The bliss of being “with him” is greatly to be desired even at the expense of the unnatural mutilation which takes place at death. But when Christ comes in his glory the bodies of the saints will share in the bliss of their spirits and the whole body of Christ will be complete and will enjoy the maximum of bliss in the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.

The second Epistle to the Corinthians is the most personal of all Paul’s epistles. In it he tells us more of his sufferings and his anxieties than in any other. In Chapter 1 he mentions his deliverance from ‘so great a death’, which is taken by Dr. B. B. Warfield to refer to his being cast to the wild beasts at Ephesus (1 Corinthians 15:32). In Chapter 2 he reveals ‘his much affliction and anguish of heart’ over the state of the church at Corinth. In Chapter 4 he says: ‘we are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed’ (vv. 8-9). In spite of all his trials he is far from being overcome. Indeed at the close of Chapter 4 he says his trials are only as a feather-weight: ‘our light affliction which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.’ He can describe them thus because he looks at them ‘sub specie aeternitatis’—in the light of eternity.

A Building of God

In the first ten verses of 2 Corinthians 5 the apostle sets before us the Christian’s attitude to death and the resurrection. He begins with the note of certainty that marks Holy Scripture—a note that is often missing in contemporary theology. He says ‘we know.’ And this assurance is with regard to the unseen and eternal world. His body, he says, is as a frail collapsible tent, but when this is taken down, he will have a building, not of human construction but of God’s making, awaiting him. He does not at this point say when or how this will happen, but he uses the present tense ‘we have’ because it is an assured possession. Or, as Dr Vos put it, by faith he can project himself into the future and claim ‘this house’ as his own. He surveys the taking down of the frail tent (of his body) with calm equanimity for he is to have a better structure of God’s handiwork. This would be part of the ‘far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory’ which lay ahead.

This confidence marked Robert Cunningham who ministered faithfully at Holywood, Co. Down, N. Ireland, for some twenty years before being thrust out and deposed in 1636. When dying at Irvine in Scotland in 1637 he said: ‘I see Christ standing over death’s head, saying, “Deal warily with my servant; loose thou this pin, then that pin, for his tabernacle must be set up again”.’

Read More