2
Corinthians 5:1
Christians should not fear death, because we
have an eternal habitation with God in heaven.
Death of our body on the earth is like stepping out of the door of this
earth into the door of heaven. The tabernacle, spoken of here, is our body of
flesh (our earthly house). We see in the next two verses in Jesus' own words
that we have a home in heaven that Jesus has prepared for us.
John
14:2-3 "In my Father's house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so],
I would have told you. I go to prepare a
place for you." "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be
also."
2 Peter
1:14: "Knowing that shortly I must put off [this] my tabernacle, even
as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me."
“A building of God” is Paul’s metaphor for the
believer’s resurrected, glorified body. A glorified body, by definition, is not
of this earthly creation but one that has been made by God.
We see the tabernacle of God is with man in the
following verse.
Revelation
21:3 "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the
tabernacle of God [is] with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be
his people, and God himself shall be with them, [and be] their God."
2
Corinthians 5:2
We spoke earlier of how we shed this body of
flesh as a man would shed his outer garment. In heaven, we Christians are
dressed in a white linen garment washed in the blood of the Lamb {Jesus
Christ}. It is our robe of righteousness. It is, in fact, Jesus' righteousness
that we are clothed with. It could be said, that we are clothed with the Lord.
2
Corinthians 5:3
We would have been naked, but Jesus provided
our garment acceptable to God. When God looks at us, He does not see the sin
that we once had, but He sees His Son's shed blood. So that we won’t be found
naked and ashamed, we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
Paul had a passionate longing to be free from
his earthly body and all the accompanying sins, frustrations, and weaknesses
that were so relentless.
2
Corinthians 5:4
Our mortal body grows old, and full of pain,
and suffering. Moses' snake, which represented life, swallowed up the snakes of
the Pharaoh's magicians. The magician’s snakes represented death, or Satan.
Death must be swallowed up for life to come. This mortal must put on
immortality. Death of the body has to come for life of the spirit to begin.
Paul reiterated that he could hardly wait to
get his glorified body. He wanted the fullness of all that God had planned for
him in eternal life, when all that is earthly and human will cease to be.
2
Corinthians 5:5
Romans
8:23 "And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting
for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body."
Jesus was the first fruit, and we that follow
are the first fruits of the harvest. Let us look at the following verses and
find what this earnest of the spirit is.
Ephesians
1:13-14 "In whom ye also [trusted], after that ye heard the word of
truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye
were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise," "Which is the earnest
of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the
praise of his glory."
Jesus sent the Spirit of the Risen Christ to
dwell in the Christian. That is our earnest. We have eternal Life within us. We
must shed our body of flesh for the Spirit of life to make itself real to us.
The sealing of which Paul speaks here refers to
an official mark of identification that was placed on a letter, contract, or
other important document. The seal usually was made from hot wax, which was
placed on the document and then impressed with a signet ring. The document was
thereby officially identified with and under the authority of the person to who
the signet belonged.
That is the idea of our being sealed in Him
(Christ) with the Holy Spirit of promise. The seal of God’s Spirit in the
believer signifies four primary things: security, authenticity, ownership and
authority.
Ephesians
4:30 "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed
unto the day of redemption."
2
Corinthians 5:6
This body of flesh gets in the way of total
fellowship with the Lord. This world, or this body, should not be thought of as
our permanent home. We are just traveling through this earth on our way to the
Promised Land {heaven}.
While we are still in our body, we are attached
to this earth. We are in the earth. To live in heaven, we must leave this
earthly dwelling place. Just as the children of Israel had to leave Egypt {type
of the world}, before they could go to their promised land, we must leave this
world to get to our promised land. The Lord is inside of us, but to fully enjoy
fellowship with no boundaries, we would have to be with Him at the throne of
God in Heaven.
“Absent from the Lord”: Paul was not saying he
had absolutely no contact, because there is prayer, the indwelling Spirit, and
fellowship through the Word. Paul was simply expressing a heavenly
homesickness, a strong yearning to be at home with his Lord.
2
Corinthians 5:7
Faith is the opposite of fact. If you can see
it with your physical eyes, it takes no faith to believe.
Hebrews
11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen."
Abraham had faith, and it was counted unto him
for righteousness. It is our faith that provides our righteousness in Jesus' blood,
as well.
Christian’s hope for a heaven they have not
seen. They do so by believing what Scripture says about it and living by that
belief.
2
Corinthians 5:8
When we leave this body of flesh, we are
instantly in heaven with the Lord in our spiritual body. Jesus told the thief
on the cross that today he would be with Him in Paradise. Jesus dismissed His
Spirit from His body and commanded it to go to the Father. Both the Spirit of Jesus and the spirit of
the thief instantly went to paradise/heaven, when they left their bodies of
flesh.
Revelation
2:7 "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches; to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which
is in the midst of the paradise of God."
The Tree of Life {Jesus} is in heaven with
God. Paradise is now in heaven.
2
Corinthians 5:9
The cry of all Christians should be, we'll work
till Jesus comes. The desire of every Christian that I know is that when they
stand before the Lord Jesus as Judge of the entire world, that they’ll hear
Jesus say: Well done, thy good and faithful servant. He will recognize us as
His own, if we have stayed faithful to Him.
Paul demonstrated that it is right and noble
for the believer to strive for excellence, spiritual goals, and all that is
honorable before God. Paul’s highest goal, and should be so for every believer
was to be well pleasing to God and to be accepted of him.
2
Corinthians 5:10
This is speaking of the Bema Seat, the judgment
seat of Christ. “Judgment seat” metaphorically refers to the place where the
Lord will sit to evaluate believers’ lives for the purpose of giving them
eternal rewards. It is translated from the Greek work bema, which was an
elevated platform where victorious athletes (during the Olympic Games) went to
receive their crowns. The term is also used in the New Testament to refer to
the place of judging, as when Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate, but here the
reference is definitely from the athletic analogy.
“Done in his body” refers to the actions which
happened during the believer’s time of earthly ministry. This does not include
sins, since their judgment took place at the cross. Paul was referring to all
those activities believers do during their lifetimes, which relate to their
eternal reward and praise from God.
What Christians do in their temporal bodies
will, in His eyes, have an impact for eternity?
“Whether it is good or bad”: Again terms that
does not refer to moral good and moral evil. Matters of sin have been
completely dealt with by the death of the Savior. Rather, Paul was comparing
worthwhile, eternally valuable activities with useless ones.
His point was not that believers should not enjoy certain wholesome,
earthly things, but that they should glorify God in them and spend most of their
energy and time with what has eternal value.
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