Parousia:The Abiding Presence

Philippians  3:

20  But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

21  who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Galatians 4:26  But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

Rev 21:

1  Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

2  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

4  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

5  And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true”………

10  And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God………..

22  And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.

23  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

24  By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,

25  and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.

26  They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.

27  But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Our citizenship is in heaven, yet we live in the earth.

There many in this world who are citizens of one nation and dwelling in another, so one may say that citizenship, more than anything, denotes point of origin. Paul had the revelation of the Jerusalem, from above, as being our “mother”.

This can only be the New Jerusalem referred to in Revelation 21. She is the mother of all who are born again through the promise i.e. the new creation.

John 3:7  Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'

So there is a new city, a new heaven, a new earth, and a new man. All of which together are the new creation. Our citizenship originates in the new.

When Christ returns, the dead in Christ will rise first, the saints who are walking the earth at His coming will join them, all with new and immortal bodies/souls, in meeting Christ in the air. However, He is not coming back to bring us back to our “heavenly home”. The new city, in all her splendor, comes down from the new heaven to the new earth. We are not “home going”, home is coming to us. The return of Christ, His only and final return, has as its focus His ruling and reigning in His “kingdom come”, His priests alongside.(Rev 5:9-10; Matthew 6:10).

2Cor 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

(1 Thess 4:15-18; 1 Cor 15:22-28; Eph 2:15)