2 Corinthians 5:1–8

What calm and confident knowledge the apostle here credits to Christians, simply as Christians! What a contrast with the dark uncertainty of unbelief, or with its godless boldness! Eternal things are no less sure in hope because they are not seen.

Let us look calmly at death; it may soon touch us. How shall we greet the "King of Terrors"? That is the world's name for death. God, speaking to His people, calls it Sleep… "We know!" What assurance is here; and again, the confidence rests on God. The shifting tent gives way to the building of God.

The tent that is our earthly home is the body of the believer, the earthen vessel of the previous chapter. It is called a tent because it is only a temporary lodging. By grace, believers are strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Yet in this earthen vessel, this frail tent, there is a divine indweller, the Holy Spirit.

The apostle speaks of our earthly house being destroyed: "if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed." He does not say "when we die." He only states the possibility that the tent may be taken down… "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" was the mystery revealed through the apostle in his first letter (1 Corinthians 15:51). The change of the believer's body is certain; its destruction is not.

Let us not make difficulties for ourselves by putting into this verse what is not there. The destruction of the body is in view. The contrast is between the tent that is our earthly home — the most temporary of all dwelling places, easily shifted from one place to another — and a building. And it is a building "of God," not one "made with hands"; eternal in the heavens, instead of temporary and earthly.

"We know" is the proper language of Christianity. There is no cause for alarm if this tent is destroyed, for it is only meant to be temporary. We do not have the new house yet, and still the verse says, "We have a building from God." It is as certain as though we were already living in it.

The new and glorified body we are destined for will be like a house of God's workmanship. None of the frailties that come from human origin will exist in it. It will be able to sustain all the joys and services of the heavens for eternity. It would in a way be a poor thing if we came into the heavens with Christ, into all the brightness of the Father's house, with bodies that grow tired and weary.

This refers to the resurrection body, which we shall have when the Lord returns. We do not receive it when the tent-house is destroyed… The tent-house is subject to death; the new body is called "eternal."

Some will have it that this house not made with hands is heaven itself. But how then could it be called a house "in the heavens"? The house and heaven itself are carefully distinguished. Others, with less error but with an incomplete view of the passage as a whole, think only of the resurrection body. But it does not follow that the passage throws no light on the state of the soul between death and the resurrection.

Look at the certainty we have: "a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." That very certainty makes us groan to have it. The apostle did not groan in doubt or uncertainty. He did not groan under the weight of guilt or fear. Still less did he groan because he could not satisfy the desires of the flesh or of the mind. Nor did he groan because he could not surround himself with this world's possessions, which all perish. No; he longed for the heavenly building — the divine, the real, the eternal.

Men are never eager to be rid of the body unless they are sure of having something better. In fact, they grasp this present life with intense eagerness. They tremble at the thought of the future, which is all darkness and uncertainty to them. They groan at the thought of leaving the body; the apostle groaned because he was in it.

In the power of this life I find myself dead in practice, and I see my house in heaven, as verse 2 puts it. This makes me groan. But why do I groan? Because I have seen and tasted the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in person I am not there yet. The groaning is not from disappointment, but from earnest desire... As yet we do not actually hold this glory, but we long for it... So there is no Christian, however weak, who does not have a title to long for the glory to which he has been predestined.

It is called a tent because it is only the temporary lodging of those who are, by grace, strangers and pilgrims on the earth... The groaning is not because of weaknesses, hardship, deprivation or unsatisfied desires. It is deeper than that. It is the longing for the promised glorified condition with which we shall be clothed... Dear fellow-believer, we may live close to God and enjoy the fellowship with His Son into which grace has called us. If we do, then even in the finest scenes and the most attractive conditions on earth we shall know something of this groaning.

The particular word used for "know" shows conscious knowledge. There is a certainty about it that makes an inward impression. This is why we groan. We feel how contrary everything is here, where we live in this tent-house... The words "from heaven" do not mean that our house comes down to us. They mean it is "out of" heaven — heavenly in source and character.

Paul preferred (verse 8) to be absent from the body — that is, the present body of sin and death — and to be present with the Lord. But it was not the thing he earnestly desired. What he desired was quite another thing: "to be clothed upon with our house which is FROM heaven." The passage sets this in contrast with death and the separate state, and clearly prefers it.

We groan, but not to be unclothed — not to lay down the body in death. We groan to be clothed upon. That brings in the true normal hope of the Christian, that is, the Lord's coming. This hope is so ingrained into the Christian's life that it does not need to be stated. Then all that is mortal will be swallowed up by the power of the life we have in Him.

This portion is assured to us, so the Apostle can twice say, "We groan." With the glory of the new body in view, we groan with earnest desire to have put it on. Feeling the burdens that press upon the mortal body, we groan with longing to have put it off... God permits a groan, but never a grumble.

So it is possible to be clothed and yet naked. It is the unbeliever who will be found naked; so that the resurrection body of the unbeliever, while clothing his soul and spirit, will not cover the shame of his nakedness. This verse then guards against unbelief assuming itself safe. True confidence is only for the child of faith.

The apostle would warn every soul. In the day that is coming, everyone will be clothed. That is the resurrection of the body, when souls are no longer found without the body but clothed. Still, some, even despite that clothing, shall be found naked. The wicked are then to be clothed no less than the saints, who will have been already raised or changed. Their bodies shall be raised from the dead just as truly as those of the righteous. But when the unrighteous stand in resurrection before the great white throne, how bare will they appear? What will it be in that day to have no Christ to clothe us?

There is all the difference in the world between the "apron" that man made and the "coats of skins" which the Lord God made and put on them. In Adam's apron God did not put a single stitch. That is man's effort to reform himself, his self-improvement, and his own works. All your efforts and mine are worthless; we are as naked after as before. The coat that God made was His own work, and man had put no stitch in it. It is salvation by sovereign grace... Paul, so to speak, says, "Do not be like Adam." He was found "naked" when he thought himself clothed.

There would be those clothed in bodies of resurrection who would be found terribly naked before God. They never received the "best robe" (Luke 15:22), and never became God's righteousness in Christ, as the last verse of the chapter says.

It is very solemn to think that it is here, and here only: when we depart to be with Christ, there is no putting on Christ in heaven. If we have not put on Christ here, we shall be found naked... The just will have been clothed too, but the clothing of their resurrection body does not leave them naked, but shows them like Christ. Now men may use clothing to cover up what they really are in the eyes of others. But in the resurrection state all must be shown as they are, whether just or unjust.

If we are true Christians we shall never be found naked in that way. We may be unclothed, but that word describes the state of those saints who are "away from the body" in the presence of the Lord. Paul himself, and countless others besides, are unclothed at this moment; but that unclothed state, blessed as it is, is not the great object of our desire.

There are those who give this a very different turn, and make it a verse of comfort instead of warning. But such a view robs us of the true scope of the clause. It does not mean "since being clothed we shall not be found naked," which has no worthy lesson for any soul.

That reading took "naked" as a contrast between the soul apart from the body and the soul clothed with the resurrection body — "our house which is from heaven." The ground for it was the word "we." Judgments have always differed widely on the subject. It is quite possible that "naked" may refer to those who will be left behind at the Lord's coming — that is, to the unconverted. In that case it will be equivalent to being without Christ.

Truly knowing that we have Christ as a living possession does not deaden our sense of the groaning creation. It greatly increases it… Our body is the tent we live in. It is itself part of a creation that was made subject to futility. We who are inside it groan under the crushing sense of its total ruin. That is not because we are not delivered in Christ. It is because we are, and so we feel deeply what is held under the bondage of corruption.

The apostle did not groan in doubt or uncertainty. He did not groan under the weight of guilt or fear. Least of all did he groan because he could not satisfy the desires of the flesh or the mind. Nor did he groan because he could not surround himself with this world's perishable things. No; he longed for the heavenly building — the divine, the real, the eternal.

People are never eager to be rid of the body unless they are sure of having something better… They groan at the thought of leaving the body. The apostle groaned because he was in it.

Our desire is not so much to lay aside the frail body and die. It is to go through the change spoken of at the end of verse 4. Not to be unclothed — that is, to die, the body laid in the grave and the spirit going to the Lord. Rather, to be clothed upon: the spirit dressed in its new clothing, clothed with its new home, the glorified and heavenly body, at the coming of the Lord. Then, instead of the frail body being swallowed up for a time by mortality, mortality itself will be swallowed up by life.

He has no wish to deny the sorrow and weakness… There is no mere wish to get away from this present scene with its sadness and trial. It is never right to be impatient. To desire to be with Christ is right. But to be restless under what ties us to shame and pain is not of Christ… His wish was not to die, but the very opposite: that the mortality already at work in him might be swallowed up by Him who is eternal life, and our life.

Very many Christians go wrong in their thinking here. They imagine that the moment the spirit escapes from its prison, it enters perfect bliss. The passage just quoted proves that this is not the case. Nothing can fill up the measure of the believer's joy but his being clothed upon with his house which is from heaven.

In that passage he shows that the "clothed" state — when we are clothed upon with our bodies of glory — is better in every way than the "unclothed" state. Yet the "unclothed" state is still far better than the best we can know while we are clothed in our present bodies of humiliation.

In verse 4 he develops the thought of verse 2 and explains the intended use of the expression "clothed upon." We groan, but not to be unclothed — not to lay down the body in death. We groan to be clothed upon. That brings in, as one of its effects, the true, normal hope of the Christian, that is, the Lord's coming. This hope is so ingrained into the Christian's life that it does not need to be stated. Then all that is mortal will be swallowed up by the power of the life we have in Him.

This hope rested on more than a desire stirred up by a view of the glory. God had formed Christians for this very thing. Anyone who is a Christian was formed for this, and for nothing else. It was God Himself who had formed him for this — this glory, in which Christ, the last Adam, is at the right hand of God. What happy confidence in the grace and the mighty work of God! Here the hope does not rest on a work done for us. It is the blessed knowledge that God has prepared us for this. We are His workmanship.

"He who has prepared us for this very thing is God." Here God did not prepare something for us; He prepared us. That is a remarkable expression of His grace, linking us with His unfailing purpose in Christ.

God, who cannot fail, does not begin a work and then leave it unfinished. He prepared us for this very thing: the swallowing up of the mortal by the life which triumphs for ever, the same portion as Christ. The One who did this is God. Indeed only He would have thought of it, and only He could have done it.

He has already "prepared us" for this very thing. This refers to that spiritual work done in us and with us by the Holy Spirit. God by His Spirit has been the Potter, and we have been the clay... God will one day make our mortal bodies alive. He has already done such a work in our souls, and this present work looks ahead to what He will yet do in our bodies.

When someone sells a property, the buyer pays part of the price down as earnest-money to complete the bargain. In the same way, God graciously gives us the indwelling Spirit as the earnest of our inheritance. This assures us that we will have all He has promised. He also binds Himself (if we may put it that way) to carry out His own faithful word, for the earnest-money is both a promise and a pledge.

But there is more in the word translated "earnest." God has given us the Holy Spirit as a pledge. He will one day put us in possession of the inheritance He keeps in heaven for us. But more, He is the installment of that inheritance, the means by which we may already enter into its reality and joy.

This is not the "anointing," which has a wider meaning, and it is not the "sealing" either. It is the aspect of the Spirit given to us that relates to Christ's coming again, and to our entering on the inheritance with Him.

He is the Pledge on God's part that we shall be in the heavenly glory with and like Christ... Nothing that happens on earth, not our weakness, not even death itself, can alter the purpose of God by a hair's breadth or delay it by an instant. Because of that we are always confident (verse 6).

The word "therefore" is not linked, as you take it, with this glorious future state, as if that made him confident. It is linked with what he already had while in the body. "He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. Therefore we are always confident," and so on. Now you cannot fail to see how immensely important this is to the whole question. It was what Paul had already as God's workmanship, which made him so courageous at all times.

"Therefore we are always confident." Think of such language! Think of it as the apostle's words describing our portion, and in full view of both death and judgment! "We are always confident." … But he did enjoy it deeply. What is more, he puts it as the common enjoyment of all Christians. It is not just a question of his own personal feelings. It is about what God gave him to share now with God's people as God's people.

Where it is a question of the word of God, or the work of the Lord Jesus, the believer is entitled to have the fullest confidence. So the apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5, in full view of all the perils of death which daily confronted him, does not hesitate to say "We are always confident," and to repeat it, "We are confident."

So we are courageous at all times, whatever God's way with us may be meanwhile. And we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. This world is not our rest; it is polluted. He is not here but risen and in glory, and our hearts are with Him where He is, and we look for Him to be like Him as well as with Him.

This is not the ground of our confidence, as Calvin strangely misread it. Nor is it an exception to it, as Roman Catholics and Rationalists have thought. It goes along with our good cheer as part of what we know as Christians. And it explains why we are ready in mind to leave the body when called, and to go home with the Lord.

Here we are absent from the Lord, there we shall be present with Him. Here at home in the body, there at home with the Lord. Even here our spirits enjoy communion with Him, in spite of this sinful world and the poor sinful bodies we live in. How much more in that safe place, where it will flow on unhindered, in an unbroken stream.

Understanding this rightly will not lead to loose living, or to being at ease and complacent. It leads instead to spiritual energy. As the apostle said, "We are always confident … we make it our aim to please Him." In every way, as he presses on, the true soul seeks to please the One who suffered for him. He wore the crown of thorns, but He now wears the crown of glory and honour.

Verse 7 is a very important aside: "For we walk by faith, not by sight." It rules our whole life while we are still in a body of flesh and blood. All the spiritual blessings we have are real to faith, but we cannot see or touch them. We are away from the Lord, so we have not seen Him with our eyes. Yet faith carries great certainty, and Hebrews 11 says the same: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).

This verse has given scholars much trouble, though the general sense is plain enough… The way the New Testament uses the word leaves us with "appearance," unless we keep the sense of "sight" that the older English translators chose. That meaning is doubtful in any writer, religious or not. Either way it comes to much the same thing. We walk by faith, not by appearance, being absent from the Lord and heaven. We do look at the unseen and eternal, but we look by faith. We do not yet see the things or the persons themselves, as we will when we are there.

Nothing else given to a believer on earth compares with faith. More than anything else it honours God and the word of His grace, because it makes us lean on the good Shepherd through the Holy Spirit… For we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Israel did not march through the desert that way. They were guided by the cloud and the pillar of fire, which they could see. The Christian now, whether a Jew or a Gentile, has to walk through faith, of which the Lord Himself was the blessed pattern and perfection.

But there is always this great difference between the Jew and the Christian — "We walk by faith, not by sight." The Jewish religion was mostly by sight. "The law is not of faith." Sadly, much of what is in many believers is Jewish as well as Christian. So feelings, works and ceremonies take a large place with many.

This is where a Christian stands right now. If I am ruled by anything I can see, I have left the path of faith… The moment I am ruled by something around me that I can see, or treat it as my motive or my aim, or look to it for guidance, direction, or understanding about my path, I have left this simple, blessed path of faith. It is the path God has marked out for His own.

It was so then, and it is so now. "We walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Cor. 5:7) "What we will be has not yet appeared." (1 John 3:2) We are shut in by the body here, "away from the Lord." In fact we are in Egypt, yet in spirit we are in the heavenly Canaan. Faith brings the heart under the power of divine and unseen things, so it can rise above everything down here, in this place "where death and darkness reign."

We enter into this glorious prospect by the Spirit, whom God gave as the guarantee of it, and so we are "always confident." If we are still at home in the body, and so away from the Lord, we are confident, for we walk by faith, not by sight. If called to pass through death, before the Lord comes, "we are confident," for this will mean the blessedness of being "present with the Lord."

In this passage the word translated "present" means "at home with," and the word translated "absent" literally means "to be away from home." Our beloved sister was taken from us so suddenly three days ago. She is clearly away from home as to the body, since we have put it in the grave. But that she is at home with the Lord is not evident if we judge by sight or appearances. It is only as we walk by faith that this fact becomes real to us.

God has prepared all of us Christians for the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. He has not given it to us yet, but He has prepared us for it. He has also given us the Spirit as the pledge. This is what gives me confidence. He calls it "our house," not my house. So I have two certainties. I am prepared for it, and I know it now while I am here, because God has given me the Holy Spirit.

It is unusual to find men willing to be absent from the body. Even the devil once said, "All that a man has he will give for his life." So we have to ask what the ground of the apostle's confidence was. His own words in Romans 5:8 tell us all we need to know: "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Know this and believe it, and all dread of death leaves the soul.

The apostle never says that he desired to be absent from the body, but that he was willing rather. That is, it was not the object of his desire, but he preferred it to being in the body… He knew God had prepared him for this glory, and he had received the Spirit as the pledge. So if death did come, he was no less confident. And please remember that he had actual death right in front of his eyes.

Here he speaks of what is best of all. "We groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling… not that we would be unclothed" — that is, death and the separate state — "but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." He longed for the change at Christ's coming.

Paul's confidence was such that he was willing — more than willing, pleased — to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. This is his portion today, and the portion of all who have died in the faith of Christ. They are absent from the bodies which have been laid in the grave, waiting for the moment when they will be clothed in bodies of glory. But even now they are present with the Lord, in all the conscious blessedness of His presence.

On one side, there is no excuse for the unbelief which makes everything of going to be with Christ after death. It stops short of the only adequate answer: our resurrection and change at Christ's coming. On the other side, it is a real slight on God's grace and on Christ's redemption to darken the state of the soul apart from the body, so as to heighten the splendour of the resurrection morning… To be with Christ is far better than remaining in the flesh, though far short of the triumph we shall share when He comes.

The prospect braced up the soul of the apostle, stirring him to tireless zeal in everything he did, so that he sought only the approval of Christ. In fact, this is exactly what it does for us. It enables us to bring all our actions into the light of His presence now, and helps us to do them for Him and to Him. This is where our strength lies.