OUR HOUSE FROM HEAVEN

""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. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven; inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall 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, in order that what is mortal may 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, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:1-8).

Devotion 11 of 12

PREPARED FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE

Why did God recreate us in Christ Jesus? As it is written, "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Cor 5:17). Salvation is not a reformation but a transformation. It is not the reshaping of an old life, but the granting of a new one. Why is this the case? There is a reason, and our text states it in unmistakable words. "For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may 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" (2 Cor 5:4-5).

Here is an aspect of our salvation that is virtually unknown, yet it lies at the very heart of life in Christ! We are truly "His workmanship," created in Christ Jesus to occupy this "house from heaven." From the perspective of productivity, we are "created unto good works," determined by the Lord before the world began (Eph 2:10). Considering the appointed personalized place of occupation, we have been recreated to occupy our resurrection body--our "house from heaven."

We now have the pledge

In this world, those in Christ receive a pledge of what is to come. That pledge, or down payment, is the Holy Spirit Himself. He is the "first fruit," or "earnest" of the fulness of our salvation. That fulness will be brought to us at the appearing of Jesus Christ. As it is written "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Pet 1:3-5). "Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet 1:13).

What we now have is only the beginning! The bulk of the blessing will be experienced when our Lord returns. We do not have it "all" now, and we are not to conduct ourselves as though we did. This is why the individual who thinks he is sufficient of himself stands in jeopardy. "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor 10:12). We have not been regenerated to fit into this world. Nor, indeed, is an excellent or successful earthly life the objective of the new birth. It is not that those things are unlawful. It IS that they are not preeminent.

The Spirit informs us of Divine intent. The life we have received in Christ is "eternal" (Rom 5:21), and everything about it is adapted to eternity. The inheritance for which we are being prepared is "eternal" (Heb 9:15). Salvation, in its very essence, is "eternal" (Heb 5:9).The Kingdom into which we have been called is "eternal" (2 Pet 1:11), and the covenant through which we are affiliated with the Lord is "eternal" (Heb 13:20). Our focus is to be on "eternal" things--things that are "not seen" (2 Cor 4:18).

It is absurd to imagine that any facet of redemption finds its locus in the "here and the now." Any and every exhortation to piety is a challenge to prepare for eternity. Solidity and purity in this world alone is never the point of Scripture! It is always the prelude to eternity, a means of preparing fit in the "world to come." Nothing nor no one that is incompatible with the "Father's house" will dwell there forever.

Just as new wine cannot be stored in old bottles, so new life in Christ cannot remain in cursed bodies. At some time, it must be separated from the earthen jar in which it now resides. This new life is made, among other things, to fit with a new body! Eternal life will ultimately blend with an incorruptible body. Until that time, we are, in a sense, out of our element. We hold a treasure in a clay jar. However, the treasure is not meant to forever remain in a clay jar! It is made to occupy a "house from heaven" that can work in concert with Divine purpose. This accounts for the frustration of faith, evidenced by a law within that wars against the law of our mind (Rom 7:23). This condition creates the "groaning" of Romans the eighth chapter. "We ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body" (v 23). The burden of a cursed body causes the groaning of second Corinthians five. "For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven" (v 2). "For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened" (v 4).

The experience is like that of Israel in Egypt, Joseph in prison, and Daniel in the lion's den. Our present bodies were not made for a regenerated individual, and our renewed spirits were not made for these bodies! Life in this world is not the main life! An emphasis upon earthly life, no matter what it may be, is inappropriate. We have been made for another realm, and will occupy it in another body.

PRAYER POINT: Father, it is refreshing to my spirit to contemplate the noble purpose for which You have crated me in Christ Jesus. I long for every aspect of my person to be brought into conformity with that purpose. Grant this to me, for Jesus' sake.

-- TOMORROW: CONCLUSION --
Friday, New Series: GOD OFFERS REWARDS --