STUDY THEME: AFTER THIS, THEN WHAT? 8-007-05.
“ONCE AND FUTURE LIFE” 2 CORINTHIANS 4: 16-18; 5: 1-10.
2 CORINTHIANS 4: 16-18; 5: 1-5, 6-10.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO 2 CORINTHIANS 4.
“WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” Ask anyone in any culture and at any time, regardless of his or her religious or philosophical beliefs, and he or she will have some response to that question. Every religion or philosophical belief seeks to answer three basic questions: (1) Where did we come from? (2) Why are we here? and (3) Where are we going?
This last question is the focus of our studies during the month of august. How some worldviews answer this question is not very promising or encouraging.
Hinduism says that after this life there are countless rebirths until one finally reaches a state of oneness with God.
Buddhism says it all ends in peaceful nothingness. Islam and numerous cults stress a life of works in hopes that a person might make it to heaven or some place of bliss.
Thankfully, God offers us a future that is far more hopeful and encouraging. For the Christian, the future can be faced with confidence. Nevertheless, Christians still have questions about the nature of the future. During this month, we will discover what awaits in the future.
For those of us who die in Christ, there is an incredible life that awaits us. For many believers, they will not experience death, but they will see and experience the return of Christ. We also will discover what will happen at the end of time. When Christ comes, our works will be examined, but believers will live in an incredible heaven face to face with God.
Charles G. Finney planned to be a lawyer. One morning the Lord began to deal with him. “Finney, what are you going to do when you finish your course?” “Put out a shingle and practice law.” “Then what?” “Get rich.” “Then what?” “Retire.” “Then what?” “The judgment.”
Finney was convicted of sin and got right with God. He went on to become an evangelist who helped others realize that death and judgment will come to all.
This four lesson series is designed to help us live with the Christian hope of eternal life beyond the grave, live an exemplary life in anticipation of Jesus’ certain return, be prepared to give an account of our self to God, and live in joyful anticipation of heaven.
TEACHER READ 2 CORINTHIANS 4: 1-2, 7-15.
Paul certainly had his share of critics, those who questioned his role as an apostle. He had been pressured….perplexed….persecuted…and struck down. The tough life Paul had led in his service to Christ left him battered and worse for the wear. To his critics, Paul may have seemed like a shameful figure before the eyes of the world.
It seems that in the minds of Paul’s critics an authorized messenger of God would be protected and honored by the God he represented. If Paul’s critics held to the common misconception that affliction is a sign of dishonor and of God’s judgment, then they would naturally conclude that Paul was not an apostle.
The first thing we must have clear in our mind in order to understand these next verses is that there is an outward man and an inward man. The two are not to be confused.
PLEASE READ 2 CORINTHIANS 4: 16-18.
After Paul planted the church in Corinth around A.D. 50, the congregation experienced many ups and downs. Even after he wrote 1 Corinthians, trouble still existed, much of it caused by false teachers challenging Paul’s authority as an apostle. Paul had several purposes for writing 2 Corinthians (about A.D. 55). For one thing, he desired to defend his integrity, both personally and in ministry. One way he did this was to describe both the difficulties he had endured as an apostle and the inner attitude that enabled him to persist, to “keep on keeping on.”
Paul spoke as a representative of all believers in this Bible passage, as his use of plural pronouns suggests. In particular, his phrase ”we must all “ at the end of the study makes clear that he was including all believes, not just himself, in what he wrote.
Paul challenged the Corinthian believers not to give up when troubles beset them. He pointed them to the Lord’s renewal in this life and to their hope of eternal life---the glories of which far outweigh any earthly trials. Therefore, he could rejoice that this temporary body gives way to an eternal home.
Paul hoped to live until Christ’s coming so he would not spend time without a body. However, he recognized that being with Christ was better than life in an earthly body. As he looked toward the future, Paul’s ambition was to please the Lord, to whom he was personally accountable.
Notice that vs. 16 contains the same word as vs. 1. The Greek word rendered faint, means “lose heart” or “give up.” In vs. 1 this warning against discouragement led to the picture in vs. 7 of believers as clay pots holding a great treasure. Then in vs. 12 Paul listed his trials and how the Lord brought him through them all.
In vs. 16 this challenge presented other reasons for not losing heart. These reasons all led to the assurance that is based on the confident hope of eternal life.
Paul endured because he knew there was more than just this life. Paul’s many bodily sufferings made it obvious that his outer person was in the process of being destroyed. One day he would die, as will all humans (except those alive when Christ returns). Although the body’s death comes after a brief life span, Paul found that his inner person—his conscious self or his soul, the part of him surviving physical death-----was being renewed on a daily basis. Christ’s resurrection life within Paul was making him more and more like Christ and one day would overcome death itself for Paul.
Only in the light of eternity can those things Paul experienced and other believers endured be called a momentary light affliction.
Vs. 16 has become more precious to me as I have grown older. Someone has said that you can tell you’re getting older when you attend your high school class reunion and all your former classmates are old people. As we grow older no one needs to tell us that we are “wasting away.”
Our outer person is being destroyed. Destroyed refers not to an out-and-out destruction but to a progressive decay. From strictly a physical view, that is what life is----a slow inevitable slide down the slope that leads to death.
I remember the sense of mortality I felt when, at the Bowlegs School Reunion, three past middle age ladies came to remind me that I had taught them algebra 60 years ago. I had even forgotten I ever taught algebra at Bowlegs.
In 2 Corinthians 11: 23-27 Paul described the additional wear and tear of a life in which he endured many trials. In spited of the wasting away of Paul’s outward man, his inward man was being renewed day by day. The outward man is the person we see when we look in the mirror and the doctor sees when we have a physical.
The outer man is the one people see; the inner person is the one whose heart is seen by God. The inner person is your life as a Spirit-led believer. Sometimes God also blesses the outer person, but this doesn’t change the inevitable reality of the aging process. However, the inner renewal helps us not be overwhelmed by the realities of aging, sickness and death.
Vs. 17 introduces into this passage an even more important reason not to lose heart. This inner renewal happens for us as we are united with Christ. Our lives are “hidden with the Messiah in God,” and according to Col. 3: 3, 10 we are “being renewed in knowledge according to the image of (our creator).”
Not only does the Lord renew us daily in this life, but also a key factor in our renewal is the assurance that death is not the end. The Spirit helps us live in light of eternity. Everything looks different when looked at from that perspective. Paul had more than his share of troubles. By earthly standards, they were heavy, but Paul saw them as light affliction,
At the time, many afflictions seem to stretch on forever., But from heaven’s perspective, they were are but for a moment. When earth’s troubles are placed in the balance with the joys of heaven, the latter is far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Elsewhere Paul wrote in Rom. 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that it going to be revealed to us.”
We should notice two things in conjunction with this truth. First, Christ never talked about His death without also talking about His resurrection. Second, sharing in Christ’s glory was often connected with sharing in His suffering. Paul saw himself as outwardly conforming to the crucified Christ, but inwardly he was being renewed and moving toward conformity with the glorified Christ.
Relying on ourselves when things are going well is easy. When God blesses us, we begin to rely on the blessing instead of on the One who gave it to us. We either forget or we take for granted God’s grace and power. But when we are going through difficulties, God showers us with His grace and we grow through our afflictions. The outer problem seems to multiply the inner glory.
The glory God reveals in us is so great and wonderful that in reference to the afflictions Paul called it absolutely incomparable. What we experience at present with our bodies is trifling in comparison to God’s glory in us. We have not experienced all of God’s glory, but it is being produced in us to the point that one day we will experience the eternal weight of glory.
Because there is something far greater in store for us---and we are already beginning to experience just a glorious hint of what that will be---we should not be concerned with what is happening to us outwardly. Let’s face it: In comparison to our eternity in heaven, this life is short. Very short! We get so tied up in this life that will be over in a moment when we have all the glories of God’s eternity before us.
How does believing Vs.17-18 affect your outlook? It should affect how you look at the things which are seen and the things which are not seen. The gaze of faith is focused upon eternal realities which are no less real because they are unseen. The things seen of which Paul is speaking are precisely his obvious human frailty and suffering ( the outward man that is decaying)---the very things that the man whose values are of this world alone most wishes to forget and to avoid, since they cast a haunting shadow over all his ambitions.
In the world’s estimation the Apostle’s life was an unenviable failure…But Paul’s estimate is totally different, because his values are the direct antithesis of the world’s values. So far from being a disappointed man, his life is one of joy and power and hope beyond description.
Despite afflictions, perplexities, and catastrophes, the Christian’s gaze is concentrated on the glory within and beyond: his treasure is not on earth, but in heaven, and there accordingly his heart is also.
Many people look only at things they can see, count, and feel. Their valuables are the temporary things of this life. Moral and spiritual realities however, are eternal. Paul was assured that his human weakness made more evident the divine power which was working in and through him. Secondly he was confident that as Christ died and rose again, so, as a follower of Christ, he, too, as he suffered for the sake of Christ, would share the glory of His resurrection. Thirdly, he knew that for one whose gaze was fixed upon Christ, the very sufferings of the present were producing a blessedness which would abide forever.
We too need to develop a perspective and lifestyle that sees suffering and all of life from heaven’s viewpoint. Seeing things from God’s viewpoint---that unseen, eternal perspective will help us endure anything. The sufferings of this life are slight and temporary compared to the future glory. We should focus on unseen spiritual realities not on visible, earthly things.
3.PLEASE READ 2 CORINTHIANS 5: 1-5.
Don’t let the start of a new chapter lead you to think this is a new topic. Paul continued his defense of his ministry and apostleship based on God’s inner working in his life. He used the word for to indicate that what he was writing then was built on what he had just written in 2 Cor 4: 16-18.
This scripture briefly summarizes what Paul had earlier written to the Corinthians in 2 Cor. 15: 34-54 about the nature of the resurrection of the resurrected body. Based on the argument set forth in 2 Cor. 15 Paul could make the confident assertion, “we know.” The resurrection puts suffering in perspective.
Back in 2 Col 4: 18 Paul had written about “fixing his eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.” These verses in 2 Cor. 5: 2-4 express the same sentiment.
The word if in vs. 1does not express any uncertainty about death. Paul’s only uncertainty was whether the Lord would come before he died. But unless that happens during your lifetime, death is inevitable. Our pastor says that unless the Lord comes during our lifetime the chances of each of us dying is l00%.
In his usual wry style, George Bernard Shaw wrote: “The statistics on death are quite impressive. One out of one people die.” In light of the universal fact of death, many people live in a state of denial about death at least their own death,. Ours has been called a “death-denying” society. People just pass away. Death is not a friend (as some Greeks believed) but an enemy. Christ conquered death, but the final victory over death is yet to come. Believers in Christ have courage and hope as they face earthly troubles and dying.
Paul’s comment in vs. 1 is one of many expressions of this death-defying spirit, Paul used the words “we know,” which shows his conviction. Tabernacle, means, “tent.” Paul called “our earthly house, a tent.” The picture of our bodies and lives as tents is compared with a sturdy building in heaven. A tent is a temporary, movable dwelling. But the heavenly dwelling is described in three ways. It is a building of God. It is from God, not made with hands. It is eternal in the heavens. The earthly tent can be dissolved or destroyed.
This signifies death when the tent is taken down. When that happens we believers have this new heavenly abode. Paul may have had in mind Israel’s years of living in tents in the wilderness and then moving into buildings when they came into the Promised Land
Also, in Heb. 11: 9-10, Abraham lived in tents in a land not his own, but “his faith and hope focused on the city built by God.”
Paul used a tent to picture the temporary nature of the human body. The heavenly house is our new body. Some Bible students believe we receive resurrection body at the time of our death. David E. Garland wrote, “The present tense of we have means that there is no homeless interlude between the destruction of the earthly tent house and receiving the building from God.”
Those who believe we will receive our resurrection bodies when Christ comes again see it differently. Philip Hughes wrote: “The present tense of the verb have is understood, with most commentators, as referring to a future possession which is so real and assured in the apostle’s perspective that it is appropriately spoken of in the present tense.
Both sides believe that Christians go to be with the Lord at death, but they disagree about the time when believers receive the resurrection body---at death or at the Lord’s coming. I believe we receive our spiritual body at death and our resurrected body when Christ comes in the rapture.
Vs. 2 shows the intensity of Christians’ hope of heaven. Paul used words such as groan and earnestly desiring to express this deep longing to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.
Paul used two analogies in making his point. One was moving from a tent to a permanent building. The other was putting on new clothes. We groan not because we---like some Greeks---think of the body as a prison from which the pure soul needs to set free. We groan for the new body with which we shall be clothed and for all that this means.
In vs. 3 Paul made the same point as he made in vs. 2, but he used the word naked. Paul’s desire not to be found naked reveals that he did not want to be in a bodiless condition as an unclothed spirit. Paul stated in three other passages that the resurrection body is given in the end time when total victory over death takes place. In Phil. 1:21-26 Paul wrote of death as departing to be with the Lord; yet in the same letter in 3: 20-21, he wrote of the Lord’s coming as the time of the final transformation of our bodies.
In vs. 5 of our focal passage Paul stressed that, “it is God who has made us for this very purpose.” We have not personally experienced heaven, or what we shall be: however, we can be sure God will make us to be perfectly suited to our new environment. He already has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. He is the guarantee of our heavenly home. We don’t know exactly what our state will be, but since it is in God’s hands, we can trust Him to provide what we need. The death and resurrection of Jesus and Paul’s personal experience with Lord made him sure about God, salvation, and heaven.
Which human beings have confidence that this will happen? Only those who have been prepared for it by God Himself. This hope does not belong to the natural order but to the supernatural. When we were born again, God gave us the Spirit. Those who have repented and believed the gospel have received the Spirit, for Rom. 8: 9 says, “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”
The indwelling Spirit of God is the down payment on the resurrection. Only three times in the N.T. is the Greek word translated down payment used. All three times Paul spoke of the Holy Spirit indwelling believers as the guarantee of future blessings. And if the Holy Spirit of God Himself is the down payment, how glorious must be the reality.
4. PLEASE READ 2 CORINTHIANS 5: 6-10.
Although temporary, this present life has great value. This life is not to be despised but rather is to be enjoyed as the time of preparation for eternity. This means that every day we can be confident, just as Paul was. In Matt. 28: 20 Jesus promised, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” He will never forsake those who trust in Him.
The present experience of believers is described as being at home in the body. During this time, we are away from the Lord in the sense that we do not perceive Him with our physical senses. On the other hand, we enjoy the spiritual presence of the Lord now through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Another way of describing the present experience of Jesus’ followers is that they walk by faith. Heb. 11: 1 says, “Faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” We trust in the greatness and goodness of God on our behalf. The Christians life throughout Scripture is characterized as a life of faith, just as it is written in Rom. 1: 17, “The righteous will live by faith.” Paul certainly wanted the Corinthians to understand that the only way to prepare adequately for death is by faith in Christ.
The life of faith in the present will give way to walking by sight after the death of those who have prepared by trusting Christ. For a time, this will be characterized as being out of the body, that is during the interim time after death and before the resurrection. Yet this will be a wonderful experience, for it will mean being at home with the Lord. That will truly be a time to be fully satisfied beyond all comparison.
Paul did not picture the period between death of the body and the resurrection as a kind of unconscious limbo or state of soul sleep. In another letter in Phil 1: 23 Paul’s teaching was that departing from the bodily life to be with Christ was better by far.
In 2 Corinthians 5: 9 Paul apparently thought ahead through time. Two kinds of people will be prepared for Christ’s return (and the judgment spoken of in vs. 10.) First, those who are at home in their bodies when Christ returns. Second, those who have already died and are away from physical life when He returns. In 1 Cor. 15: 53-54 Paul called them “mortal” and “corruptible.”
Both groups, however, recognize one central purpose for their existence: to be pleasing to Him. This means that God created us and redeemed us not mainly for our own sakes, but for His sake.
God has “wired” us humans in such a way that the most satisfying, enjoyable life possible is not one of self-centeredness, in which we focus on pleasing ourselves. Rather the greatest life possible is the one centered on the Lord Jesus, reflecting back to Him the glory He has shown to us. Both in this life and throughout eternity, all who have entered into a relationship with Christ seek to love Him, to please Him above all. A life pleasing Him is possible in this life as we walk by faith: it will be fully realized in eternity as we walk by sight.
I believe Paul wanted to be more than acceptable to the Lord; he wanted to please Him. One mark of a person who longs for heaven and home is a desire to live in the will of God.
As Christians, we worship an invisible God and life by standards of His unseen kingdom. Faith is essential. Unbelievers challenge us to prove the eternal realities in ways they can see. They say, “seeing is believing.” The Bible teaches, “believing is seeing.” Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. The initial step in preparing is to have faith.
Believers are saved by faith, but our works will be judged. This truth is taught not only here, but also in such passages as 1 Cor. 3: 12-15. Believers must all appear so their works may be evaluated. Paul did not state whether this judgment occurs immediately after a believer’s body dies (as the context suggests) or whether this will be a general judgment involving many persons at once., It makes no difference as long as we are prepared.
The phrase judgment seat translates a single Greek word (bema) that was used originally of the place from which an earthly ruler gave legal decisions. In two N.T. passages, the phrase refers to the place from which God or Christ will give judgment about humanity. This will not be a judgment to condemn the lost. The purpose of this judgment seat of Christ is “so that each may be repaid for what he or she had done in the body, whether good or bad.”
I will not go into detail regarding this event because our study during the week of August 28 will give attention to the judgment. We should note, however, that this judgment is for all. Paul had been talking all along about himself, but he changed in vs. 10 to include all of us. Earthly behavior obviously has an eternal perspective. Those who have been saved by faith will be repaid for the deeds they have done while in the body.
Will this judgment mean the
potential loss of salvation? No! We are secure in Christ forever.
NEXT SUNDAY FROM LUKE 21, “HOW CAN I BE READY FOR “JESUS CERTAIN RETURN?” A.V. DAUGHERTY <altav@swbell.net>