Have you “entered into
possession of the realities of eternity”? Have you
learned how to look on the things, which are not
“seen”?
Anyone can become preoccupied
with the changes, chances, and circumstances in the
realm of the things we “see” in time and space with
our five senses. The things that are “seen” serve to
keep us occupied and full of anxiety.
On the other hand, we become
strong, resolute, steadfast and immovable when our
eyes lift beyond the present circumstances and get
eternity into our perspective. The inward man is
renewed day by day as we behold the things unseen in
eternity.
What would happen in our daily
lives if we could sense the full weight of the
invisible and eternal? What would happen in our
lives if we got eternity into the picture of
everything we did through out the day?
The apostle Paul admonished the
believers in the church at Corinth to “look not at
the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen; for the things which are seen are
temporal, but the things which are not seen are
eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). What is the mark or
goal upon which your eye is focused? The contrast is
“keep one’s eyes on what can be seen,” and fixing
the spiritual eyes of faith on the things that
cannot be seen. What is the focus or concentration
of your attention? Make the things unseen the goal
on which your spiritual eyes are fixed.
The things “that are seen” are
the world, the outer man, such as poverty, want,
care persecution, trials, the physical and material
things of this life (Matthew 6:24-34).
The things, which we cannot
see, are related to the Kingdom of God, which are
invisible, spiritual, the heavenly, without
limitations of time and space. It includes the joy
that will one day be the believers when he enters,
and claims his inheritance in heaven.
What is the worst thing that
can happen to you in this life? Many people would
say a slow, long, lingering death. None of us would
prefer that kind of separation of the body and the
spirit. If we had our choice we would prefer a
sudden, painless deliverance.
The apostle Paul said, “To me,
to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” The Living
Bible paraphrased, “For to me to live is Christ, and
to die is better yet” (Philippians 1:21). “For to
me, living is Christ and dying is gain” (NET).
On one occasion when the
apostle Paul contemplated death he wrote, “For we
know that if the earthly tent which is our house is
torn down, we have a building from God, a house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2
Corinthians 5:1). These verses follow-up on 2 Cor.
4:17-18.
The apostle Paul reminds us of
Jesus in John 14:1-3 where He prepares His disciples
for His approaching death the next day. After He
died and rose from the dead, He ascended into
heaven, and is preparing a place for us.
Jesus Christ has conquered our
greatest enemy, therefore lesser things in this
life, should cause us minimal distraction.
What will happen the moment you
die? Now that is a question that helps us get
eternity into the picture.
Paul anticipates an eternity of
glory after this present earthly life, in the
resurrection body. In the preceding chapter the
apostle was assured of a dwelling place in heaven,
even if his earthly tabernacle should be destroyed.
It is the state of the believer after death. It is a
profound conviction of an eternal home with the
Lord. It is the Christian’s hope. Paul expects to
receive a glorified body before his physical death,
but he also stresses what happens when the believer
dies before Christ’s second coming. He knows that if
his body should die he has an inheritance reserved
for him in heaven. We know that if our earthly house
perishes, we have an everlasting habitation in
heaven. “Even if my sufferings should prove fatal,
and my earthly house be dissolved, I have another
habitation” (Charles Hodge).
The apostle Paul used a word
for “striking down a tent” to describe our physical
death. Our physical body is described as a tent,
earthly house. It is an earthen vessel, a clay pot,
fragile and temporary (2 Cor. 4:7).
Paul had referred to his mortal
“body” (2 Cor. 4:10-11) as “wasting away” (2 Cor.
4:16). In 2 Corinthians 5:1, he compares it to a
worn-out “earthly tent” soon to be “destroyed.”
Christ incarnate tabernacled, lived, Himself in an
earthly tent (John 1:14). Jesus Christ was God
incarnate; He was God dwelling in a tabernacle of
flesh. Jesus was God manifested in the flesh, for
“in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily” (Col. 2:9; John 2:19, 21; 2 Tim. 3:16). An
earthly body is temporary, but a heavenly body is
“eternal.” Therefore, Paul looked forward to the
moment when he exchanges this earthly body for the
resurrection body. One is a temporary tent and the
other is an eternal body of glory.
“If our earthly house of this
tabernacle were destroyed . . .” One day we will
die, unless Jesus Christ comes before that event and
we are immediately transformed by His presence at
His Second Coming. This old house of clay will one
day dissolve and return to dust. The apostle Paul
did not say, “If I were to be destroyed,” or “If I
were to be annihilated.”
The word “if” here does not
indicate doubt as to the reality of death, but
rather the uncertainty as to when this event will
happen. It is not a question of if, but when. Life
on this earth is temporary and we only need a
“temporary dwelling.” In heaven we will need a
permanent dwelling place. The earthly tent is a
temporary dwelling which the apostle Paul uses for
“our body here on hearth.” These physical bodies are
like tents that we live in here on earth, and the
use of this earthly tent will come to an end and be
dissolved and return to dust.
We know that when the earthly
tent dissolves “we have a building of God, eternal
in the heavens.” The greater need has been taken
care of by God. The real you is out of harm’s way
and eternally secure if you have put your trust in
Jesus Christ.
If you have never believed on
Jesus Christ as your Savior, you do have good reason
to fear the holy wrath of God. Every individual will
die and then comes judgment. I have ministered to
the dead and the dying on many occasions for many
years. It only takes a mere nothing to end this
mortal life. “The wages of sin is death.” One day we
all die and it is always too soon for the
unbeliever.
Death for the believer in Jesus
Christ is but a mere shadow that falls across our
life and passes over, and the sun shines again
(Psalm 23:4). For the Christian life continues on
the other side of “death.” The horror of death for
the believer lies in being eternally separated from
God in hell.
Do you look forward to the day
when this human body will breath its last? No, I am
not suicidal, and I am not depressed. Would it not
be the greatest event in our lives if on our very
best day, when everything is going beyond our
fondest dreams, that suddenly we breathed our last
breath and we were ushered into the wonderful
eternal presence of our great God and living Savior
Jesus Christ? That will be the greatest day of our
lives!
This tent of an earthly body
was created to serve a specific temporary purpose,
and then pass out of existence. After it has served
its purpose it will dissolve, and be “laid to rest.”
Death, for the believer in
Jesus Christ, will usher in the very best. Death
will bring and reveal to our wandering eyes the
glorious palace of the King of kings.
When this earthly tent-house is
gone we have “a building of God” eternal in the
heavens with Jesus Christ. It is “not made by hands”
meaning it is eternal, spiritual home in a glorified
body, suited to the environment of heaven.
That does not sound like a
purgatory. “We know that if our earthly house of
this tabernacle were destroyed, we have a building
of God.” There is no perceptible interval between
the dissolution of the earthly tent and entering on
the heavenly house. As soon as the soul leaves the
body it is in heaven, and waits the great
resurrection day when the soul and the resurrected
body are reunited (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1
Corinthians 15:50-58). We can trust the Creator with
the minor details.
Our heavenly body is “a
building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not
built by human hands” (NIV). This heavenly body
reminds us of the resurrection body of Jesus (Mk.
14:58). We will receive a glorified resurrection
body fit for heaven. It will be eternal, beautiful
and full of glory. The Lord Jesus will change our
weak mortal bodies and make them like His own
glorious body (Philippians 3:20-21; 2 Cor. 4:14). It
will be free from sin and corruption and made ready
for unbroken fellowship with God throughout
eternity.
The prospect for the apostle
Paul was immediate. Paul expected to go into his
eternal house, which is in the heavens as soon as
his earthly house was dissolved. "Thus we are full
of courage and would prefer to be away from the body
and at home with the Lord. So then whether we are
alive or away, we make it our ambition to please
him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat
of Christ, so that each one may be paid back
according to what he has done while in the body,
whether good or evil" (2 Corinthians 5:8-10, NET).
The location where the redeemed
are now gathered is wherever the glorified humanity
of Christ is today. They are with Him, and behold
His glory. The scenes in Revelation picture for us
that place. At His ascension Jesus Christ sat down
at the “right hand of Majesty on high” (Mk. 16:19;
Rom. 8:34; Heb. 1:3; 10:12). The “right hand of God”
marks the honor and power of Christ. His presence
marks a definite place. Where He is, we will be also
with Him.
A. A. Hodge says, “As to the
location of the place in which Christ and His
glorified spouse will hold their central home
throughout eternity, a strong probability is raised
that it will be our present Earth, first burned with
fire and then gloriously replenished (Rom. 8:19-23;
2 Pet. 3:5-13; Rev. 21:1)” (Commentary on the
Westminster Confession).
The moment his soul left its
body it would at once enter into “My Father’s house”
of many dwelling places. Jesus is not going to lie
to us! He has proven Himself trustworthy.
Paul did not say we would
remain in a state of unconscious existence until the
resurrection. “We know . . . we have a building of
God.” We know that we have it. We possess the title
to it by faith. “Faith is the title deed to the
things hoped for” (Heb. 11:7). This confident faith
is based on the great doctrinal truths presented in
1 Corinthians 15:34-54. “We have a building from
God.” The verb “we have” is in the present tense
because Paul is so certain of this future reality
that he speaks of it as a perfect reality. Our
permanent dwelling place in heaven is so real and
assured in the apostle’s perspective that it is
appropriately spoken of in the present tense. He
speaks with conviction.
What unbound joy and inner
peace to know that when the believing sinner dies in
Christ, he goes into the immediate presence of our
Lord forever. I will rest my eternal soul in the
hands of my Savior. We have a house not made with
hands eternal in the heavens with our Lord and
Savior.
Believers in Jesus Christ are
people in the “know,” writes A. W. Pink. “They know
that their Redeemer lives (John 19:25). They know
that they have passed from death unto life (1 John
3:14). They know that all things work together for
good (Romans 8:28). They know that if their earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, they have a
building of God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens (2 Corinthians 5:1). They
know that one day they shall see Christ face to face
and be made like Him (1 John 3:2). In the meantime
they know whom they have believed, and are persuaded
that He is able to keep that which they have
committed unto Him against that day (2 Timothy
1:12).” How do we know? “They have proven for
themselves the trustworthiness of God’s Word which
affirms these things” (The Divine Inspiration of the
Bible).
In a short time, the believer
would be clothed with a body fit for eternity. Our
perfected spirit shall dwell in a body specially
prepared and adapted to its eternal glory in heaven
for all eternity. It will be fashioned according to
the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ. It will
be a resurrected body without limitation of time and
space. We are “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the
redemption of the body.” O glorious day that will
be. Our soul has been regenerated, but our body
waits for the resurrection of the dead.
Second Corinthians 5:4 is a
restatement and expansion of what Paul said in 2
Cor. 5:1-2. This earthly “tent” is our mortal human
body. We do not want to get rid of our earthly body,
but we do want to have the heavenly one put on over
us, so that what is mortal will be transformed by
life. Paul does not want to die, but rather to put
on the spiritual body while he is still alive in his
physical body. He wants the Lord Jesus Christ to
return and transform his physical body before He
dies.
Of course, this physical body
will die, unless Christ comes first. We need to fix
our eyes not on things that are seen, but on things
that are unseen. What we can see lasts only for a
time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever.
When we die we shall be
welcomed into our Father’s house in heaven. The
house God builds in heaven is eternal because human
beings did not build this house.
Jesus promised us, “I go to
prepare a placed 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 you may be also.” There
is a place for you if you know Jesus Christ as your
personal Savior. Our Lord always accomplishes what
He purposes to do. He will not fail us now. He has a
special dwelling place for each believer.
We know that our physical
bodies here on this earth are like tents. And when
we die, God will give us a house in its place, which
is not made by human beings. God Himself makes it,
and it will last forever.
We have this “building from
God” because Jesus Christ is “the resurrection and
the life.” When we die we will be absent from this
body and present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8).
What about those who are alive
and wait on the earth for the coming of Christ? “For
the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the
trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise
first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet
the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with
the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
From the very moment we were
saved by grace though faith in Jesus Christ the Holy
Spirit has made our body His dwelling place on this
earth. When death comes to this physical body we can
be most assured that our dweller will find a
permanent and perfect rest for our souls.
When this physical earthly body
is dissolved we will have a new body in heaven. How
do we know this to be true? It is because Jesus died
and rose from the dead.
Jesus Christ died and paid an
enormous price to save my soul, and He is not going
to waste His investment. Jesus is not going to be in
glory and leave me behind! He paid too much for me!
(1 Peter 1:18-19)
How do you live above the
chances, changes, and circumstances in this life?
Get eternity into the picture. The worse thing we
can possibly lose is this tent of flesh and bone.
What is it that we gain? We are ushered into the
presence of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Oh to fall asleep in this life, and wake up in the
presence of God in heaven and to be at home with
Him.
What an eternal weight of glory
when we see Jesus. He has prepared a permanent
dwelling place for His people. What will it be like
to open our eyes in heaven?
Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Will
I see You today?
1. Because
Jesus Christ lives we know that death cannot claim
us. “Because I live,” Jesus said, “you shall live
also” (John 14:19).
2. When our
tent is taken down, we need not fear. When the
believer dies, the body goes to the grave, but the
spirit goes to be with Christ in heaven (Philippians
1:20-25).
3. When Jesus Christ returns
for the redeemed, He will raise the dead bodies in
glory, and body and spirit shall be joined together
to spend eternity in heaven (1 Corinthians 15:35-38;
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
4. The Christian already enjoys
a foretaste of the life everlasting. We are citizens
of two worlds. The glory of this life foreshadows
the “sheer glory, which is the reflection of the
greater glory to come.”
5. Our
salvation is not considered in terms of the
immortality of the soul apart from the body, but of
the total person (1 Corinthians 15:42-57).
2 Corinthians 4:17-5:1-10;
Matthew 6:24-34; John 14:1-3, 6; 1 Corinthians
15:34-54; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
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Unless otherwise noted "Scripture quotations taken from the NASB."
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE" © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://www.bible.org/. All rights reserved.
Wil is a graduate of William Carey University, B. A.; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Th. M.; and Azusa Pacific University, M. A. He has pastored in Panama, Ecuador and the U. S, and served for over 20 years as missionary in Ecuador and Honduras. He had a daily expository Bible teaching ministry head in over 100 countries from 1972-2005. He continues to seek opportunities to be personally involved in world missions. Wil and his wife Ann have three grown daughters. He currently serves as a Baptist pastor and teaches seminary extension courses in Ecuador.
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