Before Christ’s incarnation heaven was closed indeed. But now the Child Jesus was born, and the angels preached their nocturnal sermon about the Child to the shepherds before the town of Bethlehem: “Behold, we bring you good news of a great joy. To you is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!” (Luke 2:10 f.); and they sang: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is well pleased” (Luke 2:14). From that time on heaven is open; and now we, too, have citizenship among the angels, as St. Paul tells the Ephesians 2:19. And he tells the Philippians 3:20: “We are citizens and members of the household with the saints. Our commonwealth is not worldly and earthly, but is in heaven, from which we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” There we find the true city and the true Jerusalem, where we are citizens and members of the same household with the angels, fellow countrymen of those who live and have their being in heaven. The angels look down upon us, and we in turn gaze up at them. 

Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 22 : Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 1-4, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther’s Works (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c 1957). 22:vii-203.

Reflect:  Read John 1:1-17 and Philippians 2:5-11. How did Jesus "establish your residency" in his Kingdom? What do these texts say about the ultimate allegiance of Jesus Christ? Think about what it means to have Jesus Christ make you a citizen of heaven.  How might this generous act of divine mercy prepare you to serve God and others more effectively in this life? How does it challenge you to reconsider your loyalties? Pray that God would frequently draw your attention to the fact that Jesus Christ has opened up new opportunities for you in this life..and in the life to come.

“As genuine human beings, from Genesis 1 onward, we are given the mandate of looking after creation, of bringing order to God’s world, of establishing and maintaining communities. To suppose that we are saved, as it were, for our own private benefit, for the restoration of our own relationship with God (vital though that is!), and for our eventual homecoming and peace in heaven (misleading though that is!) is like a boy being given a baseball bat as a present and insisting that since it belongs to him, he must always and only play with it in private. But of course you can only do what you’re meant to do with a baseball bat when you’re playing with other people. And salvation only does what it’s meant to do when those who have been saved, are being saved, and will one day fully be saved realize that they are saved not as souls but as wholes and not for themselves alone but for what God now longs to do through them.”

N. T. Wright (Surprised by Hope pg. 199-200)

NB. Wright is challenging the common misperception that our goal is to spend eternity floating around as some kind of disembodied spirits. Wright likes to remind people that the Bible tells us that what matters is the resurrection from the dead and the Life After Life After Death in the New Heaven and New Earth..and how we can live here and now in anticipation of that reality.

For reflections on Resurrection, Heaven, and what it means for life here and now please check the following:

Click HERE for a sermon by John Piper based on 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 entitled What Happens When You Die? The Dead Will Be Raised Imperishable.

Click HERE for a sermon by John Piper based on Romans 8:18-25 entitled The Triumph of the Gospel in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Click HERE and HERE for recent interviews with Wright on the subject of Resurrection, Heaven, and social action in Christianity Today Magazine.