Our Heavenly Dwelling
1Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7We live by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Dig Deeper
Up to this point, Paul has been discussing the role of suffering in his ministry as an apostle. The obvious question would be why he would go through such suffering. Most humans need a pretty good reason as to why they would pick up the life of the Messiah if it means so much suffering and struggle rather than just health and wealth in the present age. Paul’s obvious answer is resurrection. The Messiah has been resurrected, and what is true of Him is true of His people, so our great hope is the resurrection of all those who have entered into the life of the Messiah. If it is the hope of the Corinthians and all Christians, though, they must have a good understanding of what it is.
This passage is instructive for readers of our day, a time when many, if not most people, have an incorrect understanding of what the New Testament actually teaches about what happens when the Messiah’s people die. First, we find that heaven is not the final destination and hope of where we will go when we die. The hope of the Christian is the time when Christ returns and transforms His creation into the new heavens and earth. Heaven and earth were always meant to overlap and be perfectly united, and they will when Christ returns. This is when resurrection will happen for believers.
The hope of resurrection is not about becoming disembodied, but about being re-embodied. One verse on this topic that is often misunderstood is verse 4. Paul says that we will be clothed with our heavenly dwelling. Many take that to mean that we receive another body in place of our buried body, or that we receive an intermediate body until our present bodies are raised. This is not, however, the meaning of this passage; it is quite the opposite, actually. Our heavenly dwellings have to do with the source of where the resurrection body comes (v. 1). It does not mean that we will become disembodied spirits and float away from earth forever to a separate place called heaven one day. When we read this passage in context with other passages on the topic in the Bible, we are led to the conclusion that believers receive their resurrected bodies at the Second coming of Christ rather than when they die. Those who are alive will be immediately transformed, those who have died already will finally receive their resurrection bodies. This passage clearly refers to death as a time of disembodiment. Paul refers to death as being "naked" (v. 3) and "away from the body" (v. 8). We also have to ask why Paul would dread being "naked" if he were going to receive his new body, his complete reward, immediately following death? Speaking of death as disembodiment and not the final hope of the Christian, would make little sense if the moment of death and going to heaven were the ultimate fulfillment of the Christian hope. The ultimate hope is resurrection in the restored heaven and earth, not disembodiment in a heaven that is separate from the physical universe.
What we actually see is Paul describing a three stage process which will finally culminate in our final re-embodiment in the age to come. In verse 8, Paul makes it clear that being with the Lord is being away from the body. He is clear that this is preferable to being here on earth but looks forward to the time when the "dead in Christ shall rise first (1 Thessalonians 4:16) to our glorified, resurrected bodies. If we think of our physical bodies in the present age as stage 1, the time between our death, when we are with God, and the resurrection as stage 2, and our resurrected bodies in the ‘age to come’ as stage 3, then we might read 2 Corinthians 5:1-9 like this:
Now we know that if [stage 1] is destroyed, we have [stage 3] from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile [while in stage 2] we groan, longing to be clothed with [stage 3], because when we are clothed [stage 3], we will not be found naked [as in stage 2]. For while we are in [stage 1] we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed [as in stage 2] but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling [stage 3], so that what is mortal [stage 1] may be swallowed up by life [stage 3]. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose [stage 3] and has given us the Spirit as a deposit [during stage 1], guaranteeing what is to come [stage 3]. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body [stage 1] we are away from the Lord [which we will not be in stages 2& 3]. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body [in stage 2 as opposed to stage 1] and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body [stage 1 or 3] or away from it [stage 2].
Christians live by faith in the life of the Messiah and the coming resurrection. Of course this is nothing that we can see now, but we know that it will happen because it happened to Him. Faith is the opposite of sight but it is also the opposite of doubt. Thus, though we can’t see all of this now, we begin to live the reality of the resurrection and the age to come in the present age.
The fact is, all people will be resurrected (John 5:29) and face the judgment seat of Christ. The question is whether we will be raised to life or raised to condemnation. Those who have entered into Christ, though, have nothing to fear from this judgment. We have entered into the life of the Messiah (Romans 6:3-4) and have become co-heirs and share in His glory (Romans 8:17).
Devotional Thought
The purpose of judgment is to disallow any form of evil in the age to come. Only those who have allowed the Holy Spirit to transform them into the image of the perfect Messiah will be able to embrace, enjoy, and operate in an age without evil.
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