In our world we are all citizens of one or two different countries, either by birth or by adoption. We do get a passport in addition to all the rights and privileges of the country where our citizenship is held. When we travel to another country, we get visa from that country with restrictions and limitations of rights we have to abide with. Believers in Jesus Christ, as Apostle Paul said in the letter to Philippians, are given citizenships as a free gift, not by our merit but by God’s grace and mercy.

Born-again Christians are adopted citizens of kingdom of God. Through the path of simple faith in the great plan of God for salvation, we are freely bestowed the citizenship to God’s eternal kingdom. Lord Jesus Christ paid a price for our citizenship. On Calvary he became the sacrificial Lamb of God bearing all our sins for the eternal forgiveness of everyman’s sin and to regain the lost citizenship to God’s kingdom. The door to heaven is widely opened to the entire mankind to receive the new citizenship by adoption through God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Sinners have no place in God’s Kingdom. One who repents and accepts Christ as personal savior will receive free citizenship to the kingdom of God and in this world we are given visa to live and do Lord’s work. As given in the Lord’s prayer, we are called to hallow and glorify God’s holy name through our prayers and work so that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We Christians have the call and duty to help and proclaim the good news about the kingdom of God. Of course, our lives should be the true witness of Christ the Savior. We are the ambassadors of the Lord in this world.

Freedom through Christ given to all citizens of Kingdom of God needs to be enjoyed by all Christians. Let us not be bonded and be slaves of man-made rules, regulations, external ceremonies, rites, rituals, traditions and legalisms of several Christian denominations. As citizens of Heaven we are free people and we have to abide with the new laws of the new country to which we are called to be loyal. God-given rules and regulations of the new kingdom are well illustrated and taught in the gospels and various letters of the New Testament. We have plenty of instructions and information in the bible in order to follow the citizenship of heaven. We are free in Christ( Galatians 5:1) and we should never allow ourselves to become slaves of this world, powers of darkness and spiritual principalities and religiosity of any denomination. Amen.