In 2 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul wrote of the hope of heaven, contrasting it with our life here on earth. He said, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.”
It is an interesting picture, putting off this tent (our frail and mortal body), and replacing it with an eternal one. Paul was confident that he would obtain that promised life, and so stated in verse 8, “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
People today speak of their confidence, placing all of it in “the finished work of Jesus Christ.” They state they are confident, not because of what they have done, but what Jesus has already done for them, assuring them the hope of heaven. They view any suggestion of responsibility on the part of man to be a form of legalism, and a trust in works of merit.
Paul looked at it differently. He recognized what God had done for him, and his confidence was in God (see verses 5-7). However, he still understood the necessity of obedience, writing, “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (9-10). As we recognize what God did for us in sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, let us acknowledge that our final standing will, in part, depend upon what we have done while living our lives on earth.
