Looking at What We Cannot See
2 Corinthians 5
After saying: 4:18 …while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Paul goes on to describe looking at things we can not see.
The first thing we look at that we can’t see is what happens after we die.
I think it would be safe to say that most of us here do not want to die. Just to be on the safe side… how many here today want to die? I don’t believe that Paul wanted to die either, but some of the things he says here clearly indicate his willingness to die. He speaks very positively about what happens on the other side of death.
Let’s read the first 12 verses together:
Chapter 5
1For 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. 2For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4For 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. 5Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 9Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 11Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are clearly known to God, and I also trust are clearly known in your consciences.
12For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.
Now there is a lot more in this passage than just Paul talking about what happens after we die, but that is clearly in there. So without trying to unravel the arguments he is presenting to convince the Corinthian church that his apostleship is valid and his motives are pure and in line with Christ, we will spend our time focusing on what he says about what happens after we die.
But let me just say this… If Paul had not had to deal with several problems in the places where he first taught them the gospel and set up churches, we would not have this wonderful information! Most of the letters of Paul were written to deal with problems in the church! I’m sure Paul didn’t know it at the time, but God was using the struggles of the early church to supply us with all this wealth of scriptural instruction in the New Testament. And right here, while trying to defend his apostleship to this church that he had started, we learn some great insights about what happens after we die.
The Bible has a lot to say about this. The Old Testament reveals it in shadows and prophetic language.
Psalm 16:
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
11 You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Ps 23:8 last part… I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Isaiah 25: 8He will swallow up death forever,
And the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.
But when Jesus speaks in the New Testament, there is a clear and distinct word from his mouth about it.
Luke 20:34And Jesus answered and said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35“But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; 36“nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37“But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38“For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him.”
John 5:
24“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. 25“Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. 26“For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, 27“and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. 28“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29“and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
Again, Paul is very clear about the resurrection in many passages. Here’s just one more:
1 Thess 4:
14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then 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. 18Therefore comfort one another with these words.
1 Corinthians 15 is an entire chapter concerning death and resurrection hope. This is central to the Christian faith.
Let me just finish reading 2 Corinthians 5 and note carefully the connection between Jesus and us when it comes to what happens after we die.
13For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. 14For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. 16Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
This is a theologically loaded passage. I’m tempted to just dive in head first and work through this passage with you. What he says here is all about what it means that we are saved by God’s amazing gift of Jesus, what Jesus has done for us in his death, how we who experience the power of the gospel come into a living relationship with God through Jesus, and on it goes. None of these things are seen with the eyes of flesh. Not one! All we see in the flesh is a crucified carpenter’s son! Without God revealing who Jesus is and what he is doing for us in his death and what happens to him there and what happens to us there… we would be completely blind! God has to sit us down and tell it to us! He has to place teachers like Paul in place who he directly reveals this message to and we hear it from them. We either believe it and are saved so that after we die we enter glory forever in eternal life, or we do not believe it and are lost so the when we die we enter eternal condemnation for our sins that we have committed here on earth.
It’s that simple. Just look at what you can’t see! Open the eyes of faith and behold the Lamb of God! Recognize the work of God in Jesus death for you. God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Hello? Can you hear that? Will you look at what you can’t see and walk by faith into eternal life by believing in Jesus Christ fully and completely? Will you turn from temporal pleasures and sins that destroy you in repentance and look upon the love of God in Christ and fix you hopes on Jesus? Will you say in faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and your only hope for Salvation? Will you embrace his death for you in baptism and be raised, just as Jesus was raised, to walk in newness of life?
Look at what you can’t see! Walk by faith and not by sight! Set your hopes above this world. Keep your faith in the invisible God.
