- 149. A Building of God
2 Corinthians 5:1 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.
God promises a building of God, a house eternal in the heavens. The earthly house is dissolved. The earthly house is the temporary physical body in which we live during our time on the earth. The heavenly house is the resurrected bodyin which we will live for eternity in heaven, after physical death.
The present body on earth is like a tabernacle. The tabernacle was designed by God to be a temporary house for the presence of God on the earth. It was meant to be dissolved and to pass away. The eternal body, which is meant to house the presence of God forever, is the body of Christ, the Church. The body of a believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and the bodies of all believers in Christ together.
The essence of the promise is the resurrection of the body. The earthly body dissolves and decays, but out of the ashes and dust a heavenly body arises; this resurrected body is a building of God (God makes it); this heavenly body is not made with hands(human hands); and this heavenly body is eternal in the heavens, that is, it can never die, get sick or injured, grow old, or deteriorate in any sense.
The resurrected body is a newly created body; God creates a new body out of the old one, which is able to house a righteous, holy, redeemed and renewed soul, a new creation. A cleansed and eternal soul needs an eternal body to hold it. This new “house” is what God promises all believers in Christ. We can’t wait.