Absent from the Body; Present with the Lord

Will God’s comfort be enough when I face my last breath?

When our “earthly house” collapses, God tells us we will have a new house, “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (5:1). We can know this for sure because the Spirit of God makes it real to us. You can be equally sure God’s comfort will carry us through the process.

You know well that you are more than a body. You’ve got an outward person and an inward person that is spiritual. The outward perishes, but the inward is renewed day by day. When we die, our body is put in the grave, but every believer steps out of their body and out of time and enters eternity with Christ. Won’t it be wonderful to leave these weak and frail bodies and slip into our new bodies? Death will be swallowed up by everlasting life once and for all.

When we leave this body, we’ll be “present with the Lord” (5:8). Our soul doesn’t die. If we are to go to be with Christ, our body must be changed. Those who are alive when Jesus calls us to the clouds won’t go through death, but their bodies will still need to be changed. (See1 Corinthians 15:51-53.)

This is all good news; we need never despair, having confidence in what God tells us is ahead for us.

On that day, we’ll each stand before God and give an account of our lives. This should motivate us to serve Him today so that when we stand before Him on that day, He will be able to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).

This judgment seat, called the bema, is only for believers. It’s not to judge your sin, since Jesus fully paid for it on the Cross. This judgment is to reward how we lived the Christian life. If you are a believer, your name is written in the Book of Life, and you already have eternal life. The Great White Throne judgment of Revelation 20:11-15 is where the unsaved will stand in judgment of their sins.

Without Christ, we are all doomed sinners on the way to hell. The only solution for all is the gospel of Jesus Christ. What we need is Jesus! And we have Jesus. His love pushes us out, motivating us to give out the Word of God.

And the good news is if we are in Christ, we are a new creation (5:17). We leave the old things like our sin and this world system behind. Now we are identified with the glorified Christ, and we belong to Him.

As a new creation, we are reconciled to God. Reconciliation goes one step further than salvation, one step further than just having our sins forgiven. Reconciliation means we have a completely changed relationship with God. As a holy God, He needed to do something about our sin. That’s why He gave His Son to die on our behalf (see also Colossians 1:20-22 and Philippians 2:10). We stand in a different place with God because Christ died for us.

Today God stretched out His arms to a lost world, “You can come to Me.” It makes no difference who you are, you can come to Him. Now He reaches out to anyone who will come to Him. You don't have to do anything to win God over. He is not angry with you. He doesn’t hate you. God loves you. You don't have to shed tears to soften His heart. He wants to save you. Why? Because Jesus Christ took your hell so you might have His heaven. He did that for you.

Next: Don't be a Christian unless you mean it. What does it look like to be satisfied in God?