IT’S CAMPING
SEASON!!!
So it’s camping season. These brief summer months beckon
us to nature while the weather is hot. This is our reprieve from the long
winter months we have just endured.
Some of
my earliest vacation memories with my family were of tenting in Banff or
Detroit Lakes. We had this orange tent with a roof of blue and white stripes.
In those days the tents were made of thick canvas and needed water-proofing. If
it rained we were strictly told not to touch the walls of the tent or we would
be in a flood of trouble. Otherwise, sleeping in a tent with Mom and Dad and my
brother and sister was a unique experience.
Another
tenting experience I had was not so pleasant. Some work friends invited me to
go camping for the weekend at Grand Beach. The girls were given a large tent to
sleep, while I was supposed to cram into a pup tent with a guy I had just met.
It rained the whole weekend. And for some unknown reason, my companion thought it
was fun to touch the roof of the pup tent and watch the water drip. He did this
several times. Soon we were soaked right through our sleeping bags.
Whether
your camping experiences, like mine, were good or bad, eventually they come to
an end. You have had enough of frying bacon in the rain; you tire of swatting
mosquitoes around a campfire; you grow weary of being wet. It is time to go
home, back to your solid walls that don’t drip, to your bed where roots don’t
gnaw your back.
In a
rather stark illustration, Paul likens our life on earth to camping and to our
bodies as tents. He gives us the impression that even the comfy life we lead is
really just roughing it in comparison to the life to come. The question he
seems to be answering is this: What happens to the believer when she dies? More
than that, what hope does the Christian have when she dies?
In 2
Corinthians 5:1-10, Paul gives camping a whole new meaning.
1. Our earthly body is like a tent
In the passage we are studying today, we read that Paul
compares our bodies to tents. He spoke of this earthly tent being destroyed.
I mentioned one of the drawbacks of tenting:
rain dripping in. But there are two words that describe tenting further: insecure and uncomfortable. Tents are insecure in regards to intruders or wild
animals. You can’t bolt the door or trust the walls for protection. Our bodies
are vulnerable like that. Life is insecure. Our lives can be destroyed in a
second. We accumulate goods, exercise and put security features on our homes to
protect us, but no matter what precautions you take we are still living in a
tent that can be blown over.
The
second word, uncomfortable, describes
the humidity, the dirt, and your deflating air mattress. You can endure those
things for a while, but then you soon miss your air conditioning and clean
floors. Physically speaking, as we get older the more uncomfortable we grow
with our bodies. They begin to ache and get tired quicker. We long for a body
that doesn’t know pain and doesn’t grow weary.
This is
what Paul is talking about in 5:1, “For
we know that if the earthly tent is destroyed, we have a building from God, an
eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” Now we understand the tent analogy, what is this building from God?
There are several suggestions: It could be the New Jerusalem, or the church, or
some kind of temporary body God gives us when we die. But I think the best
answer is that this building refers to the glorified, resurrection body we will
receive. There are two reasons for this: One, the “building” stands in parallel
relationship with the “tent.” And Second, the building is not made with “human
hands” so obviously God has made for us a glorified body. Whereas our “tents,”
our bodies, wear out, upon our death, God gives us a new body.
In
verses 2 and 4, Paul says that we groan and long to be clothed with the new
body. It is as though we are no longer comfortable in this corruptible flesh of
sin and decay. The groaning is not doubt or fear based. It is like the longing
of a woman who is 8 ½ months pregnant, waiting for this child to be born so she
can begin this new chapter. We long for the new chapter of the next life.
Now, for
you younger men and women whose bodies do not ache, you feel pretty good,
invincible even. Paul’s attitude is not exclusive to the elderly. He struggled
with this present life because of his love for Jesus. Paul longed to depart and
be with the Lord. He said, “For to me, to
live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this
will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am
torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by
far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body,” (Phil
1:21-24).
Paul’s
perspective on life and death can be boiled down to three options: It is good to remain alive and serve Christ.
On the other hand, it is better to
die physically and enter the presence of Christ. But the best option would be to be alive when Christ returns, avoiding
death and meeting Jesus in our glorified bodies. As if he had a choice.
In the
meantime, Paul indicates, it is as though we were naked. This earthly body is
inadequate for true life. We are not properly clothed as we are for eternal
life. So, having realized this, Paul longs for the heavenly body that will
allow him to be where Jesus is and enjoy the Lord forever. Is that not a great
desire? Should we not have that same passion?
Until
then, God has given us His Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come
(v. 5). This recalls Ephesians 1 which teaches that when you believed in Jesus
you were given the Holy Spirit (1: 13-14). He is a deposit guaranteeing your
inheritance. This same Spirit is not static, but is working in you to prepare
you for heaven. He is the same Spirit of resurrection that raised Jesus from
the dead (1:18-20). That’s why Paul says, outwardly we are wasting away, yet
inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Your body is actively dying; your
spirit is being made alive by the Holy Spirit.
2. We prefer Home over Tents
Calvin, the 16th century reformer said, “Let
us consider this settled, that no one has made progress in the school of Christ
who does not joyfully await the day of death and final resurrection.”
We don’t
think or talk like that. We cling to life, even as Christians, as though this
were the only life we get. Calvin anticipated death; Paul declared that to live
is Christ, to die is gain. Why?
He puts
it quite simply in verse 6 & 8: If you are at home in the body, you are
away from Christ; if you are away from the body, you are at home with the Lord.
There is no purgatory, or intermediate state whereby you are some floating orb
in a sea of stars. When you die, you sleep; when you awaken in an instant, you
are face to face with Jesus. So the question, “When a Christian dies does he or
she immediately enter Christ’s presence?” finds a categorical yes for an
answer.
The
logic of verses 6 & 8 supports this answer. In v. 6 we see that existing in
the physical body is the same as absence from Christ, so that when the body
dies so does the latter absence. With the physical death of the believer, the
believer enters into the presence of Christ. Thus Paul says, to die is gain.
We may
have misused Paul’s words ourselves in the sense that one is better than the
other – to live or to die. When we think of death we might say, “I don’t know
which is worse – the troubles of life, which death could free me of, or the
terrors of death, from which life protects me.” Both life and death look like
two evils. But Paul sees two blessings which to him are difficult to choose
between.
Until
our inevitable deaths, we live by faith. In v. 7 Paul gives us a mantra worth
following: “For we live by faith, not by sight.” It is important to say this –
when we talk about absence from the Lord, we are talking about a spatial
absence, not spiritual. While we live in this body we do not see Christ but
walk by faith in the physically absent and unseen Lord. Death brings us into the
same space as Christ so that we can see him. So death does not cut us off from
relationship with Christ, but heightens it.
This is
radical. This teaching alters our perspective of life. It makes this life a
pale semblance of what is yet to come. We live by faith, not by sight. But what
we do see is temporal. That is why we fix our eyes on what is unseen. What we
see is temporary; what we do not see is eternal.
What
does this mean for the expression of falling asleep in Christ? Are the
Christians who die sleeping right now? Sleep is a metaphor in Scripture. Sleep
implies rest from earthly labors, the ending of toil in this realm. The imagery
of sleep is used to describe death because the body does sleep – it is at rest,
without life. But the Bible does not say that the soul or spirit sleeps. Sleep
is used to illustrate that the pain of death as a penalty for sin is gone. Death
is not to be feared; it is rather like dozing off for a nap. And so we prefer
home over tents.
3. While we live in tents…
While we live in these bodies we have both an ambition
and a motive for life.
In v. 9,
Paul says, “…we make it our goal to
please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.” This is
our ambition. If we long for the day when we will see Jesus, our Savior and
Lord, we will strive to live a holy life.
John
underlined this thought when he said, “Dear
friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made
known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see
him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is
pure,” (1 John 3:2-3).
John
expressed the same hope as Paul. We don’t know what kind of bodies we will have
exactly when we see Jesus. But we do know that they will be like his body –
glorified. When Jesus appeared to his disciples he was not a ghost, but had a
body that he invited them to touch and investigate. They could see his scars so
that they knew it was him, otherwise he was transformed beyond his usual
appearance. So it will be with us – we will look like us, but better,
glorified, transformed.
With
this hope in mind, we are encouraged to live lives that reflect this incredible
grace. We want to be obedient to Christ in every way. If he commands baptism,
then get baptized. Whatever he tells us to do, we ought to do it, to live holy
lives and put away our sinful lifestyles.
In v.
10, we are given a further motive for holy living. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that
each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body,
whether good or bad.”
We are
not talking about your eternal destiny here, whether you get in to heaven or
not. This judgment determines reward and status in the kingdom. Consider this
judgment:
It is
inevitable (“we must all appear”)
It is
universal (“we must all appear”)
It is
individual (“each of us”)
Its mode
(“we must all appear”; we do not
simply show up but we are laid bare before him 1 Cor 4:5)
Its
judge (“the judgment seat of Christ”)
Its
standard (“deeds done in the body”)
We are told in 1 Corinthians 3 that Jesus is the
foundation of the excellent house God is building. We get to build on it
according to faith in Christ. (Read 1
Cor 3:12-15).
James
Denney wrote, “The books are shut now, but they will be opened then. The things
we have done in the body will come back to us, whether good or bad. Every pious
thought, and every thought of sin; every secret prayer, and every secret curse;
every unknown deed of charity, and every hidden deed of selfishness: we see
them all again; and though we have not remembered them for years, and perhaps
have forgotten them altogether, we shall have to acknowledge that they are our
own, and take them to ourselves.”
While we
live in tents we must practice living in a mansion.
When Camping Season Ends
Camping season is short.
It will soon be over.
And then we will go home.
The funny thing about going on vacation for a few weeks
is that coming home can seem anticlimactic. We are tired of living in tents and
out of suitcases and backpacks; we are tired of being on the road; we want to
go home. But when we enter the front door, we realize that the work is not
over. We have to clean up the camping equipment, throw laundry in the machine,
and put our clothes away. And the worst part, tomorrow we have to go back to
work. Mom and Dad often felt like they needed a vacation from the vacation.
Let me
tell you, entering the kingdom will be nothing like that. Coming home to Jesus
will be exhilarating and beyond description.
What
hope is there for the Christian when she dies? What does the believer look
forward to beyond this life? We will know what it means to be home, to be
clothed with an everlasting body, and to live forever in the presence of Jesus.
I just
had to tell you that.
AMEN
