2 Corinthians 5:5 Commentary and Bible Study

‘He that hath wrought us,’ saved us, caused us to be born again and transformed. Does that truth sink in? He has done it with this objective: that one day we shall enter glory and be swallowed up of life. Now although we may not articulate this, our tendency is to think, ‘I am saved in order that I may strive for holiness, and make Christ known in this world. I am saved to be blessed of God, and have assurance and happiness, and love him and worship him.’ No, wrong answer. I am saved with this objective: that I am going to be taken up into life and swallowed up in the mansions that Christ has prepared for his people, and filled with purity and eternal life. We have been given a pledge, a deposit, a down payment of all that we shall experience in eternal glory and we have been given it now for this purpose, that we should reflect and long for glory. The earnest of the Spirit, the deposit that by the Spirit is given to us, is given to make us think of glory. God helps us in our earthly environment and in our earthiness to lift up our eyes and look ahead. But we are so sluggish and we are so slow to do so, and yet this is what God has called us to. When we were saved, we experienced the new life in Christ. To us it was a transformation. Our eyes were opened. We received the new nature, a longing to please him, a much more enlivened conscience. Everything was different: new goals, new interests, new desires; it was truly a transformation. But it was just a token. It was just just the earnest, the pledge of the vastly greater change that we enter into when we leave this poor tent and we go into our eternal home, even before the resurrection body is received.