1 For
we know that if our earthly house, a tent, is destroyed, we have a
building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens.2 And, in fact, we groan in this one, longing to put on our house
from heaven, 3 since, when we are clothed, we will not be found
naked. 4Indeed, we who are in this tent groan, burdened as we are, because
we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed
up by life. 5 And the One who prepared us for this very thing is God,
who gave us the Spirit as a down payment. 6 Therefore, though we are
always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away
from the Lord- 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight- 8 yet
we are confident and satisfied to be out of the body and at home with the
Lord. 9 Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim
to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment
seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether
good or bad. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:1-10
We
all know that we have the promise of life with Christ after we die, however we cannot
totally understand what that is going to look like. We just know that it is a
promise from God and Christ tells us it is more beautiful, more magnificent
than we could ever imagine. A paradise where there is no pain, no sorrow, no
death, no evil, does that not sound glorious to you? Paul says here that we do
not want to be unclothed but clothed so that mortality may be swallowed up by
life. In other words we want to be perfect before God so that when we die we
will live again in the resurrection. However, we are all groaning in this life
because we know that we can not live according to His standards, whether we are
at home or away we try our best to be pleasing to Him because we know that we
are going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ to answer for our deeds,
both good and evil.
This
to anyone who does not know the Good News of Christ would see this as
devastating news, however we who know Christ, we who have a relationship with
the Savior know that He has taken our sin from us. We know that Christ gave up
everything, even His throne and crown to come and live among us, to live as we
live, to hunger, to feel pain and sorrow, to suffer at the hands of His
creation and die a horrible death on a cross. To die and be buried in a tomb
for three days, to rise again and teach us for forty days more, then to raise
into Heaven and be seated at the right hand of the Father. Christ experienced all
this in order to take our sin from us, Christ lived our lives so that He can
intercede for us with the Father. Christ knew we could not on our own contain
our sinful nature, so He sent us His Holy Spirit and as Paul says here, “as a
down payment.”(v.5) A down payment for our very lives for all that have faith
in Him, for all that believe this news of the Gospel, that Christ loves us and
paid a high price for us. Then when our tents (bodies) here are destroyed we will
have a building (new bodies), these new buildings are from God, they are not
made of hands but are built for all of eternity in the Heavens, with our Loving
Father and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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