Citizenship

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

CITIZENSHIP

Acts 22:23-30

23 As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24 the commander ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and questioned in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. 25 As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn't even been found guilty?" 26 When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. "What are you going to do?" he asked. "This man is a Roman citizen." 27 The commander went to Paul and asked, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes, I am," he answered. 28 Then the commander said, "I had to pay a big price for my citizenship." "But I was born a citizen," Paul replied. 29 Those who were about to question him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains. 30 The next day, since the commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them.

NIV

There is a special recognition about being a Roman citizen, which Paul now takes advantage of so as not to be flogged, for the purpose of getting the truth out of him. As far as the Commander was concerned Paul was the reason for the uproar throughout the city and the commander’s main duty as the local representative of Rome was to keep the peace. Once he found out that Paul was a Roman citizen all things changed. Although the commander was still going to find out what the deal was with all the Jews being so upset about Paul. The next event will be Paul addressing the whole of the Sanhedrin. But for now, what has struck a chord with us is the citizenship of Paul. Because he was born a Roman citizen, he has a special advantage. We may not have been born a citizen of the kingdom of God, but because we have died and been reborn, we now can say that we have been born a citizen of the kingdom of God. True, we did not physically die, but in order to be reborn, or born again, a death must occur. We would think that is the death of our old self and so our new self is who is born again and born as a citizen of heaven. There are special advantages to being a citizen of the kingdom of God. The first and foremost is that we now have eternal life. Oh sure, the body we inhabit will get old and succumb, and breathe it lasts breathe. But we will not stay within its lifeless form, for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, and that is only because we have been born into the kingdom of heaven. The commander told Paul that he had paid a big price for his citizenship of Rome. The second advantage we have been reborn as a citizen of the kingdom of God is that it does not cost us, as Jesus already paid the biggest price anyone could ever pay, with his life. He was arrested, flogged, beaten, spat on, and ultimately nailed to the cross. Therefore, it is by faith alone in Jesus Christ that we have the right to be citizens of heaven. For us, the question always arises, which do we claim, to be citizens of this world, or citizens of heaven. we do live in the world, but again, we know that we do not live of the world, that is we have forfeited our citizenship in the world, and we have turned in our passport and travel arrangements to hell. At the moment of our rebirth, we received a new passport and a new ticket to a new destination, heaven. Everything is about our citizenship.