Quote:
Originally Posted by Esaias
Looking forward to seeing it! Although I would note my conclusion is not based on an exegesis of the word "body", that is merely a side point. My conclusion is based on the context of the whole passage in question. But I do look forward to seeing your presentation.
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2 Corinthians 5:1-11 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Paul began by speaking of our bodies. He used the singular tense. The earthly house is the body made of the earth. And he called it a tabernacle since it is temporal, and not a HOUSE or TEMPLE that is more permanent, simply because our bodies are mortal. The house is made by God, the immortal body we shall gain in resurrection. This wording is similar to
1 Cor 15 where our resurrected bodies will be immortal and like the body of the Lord’s upon His resurrection that was spiritual.
I always remind folks spiritual things are not always non-physical as most assume. Spiritual is contrasted from nature, not from physical. Many supernatural things were very physical.
1 Cor 10 referred to very physical spiritual food and drink the Israelites enjoyed in the wilderness.
Anyway, the reason it’s called a tabernacle or house is because THE SOUL AND SPIRIT inhabit it. Souls are not meant to remain in earthly tents like our natural bodies.
Dissolved implies the earthly body shall decay in the grave, contrary to the spiritual body that is immortal and not subject to decay.
Jesus was foretold to not have his body suffer corruption. So, the body was raised and was very physical. This proves the body that came from the grave could not decay or fade away. It is a spiritual body because nature does not animate nor empower it. It is animated and empowered by supernatural life, not natural.
We read it’s not made by hands in a poetic sense of comparing what man makes to things that fail and cannot last forever. It not only abides in the natural realm as immortal when changed and made so by God in resurrection, but it can enter the heavenly realm obviously as Jesus’ body did in His ascension. Angels abide there, and we know they have bodies. We will be able to enter they and enter earth as well.
(2) For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
The first clause mentions how IN THIS we groan. That is referring to our present mortal bodies that cause us pain and suffering due to their mortality. THIS mortal body makes us cry out and long for a body that is not subject to such things like sickness and mostly death.
Then Paul used the idea of CLOTHING by saying the souls that formerly inhabited the tent of mortal body can also be considered to be naked and requiring clothing of a new more perfect body. This natural body is like a garment that can be put off.
Man is not complete without a body. And because this mortal one makes us groan, and causes us to long for something better, we want a body that is immortal. We would not want such a thing if we were never meant to be immortal. But we lost that giving cause for us to want it again.
It’s a house from heaven in the same sense Jesus’ resurrected body is said to be from heaven, though clearly physical. This is not referring to the body with which he was born as advocates of divine flesh say it is. It is His resurrected body.
The idea is also seen that Paul longed for this to occur while he was still alive, for only in that sense could a person refer to changing bodies as though changing clothing.
(3) If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
He continues the idea of the body thought of as clothing. When resurrection takes place we will not be without a permanent body. So, far the BODY refers solely to the human body as I claim your reference to being absent from the body breaks that continuity when you claim that is not the human body. You said it was singular tense, but so was tabernacle and house, and they obviously refer to the human body in the states of mortal and immortal. So that proves the singular tense in your argument does not work to say the body from which we become absent is not the human body.
(4) For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
The idea of the new body being like clothing, as well as a permanent temple, is continued.
Again, tabernacle is singular. It’s like speaking of our bodies using a singular tense in a discussion as follows: “The human body is not intended to be eternal in its current stated…” That uses the singular tense and is a perfectly sound manner of speaking in referring to the human body.
Mortality is swallowed up of life just as Paul stated in
1 Cor 15, where he also spoke of the human body being changed, not exchanged as if we drop and abandon the current body without it being altered into a new one like Jesus’ body was in His resurrection. We shall experience just what He did.
1 Corinthians 15:52-54 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. (53) For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (54) So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
Back to
1 Cor 5:
(5) Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
He said God intends us to have an immortal body as Her did Adam to begin with. It’s the original plan and it’s not abandoned. This is the same kind of statement we find also in
1 Cor 15 again. There Paul said bodies are given by God to things according to their purpose. Our bodies must be changed and made immortal so that we adapt to the existences He planned for us to experience.
That’s why the Holy Ghost baptism is called an earnest. It’s a downpayment for what we shall get later, and this later element is the immortal body and existence that can enter the heavenlies realms like angels pass between earth and heaven.
The Holy Ghost baptism is actually a guarantee we shall live eternally. And that requires a new body.
2 Corinthians 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
Paul’s confidence derives from the fact that the Holy Ghost is an earnest and guarantee of an eternal existence. And he says the body in which we are at home, that is also the same tabernacle that he started to call clothing, is the human mortal body. This proves your idea is wrong about this verse. The same HOME of the body is repeated from having been first mentioned in the first verse about the human body. It’s a tent or tabernacle, but nevertheless a HOME for the soul. So, the idea is that while we remain at home in a tabernacle that is temporal, we are simply absent from the Lord.
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