Does Citizenship Guarantee Entry?

This week, the Federal Government temporarily banned entry to Australia from India, even for Australian citizens. Not surprisingly, the decision has been met with howls of protest branding it as racist and unconstitutional, and one legal challenge is going before the High Court. Whatever you think of the decision, it is certainly an extreme measure and makes me, as an Australian citizen, feel just a little less secure in that status.

But then, as a Christian, it's a reminder that I should not put too much trust in anything this world counts as security.

In Ephesians 2.19, Paul reminds us that those of us who are in Christ are now citizens of a heavenly country. "You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God's household."

And in John 6.37 Jesus promised, "Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out."

Citizenship of earthly nations may be no guarantee of access, but there is a greater citizenship that we can take confidence in.