2 Corinthians 5 - Introduction

A New Creature In Christ

Second Corinthians Five

Second Corinthians five opens with Paul comparing a believer's body to an earthly tent. This earthly body will die and be dissolved. It is not designed to last forever. Our more important part, the soul, will be rewarded in heaven if we will serve God faithfully. The faithful of God go immediately to a place called "Paradise" when they die. (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7) It is the will of God that we all spend a little time on earth, encased in a physical body. Sometimes this time in the body may be short. If somehow a precious, sweet, beautiful, helpless and innocent baby dies it can only go to one place and that is to heaven.

There are only two options, (1) To live till the Lord comes again, or (2) To die. We will die because sin brought physical death into the world. (Romans 5:12) The wicked die and the righteous also die. "The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come." (Isaiah 57:1) Paul anticipated death because he was looking forward to heaven, and to seeing the Lord! Paul was groaning with sufferings here, yet he earnestly desired his heavenly home. We too should long for heaven because (1) This life has many troubles (John 16:33), (2) We have already had a brief taste of heaven the day that we were baptized into Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), and (3) There is a groaning in the heart of the faithful for heaven. (Romans 8:23)

Paul wanted at all times to be found clothed with righteousness, holiness, and grace. He desired to be set apart from the world and constantly cleansed by Jesus' precious blood. It was for the sake of the hope of heaven that Paul labored on through all kinds of difficulties. He knew that while he was at home in the body he was absent from the Lord. It was his desire to be present with the Lord and pleasing to Him. Paul groaned under the attack of Satan. This groaning caused him to long for heaven.

Judgment is coming and it is necessary. All the people that have ever lived will stand before God at judgment. We will be rewarded or punished based on the things done in our bodies. Paul had the love of Christ in him. He had enough of the love of God in him to want to work for the salvation of all people everywhere. As Christians we must not live for ourselves but for others, for their welfare and benefit. Paul recognized that apart from Jesus all are sinners. It does not matter about physical background or even if they had seen Jesus in the flesh. It was whether a man had been redeemed from sin that was most important to Paul, and whether he was living for the one that had bought him back from sin and death. Christ makes you a new creation, gives you hope, regenerates you and reconciles you to God.