7.1 "A house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens"

“A house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”
We have many great and wonderful possessions right now in Jesus. But some yet await us when “our hour is come” and it’s time for us to depart and be with Christ which is far better. Then we will pass from life through death into eternal life. “We have” [there’s a present possession] “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” It’s ours. It belongs to us–given to us by God Himself. But we have not yet entered into that inheritance because we are still in the tent of this body and await our actual entrance into heaven.

But this wonderful passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 that we are studying on Wednesday nights tells us when we will enter that inheritance and what we will “have” as soon as we do. It happens when “the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed,” i.e., we die and go to be with Christ! Keep reading: “For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have [now, present possession at that moment] a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” 5:1 ESV While we are still in “the tent” of our body, “we long to put on our heavenly dwelling.” We want to be “further clothed so that what is mortal [i.e.,subject to death] may be swallowed up by life.” –real life–“life more abundantly,” as Jesus put it, eternal life which is perfect and complete. And God made us for that very purpose, He tells us in verse 5–and gave us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee that this was going to happen, as “a foretaste of glory divine.”

Then he said, “We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.” But when we are “away from the body,” then we are “at home with the Lord.” So when we die we immediately go into the Presence of the Lord. “Away from the body” and “present with the Lord.” Indeed it is the Lord Himself who comes to get us! That’s what Jesus said to the disciples the day before He died. He told them He was going to “the Father’s house” to prepare a place for them “and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

And when He takes you to heaven, it is so that you will be with Him in the place He has prepared for you. And where will you be? With the Lord. You will have “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Will it be a physical body or a spiritual place or what? We know that after the resurrection we will indeed have a glorified body, a “spiritual body” as it is called in 1 Cor. 15:44 “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”

When the Lord takes you home to be with Him will you simply be a “spirit” or will you have some sort of physical or visible form? Well, what do you mean by “visible”? Visible to physical eyes or visible to other spirits, like angels? God is Spirit, angels are spirit (except when God gives them a physical form which He frequently does). God sees. Angels see, but they don’t have eyes. So “not to worry”! We’ll get along just fine in heaven–much better than here. Just leave it with the Lord. Heaven is so glorious that when God took the Apostle Paul to heaven, he wasn’t sure whether he was still “in the body” or whether he was there in spirit: “And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.”
2 Cor. 12:3 ESV

But there are some things we do know for sure: When the time comes for the Lord to take us home it is Jesus Himself (omnipresent as God) who will take us home, just as He told the thief on the cross who believed in Him, “this day thou shalt be with Me in paradise.” And when the Lord does take us home to be with Him, we will really be “at home” forever, always with the Lord. We will be in the “place prepared” for each one of us. We will be “gathered to our people,” Gen. 25:8, our brethren who know the Lord. And we will have “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Praise ye the Lord! “Wherefore comfort ye one another with these words.” We will be with the Lord forever, and forever with all of our loved ones who know the Lord as Savior. They may have gone ahead of you, but you will catch up with them in the journey that God has for you.
–Pastor Burnside