THE REASON WHY THEY ARE SETTING THEIR MINDS ON THINGS ABOVE (2 CORINTHIANS 5:1) The thought of looking at what is unseen, rather than at what is seen, now leads on to a consideration of the resurrection of the body. Paul visualises the glorious future that awaits all who are His. Not for the Christ... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.' Paul now declares his confidence in a bodily future after the resurrection. He tells us that if ‘the earthly house of our tabernacle (that is, ou... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven, if so be that (or ‘inasmuch as') being clothed we shall not be found naked. The contrast goes on. In our earthly tent we groan (or ‘in this situation we groan'), we are afflicted, we suffer hardship.... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For indeed we who are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life.' Then he continues and expands on the thought, having very much in mind those who deny the resurrection body (1... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Now he who wrought us for this very thing is God, who gave to us the earnest of the Spirit.' And this glorious future is guaranteed to us because God has fashioned us for this very purpose (Philippians 3:21), working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure in ways beyond our understanding (Phi... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Being therefore always of good courage, and knowing that, whilst 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, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.' So Paul is never permane... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For this reason also we make it our aim (aspire), whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing to him.' So whether at home in the body, or absent from the body, and present with the Lord, they make it their aim to be well pleasing to God. That is what is central to all life. Being pleasing to Go... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For we must all be made openly revealed (laid bare) before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether it be good or bad.' Note the ‘we must'. It is a divinely ordained necessity. So why is being well-pleasing to Him the... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD'S MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION (2 CORINTHIANS 5:11 TO 2 CORINTHIANS 6:2). Having spoken of God's work in the heart through His Spirit, and of the new covenant, followed by the revelation of the Christian's future by means of the resurrection, Paul now goes back to the basis of it all, man's recon... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are openly revealed to God; and I hope that we are also openly revealed in your consciences.' Paul now emphasises, in the light of the mention of the judgment seat of Christ, that what he and his fellow-workers do is through the fear... [ Continue Reading ]
‘We are not again commending ourselves to you, but speak as giving you occasion of glorying on our behalf, that you may have that by which to answer those who glory in appearance, and not in heart.' He assures them that they do not speak like this seeking commendation. They are not into trying to g... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For whether we are beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we are of sober mind, it is to you.' Indeed some of his opponents may say that they were mad. Probably this has reference to his constant statement that they must share the sufferings of Christ, and to the constant dangers they were will... [ Continue Reading ]
For the love of Christ constrains us (‘grips us tightly'), because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died, and he died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again. For what they do, they do because they are co... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Wherefore we henceforth know no man after the flesh: even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.' The result of recognising what Christ has done for us in dying and rising again is that we look at everything differently. From now on we do not judge men from a... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new (or ‘the old has passed away, the new has come').' As a result of that if any man is in Christ he is a new creature, newly created in Christ. When a man is ‘in Christ' through his re... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.' Having been tightly... [ Continue Reading ]
‘We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we plead on behalf of Christ, be you reconciled to God.' ‘Therefore', because a way of reconciliation has been made possible, we who are His, and reconciled already to Him, have a responsibility as ‘ambassadors'... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Him who knew no sin he made sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him.' And finally he gives the full basis of that reconciliation. It is because the perfect One, the sinless One Who knew no sin (1 Peter 2:22; Hebrews 4:15), was ‘made sin' for us. Our sin was in some w... [ Continue Reading ]