Our Earthly Body is Perishable, but We Will be Given an Eternal Body

2 Corinthians 5

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

• Our earthly perishable body yearns for the eternal body.
• The Holy Spirit in us is a guarantee of the eternal body to come.
• By faith, we live for the life to come and live to please Him on this earth.
• We share the Gospel to prepare others for the judgment of Jesus Christ.
• We die to our earthly self and live in the Spirit of Christ.
• We are a new creation by knowing Christ in the spirit.
• Christ lives in us to reconcile others to God.
• Jesus Christ makes us the righteousness of God.

Our earthly perishable body yearns for the eternal body. “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” 2 Corinthians 5:1 Our flesh and blood body is what we have while on this earth, it can be destroyed and fall apart. We have a new body (House) which is created by the Spirit of God and is eternal in the New Jerusalem.

“For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.” 2 Corinthians 5:2-3 This earthly body has a lot of groanings taking place within us, and we sincerely desire the perfect body which we will have in Heaven. We will be clothed in the Spirit of God and not be left naked in sin.

The Holy Spirit in us is a guarantee of the eternal body to come. “For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.” 2 Corinthians 5:4 Our body is plagued with difficult burdens and is burdened by the thing that has power over physiology which is able to agitate our physical body. It also burdens our feelings and thoughts to make life in the flesh miserable. It is trying to coerce us to allow the image of the beast to live and speak through us.

The bodily affliction we suffer in this life doesn’t make us want to quit living in the Spirit of Christ, but it makes us yearn even more for the immortality of the eternal body. “Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” 2 Corinthians 5:5 God has prepared us for living life in the mortal flesh and blood body by giving us the Holy Spirit, who is given through Jesus Christ by the remission of sin. The Holy Spirit in us is the guarantee of being clothed in an immortal eternal body in the Paradise of God.

By faith, we live for the life to come and live to please Him on this earth. “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:6 We can be assured that while we live on this earth, in this flesh and blood body, we are not in Heaven with God.

“For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:7-8 Our faith is not in what we see in this world, but by what we don’t see waiting for us in Heaven. It’s a day of rejoicing when we all get to heaven, being away from this earthly body and living eternally with the Lord. Those who live by humanism, which is rooted in the thing which forms thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and speech, doesn’t see beyond the earthly body and has no hope beyond the grave.

“Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:9 While in this earthly body, we intend to live for God through Jesus Christ who gives us the Holy Spirit. As we live in the presence of His Spirit, we intend to live a life which is pleasing to Him.

We share the Gospel to prepare others for the judgment of Jesus Christ. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10 Every person on the planet, who has ever lived, will face the Judgment of Christ after this earthly body perishes. The judgment will be according to what we have done in this flesh and blood body, whether good or bad.

“Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.” 2 Corinthians 5:11 As followers of Jesus Christ, we know the Holiness and judgment of God and we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ knowing that God knows all about each one of us. It’s a bonus for others to consider us a follower of Jesus Christ.

“For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.” 2 Corinthians 5:12 Sharing the Gospel is not about bragging on ourselves, but we want others to be able to see us as an example of a follower of Christ. We want other Believers to be able to have a response to those who live only for external appearances and has no value for the body as the home of the Holy Spirit.

We die to our earthly self and live in the Spirit of Christ. “For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.” 2 Corinthians 5:13

We live in a social network which considers the beliefs of Christianity to be unreasonable. They serve humanism which puts their faith in the human being and discards the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, God, and life beyond the grave. They are empowered by the thing which forms what they think, feel, and do and enables the image of the beast to live and speak through people. As it lives and speaks through people, they are conformed to their place in life by what they say and do. They are conformed to their mark in life as they are groomed to the mark of the beast. Christianity has no place within their “rational” and “democratic” society.

As followers of Jesus Christ, whether people think we are irrational, thinking abnormally, or are given credit for being perfectly sane, we share the testimony of Jesus for others. We want others to experience the Holy Spirit who comes to us by the remission of sin through Jesus Christ. We want others to experience eternal life which is coming beyond the grave.

“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 The love Jesus Christ has for us is our motivation for sharing His Gospel. Jesus died and was resurrected for the whosoever so that the whosoever can die to the flesh and live by the Spirit of Christ. In Him we have eternal life in the new heaven and new earth to come. We no longer live for pleasing ourselves, but we live for Jesus. It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me.

We are a new creation by knowing Christ in the spirit. “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.” 2 Corinthians 5:16 As followers of Jesus Christ, we don’t look at others by their earthly standing nor physical appearance, we look at them in the spirit and their relationship to the Spirit of Christ. When Jesus walked on this earth, He was looked at as a person who would establish an earthly kingdom. Those who met Jesus when He was walking on the earth saw the Son of God in the flesh. Today, we know the reason of His coming, death, and resurrection, which is to atone for sin and give eternal life.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 We become a new creation in the Spirit of Christ by believing in the heart that God raised Him from the dead and confessing with the mouth that He is Lord. Also, by living in the Spirit of Christ, this old fleshly body is going to pass away, and we are going to be given a new immortal and eternal body.

Christ lives in us to reconcile others to God. “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,” 2 Corinthians 5:18 Everything related to Jesus Christ and eternal life is of God. He sent Jesus so that we could be reconciled to Him by the forgiveness of sin, and as followers of Jesus it is our ministry to share His Gospel.

“…that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:19 When we see Jesus, we see God, and God works through Jesus to reconcile the world to Him. The forgiveness of sin comes through grace and mercy so that we can receive the Holy Spirit and have fellowship with Him. As Christ lives in us, we are given the testimony of Jesus to share with others. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20

Jesus Christ makes us the righteousness of God. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 The animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were a process of transferring the sins of the Israelites onto the sacrificed animal. When the animal was sacrificed, the sins of the Israelites were burned with it. All of those sacrifices were prophetic and symbolic for Jesus Christ as the sacrificial Lamb of God. Our sin is transferred onto the sinless and unblemished Lamb of God. When He was crucified, our sin was crucified with Him. The result is to atone for our sin, make us blameless in the eyes of God, and to reconcile us to God. Through Jesus Christ, we have become the righteousness of God.

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1