GOD’S WORD FOR OCTOBER 14 ~ ~ 2 Corinthians 4:17 ~ ~ “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”

I have another chapter from John MacArthur’s book that fits this subject, before we go to Ron Rhodes, and back to Charles Spurgeon and Randy Alcorn.

The chapter subtitle is “A New Building from God”

FIRST ~ ~I want to make sure that everyone understands that these Biblical promises, statements, and scripture verses, that we talk about every day, are directed to the “saved”—-to those who have repented of their sins, knowing that Jesus Christ became man, while still remaining God, and suffered and died for your sins, becoming sin for you so that you can become His righteousness. If you understand that that is the ONLY way anyone can be saved, and if you have sincerely made the decision to repent, claim salvation, and from now on live for Christ as your Lord and Savior, then God will/has performed a wonderful work in you through the Holy Spirit, and you are a new creature. You may not feel any different, but now you can grow in your relationship with the Father through Jesus, and receive all the promises in the Bible.

John MacArthur:

Paul says that when the earthly tabernacle of our body is gone, we will receive a new building from God, eternal in the heavens. To complete 2 Corinthians 5:2 which we quoted yesterday, “…in this tent we groan, LONGING TO PUT ON OUR HEAVENLY DWELLING.” Romans 8:32 says that in heaven even our failing bodies will be redeemed – glorified. Christ himself “will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.”

(Philippians 3:21). Our groaning will be ended when we are finally clothed with a heavenly body.

A glorified body alone would be a good reason to fix all our hopes on heaven. Paul had vivid expectations as he waited for heaven. Look again at these first few verses of 2Corinthians 5:1-4:

“ 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. 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. 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.”

In this body we groan because we are burdened by sin, sickness, sorrow, and death—both our own impending death and the death of loved ones. Yet we don’t want to be unclothed. In other words, we have no ambition to become disembodied spirits. That’s not what we’re yearning for. We want both our spirits and our bodies to enter the presence of God. And that is God’s plan, too.

Some people have the notion that heaven is wholly ethereal, spiritual, and unreal. They envision it as a wispy, intangible existence in a dreamlike spiritual dimension. That is not the Biblical conception of heaven. In heaven we will have real bodies – changed, glorified, made like Christ’s resurrection body (Philippians 3:21) – bodies MORE solid than our current state, because they will not be subject to the effects of aging, injury, illness, or death. 1Corinthians 15:53-54:

“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So 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.”

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:5:

“He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee”

The Greek word translated “guarantee” is ARROBON, the same word Paul used in Ephesians 1:14, also referring to the Holy Spirit. In modern Greek a form of this ancient word is used to signify an engagement ring. In New Testament times is usually referred to a down payment or first installment on a debt – earnest money. So, the Holy Spirit is a token of God’s pledge to us that even our bodies will be made new and imperishable in the glory of heaven.

Paul brings is around to daily life in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8:

“So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 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.”

This world held no fascination for Paul. He longed for the world to come.

Do you find it difficult to say honestly that those verses express the deepest desires of your heart? There is a tendency for most of us to hold tightly to this world because it is all we know. It is familiar to us. All our dearest relationships are built here. We too easily think of it as home. So we become captive to this life.

But notice that Paul says he would rather be “at home” with the Lord. That is precisely what the Greek expression in the original text means. It is a form of the verb ENDEMEO “to be at home.”

We are most truly “at home” only when we are finally with the Lord. Paul understood this. And the knowledge that he belonged in heaven was the very thing that helped him endure the struggles of this life.

We too should long to be clothed with our heavenly form. We should look forward to being absent from the body and present with the Lord. We should become more preoccupied with the glories of eternity than we are with the afflictions of today.

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John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

2 Corinthians 4:17

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

Colossians 1:3-4

Our hope is laid up for us in heaven.

Revelation 3:5-9

The one who conquers will be clothed in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life.

1 Thessalonians 4:17

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

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