The Confession of a Pilgrim

Hebrews 11:13-14 - "All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own."

Hebrews chapter 11, one of the most well-known chapters in the Bible, gives us the examples of several people whose lives were characterized by faith. The examples given are men and women who by the way they lived demonstrated that they were living for another world. They were seeking a better country. A permanent dwelling place. They were pilgrims.
We have been made for another world. And as believers we are testifying that we believe that, but do our lives really reflect it? Is it apparent to the watching world that our citizenship is in heaven? Not just our final destination, but our citizenship? Or are we allowing the world to squeeze us into its mold? To live in the visible world with an all-consuming focus on the invisible is considered to be odd, foolish and wasteful to the world. To live in this world as a pilgrim is a counter-cultural way to live. The world around us is constantly living for the present. It's all about the now. Living day to day as if tomorrow doesn't matter and will never come. And that kind of thinking is not only characteristic of the world, but it has also crept into the church. Much of Christian teaching today is centered on the here and now - what can Christianity do for my family, my finances, my job, my health, etc. And then heaven is thrown in as a little bonus at the end. But by and large in churchianity today the idea of living for another world, being pilgrims and strangers on the earth, is lost and forgotten. We don't view death as the gateway for everything we've been living for. We need to stop and consider if our focus is really where it should be. Am I spending my short amount of time in this temporal world living for the lasting one?

Over in Hebrews chapter 12 Esau is called an immoral and godless person, why? Because he sold his birthright for a single meal. He traded a future blessing for temporal satisfaction. He was caught up in the present. He had no mind for the future. He was living for the moment, focused on immediate satisfaction, temporal fulfillment, with no thought for the invisible, future realities. In Philippians 3 the apostle, in writing about the enemies of the cross of Christ describes them as those who "set their minds on earthly things." That temporal mindset characterizes the enemies of Christ. We as believers need to be living with an eternal mindset in this temporary world. And how do we do this?

Consider the life of Abraham and the patriarchs in Hebrews chapter 11. In pointing back to these examples the writer of Hebrews says of them that they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims, or exiles, on the earth. So, in a sense we come up to Abraham and ask him, "Abraham, what do you say about yourself?" And how does he respond? "I am a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth."

What does that confession really mean? What does it mean to be a pilgrim on the earth? Well, typically when we hear the word 'pilgrim' we think of the guys that came over on the Mayflower with funny hats and buckles on their shoes. But when thinking about pilgrims, whatever else comes to mind, we definitely have the idea of a traveler. Someone who's not a permanent resident. Someone who is going from one place to another. Exiles, aliens, sojourners, strangers. The word pilgrim carries with it a sense of impermanence, of mobility, an outsider, someone who doesn't belong, a traveler. And in the biblical sense especially, someone who is seeking a homeland, seeking a country of their own. In fact that's what verse 14 goes on to say - "For those who say such things..." What things? that they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth. "For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own."

So let's go back to the life of Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 and consider the beginning of his pilgrim journey.

Genesis 12:1-4 - "Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran."

At the beginning of this chapter the Lord speaks to Abram and He tells him to leave everything that is familiar to him. And I find it interesting that his call to go out from is very specific while his call to go out to is very general. The Lord tells him to leave his country, He calls him to leave his family and He calls him to leave his father's house, very specific. Then He tells him to go out to "a land which I will show you." And Abraham obeyed. He went out not knowing where he was going. He cut the ties to this world. And maybe he didn't go around introducing himself as "Abraham the pilgrim." But his obedience to set out having placed his faith in God, not knowing where he was going, demonstrated that he was a pilgrim. He confessed by the way that he lived that he was not a citizen of this world but of another. He wasn't attached to this world.

Abraham had a change of citizenship. When we first see him he is living in Ur of the Chaldeans, then we see him settling in Haran. But when we come to chapter twelve we find him beginning a life of wandering. And from this time on, right up to his death, Abraham lived his life as a stranger on the earth. His citizenship changed. He went from being a citizen of the world and alienated from God to being a citizen of heaven and alienated from the world.

Think about this verse in Hebrews 11. According to worldly standards Abraham was an absolute failure. And even as Christians this verse might bother us. "All these died in faith having not received the promises." They didn't receive what was promised. They saw it from a distance. They believed God's word, but they died before it was realized. God promised to make him a great nation. This is not something that happens in a short amount of time. God promised to make his name great. He wasn't famous during his lifetime. He lived life as a stranger on the earth and then he died. So the world looking on at Abraham would conclude that his life was a failure. But the world has a skewed standard when it comes to success.
We hear a lot about success.
There are a few different ways we use the word 'Success.' The first and most basic definition of success is simply to accomplish something. You have a goal or a purpose that you set out to achieve and when you complete it you have succeeded in what you set out to do. But more often than not, when we hear the word 'success' it's not being used to refer to the accomplishment of a goal, but rather it's associated with what we might call 'the American dream.' A nice house, fancy car, two car garage, swimming pool in the back yard, picket fence, retirement account, the whole nine yards. Abraham did not live the American dream. He lived life as a wanderer. So according to the worlds standards his life was a failure.

But the picture of success in the Bible is not someone who has everything that this world has to offer, for the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 16:26 - "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" That person is ultimately a failure. The world says that he who dies with the most toys wins. God says "What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?"

I find it interesting that some of the most successful people in the Bible would be considered failures by the world. True success isn't something that comes from social standing or a bank account. The irony is that someone can have all that this world has to offer and still be a failure. I've always thought it was interesting in Genesis 39 when Joseph was thrown into prison, the Bible says that he was successful. Now, anyone looking at Joseph with our skewed thinking about success would conclude that whatever else Joseph was, he was certainly not successful. But that just goes to show that when our mindset is one way and the Bible says the opposite, our thinking needs to be conformed to the Bible, not the other way around. Why is it such a strange thought that a penniless prisoner would be defined as successful? It's because we have a warped definition of the word success. Success has very little to do with our outward circumstances.

I don't mean to prolong this, but I did a simple internet search of the word 'success' and it produced billions of results. Not wanting to read that many, I simply scanned through the first several pages and the overwhelming sense is that success has to do with some attainment of worldly things (Money, Fame, etc). So I narrowed the search to 'success according to Scripture.' Oddly enough, the results were largely the same. The page filled up with thing like "How to become a financially wealthy according to the Bible."

I didn't get any search results that had to do with someone being wrongfully imprisoned, and yet in that situation Joseph is defined as successful simply because the Lord was with him. I didn't see any results that had to do with someone giving up everything this world has to offer and living life as a pilgrim. And yet that's a successful life according to God.

The world may look at Abraham and say that he was a failure. But God looks at him and says that He is not ashamed to be called his God. God says "That's the kind of person that I'm gonna be associated with." The pilgrim life, contrary to popular opinion, is the truly successful life. And so Abraham's confession was that he was an alien and a stranger on the earth.

And this isn't just for Abraham, this should be our confession as well. In Psalm chapter 119 verse 19 the psalmist says - "I am a stranger in the earth." And this is the confession of every follower of Christ. I don't belong here. This world isn't home to me anymore. This world doesn't have anything that I want. There is a change of citizenship that takes place.
In Ephesians chapter 2 the apostle Paul writes about how we were once dead in our trespasses and sins, how we were enemies of God, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, without hope and with out God in the world, but now we have been brought near by the blood of Christ. And we read in verse 19 - "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household." So we were at home in the world and alienated from God. But now we are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household. There has been a change of citizenship. A reversal. We went from being at home in the world and alienated from God to being alienated from the world and citizens of heaven.
Paul talks about His change in citizenship in Philippians chapter 3. He begins the chapter by talking about his earthly success, the right family, the right tribe, the right training, well respected and looked up to in the eyes of the world. BUT, all those earthly credentials he now considers to be loss in view of the one thing that has real value, knowing Christ Jesus. And now he lives his life striving on for something invisible. He's living for another world. "Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." The one pursuit of his life is to press on toward something that we cannot see with the physical eye. And not only does he live in this way, but he invites us to join in following his example. The world is full of people whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite and whose glory is in their shame, those who are setting their minds on earthly things, and Paul identifies those people as the enemies of the cross of Christ. Now again, Paul says, that used to be me. I was seeking after these earthly credentials, but now I'm living for the unseen world. And he invites us to live in the same way. Why would we do this? Because our citizenship has changed. "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, 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."
When we become a follower of Christ our identity changes. Our citizenship changes. We recognize that we are only temporarily passing through this world, it's not our home. We're citizens of heaven. We're citizens of a country which we've never seen with our physical eyes. Is that not weird? I'm on a journey to a place I've never seen, but it's my home.

So the confession of a pilgrim: We're aliens and strangers on this earth and we're citizens of heaven. Is that obvious to the world around us? Living in this way is not going to make you popular, even among your Christian friends. Otherworldly Christians, Christians who are living in the power of another world, are not comfortable to be around. We like the things we can see, touch, hear, taste and smell. The life of faith looks past these things, past the physical to the things that are more real, though they are invisible. We may casually say that we are pilgrims in this world, but does your life reflect it? Consider it before the Lord.

Hebrews 11:13-14 - "All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own."