Read 2 Cor. 5:1-151For 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. 2For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 3If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 4For 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. 5Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 6Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: 7(For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. 9Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 11Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. 12For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. 13For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. 14For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:1‑15).
IT is a matter of the deepest moment for all of us to be quite sure as to the future. No doubt some will say, It is impossible; no one can be sure as to the future. You will be more right if you say, No one can be sure of the present. You do not know what to-morrow will bring forth; but, thank God, what is unseen and eternal, is defined for us with the utmost clearness. The simplest believer knows without a shadow of a doubt.
It is charming how this chapter opens, "We know.” What a comfort in a day of doubt, and of infidelity on all hands! What does the Christian know? That if he passes from this scene he goes to be with the Lord. My reader, do you know this?
In this chapter two most solemn things are spoken of-death and judgment, yet the apostle can say, "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.”
This is a beautiful possession,—the privilege of the veriest babe in Christ,—"we know," not "we hope.” This is the present portion of the believer; it is Christian knowledge, the common property of every child of God, not the possession of some exclusive class. It is that which Christ has secured by His death, bought with His blood, and which He gives to every one of His own.
On the other hand, what is the future of the unconverted man? It is a leap in the dark. What a fool a man must be so to leap when he can get light! Look at the thief on the cross. His face, amid all the agonies of death, is radiant with heavenly light. What makes him happy? He says, I know I am going to be with Christ; He told me Himself— “This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.”
Do you know that, reader? Do not say people cannot know it; be honest, and say, I do not. The world says, You may hope; how are you to know? The Lord tells you in His Word. Would it be presumption to believe Christ? No; presumption lies with the one who says he cannot know, when God's Word says "Ye may know.”
I can look into eternity and say, All is perfectly clear before me. You get the basis and ground on which this knowledge rests in the end of this chapter; it is what Christ has done on the cross. He was made sin, He who knew no sin, that sinners, believing in Him, might be forever with Him without their sins.
But if we are to be with Him, we must be suitably clad; and this we get in vv. 3-5, “Earnestly desiring to be clothed upon," &c. This clothing upon is what we call the resurrection body, spoken of fully in 1 Cor. 15. It is that which will suit the Lord's presence forever.
“If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked "(v. 3). That sounds strange, you think; “clothed," and yet" naked." That was Adam's case. He forgets his own wretched fig-leaf covering in God's presence, and is compelled to say, "I was afraid, because I was naked." So you will find, unsaved soul. You may wrap yourself tightly in a garment of religiousness, but you will be found naked when standing at the great white throne, for religion is not Christ. Your true state will be then made manifest before God.
God will have reality. It is a real thing that we are downright lost sinners before God. You may deny it now, but remember sin is real, and God's judgment of it, and the work of Christ is real by which sin is put away, and the sinner clothed for God's presence. Better acknowledge your true state now, for God meets the returning prodigal, and puts on him a robe, and then brings him in robed, suited to the Father's house. What kind of a garment does he get? Some say it is Righteousness. It is more than that,—that is a cold thing. I want Christ, nothing less than Christ; and God gives me Christ, and says," Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 13:1414But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. (Romans 13:14)). Reader, whereabouts are you? Have you on Christ?
"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" (v. 4). Life here is a perpetual battle against death. Paul was happy in the Lord, but he groaned, being burdened. He says, I don't want to be "unclothed," i.e. to die, but to be "clothed upon;" that is, to receive the resurrection—the spiritual—body. It is what the Lord Jesus Christ will do when he comes; we shall be changed to His image.
What a wonderful comfort to know, that though I am a sinner, yet, believing in Jesus, there is no, need for me to die. Not that there is no possibility of it, for we are still mortal, and mortality is the possibility of death. But Christ has gone through death for me, plucked out its sting, and saved me from the necessity of the common lot of man, viz., death and judgment. (See Heb. 9:27, 2827And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:27‑28).)
In 1 Cor. 15:54,54So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. (1 Corinthians 15:54) it is said, "Death is swallowed up in victory." There the Spirit of God is talking of the dead in Christ. When the Lord comes, death will be swallowed up, for Christ will lift out of their graves all the dead in Him. In the chapter before us, "mortality is swallowed up of life;" that is, those who are alive when He comes, He will change in a moment, and take to glory without dying. He has gone into death, and He has completely annulled it. The one I have loved, and buried in the faith of Christ now, I shall see again in His likeness, and I shall be like Christ too. How this meets our hearts in a scene of death and ruin! It will be the power of life in Christ coming down, and transforming in a moment all who have believed in Him.
Well, in all this there is not a bit of credit due to us. “He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit" (v. 5). It is not a little bit of the Spirit, and more to come by and bye. No, no. It is the Spirit Himself, the earnest of future glory. It is like the grapes of Eshcol, which the spies brought back from Canaan, they revealed and made known what sort of country it was. So the Holy Ghost reveals Christ, and makes Him known.
Then we labor, that we may be acceptable to Him. Practically, we seek to please God, like Enoch, for “We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ." What will He judge? It does not say we appear there to be judged. He cannot judge the believer, because the Judge has already been judged in his place, and we shall be like Him then. He was made sin for us, as the end of the chapter says.
When I come before that judgment-seat, I shall see that the Judge is the One who died for me, and who bore my sins. I shall see Him, and be like Him. Then what is the good of being manifested there? I shall get a good look all along my history, and see how His grace has borne with me in it all. When the saint stands there, it may be to hear Jesus commend some little service clone for Him.
But when the sinner stands before God, it is not in and like Christ; the unsaved soul must stand there in his sins. Sinner, if you and your sins do not part company in time, you never will in eternity. The believer has parted with his sins, and they will never meet him again. But you, unbeliever, who live, die, and are buried in your sins, will rise in your sins, and stand before the great white throne in your sins, and be bound to them for eternity. Will you slight Christ's word to you now? His grace has lingered long; His voice has called you oft in tender mercy; but the day will come, when the word will go forth, "Cut it down," and” as the tree falls, so must it lie;” and then an awful hell!
Oh, I pray you, be persuaded! “We persuade men." Christ is in earnest; the Holy Ghost is in earnest for your blessing; and the devil is in earnest to hinder; but, solemn fact, the only one who is calm, quiet, and indifferent, is the sinner on the road to judgment. As the shipmaster said to Jonah, so I would say to you, " What meanest thou, O sleeper?" What meanest thou, O sinner? Calm, cold, unconscious, immovable, and yet your eternal soul is at stake! And Christ has died, and the door of heaven is open, and death and judgment are before you, and you are unmoved! You must be in earnest. O soul, be persuaded. “Almost persuaded "will not do; the other side of that is, “altogether lost.”
“Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" (v. 11). There will be no relief in the clay of the Lord; but, thank God, that day is yet in the future. Now, it is not "the terror of the Lord,” but "the love of Christ," we preach. Do you not know His love? He gave himself a willing victim; He suffered all the indignities that man could put upon Him. They chose the robber instead of Jesus, and put Him on a cross. And from that cross of shame He would not deliver Himself. They said, “He saved others, himself he cannot save;" but it was—Himself He would not save. He would not come down from that cross, that you and I might live. Blessed Saviour! whose love many waters could not quench. He knew what it was that awaited the unsaved soul, and He went and stood in that place of judgment for the sinner, the Just for the unjust.
The terror of the Lord might well persuade you, and the love of Christ constrain you. Christ has died. For whom? for sinners. Who may not come in there? We were all on one common level before God, —"then were all dead." And now what has taken place? Christ has gone down into death, that “they which live"—those who trust Him—" should not henceforth live to themselves, but to him who died for them and rose again." The Christian says, I must live for Him. If you have got your heart full of His love,—the love that made Him die your death, that you might live,—what can you say but, “Lord, I must henceforth live for Thee?”
Dear reader, is not the way to escape death and judgment simple and beauteous, because divine? I pray thee accept of it, and from this moment live devotedly to Him whose wondrous death thus sets thee free from both. W. T. P. W.