Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:1 for KNOW that we have a building (the WHOLE man) not made with hands. And it is eternal in the heavens.
The word know is in the perfect indicative tense – meaning it is a completed action, FINISHED! It is an action that is completely done with ongoing results. It is knowing that is not carnal. It’s not based on the five physical senses. It knows by the mind of Christ.
We are we to know? We KNOW that we have FULL redemption IN us because we know that Christ dwells IN us…. and He is Redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). This knowing is connected to the previous verse (2 Corinthians 4:18). It says, “So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” The Mirror Bible says – it is the unseen eternal realm within us which has our full attention and captivates our gaze!
Our knowing is seeing in the unseen, invisible (to our natural eyes) realm. It is seeing what He sees and thereby knowing what He knows…. co-seeing and co-knowing! We are to co-KNOW that we have an immortal, eternal, redeemed (WHOLE) physical body!
Paul had just said that the life of Jesus is revealed in our physical bodies (2 Corinthians 4:10). And we experience our FULL redemption by believing and speaking (2 Corinthians 4:13).
And then 2 Corinthians 5:1 begins with “If the earthly house, our tent (speaking of the physical body) should be dissolved (or destroyed).”
Paul is not saying that someday when we physically die THEN, we will have a redeemed, fully resurrected body just like Jesus. NO! He’s talking about us knowing or understanding… IF we KNOW (or understand) that our physical body is dissolved, THEN we will see that we have been FULLY redeemed, and we will experience it NOW in our lives.
The word dissolved or destroyed is kataluo in Greek and means thoroughly loosened. The Hebrew equivalent of loosened, or luo in Greek, is patach and means to open as in an opening of a gate or door and to have no confining barriers!!
Paul was saying our earthly body has NO confining barriers… no sickness, no disease, no aging, no pains, no death! And when we know that, THEN, we will also experience that in our lives. We will be experiencing the reality of a life of WHOLENESS in every area of our lives….. in other words, living IN heaven on earth NOW!
We are whole IN the Father, Son, and Spirit who lack NOTHING because all that can flow from Them is wholeness…. therefore, ALL that is IN us and flows from us is wholeness INTO every area of our life.
Verses 2-3 in the King James says, “For, in this, we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.” The Contemporary English Version says it this way, “While we are here on earth, we sigh because we want to live in that heavenly home. We want to put it on like clothes and not be naked.”
That sounds like an echo of Adam in Genesis 3:10! He had an awareness of his nakedness, of his mortality, because of sin consciousness causing him to be afraid. Paul isn’t saying that we are to sigh or groan while here on earth because we want to live in a heavenly home someday! NO!
Paul was FULLY persuaded that this new life IN Christ was one of COMPLETE union with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with NO DEGREE of separation whatsoever. He’s still talking about knowing and understanding here in these verses. And WHEN we put on the awareness of our WHOLENESS… of our IN-CHRISTEDNESS… we won’t be found naked. In other words, we won’t think we lack in any area of our life. We will not feel that we are not FULLY redeemed… FULLY whole!
At one time, mankind groaned and longed not to be found naked, just like Adam. And God came and walked among men IN the incarnation of JESUS, revealing the truth of their WHOLENESS… of their ONENESS with God, revealing that ALL men have always been fully COMPLETE and CONNECTED to God (Father, Son, and Spirit). Paul is telling us that we are thinking wrong — it is not our redemption that is incomplete, but our understanding. Our sense of lack, of being unclothed, keeps us from seeing that our mortality has ALREADY been swallowed up by life — by His life IN us. We are already IMMORTAL!
Verse 4….. 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.
Back in 1 Corinthians 15:54, Paul tells us that WHEN this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, THEN shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
Isaiah said in 25:8 that He (Jesus) will swallow up death forever, And the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces; The rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken.
When did Isaiah say that death would be swallowed up forever???
Isaiah said in verse 9 (of chapter 28) that it would happen in the day of salvation. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:2 that NOW is the day of salvation. So we no longer need to groan and feel burdened. Mankind no longer needs to long to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling (our permanent splendor of the heavenly body). We no longer need to desire to be further clothed so that mortality (the inevitability of physical death) may be swallowed up by life. Jesus did that!! He swallowed death forever. He IS resurrection Life IN us. The Immortal One lives IN us…. and as He is, so are we in this world. Therefore, the ONLY conclusion that you can draw is that we are clothed with immortality NOW! The day of salvation has already come!
Being clothed in immortality is part of your salvation package!!
Verse 5….. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
The word prepared means fashioned! He fashioned us for immortality when He created us. And another meaning of the word prepared is FINISHED! I love that! We were fashioned in immortality…. And our immortality is a FINISHED work!! Therefore, we can rest in our immortality, knowing that we were co-raised with Him and death WAS swallowed up in resurrection life! And we are NOW co-seated with Him, resting in our immortality!
Paul says the reason we groan is that we long to be clothed with our habitation from on high. In other words, we groan because we see ourselves as naked thinking that we are mere mortal men. But how can we be? He is our habitation, and we are His! ONE! He lives IN us! He clothes us! We are clothed IN His righteousness, IN His immortality. We can’t be anymore clothed with our habitation from on high than we already are right now. Because we can’t be any more ONE than we already are!
And He gave us the Spirit as a guarantee. Some translations say as a guarantee of what is to come – which makes it sound future. The Hebrew word for guarantee is arrabon and means to braid, as two parties intertwine. That speaks of union, of ONENESS! Our oneness with the Spirit IS the guarantee of our immortality! Why? Because the Immortal One, the Ageless One, the Eternal One lives IN us AND as He is, so are we in this world… in this physical time and space… right NOW! He is the FULLNESS that FILLS ALL in ALL!
Mirror (Eph 1:23): The completeness of his being that fills all in all resides in us! God cannot make himself more visible or exhibit himself more accurately.
BUT because we don’t think our inner man AND outer man are FULLY redeemed NOW, FULLY glorified, we live life in an awareness of perceived nakedness. Thinking in this life, we are subject to sickness and disease, because, after all, we are only mortal, having the shadow of death on our gaze (or eyelids) as Adam and Job did. Not fully realizing that Jesus thoroughly destroyed death (including all of its attributes – sickness, disease, poverty, fear, etc.) and brought to light (revealed) life and immortality (living forever; never dying!) NOW, not someday in heaven!
IT IS FINISHED!!
