2 Corinthians 5:1-10
We’ve come to the preaching of God’s Word. And so take your copy of the Word of God and turn to 2 Corinthians and we’re going to be in chapter 5, 2 Corinthians, and chapter 5. And while you’re turning there, you could think of chapter 5 as a giant Sequoia tree. And our privilege over the next three weeks is to see if we can digest this chapter in manageable portions so that by the end of it, we will hopefully have wrapped our arms around this giant Sequoia tree of a chapter. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and today will be in verses 1-10, 1-10.
It is considered an effective oratory tool in the arsenal of public speakers to kind of save a a big reveal at the end, but I want to set aside any theatrics and tell you at the beginning what some might save for the end. I need to tell you this. I need to tell you now, because for some of you, all of the glorious truths in Chapter 5 are sadly not about you. At least they’re not yet about you. And lest something dreadful happen to you in the next few weeks so that you’re unable to hear the end, I want to and I need to tell you now, what is a concluding call from the apostle Paul.
If you look at the end of chapter 5 and you just read over that to chapter 6, you see the Holy Spirit says, “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” And if you have not embraced Jesus Christ, who is the only way to God and the only way to obtain and secure eternal life, then today you must be reconciled to God through him.
Test not God’s patience. You must believe on Jesus Christ that he was born of a virgin to fulfill Scripture, that he lived and was tempted in all ways, as we are, and yet did not sin. And he was crucified, unjustly accused, but he laid down his life for his sheep, and he rose again, thereby appeasing his father’s wrath on behalf of sinners and declaring victory over sin and death. And for all who hang their hope on him, their sin debt is removed, because he is the spotless, sinless Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world.
And if you would put your trust in him, he would deal with your insurmountable sin problem against God, and he will then give you a righteousness that is not your own. And then you will not only have eternal life, but equally significant, you will have an eternal friend and eternal savior. You will have an eternal brother in the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
And so more than a ticket to heaven, you can say I am his and he is mine. And you will be a co-heir with Christ and so all that he has will be yours also. And so call out to God for mercy today that he would be gracious and to grant you faith and repentance to you and give you a new heart that would be pleasing to him and you. You would then experience the joy of walking in his ways and have the certain hope of eternity.
Not only is all that blessing and privilege for whoever would believe on Jesus Christ, but also what we see in our passage today will be yours. But I could not wait until the end of three weeks to share that with you. Who knows how long we have.
This chapter 6:1 and 2, there’s a call for your soul that’s, so beg for mercy, called out to him in prayer today. Some of you are teenagers or you’re in your twenties and you’re wondering what life was all about. And let me tell you that this is it. It’s to embrace Christ who is a savior and who is the Lord of all, and then to be conformed into his likeness and then to one day be transformed in glory and everything else that concerns you, that has your mind and heart, they’re details. They’re just details.
So belong to Christ today and then the realities of 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 will be yours, but if you sit here indifferent to the Lord Jesus, cold and hard hearted, you will be like one who is here, but is kind of peering over a fence wondering what’s the big deal.
A hard heart refuses to hear the heart of God who says, “Come now and let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. And though they are like crimson, they will be like wool.” That’s the heart of God for sinners like you and me.
So why wouldn’t you come? Why wouldn’t you come and taste and see that he is good? That’s my heart to you. And you who don’t know Christ, I desperately want you to have what I and what we all were undeserving to have; undeserving, undeserving to receive unworthy. Today is the day of salvation.
Only in Christ can you live with meaningful purpose, and only in Christ can you competently face death and anything that life throws at you. And that is what the Holy Spirit, through the pain of the apostle Paul is going to equip us with today; understanding eternal reality so that you can face today and whatever comes tomorrow.
Many of you who sit here are in Christ today, and you trust him and you love him, and you long to see him and be with him, but because of some bumps and sideswipes and fender benders and T-bones along the road, you have found yourself in this seat, a little discouraged, a little disheartened and in personal trial, your tank may be empty, weakened and strengthened, waning in confidence. And if that’s you, you need to take heart, because this letter, 2 Corinthians, is the one where God reminds us that his grace is sufficient for you. So we need to trust him.
Trust him and in my office prayers this week for you have been that this text today would be an immense refreshment for you and a resetting of your course, should you be strained. I pray that you would walk away from today standing firm and steadfast in faith. So without continuing, let’s read the scriptures together, verses 1 through 10 of chapter 5.
Verse 1, “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, it’s eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.
“Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord- for we walk by faith, not by sight- we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
Paul was writing this letter, as an afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struck down apostle. But he was not crushed, he was not despairing, he was not forsaken, he was not destroyed, and he did not lose heart. And we see all that in chapter 4, and we find out why in chapter 5, why he did not lose heart. He was an apostle to the Gentiles, pioneering the spirit of the gospel and the establishment of churches.
He received his ministry marching orders from the Lord Jesus Christ and shared therefore in his sufferings. And so with these burdens, we know that his suffering was unique to him and his apostolic associates. There was a severity and a depth to them that is unknown to us. But like Paul said of the Old Testament Israelites, these things were written down for our instruction. And so we can look to Paul then and glean from his life and draw confidence from his example and be instructed as he followed Christ, we can follow him too.
But as extreme as Paul’s suffering and burdens were in chapter 4, he he even calls these light and momentary, in view of what’s to come. So, beloved, how much and how often do you ponder what is to come? Has it crossed your mind this morning? Because it really should have. These things are so marvelous, so glorious, that even what is perceivably impossible suffering to endure on this earth could be viewed as light and momentary; light and momentary in view of what is to come.
The Apostle Paul, this man, if you survey his story, he was wrung out. I’m not going to list off every trial. We don’t even know all of them, but you can read them in Chapter 11, for example, of this book. But recall to mind this one time in Acts 14, Paul is declaring the goodness of God and calling the people to turn to the living God. And they stone him, which by the way, is one of the worst things I can imagine.
They stone him and drag him out of the city and leave him there, supposing him to be dead. This man does not look as good as you and I this morning. Clean, well dressed, he is wrung out hanging by a thread, and he is the one to be leading the charge to establish the church and teach and equip the church, so that it can thrive after he dies.
So there’s a little bit of a contrast between our suffering and his, between our burdens and his burdens. How is Paul encouraged to walk by faith and not lose heart? How is Paul encouraged to do this? We can certainly, having suffered to a lesser degree under less pressures, we can certainly glean great hope and encouragement from his example.
And so in the first ten verses of chapter 5, we’re going to look at six realities of a disciple of Christ that will carry you to the end and give you tremendous purpose in the present. These realities are focused on what is firmly fixed in the future so that we are equipped for practical day-to-day living in the present.
Six realities of those in Christ that will refresh your heart and encourage you to walk by faith in this world, firmly and steadfastly to the end. I’ll give you them all up front so you can know what to listen out for, but of course, I’ll be repeating these.
Number one: The reality of the Christian’s glory. Verse 1, the Christian’s glory, verse 2 through 4, the Christians groaning, verse 5, the Christians guarantee, verses 6 through 8, the Christians good courage, verse 9, the Christians goal, and verse 10, the Christians gain.
So Number one: the Christian’s glory. The reality of the Christian’s glory and this is in verse 1, is what the Christian receives in glory, that is a glorified body to renovate what is his current body and make it fit for eternity. So look at verse 1, “For we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.”
In this verse, where your eyes need to keep bouncing back to, as to what everything else modifies and and is subordinate to, is this “we have a building.” The Christian is ultimately untouchable, because should our earthly tent, which is our temporary body or housing, when it’s torn down, we have a building that awaits us.
This is a from God building, it’s a not made with hands building, and it’s an eternal in the heavens building. It’s comparing the the frailty, fragility, and the flimsiness of a tent with the strength and the safety and the stability of a building. Comparing the here and now weakness of our earthly bodies with the forever strength of our glorified bodies.
That tent is not meant to be eternal; it’s meant to be temporary. A building is meant to be long term. And my family and I were on a vacation once and staying in a cabin and we went for a walk one evening in in the National Park and we were walking past some campsites and people were tenting there. And as they, as we were slowly walking past, our eyes were kind of widening a little bit. And without looking at each other, my wife and I said in unison, I’m so glad we are not staying in a tent. Rather we’re in a cabin with, it’s a building with real walls and real mattresses and running water.
If you would put your trust in him, he would deal with your insurmountable sin problem against God. ” Reuben Pickering
Paul knows that tents don’t last. He supplemented his income, mending them, making new ones. So he compares his life to a tent. His life, by the way, which is regularly hanging by a thread and at one point left for dead. But this tent is not what he hopes in, he says, this is not all that there is. Notice Paul says, “If our tent is torn down,” and he’s not expressing doubt whether the earthy body will be taken down, the inevitability of that is not lost on him.
The tent is coming down either by death or by rapture. And the third-class conditional, if, leaves the timing of the tearing down open, but the outcome of the receiving of a building, absolutely beyond a doubt, certain fact. And so while rapture would be a preferred and far more pleasant experience, this would be the exception. Our tent is going to be torn down and it’s being torn down in death. That’s the more likely and more predominant scenario.
To be torn down is to be demolished, dismantled, disassembled, to bring something to ruin. And one reason I was drawn to dig into this passage, to dwell and meditate on its glorious truths, is that certain events tend to leave a mark on your life, and sometimes you never really move on from those. They remain an imprint on your life and they teach you something. They continue to teach you and remind you of things. And for me that was watching my mum’s tent be torn down when I was young.
It happened over the span of a year or so and and by the end, her tent was wrecked. She looked over 100 and yet was not even half that age. And watching on, you feel the inability to reverse decay. You feel powerless to change the outcome, incapable of stopping the unraveling of the situation. Death is relentless, it is crushing and it is final. And her heartbeat, until the end, was precious as of a saint saved by Grace.
What was on the tip of her tongue with her life hanging by a thread? What came from her lips was this, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks for. This is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17. What will your heartbeat be at the end? What will be your convictions you carry to the end? I tell you it’ll be whatever you cherished now, whatever you’ve cherished in this life.
And how do you have that certain hope when the death rattle is present in your throat? I spoke to someone recently who expressed uncertainty, afraid that for some reason they might not remain steadfast to the end. What gave Paul confidence? He was just a man like you and me. Look at verse 1, the first three words. Here’s the confidence. “For we know.”
We know we have a building from God. Paul, how confident were you that affliction was working out an eternal weight of glory? How did you not lose heart? How were you confident that though your outer man was decaying, your inner man was being renewed? 2 Corinthians 4, he says, “For we know this is to have knowledge of a fact and be absolutely certain of its veracity and its reliability. We know that we will be clothed with a glorified body, and the certainty of that truth will carry me through every storm, through every way I witness this tent falling apart.”
Now we have to talk about this new body, and God doesn’t leave us in the dark about this. Paul described the glorified body, as “one made without hands.” And this should highlight to us that this building is not an actual building, but indeed a body. And you might recall Jesus describing his bodily resurrection. I will destroy, he says, this sanctuary made with hands, referring to the temple. And in three days I will build another made without hands. Mark, 14:58.
They thought he met the temple, but he really meant his own body and it is a body resurrected and made fit for eternal use. It’s not a replacement, it’s a renovation. And there will be some continuity, not an entirely new entity. And so follow me on this thought. Philippians 3:20 and 21 says this, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory. By His working, which through which He is able to even subject all things to Himself.”
Jesus Christ will transform the body of our humble state, that’s the tent that we’re in right now. And you transform it into conformity with the body of his glory, and that’s the building. So you have to ask then, what is the glorified body like? If our glorified body will be transformed to be like his glorified body, what will it be like? And so we look to the testimony of Thomas that Jesus resurrected body was not a brand new product, but again a renovated version.
In John 20, Jesus showed the disciples his hands and his side and they rejoiced when they saw the Lord. “Jesus said, to Thomas, ‘Bring your finger here, and see My hands; and bring your hand here and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And so we know that when they had eyes to see and a heart to believe, they recognized him and they knew it was him. This is encouraging.
So while there is continuity and connection between the perishable and the imperishable body, there are differences. For example, what we see in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 42, “It is sown a corruptible body and it is raised an incorruptible body; it is sown in weakness, but it is raised in power; and it is sown a natural body, and it is raised a spiritual body.” Which by the way, does not mean an immaterial body.
Jesus was raised bodily and ate with the disciples, but it is a spiritual body, in that, it is in total harmony with the Holy Spirit. You’re able to live in unhindered harmony with the Spirit in that body. Is that not your heart’s desire? If it is, you must be so encouraged by that, that the Holy Spirit dwells within you. You long to be an unhindered fellowship with him. And as we’ll see in the next verses, you’ll see that you can relate to Paul’s groaning.
But before we get there, just think for a moment. What you see here and now is not going to be completely done away with. The resurrection is not about replacing your body; it’s about renewing it and renovating it. And this should cause you to appreciate God’s intimate and personal design of you, that our bodies are something to care for, not because we’re going to preserve it forever, there’s no chance of that, but out of appreciation and wonder that omnipotent God is going to resurrect and renovate and make you ready for eternal use.
So we should care for our bodies. You are fearfully and wonderfully made Psalm 139, and God is going to redeem what he designed and formed in you, admittedly with some alterations. But don’t have a spurn God for the body he wisely and lovingly and delightedly designed for you. He’s going to transform it and conform it to be glorified like his son. That he loves what he made and he’s going to give you a body fit for glory, and this will testify to his power and his personal love for you.
When will this happen? As Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection, it is clear then, that we will be transformed at the time of resurrection. So that’s at the rapture, where the dead in Christ rise first, 1 Thessalonians 4. And we ache for this building, this glorified body, the Christians future glory. This ache brings us to a second point.
The first reality we covered there was the Christian’s glory. The second reality is the Christians groaning verses 2 through 4. Let me just read that to refresh you. “For indeed in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed, while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.”
This groaning is what Paul presently longs for. It’s to reach for something. It’s to yearn or to ache for something. It’s a groaning which is something deep inside. It’s kind of always there. It’s a, it’s always a reality. It’s not something that you hear occasionally, like when you’re getting out of your armchair, you hear an audible groan. This is not what we’re talking about.
Rather, this deep ache is a longing for our heavenly dwelling and it’s something that’s always there, “for indeed,” verse 2, “indeed in this,” in this what? “In this tent we groan,” and we groan for the dwelling from God, because in that we are freed from the presence of sin and all of its effects. And it’s not Paul trying to escape suffering. It’s not escapism. He’s not trying to avoid difficulty and pain. He loves to be useful to the Lord in serving others to spur them on in sanctification.
But underneath it all, he longs to be clothed with immortality. For that will mean far more free and unhindered fellowship with the Triune God. That’s his heartbeat, to be unclothed, as these verses state, unclothed, naked, is to be without a body, to be disembodied or spirit only. And this is not what Paul longs for. He longs for his transformed, eternal, heavenly and permanent body, to swallow up his temporary body, which is burdened with pressures of affliction and suffering and fleshly weaknesses and limitations and sins.
Groaning for what is future has powerful present impact. It pulls you along through the burdens of life. It nullifies your ultimate despair, and it purifies us. This longing for what is future purifies us. As 1 John 3:2 to 3 says, “We will be like him because we will see Him just as He is.” And then here it is verse 3, “Everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as He is pure,” and so it has a purifying and sanctifying effect.
So you want to be sanctified; long for what is coming, long for his coming. We want to be just as he is. We long for our redeemed soul not to be disembodied, but to be clothed with a glorified body. And Paul said in his first letter to Corinth, “when this mortal puts on immortality, death will be swallowed up in victory.” So death does not win. It only paves the way for what we groan for, to be clothed with a body that ever lives, to serve and glorify God without limitations and one that never decays.
How do we know for sure that this will happen, that we will be clothed? The answer is in our third reality, and this is such a good one. It’s found in verse 5, it’s called the Christians Guarantee. Reality number three, it’s the Christians guarantee. And this is what he is assured of receiving. Verse 5, “Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.”
And so the Christians guarantee is what he is assured of receiving. He is assured of receiving his building, a glorified resurrection body. And because God has prepared us for this, and it really, that word, prepares to work this out for us, and because he has given us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee; this is, this is how he has confidence.
Paul’s confidence is to face the future while in dire circumstances and all his confidence is heaped on God. It’s all on him. He has no confidence in his own strength. What makes Paul confident about the future, as he endures many near death scenarios and as he watches his earthly tent fall apart? It’s the fact that God has prepared us for this purpose and God is working all of it out.
You who have been chosen before the foundation of the world, God himself has prepared you for the purpose of glorification. And can God do this? Yes, yes, yes. This purpose is so sure, so certain, so rock solid that it is written in the eternal, everlasting, and enduring word of God. And that’s as good as done.
Turn with me for a moment to Romans 8. Romans 8, a fellow giant Sequoia of a chapter, Romans 8, Romans 8:28. Actually, let’s back up a little bit to verse 18, verse 18 of chapter 8 in Romans, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Sound familiar, 2 Corinthians 4.
Then he talks about creation groaning, and then in verse 23 he says this, “And not only this, but also we ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.” Verse 24. “For in hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we eagerly wait for it.”
in verse 28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers; and those whom he predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified.”
Paul’s confidence is to face the future while in dire circumstances and all his confidence is heaped on God.” Reuben Pickering
And so his purpose in verse 28 is that you would be conformed to the image of Christ, in verse 29 and that you would ultimately be glorified in verse 30. That is to receive and to be clothed with your, known from God, made without hands, eternal in the heavens building: your glorified body. So no matter what happens in this life, in Christ, your purpose, you know, people want to figure out what their purpose in life is.
And well, I can understand why the world has trouble with that question. But if you’re in Christ, no matter what happens to you in this life, the purpose for which you were created will be realized. That is because God will do it. And that is to clothe you with a resurrection body made for eternity. And in a sense, he’s already done it.
It’s so set in stone that the eternal word of God says it’s as good as done. As a past event is fact, it’s more certain than you and I here, face to face. This is the irrevocable, immutable, irreversible will of God. And in fact, Ephesians 1:5 and 6 says, “It’s according to his good pleasure,” the good pleasure of his will. He’s pleased to do it, to the praise of his glory, to the praise of the glory of his grace.
What a God, what a savior, what a Holy Spirit. And so back to 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 5. I’d be convinced of the guarantee of future glory because God has said so and purposed so. But he does more than that, he puts his Spirit in you as a pledge, as a guarantee of glorification. And this word, pledge, can be understood as a down payment or a deposit. But the risk here is that you interpret this word with your own experiences.
This down payment of the indwelling Holy Spirit is not a percentage payment, where the buyer can kind of back out at any moment. This is a payment that guarantees future payment. It’s a commercial legal term that talks about instalment that binds the contract and secures the purchase. It’s not loose or vague. It’s locked in and it’s binding. Ephesians 1:13 and 14 help us a little bit with this.
Ephesians 1:14 explains our glorification as the redemption of something that God already owns. He already owns it. He already purchased it. It’s not an installment and we’re waiting around to see if God will complete the purchase. The verse 13 of chapter 1 in Ephesians, “In him you also, after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.” In verse 14, “Who is given as a pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of God’s own possession.”
So he already owns you and he puts his own spirit in you as a guarantee of future completed glorification. It’s the reality of the Christians guarantee is past tense, secured, future glorification; the purpose which God has prepared you for, and the pledge of the indwelling Holy Spirit. So encouraging.
Now the final three realities really flow from the first three and they’re kind of consequential realities. They’re, they’re responsive realities in light of verses 1 through 5 and we’re going to kind of move through these. So the reality, number four, the reality through verses 6 through 8, we see the Christians good courage, the Christians good courage.
The Christians good courage is what he always possesses. He always possesses it, but sometimes we need reminders. And so verse 6, “Therefore, being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight, we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”
And so why is Paul always continuously confident and certain and courageous? It’s because the worst that could happen to him here, would only usher him into the presence of the Lord; not yet clothed with his eternal body, that happens at the resurrection, at the rapture. So not yet clothed with his eternal body, and yet he’s yet still at home with the Lord. And that’s even better than where he is right at that point.
When Paul says in Philippians 1:23, that “he desires to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better.” That word depart comes from the first verb that we learn in Greek, which is lyo, which means to loosen. And it has a word picture of either loosening ropes on a ship so that it can set sail from port, or loosening tent ropes and pulling up tent pegs so that you can journey on. And so when we depart, our soul is loosened from this temporary tent to be at home with the Lord. Confident of this, we are of good courage in spite of our circumstances, amidst our sometimes unchanging, difficult circumstances.
He’s also confident because he lives by faith and he’s not swayed by what he sees down here and faith will then turn to sight, but for now Christ is not visible to our eyes. And so in that sense we are away from the Lord. But by faith we are indeed with him, and we trust his word, and we hope in him, and we believe on him. And Jesus said in John 20, “Blessed are those who do not see me and yet believe.”
And so we are of good courage, because “we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen. But the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal,” 2 Corinthians 4:18. So even in the midst of chaos and turmoil, anguish and gut-wrenching news, that just kind of tears you apart, the Christian does not lose heart. Confident and courageous we are, still and sure in the storm, because we walk by faith, trusting, believing, looking to what has come. And so we are of good courage. Good courage, courageous.
Reality number five is in verse 9, and it’s the Christians goal. Reality number five: The Christian’s goal. “Therefore,” verse 9, “we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be” this is the goal, “pleasing to Him.” In light of all of this, what the Christian always aims for is to be pleasing to God.
Paul’s longing for a glorified body didn’t make him despise this temporary body, and it made him all the more eager and ambitious to please God with it. He was hungry and determined to please the Lord. One of the verses I made, my meditation and my hobby when I first got saved was Colossians 1:10 and my newfound delight and privilege that I now get to please God.
It was a delight for me and a wonder for me, for before, I was a Romans 8:8 man, which is “those who are in the flesh are not able to please God.” What a privilege we have, and Paul’s contemplation here in chapter 5 is our eternal glory. And so out of immense joy and gratitude, we want to do nothing else, but to be pleasing to God. What you can do in this tent, you can’t do in that building is please God in service to receive rewards in glory.
And so now we’re moving quickly. The sixth reality for the Christian is the Christian’s gain, Christian’s gain, which is in verse 10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
So why is this the Christian’s gain? The reality of a judgment reserved just for believers is not to judge sins. Those were paid in full on the cross where Christ received the wrath of God. And we’ll look more at that in two weeks in verse 21. But this coming Bema seat judgment is not the Great White Throne judgment, which is a sentencing judgment for unbelievers.
The judgment seat of Christ is to reward believers for works that they have done and been doing to please God. It’s a delightful motivation to walk in the good works that God has prepared for us, Ephesians 2:10, to serve with pure and selfless motives. It’s a motivation to happily take the short end of the stick or to humbly prefer others to consider all that God has accomplished for you and to walk pleasingly in gratitude to him.
The Bema seat is not described a whole lot, but it is illustrated in 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. I’ll read that for you. 1 Corinthians 3 is where it’s illustrated, verse 10, “According to the grace of God, which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
“Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident, for the day will indicate it because it is revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.” In verse 15. “If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”
We are free, yes, but free to live to please God, and he is delighted to reward us. Every motive will be tested, every deed will be weighed, but again, not punitive. 1 Corinthians 4:5 says, When the Lord comes, “He will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and make manifest the motives of hearts. And then each one’s praise will come to him from God.”
Jesus said in Revelation, “Behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me.” An important distinction to make in this last word in our text of 2 Corinthians 5:10, it’s the word, bad, in the LSB. This is not a sinful thing as it’s not evil in nature. Rather it’s ordinary in quality. It’s inferior or worthless, low-grade quality, and so those deeds are burned up and not rewarded.
Rewards bring crowns and future responsibilities in the kingdom, but unlike here on earth, those who are honored with responsibilities, they’re going to be cherished and celebrated, not resented or envied, as our sinful hearts may be inclined in this life. In Christ, we are all equal, but rewards reflect God’s justice and his generosity.
So why does Paul insert this here? Clearly the brevity of life is a close reality for him. More than that, the glorious realities and gifts given by God on the forefront of his mind. In contemplating eternal matters, this does not cause him to sit back, it spurs him on. He’s hungry for the work of the Lord, and he’s eager to please him in all his ways, while he can, while his feet are on this ground.
So what about you and me? When you hear of the eternal reality that awaits you, the response is not to shrug and just, well, thanks for that. It’s not to be casual coasting into the kingdom. Appreciation, real appreciation for these things should turn to humble and eager service of the Lord.
Some of you need to hear this message today to encourage your heart and to lift your countenance to call back any wandering affection for worldly ways, to acknowledge that yes, this trial that I’m in, this unmet expectation, it’s hard, but you need to hear; you have a building from God and it’s strong, secured and everlasting.
And so you can say I’m going to run, I’m going to run so as to win the prize. Paul’s knowledge of glory, his longing for glory, his certainty of glory did not cause him to put his feet up. He’s like, we need to pick up the pace. We need to endeavor to do everything to be pleasing in his sight while there’s still time, for there will come a moment, verse Corinthians 1:5, there will come a moment at any moment, in the twinkling of an eye that God will call time on this life. He’ll do that with the sound of a trumpet.
Either that or your tent will wear out or it will be taken down without warning. And for the believer, you will be called into his presence to account for how you’ve stewarded every moment afforded to you, every resource in your care, every ministry gifted to you, every opportunity you’ve had to please him. How will you fear in that accounting?
And for the unbeliever, your indecision will be revealed for what it really is, rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can imagine saying, why did I not come to receive mercy? Why did I test the patience of God one more day? Why did I love fulfilment in this brief blip of a life instead of humbling myself to come to God, to embrace Christ and to be with him?
Trials are brutal, but it’s little compared to the anguish and the agony of regret. You got to take these six realities for the believer in Christ and let them sit in your soul until you are moved to change something. Change something. Oh, that you and I would be repulsed by our apathy and that we would be stimulated to love and good deeds as we prayed this morning, all because we are in awe of what almighty God has done for sinners.
After expounding on the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul closes with this, and so are we, says in verse 58, far from lying down, verse 58, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father, help us to focus on our eternal home. What a gift you have given. Convict us of any apathetic way among us. Change us to be more like Christ, we pray. Give us high and lofty thoughts of you. Thank you that you’ve given us Christ and you’ve given us Paul as examples of enduring trials and suffering so that whatever we go through, we can be confident of your grace and your power to carry us to the end.
Thank you for securing full redemption for us, and let us do our part well by living lives zealous for good deeds that match our grateful hearts. If there be any struggling heart here, strengthen them, I pray, and cause us all to be steadfast lights for the truth and faithful followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it’s in his name we pray. Amen.