2 Corinthians 5 Contents

2 Corinthians 5 Contents 2 Corinthians 5 is about the heavenly tabernacle and  the workers who are reconciling.Verse 1: "For we know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Our body is a houses of dust.That's why it's called earthen vessels.As God said to Adam, You are dust of ground, our bodies must return to the dust.But our spirits put on a new house.This is the mystery of our physical body being changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51) Verses 2-4 “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. Indeed, For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: we groan, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up by life.” Some Christians, influenced by Greek philosophy, believe that the spirit and body separate at death, but there is no body without a spirit, no soul without a body, no matter what form it takes.Just as a caterpillar in a cocoon is devoured by the life of a moth, leaving only the shell of the cocoon and flying away, so too will the bodies of the saints be at the last trumpet.They are changed in the twinkling of an eye.The Spirit of God, who raised Christ from the dead, also gives life to our mortal bodies (Romans 8:11).Therefore, we confess our faith: "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy universal church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the life of the body, and the life everlasting." Verse 5: "Now he that has wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit."The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our present faith and the guarantee of our future hope.If Christians are sensitive to the work of the Holy Spirit, they will experience the life-giving work of Christ, who is presently within us, in our mortal bodies.However, if the Holy Spirit is extinguished, there is only the knowledge that it is so, but it does not become an actual event.Those who grasp that Christ is working in our present mortal body as a living spirit and life in the Holy Spirit have the assurance of hope in verse 8, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” Just as if you use your right hand, you are right-handed, and if you use your left hand, you are left-handed, if you live according to the spirit, you are a spiritual person, and if you live according to the flesh, you are a fleshly person.We look at outward appearances, but God judges by what is in our hearts.Therefore, God judges not by the letter of the law, which is the law of the flesh, but by the truth (Romans 2:2).Verse 16: "Wherefore henceforth know we no man after   the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more."Christ is in us by Spirit.Nevertheless, many believe in Jesus as their Savior, associating him with the fleshly Jesus.God is spirit, and Christ is spirit.If the Spirit of Christ now dwells in us, we too are not in the flesh but in the Spirit (Romans 8:9). So, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. (Romans 8:10) Verse 17: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."Through Christ's atoning death on the cross and being raised, we die with Christ and are raised with Him, gaining new life, becoming righteous and children of God. This is how we distinguish between the old and the new.The old me and the new me overlap, restoring our free will to live according to the flesh or according to the Spirit, allowing us to choose between life and death.This is precisely why the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:6).This is the greatest blessing of Christians, who have found freedom from sin and death in Christ.The important thing is to choose between the flesh and the spirit, but today's Christianity teaches that it can hold both, so it is becoming a monster with a different head and body. Verse 18: "And all things are  of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation."Reconciliation with God is possible only through the new covenant, engraved not on tablets of stone but on tablets of the heart.Therefore, Paul, a servant of the ministry of the Spirit, speaks, I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.Just as in the Old Testament there were sin offerings and peace offerings, the grace of reconciliation with God through Christ's redemption is manifested in Christians through the new covenant, the power of the gospel.Verse 19: "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation."Christ became the high priest of atonement for our sins, dying on the cross in our place, rising again, and sitting at the right hand of God, thereby reconciling us to God as a mediating priest.Because of the new covenant in which Christ, the Lord of all things, dwells within us, we are no longer those who are in the flesh, but are free in spirit, freed from sin, the flesh, and the world under the sun. Therefore, as those who have received Christ and become one with Him, and have been reconciled to God, we have become royal priests who testify to others about the gospel and the message of reconciliation, that through faith in the Lord's death and resurrection, they are justified and become one with Christ.Verses 20-21: "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray  you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. For he has made him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Amen. Hallelujah! Written by Ptr. Yohan Kim.Translated by  Nancy Chung COME AND SEE WORLD MISSION To God be the glory.