Thought for the Month - September 2018

"Passport heaven" by Barry Adair

Any newspaper you lift these days contains some story or other about Brexit - the UK's impending exit from the European Union (EU). After the Referendum result to exit the EU, many were happy with the outcome, while many others not so much! In fact, due to the Brexit result, a big increase in UK passport holders applying for dual citizenship has taken place. The UK allows dual citizenship/dual nationality, where you can both be a UK citizen and a citizen of another country, whereas other countries do not.

Now in Northern Ireland, but not in the other parts of the UK, every citizen born here can be a citizen of Northern Ireland or of Ireland or of both. So, after Brexit, those with two passports can be outside of the EU (with your UK passport) and yet still be part of the EU (with your Irish passport). We have the "Good Friday Agreement" to thank for this quirk. For many of those unhappy 'Remainers' in Great Britain this is 'passport heaven'. Having both a UK and Ireland passport effectively allows you to be a UK citizen while still remaining part of the EU. All it takes a spot of passport switching! The only thing you need to remember is to use the same passport to both enter and exit the country you are visiting. A friend of mine once used different ones on a trip and this landed him in all sorts of difficulty with those lovely people in Immigration!

Yes, I was thinking of passports this month and this was due to a recent Bible Study in 'the Grove'. Andrew Allen was speaking from Philippians chapter 3 and he took verse 20 (first part given below) as his main topic…

For our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20)

On a side issue, I always smile whenever I read the start of this chapter. Paul starts it off with "Finally, my brethren" and then continues on for another two chapters! I know a few preachers today like that too! But let's get back to Andrew's topic, who finished the meeting promptly if I recall! In effect, every person is a citizen of at least one country (or state) and they will own a passport for that country. You will have become a citizen of that country at birth (e.g. through your parents' nationality) or through 'naturalisation'. Naturalisation is a process of applying to become a citizen of a country and may involve a number of years of residence in that country, marriage to one of its citizens, or financial investment in that country.

The real 'passport heaven' is a passport to heaven itself. Even a passport to the most desirable country in the world doesn't remotely come close to a passport to heaven! But as no one is made an automatic citizen of heaven through birth, there is a little 'naturalisation' to be completed first. More on this later.

A passport is a very important document to have. I mentioned earlier that every person is a citizen of at least one country. There is one exception to this. If you are a "stateless person", then you don't 'belong' to any country in the world. Some of the refugees we see on our TVs seeking asylum in another country are stateless, as well as being homeless and often destitute. Travelling without a passport is almost impossible these days. I had a personal experience of this back in the 1990s when I was travelling to Paris with work. I had stupidly forgotten to pack my passport and was promptly sent back on the next flight to Belfast after I arrived at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport!

Mankind has no justification whatsoever in seeking a passport to heaven. We have no qualifying reason for requesting such a passport. We weren't born there, we can't buy our way to heaven and we meet none of the entry criteria! The Bible is clear that no sinful person can enter heaven. See 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and the verse below -

…and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it (heaven), but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. (Rev 21:27, addition mine).

But (and what an important 'but' this is) because the Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross to take away our sin, there is a route open to us to gain such a passport! Jesus freely gave up His own life on earth to atone for our sins. If we believe Jesus did this for us, freely accept that we are sinners and humbly ask that our sins would be forgiven, then forgiven they will be!

Jesus is our passport to heaven. We can't get to heaven by any other means.

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

That 'naturalisation' process I mentioned earlier is to admit that our natural self is sinful to the core, ask Jesus to forgive us and trust in Him explicitly to one day take us to heaven and home.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. (Philippians 3:20-21)

If I too could end with a "finally, my brethren" - do you have a passport to heaven?

Until next month (DV)…

Are you SURE that you have your place booked in Heaven? Read this if you're not!