2 Corinthians 5

Notes

Ver. 1. What encourages us thus to look at things eternal, and to bear up cheerfully and labour diligently under our innumerable afflictions, is that, from the testimony of God's Word, and the witnessing of his Spirit with our spirits, we are assured that whenever this frail, mean, and changing body, in which our soul dwells during our present state of pilgrimage and warfare, shall be dissolved by death, our soul shall immediately enter into a far more fixed, lasting, glorious, and happy state, prepared by God, in his infinite wisdom, power, and grace, in his own immediate presence in heaven; and at the last day our body, being raised in glory, shall be rendered immortal, that, in union with our soul, it may be for ever with the Lord. 2. And in the believing views of this inconceivable happiness, we, being oppressed by manifold troubles and indwelling corruptions, do often, in extreme anguish, sigh, mourn, and groan under them, and vehemently desire and long for our heavenly home, in which we shall be clothed with light, holiness, and joy, and our body at last put on immortality and honour. 3. And the rather because, being then surrounded, adorned, and rendered safe and happy with this glory, we shall never more be exposed to any want, misery, defilement, or shame. 4. For in our present mortal state we cannot but earnestly long to be fully delivered from all our burdens of trouble, and especially our sinful corruptions, which so offend our gracious God and hinder our fellowship with him—not that we would be rid of our body, or chiefly desire to get out of this evil world, but that we may enter into the full possession of perfect holiness and happiness; and that all our natural and sinful infirmities may be, as it were, drowned and lost in the transcendent and undefiled felicities and glories of the future state. 5. Now, for the further confirmation of our faith and hope, God hath not only revealed and promised this future blessedness, but, by his regenerating and sanctifying grace, hath formed in our hearts spiritual and holy dispositions and desires to make us meet for it; and by the inhabitation, comforts, and witnessing of his Spirit in us, hath given us an earnest, pledge, token, and foretaste of it, to ascertain our speedy entrance on the full enjoyment of it. 6. And in the views, and under the influence of these things, we are always enabled to face our trials, sufferings, or death, with undaunted courage, and unshaken hopes of a glorious deliverance from them—knowing that, while we continue dwelling in these mortal bodies, we live like persons in a state of pilgrimage and warfare, at a great distance from the immediate presence of our dear Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ. 7. For in this present mortal state of afflictions, we live and regulate all our behaviour by faith in Christ and his promises, which overcomes this world, and is the evidence of things not seen; and not by the immediate sight and enjoyment of God any more than by carnal sense or spiritual feelings. 8. But bearing up under all our hardships and dangers, and having unshaken hopes of their happy issue, we would be glad to leave our present mortal body and life, with all the natural and sinful infirmities attending them, in order to enter into the immediate presence of Christ, and be perfectly transformed into his image, by seeing him as he is. 9. Having therefore these satisfying hopes of and earnest desires after the heavenly blessedness, we zealously labour that, whether we die or live, all our services and sufferings, as well as our persons, may be graciously accepted by Christ, through our living faith, at his tribunal. 10. For in a little time all of us, ministers or people, Jews or Gentiles, must personally appear before him at the last judgment, when our whole state, qualities, and works shall be impartially laid open before the world and our own consciences, that every one of us, saint or sinner, may have the eternal gracious reward of our good deeds, or the just punishment of our sins, assigned to us, in proportion to the degree of the habitual and governing turn of our thoughts, words, or actions, in which we lived and died. 11. Being therefore convinced, from the Word of God and our own experience, of the inexpressible terribleness of that future judgment to hypocritical and unregenerate men, we compassionately labour to beseech and persuade men to flee from their natural, sinful, and dangerous estate, by receiving Jesus Christ the Judge for their full and everlasting salvation; and whether they hear or forbear, we can appeal to God that we have been sincere and earnest therein, and can appeal to many of your consciences, who have observed our preaching, sufferings, and conduct. 12. Indeed, after the experimental knowledge which ye have had of our faithfulness and diligence, we have no need to recommend ourselves to you; but we suggest these things that ye may have occasion to rejoice and glory in the favour which God hath vouchsafed to us, and may thereby silence the vain boasts of your judaizing teachers, who, without any just consciousness of their own sincerity, talk proudly of their mere appearances of religion. 13. For in my own and my faithful fellow-ministers' zealous vindication of our character, and fervent contendings for the equal admission of believing Gentiles as well as Jews to all the privileges of the gospel church, and in our self-denial and calm instructions and entreaties, we have only aimed at manifesting the riches of God's grace, and promoting men's eternal salvation, particularly that of the Gentiles. 14, 15. For the faith and sense of the exceeding greatness, freeness, and endearments of Christ's dying love, powerfully draw, excite, incline, and aid us, as it were, by a holy and delightful constraint, to do all that we can in imitation of and obedience to him, for the glory of God, in the salvation of Gentiles as well as Jews; for we thus think and judge that if, according to the gospel revelation, Christ, the only Saviour, died in the stead and for the salvation of sinful men, Gentiles as well as Jews, then both parties were, by nature, equally condemned in law, and dead in trespasses and sins, none having more right to or fitness for gospel privileges than another; and that he died for sinners of all nations, that all they who accept Christ in justification, and are quickened by the Holy Ghost, should no longer pursue their own carnal, selfish, or secular aims, nor indulge their own lusts and passions, nor make their own honour, ease, or pleasure the chief end of their living in this world, but wholly devote themselves to the service and glory of their great Lord and Saviour, who died to atone for their sins, and rose again for their justification and eternal life. 16. For this reason we, faithful ministers of the gospel, think ourselves bound to preach it to all nations, Gentiles or Jews, poor or rich; nay, though some of us once viewed and valued Christ as a circumcised Jew or temporal Deliverer, being now enlightened by the gospel, we view and value him only as the spiritual, the divine Prophet, Priest, and King of the new kingdom of grace, for men's spiritual and eternal salvation. 17. It is therefore the principal point of the Christian religion, that if any man, Jew or Gentile, be in Christ by vital faith, as well as by external profession, an entire change of his state, nature, and practice hath been produced in him by the all loving power of God; his former habitual principles, inclinations, motives, ends, and course of conversation, are mortified and laid aside, and others, directly contrary to them, and conformed to those of Christ, are implanted and fixed in their stead. 18. And God, the Creator and Preserver of the world, is the Author of all things respecting the new creation and redemption of men, Jews or Gentiles; and hath, by the incarnation, obedience, and death of his Son, made salvation possible, and restored friendship between himself and all believers; and in infinite condescension and grace hath honourably intrusted us apostles and ministers to preach and hold forth this method of reconciliation to men. 19. The sum and tenor of which is, that God, from all eternity, hath determined to save all who believe, and, in prosecution thereof, hath, through his mediation and atoning sacrifice, manifested himself a God of peace, pardoning all the iniquities of them that believe, Gentiles as well as Jews, and for awakening and converting sinners hath appointed us apostles and ministers to preach the glad tidings and offers of reconciliation through the whole world, as we have opportunity. 20. Wherefore, as his highly dignified messengers, sent to deal with you in his stead, we do, in the name and authority of Christ and his Father, beseech and entreat you, by everything endearing or awful in heaven, earth, or hell, and in time or eternity, to consider and accept of God's graciously prepared, dearly secured, and freely offered peace, favour, and friendship, and to surrender up yourselves to him, to be espoused to Christ, saved by him, and entirely and heartily devoted to him and his service. 21. For in justice to himself, his law, and government, and in rich mercy and grace to Jews and Gentiles, God the Father hath saved from sin by his own perfectly holy and only-begotten Son, as our Saviour, and hath fully laid them on him, that, in consequence of our spiritual union to his person, his complete righteousness of obedience and suffering, which for ever resides in him, but was contrived, fulfilled, and accepted by God for us, might be imparted to us, to render us perfectly free from guilt, when we fully accept him by faith.

Ver. 3. This verse presents great difficulty, and has produced correspondent variety of interpretation. May not the difficulty be removed either by translating εἴ γε καὶ, as in Ga. 3. 4, 'Since being (once so) clothed, we shall not be found naked,' or, as it may equally be rendered, 'Although being (now) clothed?' &c. C.

Ver. 8. How vain is the Romish figment of purgatory—the dream of a sleep of the spirit—or the conjecture of an inferior and intermediate state between death and the resurrection! Believers when 'absent from the body are present with the Lord.' And surely where the Lord is, there is the highest heaven, the greatest happiness, and the brightest glory! C.

Ver. 14. Then were all dead. Tindal translates it, 'then are all dead;' and Scholefield, 'then all died'—that is, all the members died when the head died. See Ro. 6. 3-11; 1 Pe. 2.24. C.

Reflections.—Frailty, sinfulness, and sorrows attend the best of men on earth. But happy they who have a blessed assurance of eternal fellowship with Christ in heaven! No wonder they long for it, and groan to be delivered from their present pressures and plagues. And happy they who are fitted for it, and have the Holy Ghost dwelling in their hearts as an earnest of it, and who are by faith daily walking forward to it, and diligently finishing the work which God hath allotted them in this life! How tremendous will be the last judgment, in which all men that are, have been, or shall be, must appear together before Christ, and have their eternal state publicly and irreversibly fixed, according to their qualities and works! —In a most conscientious and active manner ought ministers and others to behave in the view of it. And slumbering sinners must be awakened by these terrors of the Lord. But it is most delightful to be persuaded by the faith and sense of Jesus' love to live and labour always for his glory and the salvation of men. And never ought he or his blessings to be viewed in a carnal manner. No profession or practice, without new principles of grace in our heart, can prove us united to him; and nothing less can answer the design of the gospel, or of God's gift of his Son as our only Saviour. Now think, my soul, what God hath done, and doth, and speaks, and is to me; and let me not persist a moment longer in opposition to, in rebellion against, such amazing kindness and condescension.