WAITING FOR A NEW BODY. 2nd Corinthians 5:1-10 Our present life in the body is like a tent, a temporary, flimsy abode for our soul and spirit that is frail, vulnerable, and wasting away. Our existence as persons began at our conception when we began an endless journey through growth, birth, life, death, and into a future existence we can only faintly glimpse through the words of scripture. We are looking through the limited vision of our experience into the future, and it is like looking through a smoked glass. It is folly for us to form dogmatic opinions based on our own vain imaginations. However, we may get a little true understanding of the form of things and their purpose, but still are bound by the limits of what we know, unless we have a real, vital, living faith. The Spirit of God uses things we are familiar with to describe things with which we are not familiar.
The "earthly house" is a reference to the composition of our physical bodies. As "this tabernacle" the description has to do with the character of our body as a temporary dwelling place of the soul and spirit, and it is passing. It is our temporary waiting place in view of what God has ahead of us. The second house is referred to as "a building of God." He makes it to suit the future uses He has in mind for us. The composition of that body is spiritual, but that does not mean it is only some ethereal spirit in a vapor without form. "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." This second house is eternal in its character and is the permanent immortal body in which we shall be able to serve God without sin.
It is true we will die physically unless our Lord comes for us before that time. We know this may happen at any time. We will have a resurrected body awaiting us to indwell it. The resurrected bodies of God's people will be much different from the dying bodies we have now, and yet we will still be the same persons in those changed bodies. Our present bodies have been programmed by God to provide a dwelling place for our souls and spirits through which we connect with the world around us. The resurrected body will suit us to the new surroundings of our eternal future.
Presently "we groan" because of our limitations and inability to fulfill what we would like to accomplish in the ministry of reconciliation we have been given. The inward longing of our heart, the appeal that engages our thoughts while we wait for the future, is that we want that future body. The one we have now suited us to the limitations of our surroundings. The resurrected body will suit everlasting living. We will not be bodiless spirits when we die. We will be recognizable persons who will "be known even as we are known." There will be permanent changes to the resurrected body.
It is a hope to every human being, whether they like to admit it or not, that there is life beyond death. That hope is wired into our personhood and is universal in spite of culture or religion. The inner longing for God is expressed in the search for meaning in life. People long for a positive reason for their existence to be made known to them. So, people study philosophy, psychology, anthropology, astronomy, archeology, and many other areas of study to find out about themselves. We have to go beyond even theology to find that there is an Almighty God who is beyond human description in His being, who desires to be a Gracious Father to us and wants us to enjoy Him, and He us, forever. No matter what people say, or the fact that many will deny the existence of a real personal God, that longing for God is in us by nature, and we cannot avoid this fact no matter what we might say.
Religions and cults have thrived on this fact and make money by the millions on this inner urge of people who follow their teaching. False teaching has deceived people and kept them bound by their longing for God, by telling the people they have the answers and will pass it on for a percentage of their earnings or for some sum of money. For those of us who have come to God by faith in Jesus Christ; we have opportunities in our daily lives to share our positive hope in Christ. We have the scriptures of truth that have been proven reliable when acted upon, on which to base our convictions. This is not vain suppositions or personal opinions. This is the infallible word of God in written form that has stood the test of time, and the test of millions of people who have responded to, and obeyed its teaching.
The Holy Spirit is God's pledge to us regarding the future beyond this waiting time. He is the downpayment of what God purchased us for. God has promised that we are undeniably His and has identified us by giving the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. He is the "earnest" of God's promises to us. We have experienced many of them already and know that all of God's promises will be kept in their entirety. The Holy Spirit is the "earnest," the pledge of God as it relates to our future. We do not know all of the future, "but we know who holds the future." The Holy Spirit gives us the power to live eternal life in the present in spite of the limitations of these bodies of unsanctified flesh. Our future blessedness is guaranteed by the Spirit who empowers us to be faithful to our Lord now.
As to the future, the inheritance that awaits us is way beyond our comprehension. "By the earnest of the Spirit" we know that all God has for us is ours in Christ. Beyond this waiting time, the assurance we have that we are undeniably God's people who have been identified by the Holy Spirit within is as positive as if we were already living in the future. That is a wonderful feature of everlasting life. We have it now, and can already live in the good of it even as we wait to be "absent from the body and present with the Lord."
To be present with the Lord is where believers in Christ go after they leave their earthly bodies by way of death. They are with Jesus in heaven. For Christians, death brings a greater experience of consciously living in the presence of Christ than we have now. To be absent from the body enables us to have a fuller presence with Him. “We labor” by doing those things that please the Lord because that is all that we will take with us to heaven. The aim of life for a Christian is to be well-pleasing to our Lord as we live by faith in this new life in Christ.
Our aim then, is to be useful in this ministry of reconciliation the Lord has given us now where we walk by faith. We do not know the outcome of efforts put forth to bring men and women to be reconciled to God. God reserves the real knowledge of the ministry to be revealed to us in the future at the judgment seat of Christ. Our knowledge of divine purposes is used by God through us during this waiting time, to reach out to others so they may be reconciled to God. Labor for the Lord is not a vain effort even if we do not see the results. Our present goal is to please Him now. In the future, we will probably be surprised at what was of value and what was "a vain, empty show."
To be approved or ashamed indicates that at the judgment seat of Christ, the “wood, hay, and stubble” will be burned, and the gold, silver, and precious stones will remain untouched. An account of things done in life will likely include a review of the motivation behind what was done or not done. We can be certain of judgment and of the love of Christ for us. Both of these are motives to live in ways that are approved of Him now. The changed life of a believer counteracts the falseness of emphasizing the outward form of living to please people.
Every act of labor, every word of teaching, every anxious prayer of intercession, every entreaty we make to people to repent and believe the Gospel is known by God. His evaluation of everything we do in this waiting time will be just, and if done according to His will, will be rewarded. We can rest in confidence that He has left us here for His divine purposes, and that is all we really need to be concerned about. We are to do what we do, "as to the Lord." That approval at the judgment seat of Christ is what motivates us to be reconcilers. The plan is clear. There is a "must" involved. This is going to happen. The people at the judgment seat of Christ are believers who have been left here to reconcile those we come in contact with to God. We reach out to them in Christ's name and seek to draw them to Him.
The presence referred to is ours, when we appear before our Lord Jesus Christ at the "bema." The reason or purpose behind this appearance is that every one of us who owns the name of Jesus Christ as our Lord may receive from Him for the things done during this waiting time. There will be recompense for everyone as everything done, good or bad, is recalled and reviewed. That discrimination of activities and events may be a great surprise to us, when we are finally able to see everything we have done, through the eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What about today, tomorrow, or the day after that? Is there some unknown purpose, some distant road or mountain trail that I am to climb so that I might be in the place where God intends? Is there some waiting person to whom God wants to send a message through me? Perhaps that might make a difference between eternal life and death to that person. Or is there a person who is waiting with bated breath for an answer to the question, "Why am I really here?" Is there such a person God intends for me to now draw near? These questions I can't answer because I know only myself.
Often there are reasons for choices that at the moment I can't see. So, it is really my responsibility to be ready and quietly waiting for His call to me to go as a reconciler without any hesitation to some isolated place, or in the middle of a great city. It may be there is someone with a broken heart waiting for someone to take pity on them and give a listening ear or speak some counsel from God's word that by His grace, they would come to faith in Christ, based simply on what they've heard.
Someday, maybe in the near future, I will be called upon to stand before my Lord at His judgment seat where I will see His outstretched hand and know by the mark of the nail there, He is the One who died for me. I will love what He has to say, knowing that neither good nor bad deeds done in the body will hide from His holy scrutiny. I will see the holy flame consume wood, hay, and stubble, leaving only what was done in His name that was of value. As the holy smoke disperses, all that's left there to see will be what is of worth to Him - and I hope He'll smile at me.