HOPE BEYOND THE HEARSE
2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-10
NASB
1 For we know that if [a]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 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, 3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. 4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a [a]pledge.
6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord — 7 for we walk by faith, not by [a]sight — 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for [a]his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
5:1 [a]Lit our earthly house of the tent 5:5 [a]Or down payment 5:7 [a]Or appearance 5:10 [a]Lit the things through the body
NLT
1 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. 3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.[*] 4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
6 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. 10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.
[5:3] Greek we will not be naked.
No matter what journey I take from here to there, I can’t avoid it. No back road, no bypass, no alternate route can keep me from crossing its path. Thankfully, it doesn’t intrude on my way every day, but it happens enough to remind me of some sobering realities none of us should ever forget.
I’ll be driving my car from home to church, or from church to the seminary, or from a lunch meeting to a hospital. Suddenly a police car pulls into the intersection in front of me and slows to a stop, its light flashing but sirens silent. Another pulls up behind him and blocks the flow of traffic. Then another proceeds through the intersection. Just as I’m craning my neck to see what poor fellow had gotten into a fender bender, the truth hits me.
A long, black hearse escorted by another police car proceeds through the intersection. Behind it follows a limousine carrying a grieving family. Then the long train of vehicles trails behind, headlights shining in the noonday sun and all of the members of that mournful parade heading for the final resting place of a beloved sister, brother, father, mother, husband, co-worker, or friend. And as they file through the intersection, nobody honks. An unprecedented patience falls over the growing jam of traffic. We don’t laugh. We don’t groan. We watch in silence, knowing that one day all of us will be passengers at the head of a similar somber procession.
People often say only two things are certain in life: death and taxes. Well, you and I know people who have somehow weaseled their way out of the latter. But we know of nobody who has been able to cheat the former. Death is a certainty —not a question of if, but when. In fact, from a philosophical perspective, death is more certain than birth. Countless potential humans have never been born. Humans have devised numerous ways to prevent conception and birth, but they have never been able to prevent aging and death. Not a single human being born into this world has escaped death apart from miraculous divine intervention.[124] One astute writer puts the reality this way:
This frustrates us, especially in a time of scientific breakthrough and exploding knowledge, that we should be able to break out of earth’s environment and yet be stopped cold by death’s unyielding mystery. Electroencephalogram may replace mirror held before the mouth, autopsies may become more sophisticated, cosmetic embalming may take the place of pennies on the eyelids and canvas shrouds, but death continues to confront us with its blank wall.[125]
As Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes, death is the great equalizer (Eccl. 2:14; 7:2; 9:2-3). It doesn’t matter if you’re a saint or a sinner, rich or poor, man, woman, or child, healthy or sickly, happy or sad —“it is the same for all” (Eccl. 9:2). So what is the difference between the believer and the unbeliever? What benefit has the Christian over the non-Christian if death ends the lives of both? Is there no hope beyond the hearse?
— 5:1-5 —
When it comes to wrong ideas about what happens to us when we die, peddlers of falsehood take advantage of ignorance, uncertainty, fear, and disbelief. When people turn away from the sure knowledge revealed by God in Scripture, they become susceptible to all sorts of misconceptions. This is why Paul begins with an assertion that should instantly snare our attention: “We know” (5:1). When it comes to the vital questions of existence, we aren’t left guessing, wondering, pondering, interpreting, or theorizing. The important things are clear in Scripture, for those who have the eyes of faith to see and believe them: “For we know . . .” Isn’t that comforting? When we face our own inevitable mortality or the loss of our loved ones, we can know with certainty what the future holds. Isn’t that amazing?
Paul then speaks of the earthly body by drawing on imagery familiar to him and his readers: tents. Don’t forget that Paul himself was a tent-maker who had worked for a time in the very city of Corinth with Aquila and Priscilla, making and selling tents (Acts 18:1-3). Now allow me to explore this analogy a little, because I think this is what Paul has in mind as he compares our present earthly, mortal bodies (the current “tents”) with our future heavenly, immortal bodies (the future permanent building from God).
EXCURSUS: THEORIES OF DEATH IN “FOLK THEOLOGY”
2 CORINTHIANS 5:5-6
We are living in a world of soothsayers —people who willingly tell you what you like to hear simply because you like to hear it (and because they like your money). The apostle Paul put it this way: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires” (2 Tim. 4:3).
You will especially find this to be the case if you talk with people about their concept of death. Most people today do not want to accept “as is” the biblical teaching about death. Instead, they want to tweak it, tamper with it, or twist it into something more palatable. That is because the Bible’s clear teaching about death requires us to make a decision in this life that will affect our eternity. Scripture clearly teaches that death is the ultimate result of sin (Gen. 2:17; 3:19; Rom. 6:23), and because all people are sinners (Rom. 3:23), nobody can escape its grasp (Eccl. 7:2). People are appointed to die but once; then our eternal destinies will be sealed (Heb. 9:27). If the chasm of sin that separates us from God is not spanned in this life by a relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ, we will be lost for all eternity (Luke 16:19-31).
Because people today consider those facts too intolerant, dogmatic, or old-fashioned to be accepted without qualification, you will encounter other theories about death in what we might call “folk theology” —unbiblical myths about what happens when we die that serve to soften the harsh reality of death and avoid the biblical idea of judgment. I place these into three categories: temporary transition, repeated reincarnation, and ultimate conclusion.
Temporary transition. Many people today believe that death is simply a necessary passage that all people must go through before they reach their version of “heaven,” “nirvana,” or “paradise.” Eventually, everybody will get there, though it may take longer for some. Some tie this to the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory, which comes from the root word for “purge.” This refers to a place of spiritual purification for people who are not quite right with God in this life, but who will have a chance somehow to make atonement for their sins and imperfections prior to entering heaven. Purgatory is “an intermediate place between heaven and hell, where the unfinished business of earth is settled.”[126] In folk theology, everybody eventually makes it through some such intermediate place to ultimately find their own way to God.
Repeated reincarnation. This eastern philosophy associated with Hinduism, Buddhism, and New Age religions holds that when humans die, their spirits depart their bodies only to be reborn into another earthly body. Recycling of the human spirit can go on indefinitely, bringing us to higher levels of happiness if we have lived a good life or to lower levels of misery if we have not. The notion of “karma” is connected to this concept —good or evil deeds in this life will determine the quality of life you will have in the next go-round.
Ultimate conclusion. Increasingly, people are buying into a nihilistic and materialistic view of death as simply a large period at the end of life’s sentence. To them, death is the ultimate end. There is nothing beyond the grave: no heaven, no hell, no nirvana, no paradise, no reincarnation, no consciousness, no existence. This belief often gives rise to a philosophy that says, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” This suggests that people should do whatever they want, when they want, with whom they want, all with no fear of divine punishment and no expectation of eternal reward. Life itself becomes empty and meaningless.
When people reject the revealed theology of the Bible, they open themselves up to “folk theology,” turning away their ears from the truth and turning aside to myths (2 Tim. 4:4).
I have spent enough time in a tent to know it is not the best place for a permanent dwelling (no offense to my Bedouin readers!). In fact, if you have ever been on a camping trip that lasted long enough to encounter cold or rainy weather, you will agree that tents are no match for a strong brick home built on a sure foundation. Tents are temporary dwellings —fun to sleep in with the kids in the woods or at the lake, but you and I know that it gets cold in the winter and it gets hot in the summer. Tents begin to sag. They start to leak. Tent pegs get loose. Holes form, critters invite themselves in, and a strong wind blows them away. Before very long, you are groaning for something more permanent.
Enter the “building” image. Paul says, “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 Cor. 5:1). Here Paul refers to the marvelous transition from our present frail, fallen bodies to our future glorified, resurrected bodies. This is not the only time Paul mentions this miraculous transformation. In 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17, he wrote:
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
When the Lord returns, those believers in Christ who had died in this life will be miraculously raised up in their restored, glorified bodies. Those believers who are still alive in their mortal bodies will experience a sudden transformation of their bodies as they get caught up in the air to meet the Lord and the resurrected believers from every generation. Paul mentions this very transformation from mortal bodies to immortal bodies in 1 Corinthians 15:52-53: “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
In light of this expectation, Paul likens our present, corruptible bodies to a temporary “tent” in which we dwell; but our future, incorruptible resurrection bodies will be like a permanent building, not constructed of perishable materials from this world, but conformed to the building code for heavenly existence —untainted perfection, spiritual immortality, heavenly glory.
This fact brings up an interesting question. If Paul was waiting for the return of Christ, when the whole church would be resurrected and transformed into their new glorified bodies, why does he say we “have” (present tense) a body from heaven in 2 Corinthians 5:1? Had he changed his mind since writing 1 Thessalonians 4 or 1 Corinthians 15? Surely not! Rather, it seems best to interpret this present tense as indicating the certainty with which Paul holds the truth of the bodily resurrection.
The apostle John describes our salvation as a present reality, even though we have much more to come: “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 Jn. 5:12-13). Paul expresses a similar thought in 2 Timothy 4:8, “In the future there is laid up [present tense] for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”
Therefore, from the perspective of a guaranteed promise of a future reality, John describes eternal life as something we now possess; and Paul refers to the reward believers will receive at the second coming of Christ as something that is presently laid up for him and for all who look forward to His appearance. In this way, too, Paul can speak of the heavenly, glorified, resurrection body as something that he has. We might paraphrase Paul this way: “If the earthly tent which is our present home is torn down, we have the guaranteed promise of a permanent structure from God, a sturdy building not built with human hands, but one that can dwell eternally in the heavenly realm.”
Paul expresses his longing for the transformation from his mortal, earthly body to his immortal, heavenly body this way: “Indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven” (2 Cor. 5:2). Similarly, in Romans 8:23 he writes, “We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.” In both passages, Paul says believers groan within themselves as they wait for the resurrection of the body.
Physicians make their living listening to these groaning tents. An orthopedic surgeon tries to keep the tent pegs from pulling loose. A dermatologist tries to keep the canvas in good shape. Surgeons cut and stitch, nip and tuck, trying to get just a little more life out of these flimsy, floppy tents we call our bodies. We groan because we are weary, rain-soaked campers longing for a permanent home (2 Cor. 5:2). But we do not desire to be free from a shelter —bodiless, ghost-like souls flittering about the heavens (5:3-4). The Christian’s hope is not to be unclothed (5:4), but to be clothed with a new immortal body (5:4).
Many Christians get this wrong. They believe the Christian hope is simply dying so their souls may be free from their bodily existence. It is true that the Bible teaches the soul may be separated from the body for a stage in the process of our ultimate redemption, during which we are absent from our bodies but present with the Lord (5:8). But the full realization of salvation is not to be naked but to be clothed in new, immortal bodies at the time of the Resurrection. As Paul says in Philippians 3:20-21, “For our citizenship is [present tense] in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”
We await the fulfillment of this promise because we know with certainty that it will one day come to pass. How? Because God gave us His Holy Spirit as a “pledge,” a priceless deposit that guarantees what has been promised will come to pass (2 Cor. 5:5). Though our present, earthly body is wasting away, we can count on a new, glorious body to replace it one day.
— 5:6-10 —
Along with most first-century Christians, Paul rightly expected that Jesus could have returned in his own lifetime. I say “rightly” because nobody knows when the Lord will come back (Matt. 24:36). His coming could literally be at any moment —perhaps today. This belief in the imminent return of Christ was just as true in the first century as it is in the twenty-first. Christ remains poised to step out of heaven as Judge and King as soon as the Father says, “Now!”
Because of this expectation, Paul speaks primarily in terms of anticipation —that his present earthly body would be “swallowed up by life” (2 Cor. 5:4), as though he would be among those who were still alive at the coming of the Lord and would experience, not death and resurrection, but instant transformation and rapture (1 Thes. 4:17; 1 Cor. 15:50-53). Paul also knew, however, that many Christians had already died since the founding of the church at Pentecost (Acts 2) and that it was possible that he and others would suffer physical death before the Lord returned. Therefore, in 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 Paul deals with two questions. First, what should we do while present in this mortal body, awaiting our future redemption? Second, what will happen to us if our earthly bodies die before Christ returns?
The first question is rather easy to answer. While we dwell on this earth, we are to be “of good courage” (5:6, 8). We “walk by faith, not by sight” (5:7), living in light of our future reward. In other words, we make the most of the time left to us here on earth, knowing that whatever we invest in the current ministry of reconciliation will reap eternal benefits when Christ returns. Therefore, our ambition in this life is “to be pleasing to Him” in all we do (5:9).
The answer to the second question is suggested in 5:6, 8. Paul says that to be “at home in the body” —referring to this present earthly body —means to be “absent from the Lord” (5:6). Likewise, the contrary is true: to be “absent from the body” means to be “at home with the Lord” (5:8). Paul expresses the same concept in Philippians 1:23-24, when in the midst of great trials and hardships, he writes, “But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.”
Yes, to be absent from this mortal body is to be present with the Lord, just as Jesus promised the thief on the cross, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). There is no hint of “soul sleep,” an unconscious hiatus before resurrection in which we rest until Christ returns. Also, the idea of a purgatorial cleansing in some intermediate state does not fit this passage. To depart this earthly life through physical death —to be absent from the body —means to be present with the Lord. Paul is not suggesting, however, that this is the final experience of our resurrection. Those who die before Christ returns, then, will be with Him, awaiting the time of His return to resurrect their bodies and rapture the church, when all of us will be rewarded for our faithful service in the glories of His kingdom (Matt. 19:28-29; Rev. 3:21).
In fact, it may be that when Paul says God will “bring with Him [Jesus] those who have fallen asleep in Jesus” (1 Thes. 4:14), he is referring to Christ descending from heaven with the disembodied souls of the saints that had died prior to His second coming. These souls would then be reunited with their resurrected, glorified bodies (1 Thes. 4:16) and caught up with the transformed living saints (1 Thes. 4:17).
At this point in his description of what happens to believers when they die, Paul describes what will occur immediately after our resurrection and rapture: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor. 5:10). The Corinthian believers well understood the concept of a “judgment seat,” or bēma [968], in Greek. Paul himself had stood before the judgment seat of the Roman governor Gallio in Corinth years before, when hostile Jews accused him of violating their religious laws (Acts 18:12-17).
The judgment seat of Christ, however, will be different. Christ will not judge believers to determine innocence or guilt. That judgment of “not guilty” already was rendered when God declared us righteous at our conversion because of the saving death of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). Because of the finished work of Christ, received as our own by faith in Him, our resurrection is guaranteed and our place in the kingdom of heaven is permanently assured (Eph. 1:13-14; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5). At the judgment seat of Christ, however, our future reward in the kingdom of God will be determined by the quality of our deeds and the motives behind them (see 1 Cor. 3:10-15; 4:4-5).
Interestingly, Paul does not describe the divine compensation for our faithful service in the present ministry of reconciliation. He states only that the reward will be in proportion to the deed itself, “whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10). Some false teachers in Corinth may have been teaching a popular Greek philosophy that only the soul mattered and that sins of the body, such as sexual sins, were inconsequential (see feature on “Body and Soul” on page 98). Therefore, they reasoned, because we are saved by grace and because only our spirits matter, we can get away with any kind of carnal behavior in our bodies. But Paul completely annihilates this reasoning. In the very bodies in which we served the Lord, we will also be rewarded before Christ’s throne. And therefore, in the very bodies in which we sinned, we will lose rewards. Paul Barnett sums up the thrust of Paul’s message:
The sure prospect of the judgment seat reminds the Corinthians —and all believers —that while they are righteous in Christ by faith alone, the faith that justifies is to be expressed by love and obedience (Gal. 5:6, Rom. 1:5) and by pleasing the Lord (2 Cor. 5:9). Our “confidence” that we will be “with the Lord” (v. 8) is to be held in tension with the “fear of the Lord” (v. 11), from which we serve Him.[127]
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. There He will appraise our deeds and will look deeper than the action. He will see the motives behind them. He will look further than the quantity of deeds to examine the quality. And on the basis of His perfect knowledge, He will grant rewards or withhold them. Our response to this truth? Whether we are at home in the body or absent, our number one ambition should be “to be pleasing to Him” (2 Cor. 5:9).
APPLICATION: 2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-10
Is It Well with Your Soul?
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
In 1873, a Chicago businessman, Horatio Spafford, composed these lyrics following the tragic loss of four daughters in a shipwreck. In the midst of the storm of earthly trials, he was able to experience divine peace because, despite his loss, it was well with his soul.
Not many people today have this underlying confidence in the condition of their own souls before a righteous, holy God. Will it be well with your soul when the Lord descends as Judge and King? When God examines the thoughts, attitudes, motives, and deeds of your life? Or will it turn out to be a disappointing discovery?
I can’t speak for you because I have no idea. But I do know “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (5:10). Is that going to be a disappointing discovery, or will it be well with your soul? It is a probing thought indeed, which is why Scripture repeatedly urges us to give these questions serious consideration.
Here is what I want you to think about first: When you die, where will you live again? Will it be with the Lord or away from His presence forever? Will it be well with your soul in eternity? Have you come to terms with your own guilt before God, confessed your desperate need for forgiveness, turned away from trusting in yourself to be “good enough,” and embraced Christ alone as your Savior? Only by grace alone through faith alone can you receive the free gift of reconciliation and eternal life. Then and only then will it be “well with your soul.” The choices are heaven or hell. No in-between. No nirvana. No purgatory. No second chance. No reincarnation. No “holding tank” while you decide. No nothingness. Will it be eternal bliss filled with joy and relief and the rewards awaiting God’s people? Or eternal judgment, away from God and all those things you hold dear? Only you can determine which.
Second, if you are already a believer and have passed from the threat of eternal death to the irrevocable promise of eternal life, is it well with your soul in a temporal sense? That is, are you making the most of your opportunities in this temporary life so that when you appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of how you spent your days in service of the Savior, you will be honored rather than shamed? Though life is short, it is eternally significant. Have the incessant pressures and distractions of this world lured you away from those things that are most important? If it’s already well with your soul, how well is it?[128]