Being a resident alien might just provide me with a bit of a spiritual advantage. My Green Card expires next year so I’ll have to renew it. The process itself will be a reminder that while I live and work (even if it’s now retired “work”) here, my citizenship is tied to a different place. An annoying reminder, perhaps, when it comes to going through the bureaucratic renewal process, but could be a welcome reminder, and pretty grounding, when it comes to my born-again residency perspective.

Noodling on a couple of verses from my readings this morning.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

(Ephesians 2:4-6 ESV)

Deal bountifully with Your servant,
that I may live and keep Your word.
Open my eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of Your law.
I am a sojourner on the earth;
hide not Your commandments from me!

(Psalm 119:17-19 ESV)

Seated with Christ in heavenly places . . . a sojourner on the earth. Chew on that for a bit.

Where’s Jesus? The empty tomb is evidence that “He is not here, for He has risen” (Mt. 28:6). So, if I am in Christ Jesus, my life and being inextricably wired to His through the indwelling Spirit of redemption, regeneration, reconciliation, and repatriation, then, as Paul says, I have been raised up with Him.

Yeah, so Jesus is not here; but where is He? He was taken up into heaven (Acts 1:9-11) and is now “seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb. 8:1).

Okay. So, because of our union with Christ, if He has been taken up into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, then we too have been, as Paul says, seated with Him in the heavenly places. Right? And home is where the seat is. Who I am in Christ and where I spiritually reside through Christ is what determines my enduring citizenship — a citizen of heaven. What’s more, it is what defines my relationship to this world — a sojourner on the earth.

I am a sojourner. A stranger (perhaps stranger than most). A foreigner in this land. A temporary inhabitant. A resident alien on earth. Passing through in the anticipation of that day when my actual seat will be in a different place and I will be physically, as I am now positionally, set down with Him in the heavenlies. And, like my Green Card, renewing that reality every so often can have the benefit of grounding me in who I am and where I belong.

So, what renews that heaven-grounded reality? Engaging with my bible, like engaging with my Green Card renewal, is the reminder of where home truly is.

So, pleads the songwriter, “Deal bountifully with me, LORD.” Open my eyes to see wonderful realities in Your word. Hide not from me the glorious realities and reminders which are found in Your letters from home to me. For I am a sojourner on the earth, and I so need to remain tethered to my citizenship in heaven.

For it is there where You are, not here, where I find my tribe and my people. It is there, not here, where my identity is set and secure. There, not here, where my ultimate allegiance lies, and my life-directing authority is found. There, not here, where I am seated in Christ Jesus. My union with Christ the daily calibrator of my relationship to this world.

Seated and sojourning.

By His grace. For His glory.