2 Corinthians, 5:1-4
Jim Pool · Oct 17, 2004
2 Corinthians (2004-05), No. 16
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262314182099

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Chapter 5, 2 Corinthians verses 1-4 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, will 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, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life."

That's what we have this morning. So, just want to kind of look at this in context a little bit, kind of get the flow of what Paul is talking about here. So, in light of the thoughts on afflictions and sufferings that we've been talking about for a number of weeks, which I found to be extremely encouraging, the things that Hal and that Bob have been teaching and sharing through those passages. Paul introduces the truth here of the earthly body and the spiritual body, and it just kind of seems to make sense that he's talking about how to practically, on a daily basis, deal with trials and sufferings and afflictions. Respond in the Spirit and don't respond in the flesh and will be encouraged through the life of Christ. And now he talks about, okay, now you have this earthly body and now you have this building or this house from God. So it seems to me that this is the next logical step that he has in light of what he's been talking about previously. So let's just look at this a little bit.

He says that the earthly The earthly body is our bodies of flesh and bones here and now. When he talks about, for we know that if the earthly tent, the earthly body, which is our house, is torn down, that's right here and now. That's what we're talking about. Literal, physical, here we are, here I stand, and there you sit. Everybody else in this church building this morning is in their earthly body. That is what he's talking about.

And the spiritual body is what he's referring to when he says, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. The spiritual body, which we also already have here and now, yet it will not become experiential for us until we die or when the Lord returns at the rapture.

Just kind of giving an introduction of where we're going to be going this morning. We're going to dissect that a lot and hopefully see it clearly. Okay because it says that it can be dissolved. We have a building or mine says we have an earthly tent which is our house is torn down. We have a building from God. So that means that it can be dissolved as the KJV uses the word or torn down. True. Not made with hands, right. Does it continue on in the other verses? If we look in verse 2 it says in this house we groan. My Bible says eternal house in heaven not built by humans. Go ahead Bob.

I was just going to make a point that isn't the Greek best translated as death or dissolve? Right, that's right. So Marilyn, you know the idea of a house dying, a physical structure dying is probably, that's really true that the Greek is best translated as death rather than dissolve. That's right. Sure. Right. Sure.

It talks about in verse 2 also, in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. And then in the context, the context flowing down, we've been talking about these trials and these sufferings and these afflictions that we have in our earthly bodies. And so he's coming down here, I just think that's that's what he's what he's referring to there. So. But good question. Just basic observation. Are we are we square on that? We're going to get there. Yeah. I just wanted to give us kind of a overview of where we're going this morning. And so we're going to can't wait that long.

Which is which is great. Therefore, we do not need to lose heart. Because of what it is that these verses have explained to us, we have this earthly body, but God has given to us this spiritual body. We do not need to lose heart. And so these two bodies are described. That's the way that I see these four verses kind of playing out. That's kind of the big picture of what we have before us this morning, the direction that we are going to be going. Let's jump in a little bit further here. So, let's go to verse 1.

For we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down or dissolved, as the KJV reads, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, and eternal in the heavens. And the first thing that I want us to do is simply to just look at the differences, kind of just to compare and contrast The earthly body, or the earthly tent, and we're going to explain those terms a little bit about the earthly tent and the building from God in a second, but just for initial observations this morning, let's just compare these two things here. The earthly body is said to be torn down, or to be dissolved there in verse 1. It groans to be clothed with the spiritual body, it talks about that in verse 2. For indeed in this house we groan, And then in verse 4, indeed we are in this tent, we groan, and then it says being burdened is also another characteristic of the earthly body. And then it says that it is temporal or mortal, probably should have put, would have been better to have put mortal there under the earthly body. So then when we see a building from God, what we're calling a spiritual body here this morning, the characteristics of it As Wayne pointed out to us, it is not made with hands. In verse 1, it says we have a building from God not made with hands.

It is eternal in the heavens. It swallows up mortality. It is eternal and it's immortal. So when we see the comparison and contrast, one is torn down or dissolved and one is not made with hands and it's eternal. It cannot be torn down and it cannot be dissolved. one is temporal or mortal, and one that swallows up mortality, it's eternal and immortal. So there's just some basic observations between the two, the earthly body and the spiritual body, as we begin to look at this passage.

They were created by God, but they came from the earth. And we're going to look into that a little bit more. We know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, earthly meaning that it came from the earth. I mean, God created it, you're exactly right, but he used the dust of the ground, and then he breathed life, and then he took the rib from Adam and he made it to woman. So it came from the earth, right?

Any thoughts there? We don't want to... Right. I see. We don't want to say that God didn't create man. He certainly did, but it's from the heat. He used the earth. He took the dust of the earth. Not made with not made with hands. Yeah. The N.A.S. says a house not made with hands. The KGB reads not made with human hands. Is that right? The N.I.V. says. OK. Yeah. It says not not made with hands with the N.A.S. and the KGB reads. OK.

What I want to do next is is to is to compare just some observations here. with a passage in 1 Corinthians. So let's look at this passage in 1 Corinthians. And let's read through this. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Again, when you look at any kind of passage script you want to observe, interpret, and apply the passage. So we're just simply observing these passages and then we're going to hopefully look to interpret and have God make some sense of these things for us. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and start in verse 35. Bob, would you read this for us?

Some man will say, how are the dead raised up and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not made alive except it dies. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be but a bare grain, it may be a chance of wheat, or of some other grain.

But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed its own body. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fish, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial. that the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for one star different from another star in glory.

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

Okay, now let's go and read verses 51 through 53. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Okay, great, thank you.

So we're comparing here the natural body with the spiritual body. And so when we look at these comparisons, we see that the natural body is sown a perishable body, where the spiritual body is raised an imperishable body. The natural body is sown in dishonor, and the spiritual body is raised in glory. The natural body is sown in weakness, and the spiritual body is raised in power. The natural body is perishable, the spiritual body is imperishable, and the natural body is mortal, and the spiritual body is immortal. Just some simple observations of comparing and contrasting the two there in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

Yes. Sure. Yeah, you know, there were his His sin brought about his spiritual death, where he was separated from God, and then it brought about his physical death, and then his eternal, or his eventual... And I have to wonder... I know that after he sinned, you know, he separated from God, death was inevitable. And so I guess you would say then he was, I'm kind of thinking out loud, he was sown a perishable body, which almost precludes that he would sin. That he wouldn't sin? He would sin.

What I think we're getting at here is that it talks about the seeds going into the ground and then being raised up. That which he sowed does not come to life unless it dies. So our human bodies, our natural bodies here in flesh and bones are perishing. All of us are experiencing that. So when we go into the, when we die, when we go into the ground, we're sown, put into the ground, sown a perishable body. But when we're raised up, we're raised up an imperishable body. When we, how?

Jack's question goes back to Adam. Okay. In terms of those words that Bob read on the seed, come to life here now. But the thing is there was a tremendous transformation in Adam and his body after the fall. It became perishable. That's right, yeah. It was not perishable prior to the fall. Right. So prior to the fall, yeah.

The seed, if it does not die, abides alone. As you were reading there from the first Corinthians. And so I guess, as I think out loud here, it seems the. Which word I want to. It's the father. It's just part of who and what he is. I mean, it's a law that the seed that did die not abideth alone. Yeah, I think that. And putting things together. Yeah. Yeah. Good.

So, I think it's important to point out the distinction there, pre-fall, the state of which Adam was in, after the fall is the natural body, and then once we are in our resurrection bodies is described here as the spiritual body. Now, it's easy for us, and Jack, I'm not sure if this is kind of where you're at, but it's easy for us to take the in a sense the spiritual identification truths of 1st Adam, 2nd Adam and apply them. But really what we're talking about here this morning in this passage in 2nd Corinthians talks about our literal earthly bodies of which we're in this morning and then this spiritual body that we have with God here and now in a literal physical sense. It's easy for us to kind of get that confused and it can kind of muddy the waters for us a little bit. Does that make sense? To confuse the earthly body with the spiritual body in an identification spiritual sense. But I think we need to keep it at just a simple flesh and bone literal sense. This morning is what these four verses are talking about. Alright. So let's go back to verse 1. Let's look at this more closely.

2 Corinthians 5.1 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. So the earthly carries with it the idea on earth and it is from the earth, is what the word there is talking about. If we have this earthly house or the word tent residence, so what we get if we combine those two words there, this earthly house, combine these two together, it's an It's on earth residence is what we're getting at. And we have that. We have this on earth residence of our bodies.

It's going to be dissolved. It's decaying. It's groaning. It's a burden for this other body. And then the word tabernacle here is a tent or booth. And again, that's temporary. It carries with it the idea of being temporary. It will eventually be dissolved. A tent. All of us have probably been camping some time in our life. It's definitely not a permanent type of residence. We take it up and we put it down. We put it up and we take it down kind of thing.

And this is all talking about our fleshly bodies, our physical bodies of flesh and bones here. This earthly house of this tabernacle I think is the way that the KJV reads that. So, let's continue down to the next phrase. We have a building. a building from God. So we have this. It's in the present active indicative. We are right now, we are having right now a reality. We have it.

Now I found it to be very interesting. I've never, I had honestly never given that any thought until I came across and was studying through this passage. I knew there was a future eternity with God. But I had never considered that right now, I mean at this moment, while we're here in this room, that we are having, in a reality, a building from God. So that kind of blew me away a little bit.

So the next question was, what in the world does that mean? Well hopefully, God will communicate that to us this morning and we can make some sense of it. And then secondly, we have a building from God, we have it, it's a structure, And it's from God. That's the source. It's out from God. I think the KJV reads, a building of God, meaning out from God, with God as its source. So as we kind of break that down a little bit, that hopefully becomes a little clearer to us.

So then it says, not made with hands, and it is eternal in the heavens. It's not made from the earth. It's made from God, it's out from God, comes from God, with God as its source, and it is eternal in the heavens, and it will not be dissolved. It cannot be dissolved.

Does this make a little more sense? Are there any thoughts or questions? About this first? Yeah, Bob. Just thinking forward, I think this is a great insight you just brought up, and I must admit, I've not seen this before either, but the question is, if we have these spiritual bodies now, fact present, active.

Were those there before we were saved? I mean, if our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ is written in the eternal books, is the body, I mean, for the unbeliever then, I mean, I don't want to get into that issue in terms of who gets saved. The issue is, are these bodies always in existence? Or do they get created at the time we put our faith in? That's a good question.

I'll shoot from the hip and without researching it, I would say that I think they probably were. Because God chose us and Him before the foundation of the world. And were we positioned in Christ before the foundation of the world in our spiritual identification with Christ? Sure.

So now we're talking about in more of a literal physical, spiritual body for future, for eternity, I'd say, I would say yes. If one of our eternal position, identification with Christ is true, then probably the second is also, but I wouldn't go to the mat on that until next week.

What's that? Does the unbeliever have that eternal? The spiritual. Right. Right. Does the unbeliever have that spiritual body? I would say no. I'd say no. Right. I think there's plenty of space. We get into that time problem again, don't we? That's right. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Just to go back to Marilyn's question, because she's still pondering.

I'm not made with hands. So if you go back to Genesis, where God formed man out of the dust of the ground, in the Hebrew word there's yatsar, which means to sculpt, which implies hands, that God's hands. That's not human. Mine says human, maybe that's not human. I don't know why I added that word. Wayne? The interesting thing is that I was always thinking, you know, he's going to reconstruct the old body from, I mean, a remake of the old.

But that's not the case. That's right. The worry about whether I should be cremated or whether I should be, kind of goes away doesn't it? Right. Because there's no more use for any of that. Well there is a resurrected body like what Marilyn is alluding to. And it's already there. Yeah, well we're going to get to that. We're going to cover that thought right there. It's a good continuing thought.

This is an interesting time, isn't it? As I spoke the past couple of weeks with interesting stuff. And so we're sorted out as best as the Lord lets us. And as the Bereans were with Paul, search the Scriptures and see if what Paul was saying was true or not. So that's kind of where we're at. All right. And I'm trying to keep it as simple as I can. Just trying to break it down and break it down. And so this next slide again, is trying to keep this thing as simple as we can, and then we're going to really dive in. So just some observations again.

The earthly house is a residence, comes from the earth, made from the earth, will be dissolved and torn down, and then the building from God. It's a residence, comes from God, made without hands, eternal, and it's in there. Now notice that they're both residences, but the only thing that was similar, as we looked at both of these, both residences. So I think it's interesting that we need to eventually decide what are they residences of? If they're both a residence, what are they a residence of?

So just go to your next slide there. What is this building of God? Now we alluded to the answer there a little bit. It's our future spiritual body. Or perhaps past, right? What do you mean? Like the question I just asked you, has that body been there from time to eternity? Right, well it's future in the sense that we haven't experienced it yet. As far as we know. As far as we know, right. Okay.

If we know, that's right, it is there. Let me just read the verse again and kind of get our bearings. For we know that if this 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. So what is this building from God? It's our future spiritual body. It's a residence made by God without hands, eternal in the heavens, a building or structure that is ready for us, our future spiritual body.

That's the best definition that I was able to come up with chatting with Hal about this a good bit. And we have it. It's a residence, it's there right now, it's a reality, it's made by God, eternal in the heavens, a structure that is ready for us, right this very moment, but we have not yet, spiritually, entered into it. So, what does it mean that we are right now, having it, that it is a reality? Okay? Is this talking in a spiritual sense or a literal sense of the literal earthly body sense? Well, it's in the present tense, meaning that we are right now having it. Okay? See, we have a building from God. We have it. Right now, we have it. So it means it's there, we've talked about that answer a good bit.

So, what is the earthly body the residence of? Now, right here, right now, what are our earthly bodies the residence of? Talk about the different parts of man. Right, exactly. But man is made up of three parts, the body, the soul and the spirit, and also the Holy Spirit. and dwells us and resides within us, sure. So the earthly body is the residence of man's soul, our human spirit, and then also the Holy Spirit, which will abide with us forever. It talks about that in John chapter 15. Now let's go back to Mark's question.

If the body is eternal, It's always existed. How about man's soul and... If the body is the residence of man's soul and spirit, then, and if the body, if the spiritual body was in existence, you know, from eternity past, how about man's soul and spirit? Well, they always do the same thing. existence in the eternally past?

Or did they come about at conception? I always thought we were finite beings. We were created. I mean, we had a starting point, just not an ending point. Right. Here, even though God saw in from the eternally past to this point, we still didn't exist until... That's right. So, thought back there? I think this is how cults get started. You slip in a little bit of error, and then everybody goes off the deep end. In John chapter 14, Christ said, Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go and prepare a place for you. First of all, those places weren't prepared before the foundation of the world. Christ wouldn't have said, I go and prepare a place. Secondly, I believe this verse is speaking positionally, not traditionally. And I don't think there's any bodies up there waiting for us to come. I think that Christ has prepared for us in heaven, our heavenly body, so to speak, that will be there and ready and waiting for us when we get there.

But it ties right in with the verse that Bob read in the first part of the hymn, that until we die, the new birth cannot happen. So until we die, that new body does not exist. The old body has to die before the new body physically exists. I think the three tie together to say that I think we're off on the wrong track here, that there is no body up there waiting for us. There's no new body there, and I think the present tense in this particular case is speaking of our position of truth and the period. That's all. Okay. That's one version of the painting. Okay. Bob?

Larry, what do you do with Ephesians 1-4, where it says, according to, as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation, of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Is that prophetic only then? I think we were all chosen before the foundation of the world. God knew who we were. So Hal's question then, man's soul, human spirit, I mean the relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ was destined before the foundation of the earth. Oh, there's no question about that. I don't believe there's a lot of empty bodies up in heaven waiting for us to go up there and join our heavenly body. But there'd be room for them, right? Christ said he's going to prepare a place for us.

I just got this little picture when we were talking here. Well, let's, let's say it's the birth of Bob Redd. Then you plant the seed and that seed has to die. And then he says that the new growth in that seed is totally different than the seed. And I thought, I think that's the picture that we have is we have these earthen bodies that we're trying to get out of. And we can rest assured, we have a promise of God that there is a prepared body up there. I just think we're kind of losing it. 1 Corinthians 15, what he just read, as the last trump. Right. The incorruptible. Right. Corruptible to the incorruptible. That's right. I'm happy with that point. That's right.

If we follow our present thoughts, I was also thinking about that. That means it's a rapture again. Christ has to bring all of our new bodies back with him instead of changing the ones we have. And I think really that we're putting, we're trying to put a human thing on something that's spiritual there. And I just really don't like this picture.

Okay. Let's, I respect that completely. Yeah. Let's continue through, because those are good thoughts. The idea of right now having, that's what we're talking about. Some of the other verses I think are going to help us to ask more questions, which I think will cause us to at least consider some other conclusions. But I completely respect what you're saying there. So verse 2 says this, let me just read verse 2 for us again.

For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. Okay, so we're kind of debating about what is this dwelling from heaven. That's kind of a source question here this morning, thus far anyway. So in verse 2 it says, in this earthly body we long to be clothed with the spiritual body, the imperishable body, the one that's raised in glory, raised in power, imperishable and immortal. It's kind of pulling out our observations from what we have talked about in the past.

We're longing to be clothed, or we're groaning to be clothed with that. Now, interesting questions I think we need to ask again from verse 3. And as much as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. So what in the world is it talking about here that we will not be found naked? That was a question that I definitely was asking as we were observing the text.

It took a while to come to a possible conclusion. We'll just throw this out as a possible conclusion and you guys can grapple with it this week and this month and this year and see where the Lord settles us all. That's really where we're at. It's a tough passage to get a handle on.

Wouldn't it just be the physical suffering? Being cold and being hungry. that, let's see, read the verse again, it says, and as much as we haven't put it on will not be found naked. See that's, when we put this on, this future dwelling from God, we will not be found naked. That's, and what does that mean? Let me just throw this out, to what, kind of to, a couple thoughts for us to all grapple with.

So what defines nakedness? We won't be found naked, what is it that defines nakedness? When the body is separated from the soul and spirit, was one conclusion that we came up with as what defines nakedness. Right now, man is made up of the body, the soul, the spirit, and is indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

But also could it refer back to Adam? How, you know, when he, after the fall, he realized his nakedness. I mean, could it in any way be relating to that? You know, that we no longer will be in Adam and in that fallen state. But we're already no longer in Adam. Well, but I mean, in reality, we're here because we're no longer here. You mean the removal of the sin nature? Right. We're out of here. I mean, we don't have that sin nature hanging around anymore.

Right. It's just a thought. Could be. But the nakedness back there, is to cover up his nakedness, he took fig leaves. Right. So, it was talking about his body's nakedness, not having any clothes on. Right. Because he made clothes out of it. Yeah. Well, he didn't recognize his nakedness until he sinned. Right.

So, all I'm saying is, could this just be an analogy, or just a, just throw it out there. Sure. Absolutely. That's the first thing that hit me. Okay. Okay. You don't find that word used very often. No. That's right. But it talks about us being clothed in righteousness. Right. Something to think about. Sure. And again, in our identification with Christ, positionally, we are clothed with God's righteousness.

That's absolutely without a shadow of a doubt. No doubt about that. But is that what he's talking about here, that we will not be found naked? We already have that being clothed with God's righteousness right now. So how could we possibly ever be found naked? We can't. That's the conclusion that we would derive. Again, another possibility.

The question is, can the soul and the spirit exist without a body? That's kind of where we're going with this thing. Remember that the body is a residence of the soul, human spirit, and the Holy Spirit. That's what's happening right now. Our body, our physical body, is the residence of our soul, human spirit, So at death, the body goes into the ground, we all know that very well, and then it is separated from the soul, spirit, and the Holy Spirit.

This defines nakedness. I'm just throwing this out as a conclusion that I arrived at with some help. I'm not going to be dogmatic about it. That's what defines nakedness, is when we die, and our body is separated from our soul, spirit, and the Holy Spirit. the human spirit and the Holy Spirit have a body or casing to dwell in right now.

Once we die, the soul, the human spirit and the Holy Spirit have a body or casing to dwell in now. But when we die, once we're separated from the body, there's no structure or no building for the soul, the spirit and the Holy Spirit to be in. So Bob's question, can the soul The human spirit and the Holy Spirit exist without the body, a body, a casing to be in. That's a good question. It can, but it has no way to function. Okay. Can, but it has no way to function. Okay.

If we have defined nakedness as when the body is separated from the soul and the spirit, if that's the conclusion that we've come up for defining nakedness, and then back in verse 3, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked, having put it on, having put on the spiritual body, we will not be found naked, so then having put it on, when we die, our spiritual bodies, which we already have been given by God, receive our soul, human spirit, and the Holy Spirit so that they are not without a dwelling place or structure to be in. This way they are not naked. That make sense? The spiritual body that we have right now, already prepared, without hands, by God, eternal in the heavens, when we die, physically die, our soul, human spirit, and the Holy Spirit is combined with that spiritual body so that there's a body that the soul, the spirit, and human spirit can be in so that they're not naked.

That's one possibility, one option, one interpretation that we have come up with for this passage. There's probably thought. Bob? I'll just go back to Larry here a little bit. Again, full-fledged cultism here for sure. So if and when we die, then God's in the business then of making these spiritual bodies. That's your view. So this idea of having a spiritual body is not reality. So the texts were misinterpreting that, that these bodies exist now. I think it's back to what someone said I think last week. We operate on a different timetable than God operates on.

God sees us from eternity to eternity, eternity without end. And some of these verses I think, don't get me wrong, I believe that we should always interpret literally if possible, okay. I just think that once you take this verse and we, I said a small amount of there.

Now we know God has created a spiritual body for us. Now we don't know for sure exactly in God's timing whether the spiritual body is there or not. But what I said when I, what I said, Then we've got to be careful, and we've got to say, okay, if they're spiritual bodies or they're non-spiritual bodies, if they were created for the foundation of the world, and we have unbelieving bodies. That's why I said we're going too far when we start speculating.

Right, I agree with that. Right. That's right. Stay focused on what's said. That's right. Now, what's not said, and what's said very clearly, and it ties in with what was read in 1 Corinthians, what I just read in John, The fact that we know Jesus Christ when he left here after he died, he said he wanted to prepare a place for us.

We don't quite understand exactly what that is, and this verse I think clarifies that. That we have, and I think the point of this is, is that we are groaning to get out of this physical body that's limiting us here, and we know that God has something better for us.

And we've been in this physical body ever since Adam's fall, we were born in sin. And our life is not what it could be. We're living in a temporary dwelling, a temporary tent, because of the fall, and that's all going to be changed at some point in time. I'm just saying, I just think we need to, and I hate to use the word spiritualize this, because I don't think we should. I think that is a reality, that we have a heavenly body, that I'm groaning to be in along with all other believers. I don't know exactly how to define that, but I think where we miss the boat is we I think we're trying to understand something that's beyond our comprehension. That's just my feeling about it.

Well, the church is discussed as the bride of Christ. Right, sure. And Revelations 21 says, And I saw the body, I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. So I think Verne alluded to this a little bit when he taught Revelations. The question is, are we thinking in a human sense of what would we have, what would we make for us to have in heaven?

We would think of individual bodies that move around on their own. But that's our brain working, not God's brain. And I think Brent alluded a little bit to the concept that maybe our bodies are of the believers that are taken up as the church, are built into, are the New Jerusalem. They're not independent. They're a unit. And so, you know, you just get to a different. Could this be happening? Could this be put together one by one? Or does this happen at the rapture?

Right. Right. Right. Sure. As he says here, whether it's when we're not thinking of it with an internal right, we start dragging along our human concepts of existence that probably have no meaning there. Good thoughts. Let's just look at the last slide. And when I was going through, you know, we've laid out the lessons here and I. I said, man, I got that passage, good.

Grief, you know. So it is a tough passage, I'll make no bones about it. But we need to grapple with it. You guys conspired against me, huh? But we want to interpret God's word literally. We want to let the text speak for itself. And that's definitely definitely where we are at.

So verse 4, For indeed, while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. So we are groaning, many folks have mentioned that this morning, to be clothed with our spiritual body, which will swallow up mortality.

This ties in a little bit with a couple of questions that were mentioned earlier. We receive Our resurrection body is when the Lord returns at the rapture. A couple of people have talked about that. And here we receive the physical flesh and blood body that will be joined and give form to the spiritual bodies. If that's kind of the thought that we've been presenting and talking about this morning. The spiritual body, after our death, if it's our soul, our human spirit, and the Holy Spirit, at the rapture, it's joined together with a resurrection body. you know, that will be together with the word forever, and at that point they're all combined together.

Question. Yeah. You say flesh and blood today. Uh-huh. Christ had a resurrected body with no blood. Okay. Okay, maybe I shouldn't have put the word blood in there, but a fleshly body because Thomas was able to, you know, put his finger in the nail holes of his hands and things like that. Right. Freshly, but no blood. That's right. Able to penetrate walls and walk. That's right. Just like the resurrected body that Christ had.

Thank you, Doug. So just one concluding thought of encouragement for us. All this, by God's grace, enables us to not lose heart. Continuing the thought from chapter 4, verse 16. Do not lose heart, because the inner man is being renewed, and we have a building from God, where we will eventually be with God forever. In light of the trials, sufferings, and afflictions that he's been talking about in this passage that we've been talking about for two months now, this is our future state in our earthly spiritual bodies. However, God settles it for us in the future, and I think we can find a lot of encouragement in that for us.

So let's pray. Father, thank you for this morning. tough words which you have inspired and given to us in these four verses and just let us grapple with them and completely our dependency is upon you as stated earlier that your Holy Spirit leads us and guides us into all truth and that is what we want to know but thank you for the encouraging thought that you have not just left us in the state of being on this earth Constantly bombarded by our trials and sufferings and afflictions, but you have you've made words here that we already have in a promise of a future with you where we will be out of these bodies which are groaning and are Decaying but we will in time be with you in eternity and in a new body And thank you for that hope and for that promise and encouragement Lord in your name. We pray amen