Jesus lived in a corrupt and perverse generation, and what he taught was subversive. Revolutionary.
The people of Rome had been taught Caesar was something like a savior. This had been the accepted truth for generations, since Julius Caesar was declared a deity by the Roman senate. Then Jesus showed up, ushered in an alternative Kingdom, set it down directly next to that mindset and dared the Roman Empire to choose. He publicly announced there was a government greater than Rome’s — a government blessed by God. He taught that poor people and those being held captive and those who were oppressed would find relief in this other Kingdom and that in fact, it was the hope of the world.
Jesus was a rebel.
He was arrested on a charge of treason and put to death. On the day he died the sky went dark and the earth shook. Ominous signs, these were the sound effects of a cosmic shift in power, a curtain falling on the old order. The Romans had just been played by the God of the universe, who used the moment to unleash a whole new religion. Christianity would spread throughout the Roman world, pull down the empire, and become the single most powerful voice of all time.
By the time Paul was converted, Jesus was the reigning eternal King of the Kingdom of Heaven, seated in all his glory in the presence of God the Father Almighty. Revelation tells us he holds the power of hell and death in his hands. When Paul tells the Philippians (3:20), “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ …” he is not talking about a feel-good religion. He’s talking about a cosmic government and a citizenship that transcends any human system. This is why Paul took the message beyond the Jews; this Kingdom — the Kingdom of Christ — wasn’t just for one nationality or one group of people. This was a new worldview.
Hear that: The Kingdom of Heaven is bigger than any one nationality.
Nero was Emperor in 64 A.D. when a huge fire broke out in Rome. It burned seventy percent of the city. Some people blamed Nero for this devastation; to divert attention he tortured Christians. He fed them to lions as entertainment and used them as human torches at his garden parties. The effect of the persecution was the spread of Christianity. Once again, the Romans had been played by the God of a greater Kingdom.
For the last 2000 years, this has been our pattern. Where Christians are persecuted, Christianity grows. Where Christians become comfortable, it stagnates. We have never flourished by giving our primary allegiance to a government. That isn’t how our faith works. Our citizenship is in Heaven.
So how should a citizen of Heaven vote in this election?
Faithfully.
What drives your decisions, your conversations, your opinions? Are you making your choices under the Lordship of Christ? Friends, our vote should be powered by our faith. Our allegiance as citizens of Heaven is not to a political party or to a national strategy. Our allegiance is to the Lordship of Christ. We who follow Jesus are citizens of the Kingdom of God first of all … or not at all.
Prayerfully.
If I could wish one thing on the Christian culture in the U.S. right now, it would be this: That we would spend as much time in prayer as we spend online. Don’t just ask God who you ought to vote for; ask for his character to flow through you so that your words, actions and attitudes reflect his heart, especially when it comes to those with whom you disagree.
Friends, I suspect real Christian character is proven not by how we pray before the election, but by how we pray after the election. Commit now to wake up on November 9th and pray for whoever is elected. We want that person to be a great President — to be true, honorable, just, pure, commendable, excellent, worthy of our gratitude. This is the heart of humble, patriotic, God-honoring prayer. It is that desire to see our country and its leaders and its people succeed, whoever is President.
Non-anxiously.
Governments rise and fall and God is still God. Countries come and go, and God is still God. November 8th will not stop the coming of Christ or the defeat of Satan. The purposes of God will be accomplished. When Jesus hung on the cross and said, “It is finished,” he meant that no enemy, no other kingdom, no other power would have ultimate control of the universe. The battle belongs to the Lord. We know how the story ends. We win.
Humbly.
Humility (the primary personality trait of Jesus, always characterized by self-sacrifice) is the fruit of genuine repentance. There is something to be said for sober judgment, for falling down before God in an honest recognition of our imperfect state, with a less arrogant defensiveness. There is something attractive about a sincere acknowledgement that we’re on a journey and not there yet.
Kingdom-mindedly
Jesus came to save the whole world, not just our corner of it. As followers of Jesus and citizens of the Kingdom of God, we must live with a memory of the more than two billion people in the world who have never heard they have a citizenship in Heaven. Jesus loves those people. All of them. I’m convinced that the names on the November 8th ballot don’t matter nearly as much as the names in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Those names ought to have our greatest attention. They ought to occupy the vast majority of our brain space and the greatest part of our prayers. As citizens of the Kingdom, our lives cannot matter more to us than their lives.
Because that’s who Jesus voted for. The cross is proof.
