Citizens!
Dearly beloved of God, our citizenship is in heaven. We are no longer strangers and visiting foreigners, but we are fellow citizens with the holy [sanctified] ones and members of the household of God. Rejoice!
We gained citizenship the moment we confessed Jesus as Lord and believed that God raised him from the dead. In that moment we were born again of God’s spirit; we were sealed for salvation by the spirit from God, we entered the kingdom of God, and became fellow citizens with the holy ones, and members of the household of God.
Thank God for His magnificent mercy and grace to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rejoice forevermore!
God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, Who is our Father, gives us the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge [acknowledgement] of Him.
“In other words, that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you know what is the hope of His calling, what is the riches of the glory of glory of His inheritance in the holy [sanctified] ones, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe.
That power is according to the working of the strength of His ability, which He energized in the Christ when He raised him from the dead and caused him to sit at His right side in the heavenly realm far above every ruler and authority and power and lordship, even every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the coming age.
He put all things in subjection under his feet and made him head over all things in the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all things in all people, even you who had been dead in your trespasses and sins.”
“However, God, Who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved [delivered]), and He raised us up together and caused us to sit together in the heavenly realm in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages He might display the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
By grace, you have certainly been saved [delivered] through believing, and this [salvation] is not from ourselves. It is the offering of God.
It is not of our works so that no one may boast, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus on the basis of good works that God previously prepared, so that we may walk in them.”
Through Jesus Christ both Judeans and Gentiles have access to the Father by one spirit.
“So then you are no longer strangers and visiting foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy [sanctified] ones and members of the household of God, who are being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, of which Christ Jesus himself is the main corner stone.
In Christ Jesus, the entire building being framed together grows into a holy [sanctified] sanctuary in the Lord. In him, you also are built together for God’s dwelling place by the spirit.”
(This is some of Ephesians 1 and 2 from the Working Translation, A Journey through the Acts and Epistles, “Copyright 2006 by Walter J. Cummins. All rights reserved.”)
Welcome to the Kingdom dearly beloved!
“Our citizenship is in heaven from where we also patiently wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our humiliated body that it may have the same form as his glorious body according to the energizing by which he is able to subordinate all things to himself.”
Rejoice citizens, rejoice forevermore! Stand, he is coming, dearly beloved of God.