Study 2 Corinthians 5

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1. What is our "earthly house of this tabernacle"?

Our physical body.</div>

2. Why do we not worry about the destruction of our physical body?

Because we have "a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Our "house not made with hands" is the "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" of the preceding chapter. It is the abiding place (mansion) of which Jesus spoke (John 14:2). Our momentary, light tribulation is achieving for us a solid, eternal glory. This solid glory is our spiritual house that is before the Throne of God in Heaven.

The same thought is stated in I Corinthians 15:44: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. The weight of glory is our spiritual body, our body of eternal life, our crown of righteousness and life. A farmer sows seed. The disciple sows his physical body. The farmer reaps wheat. The disciple reaps a spiritual body of righteousness, a robe of eternal life.

Our spiritual body, our house from Heaven,is being formed now. The disciple allows God to bring him down into difficult, painful places. The believer is perplexed, cast down, weak, denied what he or she is longing for, compelled to do things that are disagreeable, sometimes persecuted so severely as to result in his or her physical death. There is a portion of eternal resurrection life assigned to each difficulty, each pain, each perplexity, each oppression, each weakness. This eternal life raises and strengthens the inner man of the saint. At the same time it creates before the Throne of God a spiritual body adapted to our strengthened inner man. The development of our inner nature is linked to the new body in Heaven-one complements the other. Eternal, indestructible resurrection righteousness and life are having their rise in two places simultaneously: (1) in the inner man of the saint on earth; (2) in a body fashioned from resurrection life that will clothe strengthened inner man of the saint at the coming of the Lord from Heaven.

Here is the righteousness and justice of God. We are reaping exactly what we are sowing on the earth. If we are sowing to our flesh, no house of life is being constructed for us in the Presence of the Father. If we are sowing to the Holy Spirit, a house of eternal life is being constructed for us in Heaven. We shall be clothed with our own righteous works. If we allow God to bring us into the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ in the present world, then we will come to know the power of His resurrection in the ages to come. If we choose instead to walk in the lusts of our body and soul we will reap corruption. We will be a naked spirit in the Day of the Lord, perhaps saved, perhaps lost to the Presence and purposes of God for eternity.

3. What was Paul's desire?

To be clothed with his house from Heaven. Paul expresses the same longing in his letter to the saints in Rome: And not only they (the material creation), but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body (Romans 8:23).

4. What guarantee does the saint have who serves the Lord Jesus?

He shall not be found naked in the Day of the Lord (Revelation 19:8).

5. What does the saint on earth greatly desire?

That his flesh and blood, his mortal body, may be swallowed up by his body from Heaven-the body fashioned from incorruptible, indestructible, resurrection life.

6. What does Paul mean when he says, "not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon"?

Paul was not longing that he would be "unclothed," that is, lose his physical body. Rather, he was desiring earnestly that his flesh and blood body would be clothed with his body of eternal life from Heaven. This is an important concept. When we are new converts our goal is to go to Heaven when we die so we may enjoy the beauty and wonder of the spirit paradise. As we mature in the Lord we begin to understand that God's purposes are in the earth rather than in Heaven. God's Kingdom is coming to the earth. Our longing changes from desiring to rest in the spirit Paradise to that of being clothed with the indestructible power of resurrection life. We want to overcome every enemy of Christ in the earth and establish His righteous rule on the earth. The earth and its peoples are the inheritance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because they are Christ's inheritance they also are the inheritance of the overcomer. We cannot possess our inheritance at the present time because we are dwelling in a sin-filled, corruptible, weak physical body. When we are clothed with our body of righteousness and life we will be able to possess the earth and its peoples as God has ordained.

7. Why is God forming Christ in our inner man?

So we may be clothed with a body suited to our calling as sons of God. God cannot invest us with a body like that of the Lord Jesus Christ when our inner man is disobedient, sinful, fearful, unbelieving, impatient, self-centered, prone to worshiping idols. There are halfhearted, nominal Christians who believe that God intends to take them to Heaven in a "rapture" so they will not be harmed by tribulation. Then He will invest them (they imagine) with authority and power as His kings and priests that they may govern the nations of the earth. They have never turned away from the world, taken up their cross, and followed the Lord Jesus in stern obedience to God. Their pastors and teachers have flattered and sought favor with them in order to gain their material support. Such believers are ignorant of spiritual realities, of the laws of cause and effect that are unchanging.

It is only as we suffer that we reign with Christ. It is tribulation that brings us down to death, providing the opportunity for resurrection life to strengthen our inner man and also fashion our body of life before the Throne of God in Heaven. If God were to clothe a halfhearted Christian with a body of eternal power while that person is yet unformed by the rigorous trials of the wholly dedicated disciple, the result would be an unbalanced creature who would be a danger to himself and to those about him. Only the victorious saints will take the Kingdom at the first resurrection (Rev 20:6).

8. What has God given us while we yet are in a physical body?

A foretaste ("earnest; pledge") of the Holy Spirit as the guarantee that we belong to God and will not be found spiritually naked in the Day of the Lord.

9. What was Paul's confidence?

Paul realized that although he was temporarily separated from the Lord because of his flesh and blood existence he possessed a house of eternal life, a weight of exceedingly great glory, before the Throne of God in Heaven.

10. How does the Christian walk?

By faith. The righteous live by faith. Our life is spent beholding what is invisible. The Gospel of Christ is a vision of the future. We are saved by hope-the hope of the glory to come with the return of our Lord from Heaven. We are able to endure all things because we are seeing Him who is invisible. One day we will be eternally alive and our hoped-for city will exist in solid reality on the earth.

11. What thought gives the saint pleasure?

That of being absent from his flesh and blood existence and at home with the Lord Jesus.

12. What is our ambition, and toward what end do we labour?

That whether we are at home with the Lord or absent from the Lord we may be pleasing to Him.

13. What will happen to every person born on the earth?

Each of us will be revealed before the Judgment Seat of Christ. The King James translation reads: "For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ." Today we speak of people appearing in court, and so we transfer that thought to 2 Corinthians 5:10.

This is somewhat misleading. The concept here is that we will be revealed, made manifest, at the Judgment Seat of Christ. When an individual appears in court today he may or may not be made manifest. He may be successful in hiding what he is and what he has done. He is not necessarily revealed or made manifest. The translation should read: We all must be made manifest before the Judgment Seat of Christ. This is what will happen. Notice carefully what is to take place at the Judgment Seat of Christ. For 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 (2 Corinthians 5:10).

We shall receive the things we have done while in our mortal body, whether they were good things or evil things. The directness of the reward is surprising. We tend to think of the verse as meaning that we will be rewarded according to our behavior. This may be the meaning. But what it states is more direct. The statement is, we shall receive what we have done; not we shall be rewarded according to what we have done, but we shall receive the things we have done.

If we were to interpret this in its exact form we would say that if we have practiced love we will receive love itself; not a reward for love but love itself. If we have practiced hate we will receive hate itself. This well may be the case. It may in fact be true that we will receive a change in our personality according to what we have done, a corresponding change in our appearance and body, and a corresponding destiny. Some of the translators have added the thought that we shall receive a reward appropriate to our behaviour and not the behavior itself. It is possible that this is what Paul meant.

However, it usually is wise to follow the Scriptures as closely as possible. Things may be different in the Day of the Lord from what would be the case today. We may observe that Satan practiced rebellion. As part of Satan's judgement, God has given him a spirit of rebellion from which he cannot escape.

Satan no longer is capable of obedience. Therefore his appearance is unimaginably horrible and his destiny frightful beyond words. "He who is filthy, let him remain filthy" (Rev 22:11).

If such is the meaning of 2 Corinthians 5:10, the believer who keeps on striving for righteousness will be given a spirit of righteousness, a body of eternal righteousness and life, and a glorious future of nearness to God. The believer who battles lust, denying himself and carrying his cross, will be given a spirit of holiness, a body of eternal righteousness and life, and an inheritance of people to love.

The believer who is neglectful and lazy, will be given a spirit of sluggishness, a weak, lazy body, and a destiny in outer darkness. It is believed commonly that if a person makes a profession of faith in Christ, receiving Him as the sacrifice for sins and believing that He rose from the dead, there is little else of significance to do as far as redemption is concerned, other than to wait for His appearing.

Then, when the believer is presented before the Judgment Seat of Christ, he is to affirm his belief in the atoning death and victorious resurrection of the Lord. On this basis he will be ushered into glorious rewards of blessings, and rulership over the nations. This is the understanding of the new covenant held by the majority of Christian believers of our day. It is incorrect. One does not need to be a Greek scholar to perceive that this is not what II Corinthians 5:10 teaches. When the Christian appears before the Judgment Seat of Christ he will be revealed for what he truly is.

God will not "see him through Christ." If he has laid hold on the grace of God so that the sufferings of Christ and the power of the resurrection are abounding in him, Divine life, light and glory will flow from him at his unveiling before Christ. If his Christian discipleship has been occupied with the satisfying of his flesh, the things of the present world, then the poverty of his threadbare soul will be uncovered before Christ. He will be ashamed, naked, found wanting. There is no question here of the correctness of his theology concerning the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The question concerns the things he has done while in the flesh and the corresponding condition of his inner spiritual nature.

The first part of the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians has to do with reaping what we have sown. If the believer, when he is made manifest before the Judgment Seat of Christ, has pleased God by his decisions and actions, he will be clothed inwardly with the Spirit of righteousness and outwardly with the body of indestructible life, also having righteous tendencies. If the believer has occupied himself with the things of the world, has indulged in sin, has followed his personal ambitions rather than taken up his cross and followed the Master, then his inner corruption, self-contentedness, and love of the things of Satan will be revealed before the Judgement Seat of Christ. The believer will be found to be without spiritual clothing.

Is it your understanding that Christ will clothe an immature, half-hearted "believer" with an all-powerful body, assigning him to a post of rulership over the nations of the earth, on the basis of his statement of faith in the Person of Christ? If he is halfhearted, not seeking the Lord with all his might, does he really believe? Will the careless Christian be saved at all? Only God knows the outcome of each individual. The teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ are stern, and we must take heed to them because they do apply to us. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:28-30).

Notice that in the Day of the Lord, Christ does not raise the question of one's belief. The issue is, rather, what the believer has done with the things of the Kingdom of God that have been given to him. Those who believe and teach that our inheritance in the Kingdom of God depends on our profession of belief rather than on our behavior will stand one day before the Lord with their followers. They then will give an accounting of their manner of life in the world, before the eyes of the Judge of all the earth. Having read in the Gospel accounts the teachings of Christ, how will they answer?

14. What will each saint receive at the Judgment Seat of Christ?

He will receive the things done in his body, whether good or bad. This is a remarkable passage-remarkable in its clarity and its meaning. Here is the righteousness and justice of almighty God. Every individual shall reap what he has sown. Is God not merciful? Yes, He is indeed. His mercy is shown to us in the world by calling us to His Son, washing away our sins, and filling us with His Holy Spirit. God shows unbounded mercy to every person on the earth. Christ on Calvary is God's mercy for all to behold.

The Judgment Seat of Christ is a demonstration of spiritual laws of cause and effect, of reaping and sowing. We shall reap what we have sown. Spiritual laws are as powerful as the laws that govern the physical universe. It would not be the mercy of God for a careless, double-minded "believer" to be showered with spiritual blessing in the Day of Christ. It would be a transgression of fundamental spiritual law, a setting aside of the Word of God. For every work of evil done in our flesh we shall receive a corresponding loss of glory in the Kingdom of Christ, unless we have repented thoroughly, confessing our sin, and through Christ's Presence have gained victory over it.

Can our loss mount until our salvation is placed in jeopardy? Every believer is judged by the Lord, and only the Lord will decide. Christ stated, "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness." The question raised here is one of diligence in the use of God's grace. If our teaching at this point should frighten the reader, let us call to mind two facts. First, it is well for us to be warned. There is not enough fear of God in the land today. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We have become overfamiliar with the things of Christ and are paying the price in the loss of His Presence and glory.

Our overconfidence is not based on spiritual realities, on the true nature of the coming Day of Christ. Second, our fear of the Lord must not paralyze us. The Lord is full of mercy, full of lovingkindness. He always is waiting to receive and assist the humble seeker, the person who trembles at the Word of the Lord. Every one of us is a sinner saved by grace. There is only one Conqueror, only one Overcomer. His name is Christ. We overcome because He overcomes within us. His life and glory are sufficient for every individual.

The right kind of fear of the Lord will lead us to Christ for grace to help us in living the Christian discipleship so we will not be ashamed before Him at His appearing. He will help us if we will invite Him into every aspect of our life. The proud among us will have their head-knowledge of Christ shaken severely in the coming days. The preceding paragraphs can hardly be overemphasized.

There is at the present time an emphasis on the concept that, while out of love we should attempt to please Christ, we never can be severely punished by the Lord or lose our redemption altogether no matter what we do. This doctrine is totally unscriptural and totally destructive of the spiritual life, being void of the fear of God. It has destroyed the moral light of the Christian churches, and as a result the moral character of the nations that look to the churches for moral guidance.

The Scriptures teach clearly, both Old Testament and New Testament, the terrible severity of God. The recent stress on the goodness of God, and the corresponding ignoring of the frightful warnings of the Scriptures by "ministers" who are afraid of public opinion, has rendered the churches incompetent in Kingdom warfare-and this at a time when the forces of darkness are arising and filling the earth with lust and violence.

15. What did Paul know?

The terror of the Lord. It is good and wholesome for the Christian believer to have some concept of the dreadfulness that attends the Father of spirits and His beloved Son, Christ. Apart from such an awareness of spiritual authority and power we become much too careless and overconfident concerning the things of Christ. We are to have no fear of Satan. His authority and power were stripped from him on the cross of Calvary.

We are to fear Christ. Those who are teaching that we are not to fear God and Christ are ignorant of the Word of God and also of the realities that are to be disclosed shortly. Whoever does not fear God has never seen Him or known Him. Whoever does not fear Christ has never seen Him or known Him. The Christian who has been taught only of God's love may be quite unprepared when God brings him into a deeper, more rigorous area of discipleship. He may have been pampered to the extent that he cannot understand the harshness of his changed environment. He may not be willing to accept the fact that his loving heavenly Father would permit him to encounter so much pain.

The sight of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross helps us understand both the mercy and the judgment of God Almighty. If we will allow the rigors of the cross to enter our spirit we will not be thrown off balance when we are given the opportunity to suffer for His name. The believer who fears God and Christ with a wholesome fear and who loves God and Christ with all his heart and strength has a true perception of the Person of God. It is likely that he or she will make a success of the walk of faith.

16. What did Paul's knowledge of the terror of the Lord cause him to do?

To persuade people concerning the fact that one day each of us will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and be made manifest as to what we have done in life. We cannot emphasize too strongly that it is our actions rather than our intentions that are judged. I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:10)

God waits until our behavior has produced results.

Then He judges the results ("the fruit of his doings"). We like to think that God sees us as having a good heart even though we do not always do good things. However, God does not judge our intentions as much as He judges what we actually do. There is a crippling sense of inevitably that affects mankind, a sense that no matter what we do everything somehow will come out all right.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The Scriptures proclaim that which is literally true. Salvation is a window of opportunity. If we practice what is good, the rewards will be precisely as the Word has stated. If we practice what is evil, the rewards will be precisely as the Word has stated.

The greatest surprise we shall experience during the Day of the Lord is that there will be no surprise. Everything will be exactly as the Word has stated. The rewards to the victorious saints will be fantastic beyond their dreams. The punishments of the lazy and wicked will be more painful than we can imagine. Let us believe every Word of God, for all shall come to pass literally, just as the Scriptures declare.

17. Where had Paul already been made manifest?

In the sight of God.

18. Where did Paul hope that he had been made manifest?

In the consciences of the saints in Corinth.

19. What was Paul attempting to give the saints in Corinth?

A reason to be proud of him.

20. Why did Paul wish to give them a reason to be proud of him?

So that the believers in Corinth would be able to give an answer to people who came among them and boasted of appearances rather than what truly was in the heart. Paul expresses the same thought in both First and Second Corinthians. Paul had founded the church in Corinth.

As soon as he left there came in other teachers who were seeking their own gain, not Christ's gain. Whereas Paul deliberately made himself to be nothing of importance and spoke plainly and simply, these other teachers exalted themselves and pretended to be important and capable. These self-seeking teachers attempted to make the Corinthian Christians believe that Paul was not an apostle and was not to be followed or heeded.

Paul refers to this problem several times and attempts to reassure the saints in Corinth that he actually is an apostle of Christ and has presented to them the true way of the Lord. There always have been false, self-seeking teachers and leaders in the churches of Christ, just as there are today. How many ministers of today truly love the Lord Jesus? How many are active in the churches because of the personal gain they are deriving? The coming tribulation will answer this question.

21. What reason does Paul give for his behavior while he was at Corinth, for his times of "madness" and also of sober-mindedness?

Everything he does is for their sakes. Paul was a Hebrew of extraordinary training and ability, and no doubt of personal family wealth. He was not impressed by the accomplishments of the pagan Greeks (Gentile dogs to him). Rather, he suffered all things and behaved as he did for their edification in Christ. It is difficult for a proud man to be spurned by those whom he is endeavoring to help, especially when he has made himself foolish and of no account for their sakes. It is part of the sufferings of Christ.

22. What power was controlling and motivating Paul?

The love of Christ.

23. What conclusion had Paul reached?

If Christ died for every person, then every person has died. Therefore every person should no longer live for himself or herself but should live for Christ who died on his behalf and rose again on his behalf.

24. What viewpoint did this conclusion give to Paul?

He no longer recognized or regarded any person from a human standpoint.

25. What about the Lord Jesus Christ?

Even though Paul had gained some understanding of Christ on a human level he no longer was perceiving and learning of Christ in human terms, according to flesh and blood relationships.

26. What is true of every person who is abiding in the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ?

A new creation has been brought forth in his personality. The new creation is the eternal union of Christ and the individual. The new creation is the Kingdom of God.

27. What about the flesh and blood personality of the believer, his "old man," his first personality-that which was born of his parents on earth?

All the "old things" have passed away, in the sight of God.

28. What is true now?

All of the elements of the believer's personality have become new and all are of God. God sees the believer's personality as new, and we also shall see a new personality in ourselves if we keep seeking the Lord and following Him. It is important to notice here that God does not make all new things, He makes all things new.

There is a difference. God is not doing away with us or with mankind and the world. Rather, He is bringing Christ into us now, and in the future He will bring Christ into saved mankind throughout the world. God is transforming the creation by filling it with Christ. All who believe and receive will be saved and transformed. All who refuse and rebel will be destroyed. The kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdom of Christ. The Glory of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

It is absolutely true that the old world, including the present earth and the heaven, will pass away. But then there will brought into existence a new heaven (sky) and a new earth. The point is, the Lord is not making all different things, but the things we are accustomed to are being made new in Christ. This means all that is to be saved is being brought down to death and then raised again in Christ.

29. What is true of every aspect of our born-again personality when God's work is completed in us?

"All things are of God."

30. What has God done through Christ?

God has reconciled us to Himself. Notice that God has not reconciled Himself to us, He has reconciled us to Himself. God does not change. It is we who are required to change. It always is a mistake to change the Word of God so that people are attracted. We are to be reconciled to God, not God to us.

31. What did the Lord Jesus give to Paul?

The ministry of reconciliation.

32. How can this sinful, rebellious world be reconciled to the holy Father?

God came in Christ and through His own sacrificial offering, and the giving of the Holy Spirit, has enabled those who believe to be reconciled to Himself.

33. What has God done about our sins and rebellion?

He has forgiven them through Christ.

34. What did God commit to Paul?

The word of reconciliation.

35. What were Paul and Timothy?

Ambassadors sent by Christ to the people of Corinth.

36. Who was entreating the Corinthians through Paul?

God.

37. In whose name, in whose stead, was Paul beseeching the Corinthians to be reconciled to God?

The Lord Jesus Christ.

38. What did the holy, righteous, obedient Christ become on our behalf?

Sin. The concept of Christ becoming sin, becoming the bronze serpent, is unimaginable. It accounts for His awful cry in Gethsemane. No other person will ever be able to experience or comprehend such an ordeal. We can do no less than be thankful and serve Him by the grace He imparts to us.

39. What was accomplished by Christ's being made sin for us?

In Him we have the opportunity to become the righteousness of God. When we abide in Christ, God sees us as possessing the righteousness that exists only in the Divine Godhead.