But our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
– Philippians 3:20–21
Man, there are so many things we could talk about with just every phrase in these two verses.
Philippians 3:20–21 Reminds Us of Our Heavenly Home
But to put the big picture together and realize today in a fresh way as a follower of Christ… Your citizenship is not ultimately in the country where you live. Your citizenship is not ultimately in any country on this earth. You have citizenship in heaven, where God dwells in the kingdom of God. That’s where your citizenship is, and that totally changes the way you view your citizenship anywhere in this world. This is temporary. What we are part of here in different countries, it’s temporary, and we’re not living ultimately for our countries.
We’re living for a heavenly kingdom and we’re waiting. This is what we are doing every day as citizens in this world. We’re waiting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s coming back for us to bring us to our homeland and not just to bring us there. He’s going to transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body. Oh, so much there.
These bodies that are wasting away, that ache and have pains and get sick and are susceptible to disease and at a deeper level are susceptible to sin and to giving into temptation. But one day these bodies are going to be transformed to be like the glorious body of Jesus. Free from sin, free from suffering, free from pain, all made possible by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself. Meaning Jesus has power to make everything in all creation new, including our bodies and everything in this world.
Philippians 3:20–21 Encourages to Put Our Hope in Christ
Live with this hope today amidst whatever you are facing as a citizen of a country in this world, amidst whatever trials you are walking through, amidst whatever challenges in your body or in the world lifts your eyes based on Philippians 3:20–21 to heaven where you have citizenship and live today and every day in anticipation, waiting for Jesus and looking forward to the transformation he will bring and living to experience that transformation more today.
Oh, let’s pray. God, we praise you for our citizenship in heaven, just that reality, Lord Jesus, we know we deserve citizenship in hell. We deserve eternal suffering for our sin. God, we praise you for dying on the cross to pay the price for our sin, for rising from the dead so that we might have life in you forever. We praise you for making citizenship in heaven possible for us, and we are waiting for you.
This Verse Reminds Us of Our Future in Christ
We cannot wait to see you, Lord Jesus. Come quickly, we pray. We look forward to the day when you’ll transform our lowly bodies to be like your glorious body. God, we praise you for this hope. We pray that you’d help us to live in this hope today, that you would guard us from despair, from discouragement. We of all people are the most hopeful people in the world because we know that you are bringing us to another world, to a new creation, new heaven, new earth, where everything will be made new by your power.
And so we pray today, make us more like you, Jesus, transform us today. Transform our thoughts, our desires, and our bodies today to be more like you, to be more glorifying to you as we look forward to the day when this transformation will be complete. And God, we intercede right now for people around us who don’t know this hope.
Prayer for the Balkar People
God, we pray that you’d help us to share the gospel boldly with somebody today. That they might become citizens of heaven, that they might receive this hope in Jesus. And God, we pray for people around the world who’ve never heard and don’t have access to the hope of Jesus right now. God, we pray for the Balkar people of the Caucus Mountains in Southern Russia and some who’ve spread into places like Kyrgyzstan. 130,000 of them, just a small community of Christ followers.
We pray for those followers of Jesus among the Balkar people. God, we pray that you would strengthen them, that you would give them hope, you would help them to stand firm in their faith amidst all the challenges they face in their faith. And we pray that the gospel would spread through them. God, we pray for Balkar people of Russia and Kyrgyzstan to be reached with the gospel.
God, we can’t wait to be in a place where citizenship is from every people, group and tribe and tongue and language nation on the earth in heaven. So help us, we pray to live toward that end. Use our prayers right now, our resources. Help us as your church to rise up and spread the good news of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ who’s coming back. Help us to proclaim him with anticipation of the day, Matthew 24:14, when this gospel of the kingdom has been proclaimed to all the nations and the end will come. Oh God, we pray all of this as citizens of your kingdom, according to your word in Philippians 3:20–21. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
