Today, we’re going to look at 2nd Corinthians 5 and see what Paul is teaching us about our earthly and spiritual bodies. If you don’t know what you’re made of, you should, and this study is for you.
5:1 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.
A funny thing about this verse is how people have used it to say that we will have “mansions in heaven”. No, we will not have a mansion in heaven for ourself. Yes, God has a big house (a mansion, if you will), but we will not have our own individual houses.
Here in verse 1, Paul is using housing as a metaphor for our bodies. You are a soul. That is your inner most essence. Your soul will live forever. Your current body will not. You also have a spirit, which is your connection to the spirit realm. This study is not going to be about that. But just know that you are a soul with a spirit that lives in a body. This is different than a popular charismatic teaching that has it backwards, which says you are a spirit with a soul that lives in a body. But again, that’s not the message for today.
In verse 1 here, Paul is telling us that we will have a body after we die that will be eternal “we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body”. See how cleanly this reads when we take Paul at his word as it comes? And notice, too, how God has made (or will make) this heavenly body just for you “made for us by God Himself and not by human hands”. That makes it personal between you and God.
2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.
Moving on, look how Paul is commiserating with us about our life in the flesh. I don’t know about you, but I am definitely growing weary in this fleshly body. And not only is my body growing weary, but my soul is growing weary over the sin that my flesh carries. Did you know that the flesh houses our sinful nature? Read what Paul says about this elsewhere:
17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.
(Galatians 5:17-25, NLT)
No wonder we grow weary. We are in a battle against our own flesh and blood (not our ancestors or family — us!) And notice how we nail our sinful flesh to the cross of Christ to kill it. That is the miracle of death working in our favor. Now let’s get back to 2 Corinthians 5.
3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.
This is actually a little confusing when taken in context of the Bible’s (and Paul’s) greater teaching. He is NOT saying it happens immediately upon death, or entering heaven. He is merely saying that it will happen. How do we know WHEN we get these new bodies? We go to 1 Corinthians 15.
50 What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.
51 But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. 53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. (1 Corinthians 15:50-53, NLT)
Verse 51 hints at WHEN we get our new bodies. It says “when the last trumpet is blown”. And when is that? It is a specific event of the End Times. For more on this event, we go to Paul’s teaching in his first letter to the Thessalonians.
13 And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.
15 We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 18 So encourage each other with these words.
(1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, NLT)
The last trumpet (the 7th) is when Jesus returns. See verse 14 above? It says, “when Jesus returns”. Does this passage mention the last trumpet? No, it doesn’t. It says when Jesus returns. So how do we know if the last trumpet is when Jesus returns (besides Paul just telling us 1 Corinthians 15:51)? We can find it in a couple of places: The Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24) and the account of the Trumpets in Revelation.
29 “Immediately after the anguish [tribulation] of those days,
the sun will be darkened,
the moon will give no light,
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. [This is speaking of God’s wrath. See Isaiah 13:10; 34:4; Joel 2:10.]30 And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.
(Matthew 24:29-31, NLT)
See how His return is accompanied by the blast of a trumpet in verse 31? By the way, that gathering of His chosen ones is two events we call the resurrection and the rapture. But where do we see the “last trumpet”? In Revelation’s account of the Trumpets of God’s Wrath. By the way, we can also see how the saints are all gathered to Him at His return. Again, that gathering is the resurrection and the rapture—together, not separated at all.
“When the seventh angel blows his trumpet, God’s mysterious plan will be fulfilled. It will happen just as he announced it to his servants the prophets.” (Revelation 10:7, NLT)
There are only 7 trumpets.
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices shouting in heaven: “The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15, NLT)
See how cleanly this is working out? The return of Jesus (to reign forever and ever) will be announced with a trumpet. The last (seventh) trumpet. Now let’s get back to 2 Corinthians 5.
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.
It isn’t that we should walk around carrying a death wish. But we can acknowledge that this earth is not our home and we are not yet content with our lives. It is more of a matter of looking ahead to what is to come than being miserable in our current state.
5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
If you have the Holy Spirit living in you, you can be confident that you are going to be renewed (recreated) when Jesus returns. He is our Guarantee.
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.
Paul runs it home one more time. Being in the flesh is not being “at home with the Lord”. And being “at home” with the world is definitely NOT what our posture should be either.
7 For we live by believing and not by seeing.
Ever heard the saying, “seeing is believing”? That is the opposite of living by faith. And true life (eternal life) comes by faith and faith alone.
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.
I know that I would rather be done with this body, but it is not up to me — it’s up to God.
9 So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him.
That should be our goal in life — to please God, not ourselves and not other people. And here we see that when we die, if in Christ, our lives WILL be centered on pleasing God.
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.
This verse seems to be at odds with what Jesus told Nicodemus when he came to see Him at night. There, He said “There is no judgment for those who believe”. (John 3:18) So, what’s the reconciliation between these two statements? Are we believers to be judged after all? Yes and no. Notice that the judgment Paul mentions here is not for salvation. It is for the good works we have done for God that count for us as a reward (or not). And as Paul said elsewhere, our works may not count for anything if our hearts are not right in them. “If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.” (1 Corinthians 3:14, NLT) So, it’s more that our works are being judged as believers, not that our souls are being judged for whether we live or die (permanently).
But we don’t have to wait until we die and eventually receive our new bodies when Christ returns to live in Christ. We can live in Christ right now—today. But don’t take my word for it. Keep reading in our text today. We skip to verses 16 and 17 now.
16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
This is what we mean when it is said we are “born again” (see also John 3). The process of receiving faith from God and salvation in Christ is one where we put to death our fleshly self (not literally killing the body) with its desires and sinful ways, and then taking up the cross and Jesus’ way of living in the Spirit (His Spirit). We can say, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)
18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
So, salvation is not something that we can earn, because our flesh is corrupt. Nothing done in the flesh can count for our salvation. We already knew this from what God said through Isaiah in the Old Testament: “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.” (Isaiah 64:6) That is one of those verses that obliterates ALL attempts to reach God through religion (which depends on our own goodness and accomplishments).
And even as believers, Paul showed us that our works will be “burned up” and “count for nothing” if done in the flesh (see 1 Corinthians 3 again).
The last point of this study is this: We are Christ’s ambassadors in this dark, fallen world. “God is making his appeal through us.” And, “We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!'” God expects us to speak out for Him and His Son and the salvation that comes through faith and faith alone. So do that. Live your life in the Spirit, not the flesh, and be an ambassador for Jesus with your friends, family, coworkers, and community. Be the “light” that is not put under a bowl but put on a stand for all to see. Be the “salt” that seasons the world around you with the love of Christ. For this is what is expected of you.
The only way to be made “right with God” is through faith in Christ. Now go and spread the word.
Your servant in Christ,
Gary
