QT 5/22/2025 2 Cor 5:1-5, We don't have the details after death, but enough to have confidence

2 Corinthians 5:1–5 (ESV) —

1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

 

NOTE: The earthly tent is our body, and the heavenly tent is our new body. This does bring up the question of when we receive our new body -- at death or at the rapture. I think we can get wrapped around a question that this passage was not intended to answer. Garland (1999) writes,

 

Paul did not write this passage to answer questions we might have about the when, what, or how; he only intends to affirm his confidence in the Christian’s transformation in the life after death.

 

Technically, I could see "when" as both since God controls time. But the real point is that we have this confidence of a real life and we do not need fear death. We have a heavenly home. I don't know what the intermediate state between death and resurrection looks like, if there is even such a state. I know I will be with the Lord and I will be satisfied. I know I have a resurrected body which will not be subject to sin any more. I know I have a home in heaven. I don't know all the details, but Jesus' resurrection from the dead, confirmed by the multitude of eyewitnesses, gives me hope and assurance in everything Jesus said.

 

PONDER:

1. Am I still in fear of death? The missing and longing is certainly true for us still in our temporal bodies?
2. Paul was absolutely confident in a future resurrection. Am I confident and relaxed in that truth?

 

PRAYER: Father, there are details of the afterlife which escape me. I know what I need to know and I have confidence in the truth. At times, I even wish for those days to come quickly. But for now, I am excited for the opportunities I have to serve you in new and different ways. Thank you for work. It is good. We were created for work. When we stop working, we move away from one of the very things you created for our good.