In the first part of Chapter 5 I have some good news and some not so good news depending on how you look at it. The good news is that
you’re due for an upgrade. The bad news: you’re being audited.
First, the upgrade. We talked last time about the fact that to God we are ordinary clay jars into which God places the most wonderful
treasure imaginable—His character and reality. Sometimes those clay jars are mistreated by this age and the difficulties God allows into
our lives. But though we develop cracks, it only serves to shine out the glory of God from within us as people around us see us trust in
the Lord no matter what. And God makes us stronger for having gone through these difficulties.
Paul says that God is working something permanent in us—an eternal weight of glory. So we should focus on that, not just on the
circumstances around us. The stuff we endure here is temporary. The stuff of heaven is permanent.
We experience the temporary nature of this age all of the time. Nothing seems very permanent around us, does it? Stuff wears out. People
wear out. So Paul gives the Corinthians something to hang their hats on—the promise not only of this “eternal weight of glory” but an
eternal and all-together body to enjoy it in.
1
The Corinthians had a tough time understanding the resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15 , Paul had to explain it to them because they had
started believing that only the soul survived death and not the body. But a bodily resurrection is central to our faith. They were
apparently greatly influenced by the Greek idea that body is bad and soul is good and that at death the soul is released into eternity and
the body goes away.
In fact, the body isn’t done away with but it is changed, transformed, glorified. Paul uses the picture of a tent: a temporary structure
that is folded up and put away. In contrast, the new body we get is permanent and will last forever. It isn’t “made with hands” i.e.: human
reproduction, but made by God.
God wants you fit to live in a new dimension. Your old style body can’t exist in heaven—its physical properties won’t allow it. But make no
mistake, you will have a body, and it is connected to the old. Jesus, in His resurrected body, was recognizable (though He hid is identity
very easily as well). His new body could eat like the old body, but it could also pass through walls and doors and disappear at will. And
it could not be destroyed!
2 - 3
I love this picture of us “groaning” in this body. The older I get the more I groan and creak and crackle. Some of my tent seams are frayed
and leak and my tent pegs are crooked! The word can mean to groan like someone in pain, or to sigh. Either one works. We groan because of
the pain we endure, especially if we are undergoing difficulties. We sigh because we long so much to be released.
We long to “put on our house from heaven.” In some ways this reminds me of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” The host, Ty Pennington,
surveys the old house and notes the horrible condition it’s in. Then he sends the family away on vacation and they tear down the old one,
rebuilding a gorgeous mansion on the same lot. So when God is ready, He’ll shout “Good morning Pastor Tom!” and my old body will be rebuilt
into a wonderful mansion—and it won’t take seven days either!
The idea of being “found naked” in verse 3 comes back to the Greek idea of the soul being released from the body. There won’t be any naked
souls flying around without bodies. The next age is every bit as material as this one—even more so.
4 – 5
We groan in this body because in reality as a Christian you are a half-breed, a hybrid, a schizophrenic. God has placed His Spirit in our
hearts as it says in verse 5 as a “down payment.” Later in this chapter he’ll talk about this as “old things have passed away and look, new
things have come.” (verse 17). We have a new heart, a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26 ). God’s Spirit is building in you an eternal
character. But that character lives in an old style body. This character is actually fit for the new body—described in verse 4 as being
“clothed.” The new body is so much better than the old that we will seem naked by comparison. The old style body often fights with the new
style character building within us. So …
In the meantime we need to keep something in mind.
6 – 8
These two verses can seem confusing. Verse 6 is pretty straightforward: to be in the old style body is to be physically absent from Jesus.
Verse 7 indicates that despite what our physical eyes tell us, our faith in the facts of the resurrection tell us that Jesus will raise us
after we die into new-style bodies and so we need not fear any trial that we face.
Verse 8 is a little more confusing but basically says that when we leave this body we go to be with the Lord, but how? There are at least
four theories about what happens when we die:
Soul sleep – we go into unconsciousness until the resurrection.
Purgatory – a place of refining for sinning believers
Immediate resurrection – that we move out of the time-space continuum and immediately to the resurrection of the dead
An intermediate state – not the full resurrected body but present with the Lord in some expression of our body but not the fully
glorified one.
This last one seems to have gained momentum recently, but Paul’s point is that we can have confidence that when we leave this life we go to
be with Jesus.
So then back to Paul’s point in these chapters:
9
Our aim is to be transformed into His character and used for His pleasure, not to glorify ourselves like the false teachers. In fact, the
false apostles in Corinth ought to have read this next part and shuddered in their sandals.
10
We’ll spend the majority of our time here in this verse. The “judgment seat of Christ” is from the Greek word Bema. This is the not so good
news depending on whether you lived your life to please the Lord, or yourself and the values of this age. The judgment seat was a place
where speeches were made, judgments handed down, and where winners in the games received their rewards.
First let me say that this is not the Great White Throne judgment of Revelation 20:11 . Salvation is not in view here. Jesus paid for our
sins apart from our works, period! But let me also say that I believe most likely the judgment seat is not just about rewards, based partly
on this verse right here.
I think perhaps the best words to describe what will happen is either “evaluation” or “audit.” Jesus will evaluate our lives and what was
done for and in the Lord and what was done in and for ourselves (that is, our old nature) only. Another way to look at it: what was done
for this age and what was done for the next age.
I picture Him sitting down with us with a 3D holographic record of our deeds, words, thoughts, and motivations. We’ll look over each
portion of our lives and Jesus will point out the things that went well, and the things that did not.
In 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 , Paul describes building on the foundation of Christ. Building with gold, silver, and costly stones is the one
who cooperates with the work of the Holy Spirit empowering and motivating to do things that will have eternal benefit. Building with wood,
hay, and straw is focusing on this age (like the actions and motivations of the false teachers who wanted glory and honor here and didn’t
care about the gospel or building an eternal character which runs counter to the values of this age). See also Romans 14:8-10 .
At this evaluation, all of the things done for this age will dissolve away, only the stuff built for eternity, for the next age, will
survive. Then the Lord will reward us for those things done through His power for eternity. The Bible describes those rewards as “crowns”
(1 Corinthians 9:25 crown imperishable, 2 Timothy 4:8 crown of righteousness, James 1:2 and Revelation 2:10 crown of life, 1 Peter 5:4
unfading crown of glory). In Revelation 4 we see the elders taking crowns and casting them before the throne of God—signifying it was
really Him doing it all.
The extent to which we cooperated with the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts will determine the tenor of that evaluation.
Notice then how Paul proceeds:
11a
The “then” in this verse refers to the previous material. So, knowing that we will be evaluated for what we’ve done, either good or bad,
should engender in us a fear of the Lord. The Greek word is phobos which forms the root of where get the English phobia. It can range from
abject terror to reverential awe. The more we fight against God working in us the more toward terror we should swing. The more we cooperate
the more towards reverential awe seeing God work His holiness in us, in part through the difficulties he allows into our lives.
The New Living Translation says: “Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others.” Everyone
faces a judgment. For some there are eternal consequences and so we should try to persuade as many as we can to seek the Lord. And again,
the focus is not on outward appearance and the values of this age, but inward realities of the heart and a character made alive by bowing
to Jesus Christ.
Conclusions
So how should we live then, in light of this? It depends on what you want to hear.
I don’t know about you, but I want to hear: (Matt 25:21 ) 'Well done, good and faithful servant’ NKJV
And really, that’s what it’s all about, being faithful, not perfect, or even productive.
1 Corinthians 4:2-5 In this regard, it is expected of managers that each one be found faithful. 3 It is of little importance that I should
be evaluated by you or by a human court. In fact, I don't even evaluate myself. 4 For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I
am not justified by this. The One who evaluates me is the Lord. 5 Therefore don't judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who
will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from
God.
So if faithfulness to what God wants us to do is the key, how does that work?
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His creation—created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in
them.
Are you in a place to be available?
Are you listening?
Are you pliable?
We need to realize too that only Christians get this sort of evaluation. But there is another evaluation that everyone else must undergo.
It’s called the Great White Throne judgment.
Revelation 20:11-15 Then I saw a great white throne and One seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found
for them. 12 I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened,
which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books. 13 Then the sea gave up its
dead, and Death and Hades gave up their dead; all were judged according to their works. 14 Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of
fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And anyone not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Everything you ever do, say, or think is recorded in a book. Jesus will review the evil everyone has done, and then look into another book
to see if that evil was absorbed by Jesus—that’s the Book of Life.
2 Corinthians 5:21 He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
If their names are in that book then the Lamb took the blame for their evil and they are not counted. See, it’s not about doing good and
earning your way. It’s about having someone else pay for your evil and giving His goodness and His life to you.
