, new attitudes, new standards, new direction, new motives, new destiny, a complete 180 degree about turn!

Now, anyone who has not experienced the new birth can never mimic the transformation to a new life which happens through faith in Jesus. This change begins on the inside and shows on the outside. Pseudo Christians can copy this new life but only for a short while because their inside is unchanged and still rotten.

Jeremiah 17:9 NLT
[9] “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”

In conclusion, we can only become partners in God’s kingdom if and when we enter it God’s way. No one can gate crash the kingdom. We must enter through Jesus.

John 14:6 NLT
[6]”Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

Acts of the Apostles 4:12 NLT
[12] “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

Unsaved people may accuse Christians of hate speech, of intolerance but…the Bible declares that salvation is exclusive and inclusive, exclusive because there is salvation in no one else, and inclusive because whoever believes in Him will be saved.

Romans 10:9, 12 NLT
[9]”If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved…
[12] Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him.”

To be a citizen of heaven ultimately means that heaven, not earth, dominates our thinking and determines the way we live.

Colossians 3:1-3 NLT
[1]”Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. [2] Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. [3] For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Our citizenship in heaven, said Paul, also guarantees an eternal existence in a resurrected body like Jesus body which is perfectly suited for heaven. All this, and more, is part of God’s promise of eternal life for those who have entered by faith in Jesus into His eternal kingdom.