WE
GOT IT ALL WRONG! –
From the land of the dying to the land of the living
Times is ticking. According to Psalms 90:10 (written 3000 years ago), the years of your life are about 70 to 80. Trust me, it goes by in a flash.
Sometimes we look at the world around us and wonder, “Is that all there is?” To which the apostle Paul answers a resounding, “No!” We were made for something better than the pain we see in this world.
In 2 Corinthians 5 verses 2-4, Paul tells us, “ For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our [immortal, eternal] celestial dwelling … 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened [often weighed down, oppressed], not that we want to be unclothed [separated by death from the body], but to be clothed, so that what is mortal [the body] will be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has made us and prepared us for this very purpose is God.”
Like putting on an overcoat. Longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling: Paul is speaking of an habitation the soul is desirous of going into as soon as it moves out of the earthly house of the body, and of a celestial perfect clothing it desires to be clothed with as soon as it is stripped of the garment of the flesh.
Even though it is against the nature of man to desire death, which is the stripping or unclothing of our soul of flesh, it is the answer to our groaning. We groan because we are being burdened by the toils and trials of this life, because we live in a fallen, mixed-up, messed-up, broken-down world, we live in a world in pain.
So we long for a better world where there is no more sickness, no more abuse, no more hatred, no more disasters, no more crime, no more sadness, no more darkness, no more pain, no more death.
And Paul adds in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44: “The [human] body that is sown is perishable and mortal, it is raised imperishable and immortal. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in strength; it is sown a natural body [mortal, suited to earth], it is raised a spiritual body [immortal, suited to heaven]. As surely as there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.”
This assurance removes our deepest fears. The believer is well assured by faith that there is another and a happy life after this is ended. The Bible promises us that in our Father's house, there are many mansions (John 14: 1-4) whose Builder and Maker is God. The happiness of the future state is what God has prepared for those who love Him: everlasting habitations, not like the earthly houses, poor cottages of clay in which our souls now dwell; that are mouldering and decaying, whose foundations are in the dust.
“My Father’s house”. Such a sweet and soft conception of Heaven, the unbreakable fortress where no evil can befall us, the abundant home where all wants are supplied, and where the shyest and timidest child can feel at ease and secure.
Death is nothing to fear. In fact, we Christians can look forward to it with anxious anticipation.
Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in Me will live even if he dies; and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. (John 11:25-26)
The more you meditate upon God and spend time with Him, the more Heaven becomes real.
Take a minute (or more) to think about this deep truth: we are never going to die. Our bodies, yes, but we are spirits in bodies, in earthly vehicles, and our spirits will never die. Do you feel the relief and the peace? I am never going to die!! Me, the real me will never die, only be carried into the Lord's presence in one instant.
We have an assurance that death cannot shake. We are on our way from the land of the dying to the land of the living. It cannot be said exactly what this wonderful place is like, we can only see faintly now, like looking through some frosted glass, but we can be assured that it will be more than we could ever ask or think.