Paul Details the Assurance of our Resurrection with
Christ Part 1
2 Corinthians 5:1-4 For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan,
earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If
so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this
tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but
clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. KJVPaul concluded the last chapter on such a great high giving testimony of he and us looking beyond our temporary sufferings (either physical due to sickness and persecutions or emotional/spiritual due to sin and satan) endured in these earthen vessels made from the dust of the earth to the indescribable glory we will have and experience forever with Christ in our new glorified body’s immune and secure against sin, sickness, and satan. Paul now begins to detail for the Corinthian believers and for us the absolute assurance we have “in Christ” in obtaining resurrection from the dead and our new glorified bodies. Paul declares that we who are certain of our standing “in Christ” know or eido meaning to perceive or discern and to understand by way of examination and experience that at the moment our frail and weak physical body is dissolved or kataluo meaning demolished, destroyed, torn down, and dies, we (our spirit and soul) will be immediately and instantaneously united with the glorified supernatural body made and reserved just for each one of us uniquely. Our earthly body is merely the tent, tabernacle, or temple that houses the real us made in the image of God our spirit and soul. Our spirit being the life giver to our earthly body as our Lord Jesus attested to by His Own words when He said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). Our soul is the unique part of us that distinguishes us from any other being in God’s Universe or Universes.
Everyone who is joined to our Lord Jesus Christ
wrestles with the inward longing of wanting to throw off this weak and decaying
physical body and be freed from all of its weaknesses physical, emotional, and
spiritual and be united with the One (Jesus Christ our Lord) we long for as the
Apostle Peter declares with these words, “Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great
mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the Resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is
imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who
are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be
revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a
little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that
the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is
perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and
glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen
Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you
greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the
outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:3-9). We
groan in this flesh because we long to be with Christ Jesus our Lord and be
made just like Him and we groan because we hate the weakness of this flesh, as
our Lord Jesus reminded the early disciples and us with these words, “Watch ye and pray,
lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is
weak” (Mark 14:38). This English word weak our Lord Jesus used here is
translated by the Greek word asthenes
an adjective which means strength less or without strength, feeble, sick, and
powerless literally, figuratively, and morally.
This body for us is an encumbrance or obstruction
that impedes and is burdensome to our walk and intimacy with our Lord Jesus
Christ as also the writer of Hebrews warned us about and encouraged us to fight
against with these words as we remember those who have gone before us in this
walk of faith, “Therefore, since we have
so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every
encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with
endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”
(Hebrews 12:1-2). Paul writes that it is our “earnest desire” or epipotheo a verb or action word meaning
to yearn or long for, lust after in a good sense, and intensely craving this
weak body to be removed from our spirit and soul. Paul declares that this “earnest
desire” or epipotheo of being lifted
out of this physical habitation our earthly body is not because we despise it
in its form, for we know that it is God’s gift to us for living here on the
earth, but it is due to the fact that we want the new immortal, incorruptible,
and indestructible habitation that is completely and totally void of all sinful
temptations and painful diseases as Paul already wrote to them at the end of
his first epistle or letter with these words, “But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this
mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is
written, ‘Death is swallowed up
in victory. O death, where is your
victory? O death, where is your sting?’” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).
“This mortal life is a pilgrimage, and our body is a
tent, so slight, so transitory, so easily taken down; but what does it matter,
since there is awaiting us a mansion prepared by God? Often in this veil of
flesh we groan. It cages us, anchors us down to earth, hampers us with its
needs, obstructs our vision, and becomes the medium of temptation. How good it
would be if our physical body could be suddenly transmuted into the glorified
ethereal body which should be like the resurrection body of our Lord! It would
be sweet to escape the wrench of death. But if not, then through death we shall
carry with us the germ of the glorified body. That which shall be quickened
will first die, but God will give it a body as it shall please Him.” F. B.
Meyer
“The earthly house of this tent does not
merely define the composition, but also the whole relations and capacities of
that to which it refers. The ‘tent’ is ‘earthly’, not merely because, to use a
kindred metaphor, it is a ‘building of clay,’ but because, by all its
capacities, it belongs to, corresponds with, and is fitted only for, this lower
order of things, the seen and the perishable. And, on the other hand, the
‘mansion’ is in ‘the heavens,’ even whilst the future tenant is a nomad in his
tent. That is so, because the power which can create that future abode is ‘in
the heavens.’ It is so called in order to express the security in which it is
kept for those who shall one day enter upon it. And it is so, further, to
express the order of things with which it brings its dwellers into contact.
‘Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither doth corruption
inherit incorruption.’ That future home of the spirit will be congruous with
the region in which it dwells; fitted for the heavens in which it is now
preserved. And thus the two contrasts-adapted to the perishable, and itself
perishable, belonging to the eternal and itself incorruptible-are the two which
loom largest before the Apostle’s mind.” Alexander MacLaren
“The weakness of our human flesh and old nature
(even though we be regenerated and born again) is a constant source and cause
for groaning (Romans 8:23) within
our hearts or inner man as we long for the day when we will be completely perfected
in our spirit, soul, and glorified body.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
If you do not
know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your
heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus,
I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You
shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead
proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my
sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my
life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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