The first 10 verses of this chapter continue from v7-18 of chapter 4. Paul is working on the theme of trusting God in the midst of trouble for the sake of the glory of the New Covenant hope. We said earlier, there are essentially three components after an introduction to the theme (2:14-3:3): promoting a glorious New Covenant (3:4-4:6); trusting God in the midst of trouble (4:7-5:10); and speaking the message of reconciliation (5:11-6:13). Sam Storms outlines this section nicely: Having shone the frailty of earthly life (4:7-15), the incomparable glory of heaven (4:16-18), Paul now displays the incorruptible life of heaven (v1-5), the intimacy of the intermediate state (v6-8), and the inevitability of divine judgment (v9-10). It’s all about trusting God for the perfection to come while in the midst of this imperfection. Paul begins to lay out the message of reconciliation as part of the New Covenant ministry in the remainder of the chapter (v11-21). Let’s take a look.
1) V1-5 – 1Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Paul knows that even if his sufferings lead to death – and his “earthly tent…is destroyed” – something far greater awaits (resurrection bodies), something eternal in the heavens – from God (a building vs. a tent). He has a hope that he would be alive when Christ returns, and Christians in every generation since Paul’s have held this same hope. Unbelievers know nothing of this hope! But Paul even says that we already “have a building from God” (v1). It’s not the language describing the immediate receipt of a glorified body, though he is likely referring to the Holy Spirit as a deposit (v5) guaranteeing the glorified body that we will receive upon death. Rather, it’s the language of certainty and permanency – it’s as good as done. Calvin suggests that Paul here refers two “clothings” given us by God. The first, justification, is the cause of the second, glorification. We could also mention a third clothing – sanctification (Romans 8:28-30).
Though much has been argued over regarding what exactly happens at death, Scripture is clear, says Storms, that “the intermediate state is consciously experienced by those who have died (2 Corinthians 5:6-8; Philippians 1:21-24; Revelation 6:9-11). It is clear both that the deceased believer is ‘with Christ’ when He comes (1 Thessalonians 4:17), and that at death he/she has ‘departed’ to be ‘with Christ’ (Philippians 1:23). It would seem, then, that some kind of existence obtains between (hence, intermediate) a person’s death and the general resurrection.”
Until then, “we groan” (v2). It’s a sigh with frustration over the weaknesses, limitations, and corruption (Romans 8:18-23) of humanity marked by the sin nature. The wicked often groan as well, unsatisfied with their earthly state. But they will flee death, not believing in Christ for the better future. Believers, on the other hand, groan, aware of the truth that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50), and that we are sojourners en route to a better place upon death or at Christ’s return. Yet, pointing to Hebrews 12:23, Robert Rayburn says, “[Even] while death is gain for the believer, there is still something unnatural and repulsive about it and that lies in the separation of body and soul.”
There will be no groaning or embarrassment at the resurrection, for then we will be clothed and not “found naked” (v3). Therefore, we should desire the resurrection life to swallow up our mortality, bringing immortality, strength, and perfect holiness for eternity. Finally, we see in v5 that God has “made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (Ephesians 1:13-14; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:16). Some may ask, “For what purpose?” And the answer is this: So that our mortality “may be swallowed up by life,” so that the new and incorruptible body will be merged with the already incorruptible soul, by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, to the glory of Jesus Christ.
2) V6-10 – 6Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7We live by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Oftentimes, people struggle so much in this life that they long for death; but at the same time, people so fear death that they would rather struggle in this life. Either way, it’s no good. Paul’s perspective is much different, just as ours should be due to the indwelling Holy Spirit. He sees the struggles of this life as a great joy, even though he is spatially – not spiritually – “away from the Lord;” he lives by faith and not by sight. And he, being already united spiritually with Christ, sees death as the vehicle transporting him spatially into His presence. Then faith will be unnecessary; he will live by sight. Either way, it’s good, though dying and being “at home with the Lord,” Paul confidently affirms, is far better (v6-8; Philippians 1:20-24). In Paul’s contrast of the seen and unseen, he again implies the doctrine of the intermediate state, which, as we noted above, says that Christians who die before Christ’s return are immediately thrust into God’s “paradise” – a pre-heaven state of Spirit-filled bliss in the presence of God, waiting to receive glorified bodies at Christ’s return.
Knowing this hope, we can be of good courage. George Herbert’s poem grasps this truth: “Death! Thou wast once an uncouth, a hideous thing; But since my Saviour’s death Has put some blood into thy face, Thou hast grown, sure, a thing to be desired, And full of grace.” Rayburn quotes John Wesley answering a question about what he would if he knew he was going to die at 12 o’clock tomorrow: “I would preach tonight at Gloucester and again tomorrow morning. After that I would ride to Tewkesbury, preach in the afternoon and meet the society in the evening. I should then repair to friend Martin’s house, as he expects me; converse, pray with the family, retire to my room at ten o’clock, commend myself to my heavenly Father, lie down to sleep and wake up in glory.” The point is that you shouldn’t do anything differently than you are planning, for your plans should already align with this perspective; you should be ready and realistic when it comes to death.
Furthermore, knowing this truth, “we make it our goal to please” God, seeking His glory above all else (v9; 1 Thessalonians 2:4). Notice this is our goal, whether living or dying – even when dead! Paul is confirming the truth that the human soul is immortal; even in our dying, we are more than conquering death through Christ who lives in us. Our motive for striving to please God while living is “the judgment seat of Christ” (v10). Storms confirms that Paul is referring here (and elsewhere – Romans 2:6; 14:12; Ephesians 6:8; Philipipans 4:17; Hebrews 13:17; Daniel 7:10; Revelation 14:13; 20:12) to degrees of reward in heaven for believers and not a determination of “in or out.” He lists 7 points from v10 to consider in regard to this judgment:
First, it is inevitable – we “must” all appear. Second, it is universal – we must “all” appear; no believers are exempt! Third, it is individual – “each one.” Fourth, the mode is to “appear;” this doesn’t refer to merely showing up, but rather being laid bare before Christ (as when in Isaiah 6:5 the prophet said, “Woe to me! I am ruined!” Literally, he means, “I am laid bare, turned inside out, fully known!”). Fifth, the identity of the place is given as “the judgment seat of Christ” (cf. Matthew 27:19; John 19:13; Acts 12:21; 18:12,16,17; 25:6,10,17; Romans 14:10). Sixth, the judge is Christ Himself. And seventh, the standard is given as “the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” This event is meant to motivate our holiness!
Rayburn sums it nicely, saying, “Is it true that there are both of these motives set before us here? The fear of exposure and the expectation of reward? Well, yes; and how utterly and honestly that is life as we have come to know it. And how wonderfully those two motives conspire to help us become more and more what we ought to be and want to be for our Savior’s sake. Perhaps, honestly, I would rather there be no such judgment. That we all be the same in heaven, all of us who have believed in Jesus Christ. But, not if the price is that I live less a life than Christ deserves from me. And, after all, it matters not what I think or want. There will be such a judgment, and we must live now reckoning with that fact. And we will not be the worse for it, but much, much the better.”
3) V11-15 – 11Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.
The “fear of the Lord” (missing out on commendation in light of v10, or reverence and humility at the thought of disciplinary action – certainly not condemnation) drives us (along with the love of Christ in v14) to holiness and evangelistic outreach (preaching reconciliation). Note that Paul equates persuasion with evangelism (Acts 17:4; 18:4; 19:8,26; 26:28; 28:23). Does this make you more likely or less likely to engage others? God knows us, as well as our motives (for we are laid bare before Him (v10)), even though the world doesn’t get us. Storms says, “In sum, it is not the commendation of men but the fear of the Lord and the constraining love of Christ which motivate and move Paul to ministry.” Calvin, pointing to 2 Timothy 1:3 and Acts 9:31, paraphrases the humble and bold Apostle Paul, saying, “As my mouth speaks to men, so does my heart to God.”
Paul hopes the Corinthians’ consciences understand him and his motives in his ministry (v12-13). The English scholar, R.V.G. Tasker put it this way: “Man’s greatest need is to know man’s greatest need.” Blaise Pascal, the great French philosopher and Christian once wrote, “There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who believe themselves sinners and the rest, sinners who believe themselves righteous.”
They may think Paul is “out of [his] mind” (Acts 26:24-25), but if so, he hopes that they realize “it is for the sake of God.” This language is also used of Jesus in Mark 3:21; it refers to extreme passion or zeal that causes others to be amazed. He’s doing just what God has instructed him to do, and he doesn’t care if he’s playing the fool for the Lord. On the other hand, if Paul is in his right mind, which he is, then it is for the Corinthians. In other words, his sane message is for them, for their reconciliation (v18-21) to God, as well as out of obligatory service to God, for His glory through them. Nicole Nordemann sings a song about being a fool for Jesus, and this is what Paul has in mind. The chorus says:“ I’ll be a fool for You, All because You asked me to. A simpleton who’s seemingly naïve, I do believe You came and made Yourself a fool for me.”
In addition to the motive of fearing God, Paul is also compelled (literally hemmed in and unable to veer right or left) to engage in his evangelical and edifying ministry by Christ’s love (v14), and he reflects on the theological implications of that, which include living not for self, “but for Him who died…and was raised again” (v15). The word choice implies that no believer could think or do otherwise than live for Him out of love for Him, primarily because He has bound Himself to us. Christ is the one who “died for all.” Paul is speaking of believers (“for you” in v13). Every believer died in Christ (v14); “He died for all” believers (v15), “that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him.” Christ died in our place, and so now we live for Him; we become Jesus to the world so they see Him in us. C.S. Lewis said, “A recovery of the old sense of sin is essential to Christianity. Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. Until we really feel this assumption of His to be true, though we are part of the world He came to save, we are not part of the audience to whom His words are addressed” [The Problem of Pain, 57].
4) V16-21 – 16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made Him who had no sin to be sin [or be a sin offering] for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Living for Christ and not for self (v15) requires a change of worldview (v16). We have a new perspective on everything and everyone. We no longer see only according to the flesh (Galatians 3:28; referring to race, socio-economic status, education level, job title, gender, etc.). Even Christ, viewed from the eyes of the sin nature, was merely a good teacher at best and a crucified and blasphemous, deluded troublemaker at worst. But from the perspective of spiritual life, He is the Son of God in power – Messiah. This new perspective proves that those in Christ are new creations (v17).
Calvin paraphrases Paul and comments: “‘If any one is desirous to hold some place in Christ, that is, in the kingdom of Christ, or in the Church let him be a new creature.’ [Paul] condemns every kind of excellence that is wont to be in much esteem among men, if renovation of heart is wanting. Learning, it is true, and eloquence, and other endowments, are valuable, and worthy to be honored; but, where the fear of the Lord and an upright conscience are wanting, all the honor of them goes for nothing. Let no one, therefore, glory in any distinction, inasmuch as the chief praise of Christians is self-renunciation.” Storms says, “Paul’s language here of a ‘new creation’ is an allusion to the ‘new heaven and new earth’ of Revelation 21-22. Simply put, the glory of the age to come has impinged upon or broken into the present. We are re-born microcosms of the eschatological macrocosm.” And lest we forget, Paul returns to his prominent theme: “All this is from God” (v18). The whole realm of salvation was conceived and is orchestrated by Him (Isaiah 65:17; Romans 11:36).
The thought of reconciliation (along with redemption and propitiation elsewhere) especially stands out to Paul (v18-19); he sees his role in Corinth to be an ambassador for Christ of reconciliation to God (Matthew 6:12; 1 John 1:9) for the Corinthians to be renewed daily. Again, Calvin paraphrases Paul and then comments: “‘If we would be Christ’s, we must be regenerated by God. Now that is no ordinary gift.’ He does not, therefore, speak here of creation generally; but of the grace of regeneration, which God confers peculiarly upon His elect, and he affirms that it is ‘of God’ [or “from God” v18] – not on the ground of His being the Creator…of heaven and earth, but inasmuch as He is the new Creator of the Church, by fashioning His people anew, according to His own image. Thus all flesh is abased, and believers are admonished that they must now live to God, inasmuch as they are a new creature. This they cannot do, unless they forget the world, as they are also no longer of the world (John 17:16), because they are of God.”
There are objective and subjective points to make about reconciliation. First, says Storms, “The objective element in reconciliation refers to the activity of God whereby His enmity or wrath against sinners is consumed by another, namely, our substitute the Lord Jesus Christ. Reconciliation, therefore, is the restoration of harmony by the removal of whatever was the cause of alienation” [Ephesians 2:3]. God does this on His own; in fact, He already has! He doesn’t count our own sins against us (v19), which is a grand part of the entire message of the gospel. Second, Storms says, “The subjective element in reconciliation refers to the fact that the activity in Christ whereby God disposed of His enmity against us must be received by faith. That is to say, we in turn, by His grace, must dispose of our enmity against Him.” Since God has made peace with the world through Christ; but the world must make its peace with God (also through Christ). Thus Paul implores the New Covenant gospel message in v20: “Be reconciled to God.”
V21 summarizes Paul’s message of reconciliation: “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” God did this legal and accounting category of work; He imputed our sin to Christ, legally making Him responsible for it. Though sinless, Jesus was justly punished for it; this is the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement (See Isaiah 53:6; Galatians 3:13; Psalm 22:1-8,14-18; 1 Peter 2:24). God also imputed Christ’s righteousness to His elect, believers, legally declaring us righteous (justification) and leading to sanctification and ultimate glorification. When he says, “That we might become the righteousness of God,” Paul is referring, as Calvin notes, not to “that which is given us by God, but that which is approved of by Him.”