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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 5:1-21
In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul covers a number of important points. Let us briefly enumerate these points and then go on to consider them.
First in this chapter Paul covers the longing to be clothed upon with a transfigured body (5:1-8). This is related to the redemption of the body. Paul desired to be clothed upon with a transfigured body, with a body in resurrection. In verses 1 and 2 he says, “For we know that if our earthly tabernacle house is taken down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. For indeed in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our dwelling place from heaven.”
The second matter covered by Paul in this chapter is the ambition to please the Lord: “Wherefore also we are ambitious, whether at home or away from home, to be well-pleasing to Him” (v. 9). Here to be ambitious is to be zealous with a strong aim, to strive earnestly to be well-pleasing to the Lord. We all should have the ambition to please the Lord. We should not be ambitious to have some kind of position in the church life, but we should be ambitious to be well-pleasing to the Lord.
The third point is being constrained to live to the Lord. In verses 14 and 15 Paul says, “For the love of Christ constrains us, having judged this, that One died on behalf of all; therefore all died; and He died on behalf of all, that those who live may no longer live to themselves, but to Him Who died for them and has been raised.” In these verses Paul speaks of being constrained to live not for the Lord, but to live to the Lord.
In verses 16 and 17 Paul goes on to mention a fourth matter, the new creation: “So that we, from now on, know no one according to flesh; even if we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer. So that if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, they have become new.”
Fifth, in verses 18 through 20 Paul speaks regarding the ministry of reconciliation. In verse 18 he says, “But all things are of God, Who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” In verse 19 he speaks of “the word of reconciliation,” and in verse 20 he entreats the saints on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God.
Finally, in verse 21 we have the crucial matter of God’s righteousness: “Him Who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf, that we might become God’s righteousness in Him.”
Apparently these six matters are of different categories and are not related to one another. Thus, it is possible to read this chapter without seeing any continuation between one point and another. Actually, there is a continuation, and it is not difficult to see it.
Not only do the important points in chapter five continue one another, but chapter five is itself a continuation of chapter four. This is indicated by the fact that 5:1 begins with the word “for.” “For” indicates that what is to be covered in this chapter is an explanation of what is spoken in 4:13-18.
In 5:1 Paul speaks of our earthly tabernacle house being taken down. For our body as our earthly tabernacle house to be taken down is for our outward man to be consumed, wasted away. Toward the end of 2 Corinthians 4, Paul says that our outward man is decaying, that our inward man is being renewed, and that we are not considering the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. This means that we live and walk by faith. Then in 5:1 he gives a word of explanation, saying that we know that if our outward man, our earthly tabernacle house, is taken away, we have a better one in the heavens. Therefore, in chapter five there is clearly a continuation of Paul’s word in chapter four.
This continuation indicates that at the end of chapter four Paul had become truly mature. He had been regenerated in his spirit and transformed in his soul. His entire being had been renewed. The only thing yet to be completed was the full redemption of his physical body. Paul’s body was still in the old creation; it had not yet been changed, transfigured. Hence, in 5:1-8 he expresses his longing, his aspiration, for the transfiguration of his body.
It was Paul’s desire that he not be unclothed, that is, that he not have his body taken away from him. His desire was to be clothed, that is, to put on a transfigured body. Death involves the separation of a person from his body. Sometimes during a funeral service a minister may say that the deceased has gone away, that he has departed and is no longer with us. Often Christians use the expression “going to the Lord.” It was not Paul’s longing to be without a body. He did not desire to be unclothed, to have his body taken away. His longing was to be clothed with a resurrected body. This means that his longing was to be redeemed in his body. He knew that his spirit had been regenerated and that his soul had been transformed, but he also realized that his body had not yet been transfigured. Therefore, he was longing and waiting for the redemption of his body. This longing is covered in the first eight verses of chapter five.
In verse 5 Paul says, “Now He Who has wrought us for this very thing is God, Who has given to us the pledge of the Spirit.” The Greek word translated wrought also means fashioned, shaped, prepared, made fit. God has wrought us, fashioned, shaped, prepared us, made us fit, for the purpose that our mortal body may be swallowed up by His resurrection life. Thus, our entire being will be saturated with Christ. God has given us the Spirit as the pledge, the earnest, the foretaste, the guarantee, of this wonderful and marvelous part of His complete salvation for us in Christ.
God intends to clothe us with a body of resurrection. But if we would be clothed with a transfigured body, we need certain qualifications. A sinner is not qualified to be clothed with a transfigured body. He is not fit for such a body. However, God has wrought, shaped, custom-made, us for this. Just as a tailor shapes a jacket to fit our body, so God is shaping us to put on a body of resurrection. God is not shaping a body — He is shaping us. When you buy a new pair of shoes, you select shoes to fit the shape of your foot. God’s way is the opposite: He shapes our feet to match the shoes. He shapes us, prepares us, to fit into a resurrected body.
How does God shape a sinner so that he can put on a resurrected body? He shapes him by forgiving his sins, putting the divine life into him to regenerate his spirit, and then transforming his soul. This is what it means for God to shape us.
Have you been shaped by God? The best answer is to say that we have been shaped to some degree. Although I have been somewhat shaped by God, I know that I have not been absolutely shaped by Him. Therefore, I need further shaping.
In relation to God’s shaping, Paul says that God has given to us the pledge of the Spirit. This indicates that the main factor of God’s shaping us is His putting Himself into us as the life-giving Spirit to be a pledge. This means that God has pledged Himself to us to accomplish this for us. He has placed Himself as the life-giving Spirit into our spirit to guarantee that one day He will clothe us with a body of resurrection. We have a pledge that we have been made and qualified for this purpose. This also is included in the ministry of the new covenant. Through the new covenant ministry we are shaped, qualified, and prepared to be clothed upon with a body of resurrection. We all are waiting for this to take place.
What should we do while we are waiting to be clothed upon with a transfigured body? Verse 9 gives the answer: “Wherefore also we are ambitious, whether at home or away from home, to be well-pleasing to Him.” The word “wherefore” at the beginning of verse 9 establishes the connection of verse 9 with verse 8. Because we are waiting to be clothed with a transfigured body, we are ambitious to please the Lord. Likewise, as we are waiting for the redemption of our body, we are ambitious to be well-pleasing to Him. What Paul says in verses 10 through 13 is related to his ambition to please the Lord.
In verse 14 Paul goes on to say, “For the love of Christ constrains us.” Once again the word “for” indicates a connection, a continuation. We are ambitious to please the Lord, for His love is constraining us. The love of Christ in verse 14 is the love which was manifested on the cross through His death for us.
The Greek word rendered constrains literally means presses on from all sides, holding to one end, forcibly limiting, confining to one object within certain bounds, shutting up to one line and purpose, as in a narrow, walled road. The same Greek word is used in Luke 4:38; 12:50; Acts 18:5 and Philippians 1:23. In such a way the apostles were constrained by the love of Christ to live to Him and to be well-pleasing to Him.
We have seen that to be constrained means to be pressed from all sides and held to one end. When we are constrained, we are limited, as if walking on a narrow, walled road, and forced to go in a certain direction. Although we love the Lord, we are not always willing to take His way. Without being walled in by Him, we probably would have escaped from Christ and the church. But the love of Christ constrains us; it presses us from every side and holds us to one goal. We have no other way. There is no other way for us to take. Actually, this is not our choice. If the choice had truly been ours, we all would probably be somewhere else today. No, it is not up to us to make the choice; it is the love of Christ that constrains us.
According to 5:14 and 15, the love of Christ constrains us to live to Him. Verse 15 says, “And He died on behalf of all, that those who live may no longer live to themselves, but to Him Who died for them and has been raised.” It is difficult to explain what it means to live to Christ, although it is easy to understand what it means to live for Him. Today both in Catholicism and in the denominations, people are doing many things for Christ. However, we may do something for the Lord without doing that thing unto the Lord.
If we consider the context, we shall see that to live to the Lord means to live the kind of life the Lord Jesus lived. In chapter four we see that the apostles experienced the putting to death of Jesus. When we experience the putting to death of Jesus, we can live the kind of life Jesus lived. This is to live to the Lord.
To live to the Lord is to live a crucified life. It is to live in such a way that the outward man is always put to death. The Lord Jesus lived this kind of life, and those who live such a life today are living to the Lord. This understanding of living to the Lord is according to the concept conveyed in chapter four.
Christians often try to live for the Lord according to their own concepts. In a previous message I illustrated this by telling how some southern Chinese forced me to eat the bread they had prepared for me, even though it was not thoroughly cooked and extremely difficult to digest. Although I preferred to eat rice, they insisted that I eat that bread. They prepared that bread for me, but they did not prepare it to me. Likewise, we may do many things for the Lord instead of to the Lord.
What the Lord wants is not that we be so active for Him. He wants us to experience the putting to death of Jesus so that our natural man and our active being may be terminated. Many are active or aggressive for the Lord in a natural way. They do things for Him by their natural aggressiveness. This offends the Lord, and it distracts us from enjoying Him. Therefore, what we need is to be constrained by the Lord’s love simply to live to Him.
If we would live to the Lord, we must deny our outward man. The outward man is the flesh. When we live to Christ, we do not live by our outward man, by our flesh. This means that living to Christ requires that we live by our inward man, by our regenerated spirit.
In verse 16, a continuation of verses 14 and 15, Paul says, “So that we, from now on, know no one according to flesh; even if we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer.” Not to know others according to the flesh means that we do not know them according to the outward man. In the proper church life, the leading ones and the serving ones do not know others according to the outward man. However, among Christians today it is common to know the believers according to the outward man. For example, people may be known according to their profession, position, talents, and capabilities. In the church, on the contrary, we should know others according to the inward man, according to the spirit.
As the continuation of verse 16, verse 17 says, “So that if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, they have become new.” What is the new creation? The new creation is a person regenerated with the life of God and living in the inward man, not in the outward man. A person living in the outward man is in the flesh, in the old creation. Therefore, he is old. But the one who lives to the Lord in the inward man is in the new creation.
Now we can see how four important matters are connected. The ambition to please the Lord is connected to the aspiration to have a resurrected body. Living to the Lord is related to being ambitious to please the Lord. If we do not live to the Lord, we cannot please Him. If we would make the Lord happy, we must live to Him. In order to live to the Lord, we must put our natural being to death. Then we shall be able to please Him. If we have such a living, we shall certainly be a new creation, a person living in the spirit, in the inward man. Therefore, the aspiration to have a transfigured body is connected to the ambition to please the Lord, the ambition to please the Lord is connected to living to the Lord, and living to the Lord is connected to being a new creation.
