28 September 2025

SONS AND CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM

(Biblical Teachings on The Christian Life.: BTCL 1)

When a sinner repents and believes in Christ and His finished work, he is born again of the Spirit into the Kingdom of God and become a son (John 3:3, 5; 1:12-13). He becomes a citizen of Heaven and a son of the Kingdom (Phil.3:20; Mtt.13:38). Heaven will be his final home. What a blessed hope and prospect for all true believers and children of God Most High!

Our Lord highlights the lifestyle and responsibilities of the Kingdom citizens in His “Sermon on the Mount”. The main emphasis of His Teaching is this: “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt.5:20). The Pharisees, though they practiced religiously their rituals and traditions, were superficial in their “spirituality”. Theirs was an outward righteousness of religious activities but not of the heart. Hence Jesus called them “hypocrites” which means “play-acting” (Matthew 23).

Paul tells us that in the Early Church there were also people who had “a form of religion but deny the power thereof” (2 Tim.3:5). Today we also have Christians in the Church who have an outward and maybe even an exuberant form of worship that seems “so anointed” but their lives do not show the power of God in the transformation of life, attitude, and motive. They are “worldly” like non-believers. They are materialistic, running madly the rat race to achieve their fleshly goals but not walking in the fear of God and acknowledging the Lordship of Christ. They are serving mammon, and not God, as seen in their love of the world, showing that “the love of the Father is not in them” (1 John 2:15).

The scribes and the Pharisees were like that. Jesus said they loved the praise of men; the best places in the feasts and all the “respect” and honor to be given to them like movie stars (Matt.23). Yet you could not fault them for their religiosity and their commitment to tradition and religious festivals, etc. All outward appearances but no inward spirituality – hence Jesus called them “hypocrites”! May that never be said of us if we are truly “born again” Christians and fervent disciples of Christ!

Paul wrote to the Church and tells us what a citizen of the Kingdom must be like and have: “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power…The Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 4:20; Rom.14:17). The power of the Holy Spirit in the new birth transforms the sinner into a life of “righteousness, peace and joy”. These characteristics are the hallmarks of the citizen of Heaven and the Kingdom – the evidence that he has met King Jesus and has a close relationship with Him. People in the worldly kingdom cannot have these because they are not transformed by the Power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. But in Christ we become a “new creation” (2 Cor.5:17). Praise the Lord for His goodness to us His sons!

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