#DailyDevotion We Live Waiting For Our Death To Be Overcome By Life

2 Cor. 5:1-7

If the earthly tent we live in is torn down, we know we’ll get one from God, not made by human hands but lasting forever in heaven. ²In this body we sigh as we long to put on and live in the body we get from heaven. ³Of course, if we put that on, we’ll not be found without a body. ⁴So while we are in this tent, we sigh, feeling distressed because we don’t want to put off this body but put on the other and have life swallow up our death. ⁵It is God Who has prepared us for this and given us His Spirit as a guarantee. ⁶And so we are always confident. We know that as long as we are living in this body we are living away from the Lord. ⁷For we go through life by faith, not by sight.

Last week’s epistle lesson ended on verse one. This week’s picks up on one, which makes sense for what follows. So we have this earthly tent, that is to say, we have this mortal body. It is a body wracked by sin and all the effects sin has on the body. But God has promised us a heavenly tent, that is, an immortal body. In Paul’s previous letter he calls it a spiritual body. But the heavenly body and the spiritual body are not ethreal like a spirit or a ghost. It lives by the Spirit. The living Spirit given to man before the Fall. It is still a real flesh and bone body just like Jesus has when he was resurrected. What Jesus is in his human body so will we be when he resurrects us from the dead.

While we still carry about our mortal coils we long to put on that spiritual body. Let’s face it, particularly as we get older, this model wears down and out. We’d rather not have to find new aches and pains as we continue to age. We may moan, groan and sigh because of this body yet we still know we want to have a body. It is what is means to be human. We may at times get distressed when we think about putting off this body. We often question whether or not the body we will have will be this body or another. It will indeed be this body. What we shed in the resurrection is not the material body but sin and death. The life Christ put into us when we were baptized and believed he says will swallow up our mortality. So it will indeed still be us, as Job says in chapter 19, ²⁵“I know that my Redeemer lives and He, the Last, will stand on the dust. ²⁶After this, my skin will surround this body, and from within my flesh I will see God. ²⁷And I, no stranger to Him, will see Him with my own eyes. How anxiously I am longing for this!”

God has given us his Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our resurrection to eternal life. He is the eternal life Jesus gives us when we have faith in him. By the Holy Spirit we confess Jesus is the God, the LORD, of the Old Testament who created Adam and Eve, saved Noah from the flood, made a covenant with Abraham, delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians and settled them in Canaan. Only by the Holy Spirit can you confess such a faith.

It is by this faith we live in this life. If we believe these things are true, who Jesus is and the resurrection to eternal life in his kingdom, that will impact on how we live our lives today. That enables us to endure all trials, tribulations and troubles. It gives us power to forgive and love our enemies. It makes us love our fellow Christians as Christ has loved us. We know this life and all its trappings are transient. What the Father has promised to give us in Christ is eternal.

Heavenly Father, while we are in this earthly tent grant us a living faith that looks to receive all you have promised us in Christ so we may begin to live that life now in the present. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.