Looking forward to the weight of glory (2 Corinthians 5:1-10)

We have a great tent.  I call her the ‘Blue Lady’.  She is technically a nine-person tent, but realistically she takes six comfortably.  We don’t go camping as much as we should, but I love waking up on a sunny morning in the tent with all the bright light and sunshine.  That being said, the last time we had the ‘Blue Lady’ out it rained pretty much all of the holiday.  That was less fun!

 The writer, Paul Tripp, is not a big fan of camping.  He says that the whole purpose of being in a tent is to make you long for home.  Yes, everything is okay at the beginning.  But then the tent starts to get smelly.  After a few nights sleeping without a mattress and cooking on a portable stove you start dreaming of your bed and a properly functioning kitchen.  He doesn’t want to be a tent-dweller.

 In these verses the apostle Paul talks about tent-dwelling, and he says that he is longing to be at home.  His tent is this aging and decaying earthly body.  We won’t truly be home until Jesus returns and we have an impartial glorious body.  We know that if the tent that is our earthly body is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (1).

 In the previous verses Paul has been telling us not to lose heart.  Following Jesus is not meant to be easy.  Indeed, when people reject us or oppose us for our faith it can feel like dying.  But we each have been given a wonderful ministry.  We get to model and speak about the mercy of God demonstrated in the cross of Christ.  We also don’t lose heart because though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that for outweighs them all (4:16-17).

Paul knows what it is like to be in prison, shipwrecked, alone, robbed, sleepless, cold, beaten and stoned, and let down and deserted.  Yet these afflictions are light and momentary compared to the weight of glory that awaits him.  This heavy weight of glory is the prize that awaits at the end of time.  It is to this weight of glory that we turn our attention to now.

The weight of glory gives us hope (1-8)

 When Jesus returns every follower of Christ will receive a resurrection body.  Our current body is like a tent—it is fragile and temporary.  Our resurrection body is an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.  It will be glorious and permanent.

Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed we will not be found naked.  For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life (2-4).

Those are complicated verses.  Paul seems to be referring to what some call ‘the intermediate state.’  You see, when Christians die they go to be with Jesus is heaven, but even in heaven His people are looking forward to His return for it is not until He returns that we receive our resurrection bodies. 

But how do we know that we really will receive a resurrection body?  How do we know that we really are Christians?  How do we know that the day of Jesus’ return is going to be a good day for us?  We know we belong to Jesus because God has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come (5). 

Jesus said that becoming one of His followers is so radical that it is being ‘born again’.  He also called it being ‘born of the Spirit.’  As a person becomes a Christian they receive the person of the Holy Spirit.  We know that the Holy Spirit dwells within us as we experience new beliefs, affections, desires and a changing way of life.

We used to be blind to the truth but now we see that the cross of Jesus is the best news in the world.  We used to claim, ‘I am a good person’, but now we see that we more wicked than we imagined and more loved than we dreamed.  We used to think that being right with God was about things we did for Him, but now we see it is all about Jesus taking our guilt on the cross and being treated as if we lived His perfect life.   Now we want to see the face of Jesus and become like Him.  Now the Holy Spirit will not let us be happy to nurse a grudge, pollute our minds with filth or allow our tongues speak without restraint.  ‘But I don’t love Jesus the way I want to!’  Don’t you realise that the very desire to love Jesus is a work of the Holy Spirit? 

Therefore, we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.  We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.  Paul’s first preference is for Jesus to return so that He can receive His resurrection body.  His second preference is to depart and be with Jesus.  Yet as he lies, he will live for Christ.

I was taken aback the first time a Christian who was in hospital told me that they were hoping to die.  I shouldn’t have been.  Here was a Christian man who was looking forward to being with his Lord.  That friend, John Watt, had a confident and reasonable preference for something that was far better than anything we have in this life. 

The weight of glory gives us motivation (5:9-10)

We are to live not by sight, but by faith.  What we can’t see is more significant than what we can.  So, we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it (9).  It comes so naturally to seek our own pleasure, but simply seeking our own pleasures leaves us empty and isolated.  God wants us to experience the desires our hearts as we delight ourselves in Him.

For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad (10).  This does not mean that a genuine Christian can be condemned on the last day, for there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).  Neither does it imply that good works get us to heaven, for it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:8-9). 

It does imply that the change that the Holy Spirit has brought to our lives is evidence that we really do belong to Him.  One commentator writes that Paul ‘did not imagine that God would, on the last day, have to ask men and women whether they were believers; that would be transparently obvious when the books were opened and their lives were revealed.’

This verse also teaches that God will graciously reward us for the acts of service, love and righteousness we have done for him.  There will be reward, and the possibility of loss of reward.

The fact that some will have a greater reward than others does not mean that there will be envy or boasting in heaven, for we will no longer be capable of such selfish reasoning.  We will delight in all that God graciously gives to us and be genuinely glad for what others received.  The call to seek heavenly reward is not a call to selfishness for this reward comes through pleasing Christ.  Heavenly reward seems to involve enjoying more of Jesus and reflecting more of his beauty.  It is a reward that glorifies God.

Conclusion:

Remember what we said last week about switching the price tags.  We need to value things in light of eternity.  Your grades, your possession and people’s approval won’t go with you beyond the grave.  But God will see that everything you do to please Him now will have a value that far outweighs and small suffering we endure for Him in this life.  The way towards true joy know is not to live for ourselves but to allow delightfully live with gratitude for all that He has done for us.  The way towards true joy know is to look at the beauty of Jesus and allow His Spirit transform us.  The way to true joy now is not to grab things for ourselves but to store up treasures in heaven knowing that how we serve Him now will impact how we enjoy Him forever.   

May the glorious hope be our hope!  May we trust in the mercy of God who is willing to forgive all our sins and rebellion because of Christ’s work on the cross!  May we live for him with the strength he gives the indwelling of the Holy Spirit!  May the confidence that we have—confidence based on his goodness and grace—change the way we live in the world!  May we be so heavenly-minded that we are of most earthly good!  It was said of the great Scottish puritan, Samuel Rutherford, that he had his feet of the ground, his hand on the plough and his heart in heaven—may that be so for us too!  May we live in light of the eternal weight of glory!