Absent from What Body?
I’ve heard the phrases “we are all God’s children” and “we are all created in the image God” several times recently, so I had to vent…
Two of the most insidious ideas that permeate the church these days are (1) that all men are created in the image of God and (2) that all men are God’s children. The second should be obvious folly to anyone who has been “born again” and realizes that we had to BECOME sons of God by faith (John 1:12; etc.) and by adoption. Despite the obvious doctrinal problem in that I still hear all men referred to in this way (“we are all God’s children”) from the lips of evangelicals.
The first, however, is more Satanic in its deception. Satan was very subtle in the garden with Eve. His misquotes of God’s Word are subtle, yet they were enough to beguile the ill-taught Eve. I believe the same is true of the oft-quoted idea the all men are “created in the image of God.” Simply put, we are not. Only Adam and Jesus (the “second Adam” and the “last Adam”) were created directly by God. They are rightly called “sons of God.” As noted we BECOME sons of God, but we are not a direct creation of God in the natural man.
Far from being made in the image of God, we are made in the image and likeness of the fallen Adam. We are the “offspring of God” only in the sense that we are the result of His creation of Adam. We are of “one blood” in Adam.
John 1:12-13 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
We are only truly “born of God” when we “believe on his name.” At that point we are a NEW CREATION, that is, a direct creation of God and thus “sons.” Our new nature is eternal and is a “partaker of the divine nature” as Peter describes it.
The failure to understand the difference between the complete lostness and corruption of the old nature that we are born with compared with the eternal and pure nature created in us by grace when we believe is at the root of many of today’s false teachings. In addition, the failure to understand this reality has many Christians trapped in a struggle to reform their flesh and troubled by doubts concerning their salvation.
They also lose sight of the hope of the incorruptible and immortal body that will be the new house of the new nature. The resurrection is the great hope of man that was won by Christ! We should be longing for the day of our own resurrection.
1 Cor 15:42-45 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It [the body] is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Paul groaned for this “spiritual body” in resurrection:
1 Cor 15:47-55 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 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. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Our victory over death does not come at death. It comes at our resuurection!
One of the most misquoted verses of the NT is a statement Paul made concerning his new body. A single verse is ripped from its context, misquoted and then misapplied. Paul groaned for his immortal body. Paul “groaned” not to be a disembodied spirit, but to be “clothed upon” with his new “house” (2 Cor 5:2). He groaned waiting for “the redemption of the body” (Rom 8:23). In this “tabernacle” we too should groan to be “clothed upon” and that mortality should be “swallowed up of life” (2 Cor 5:4).
Note how verse 8 below is often misquoted (“absent from the body and present with the Lord”) and misapplied:
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.For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 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. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
The word “rather” is key. It denotes a preference in a previous comparison. The two options clearly given in the passage are being clothed in our current earthly tabernacle versus being clothed in our new house. In either instance we are “clothed”
Note the promise hoped for and the focus of the “groaning” here again. It is to be “clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.” As we live in this current “earthly house of this tabernacle” we are “confident” that when this house is dissolved in death (in corruption) we shall not be without a house (i.e. “naked”), but the Sprit has assured us in Christ that we shall be “clothed upon” with an immortal tabernacle. That hope of resurrection has not been completely lost in the church, but it has surely been obscured. Even at Christian funerals, the hope of resurrection is either minimized or not mentioned at all. It is for this hope of resurrection that Jesus came. He is “the resurrection and the life.”
As we look at verse 8 in context we can see that Paul’s desire there is built upon his confidence in the “earnest of the Spirit” that he will someday be “clothed upon” in his “house which is in heaven.” It is not some lone statement about dieing and going in a disembodied state to be with the Lord. Christ’s victory for us in His resurrection was that He conquered the tomb. He was victorious over death (the last enemy). The glory of His resurrection is lost if we fail to see the hope of our own resurrection in His victory. He is the first fruits of
The OT saints also had this hope as exemplified by Job:
“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God…”
Job’s hope is clearly in resurrection. He does not say that when he dies that he is confident that he will see God, but “in his flesh” he will see God despite his old body being corrupted in the grave.
The Book of Genesis makes the idea that we are created in Adam’s image very clear, but people don’t want to accept it.
Gen 5:1-3 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth:
God created Adam “in the likeness of God,” but Adam’s sons (after the fall) were created is “his” fallen image. The same is true to this day. As God is eternal, so Adam would have been eternal (i.e. “in his image”). We are not eternal because we are not made in God’s eternal image, but in Adam’s image and we “shall surely die”.
1 Cor 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned…
Now that we are born again as sons of God we need to live as though our citizenship is in heaven. Note again the hope detailed in the following verse:
For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
Two of the most insidious ideas that permeate the church these days are (1) that all men are created in the image of God and (2) that all men are God’s children. The second should be obvious folly to anyone who has been “born again” and realizes that we had to BECOME sons of God by faith (John 1:12; etc.) and by adoption. Despite the obvious doctrinal problem in that I still hear all men referred to in this way (“we are all God’s children”) from the lips of evangelicals.
The first, however, is more Satanic in its deception. Satan was very subtle in the garden with Eve. His misquotes of God’s Word are subtle, yet they were enough to beguile the ill-taught Eve. I believe the same is true of the oft-quoted idea the all men are “created in the image of God.” Simply put, we are not. Only Adam and Jesus (the “second Adam” and the “last Adam”) were created directly by God. They are rightly called “sons of God.” As noted we BECOME sons of God, but we are not a direct creation of God in the natural man.
Far from being made in the image of God, we are made in the image and likeness of the fallen Adam. We are the “offspring of God” only in the sense that we are the result of His creation of Adam. We are of “one blood” in Adam.
John 1:12-13 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
We are only truly “born of God” when we “believe on his name.” At that point we are a NEW CREATION, that is, a direct creation of God and thus “sons.” Our new nature is eternal and is a “partaker of the divine nature” as Peter describes it.
The failure to understand the difference between the complete lostness and corruption of the old nature that we are born with compared with the eternal and pure nature created in us by grace when we believe is at the root of many of today’s false teachings. In addition, the failure to understand this reality has many Christians trapped in a struggle to reform their flesh and troubled by doubts concerning their salvation.
They also lose sight of the hope of the incorruptible and immortal body that will be the new house of the new nature. The resurrection is the great hope of man that was won by Christ! We should be longing for the day of our own resurrection.
1 Cor 15:42-45 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It [the body] is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Paul groaned for this “spiritual body” in resurrection:
1 Cor 15:47-55 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 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. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Our victory over death does not come at death. It comes at our resuurection!
One of the most misquoted verses of the NT is a statement Paul made concerning his new body. A single verse is ripped from its context, misquoted and then misapplied. Paul groaned for his immortal body. Paul “groaned” not to be a disembodied spirit, but to be “clothed upon” with his new “house” (2 Cor 5:2). He groaned waiting for “the redemption of the body” (Rom 8:23). In this “tabernacle” we too should groan to be “clothed upon” and that mortality should be “swallowed up of life” (2 Cor 5:4).
Note how verse 8 below is often misquoted (“absent from the body and present with the Lord”) and misapplied:
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.For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 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. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
The word “rather” is key. It denotes a preference in a previous comparison. The two options clearly given in the passage are being clothed in our current earthly tabernacle versus being clothed in our new house. In either instance we are “clothed”
Note the promise hoped for and the focus of the “groaning” here again. It is to be “clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.” As we live in this current “earthly house of this tabernacle” we are “confident” that when this house is dissolved in death (in corruption) we shall not be without a house (i.e. “naked”), but the Sprit has assured us in Christ that we shall be “clothed upon” with an immortal tabernacle. That hope of resurrection has not been completely lost in the church, but it has surely been obscured. Even at Christian funerals, the hope of resurrection is either minimized or not mentioned at all. It is for this hope of resurrection that Jesus came. He is “the resurrection and the life.”
As we look at verse 8 in context we can see that Paul’s desire there is built upon his confidence in the “earnest of the Spirit” that he will someday be “clothed upon” in his “house which is in heaven.” It is not some lone statement about dieing and going in a disembodied state to be with the Lord. Christ’s victory for us in His resurrection was that He conquered the tomb. He was victorious over death (the last enemy). The glory of His resurrection is lost if we fail to see the hope of our own resurrection in His victory. He is the first fruits of
The OT saints also had this hope as exemplified by Job:
“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God…”
Job’s hope is clearly in resurrection. He does not say that when he dies that he is confident that he will see God, but “in his flesh” he will see God despite his old body being corrupted in the grave.
The Book of Genesis makes the idea that we are created in Adam’s image very clear, but people don’t want to accept it.
Gen 5:1-3 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth:
God created Adam “in the likeness of God,” but Adam’s sons (after the fall) were created is “his” fallen image. The same is true to this day. As God is eternal, so Adam would have been eternal (i.e. “in his image”). We are not eternal because we are not made in God’s eternal image, but in Adam’s image and we “shall surely die”.
1 Cor 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned…
Now that we are born again as sons of God we need to live as though our citizenship is in heaven. Note again the hope detailed in the following verse:
For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
We look for Jesus to “change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body”!
That is your hope, Christian!
That is your hope, Christian!
posted by bleechers at
8:33 PM
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