The confidence expressed in the preceding chapter is justified by showing that the apostle was assured of a habitation in heaven, even if his earthly tabernacle should be destroyed, vs. 1–10. His object in what he had said of himself was not self-commendation. He laboured only for the good of the church, impelled by the love of Christ, whose ambassador he was, in exhorting men to be reconciled to God, vs. 11–21.
The state of believers after death. Vs. 1–10
PAUL did not faint in the midst of his sufferings, because he know that even if his earthly house should be destroyed, he had a house in heaven—not like the present perishable tabernacle, but one not made with hands, and eternal, v. 1. He looked forward to the things unseen, because in his present tabernacle he groaned, desiring to enter his heavenly habitation. He longed to be unclothed that he might be clothed upon with his house which is from heaven, vs. 2–4. This confidence he owed to God, who had given him the Holy Spirit as a pledge of his salvation, v. 5. Having this indwelling of the Spirit he was always in good courage, knowing that as soon as he should be absent from the body, he would be present with the Lord, vs. 6–8. Therefore his great desire was to please him, before whose tribunal he and all other men were to appear to receive according to their works, vs. 9–10.
- For we know that if our earthly house of (this) tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
The connection between this passage and the preceding chapter is plain. Our light afflictions, Paul had said, work out for us an eternal weight of glory, for we know that even if our earthly house perishes, we have an everlasting habitation in heaven. The general sense also of the whole of the following paragraph is clear. The apostle expresses the assurance that a blessed state of existence awaited him after death. There is, however, no little difficulty in determining the precise meaning of the figurative language here employed Few passages in Paul’s writings have awakened a deeper or more general interest, because it treats of the state of the soul after death; a subject about which every man feels the liveliest concern, not only for himself, but in behalf of those dear to him. Where are those who sleep in Jesus before the resurrection? What is the condition of a redeemed soul when it leaves the body? These are questions about which no Christian can be indifferent. If Paul here answers those inquiries, the passage must have peculiar value to all the people of God. This, however, is the very point about which the greatest difficulty exists. There are three views taken of the passage; that is, three different answers are given to the question, What is that building into which the soul enters when the present body is dissolved? 1. The first answer is, that the house not made with hands is heaven itself. 2. That it is the resurrection body. If this be the correct view, then the passage throws no light on the state of the soul between death and the resurrection. It treats solely of what is to happen after Christ’s second coming. 3. The third opinion is, that the house into which the soul enters at death is, so to speak, an intermediate body; that is, a body prepared for it and adapted to its condition during the state intermediate between death and the resurrection. This, however, is not a scriptural doctrine. Many philosophers indeed teach that the soul can neither perceive nor act unless in connection with a body; nay, that an individual man is nothing but a revelation of the general principle of humanity in connection with a given corporeal organism, as a tree is the manifestation of the principle of vegetable life through a specific material organization. As therefore vegetable life is, or exists, only in connection with vegetable forms, so the soul exists only in connection with a body. Thus Olshausen in his Commentary, 1 Cor. 15:42–44, says, Wie ohne Leib keine Seele, so ohne Leiblichkeit keine Seligkeit; Leiblichkeit und die dadurch bedingte Persönlichkeit ist das Ende der Werke Gottes. “As without body there is no soul, so without a corporeal organization there can be no salvation; a corporeal organization, as the necessary condition of personality, is the end of God’s work.” Still more explicitly, when commenting on verses 19 and 20 of the same chapter, he says, Ein Fortleben als reiner Geist ohne körperliches Organ erkennt der Apostle gar nicht als Möglichkeit an; die Lehre von der Unsterblichkeit der Seele ist der ganzen Bibel, ebenso wie der Name, fremd—und zwar mit vollem Recht, indem ein persönliches Bewusstseyn im geschaffenen Wesen die Schranken des Leibes nothwendig voraussetzt. “The continued existence of the soul as a pure spirit without a body is to the apostle an impossibility. The Bible knows nothing of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul; the very expression is strange to it. And no wonder, for self-consciousness in a created being necessarily supposes the limitation of a bodily organization.” Of course all angels must have bodies, and of course also if the soul exists between death and the resurrection it must have a body. Strange to say, however, Olshausen, despite his maxim, “no body no soul,” admits the existence of the soul during the interval between death and the resurrection, and yet denies that it has a body. His utterly unsatisfactory attempt to reconcile this contradiction in his theory is, first, that self-consciousness in departed spirits is very obscure—a mere dreamy state of existence; and secondly, that it must be assumed that a relation continues between the soul and the elements of its decaying body in the grave. This is a perfect collapse of the theory. If it involves either of these consequences, that the soul is unconscious after death, or that its life is in connection with its disorganized body, and conditioned by that connection, then it comes in direct conflict with the Scripture, and is exploded as a mere product of the imagination. If the Bible teaches or assumes that a body is necessary to the self-consciousness of the soul, or even to its power to perceive and to express, to act and to be acted upon, then it would be not only natural but necessary to understand the apostle to teach in this passage that the moment the soul leaves its present body it enters into another. Then it would follow either that the only resurrection of which the Scriptures speak takes place at the moment of death, or that there is a body specially fitted for the intermediate state, differing both from the one which we now have, and from that which we are to have at the resurrection. The former of these suppositions contradicts the plain doctrine of the Bible that the resurrection is a future event, to take place at the second advent of Christ; and the latter contradicts this very passage, for Paul says that the house on which we enter at death is eternal. Besides, the Bible knows nothing of any body except the σῶμα ψυχικόν, the natural body, which we have now, and the σῶμα πνευματικόν the spiritual body, which we are to receive at the resurrection. We are therefore reduced to the choice between the first and second of the three interpretations mentioned above. The building of which the apostle here speaks must be either a house in heaven, or the resurrection body. If the latter, then Paul teaches, not what is to happen immediately after death, but what is to take place at the second coming of Christ. In opposition to this view, and in favour of the opinion that the house here mentioned is heaven itself, it may be argued, 1. Heaven is often in Scripture compared to a house in which there are many mansions, John 14:2; or to a city in which there are many houses, Heb. 11:10, 14, 13:14; Rev. 21:10; or more generally to a habitation, Luke 16:9. 2. The figure in this case is peculiarly appropriate. The body is compared to a house in which the soul now dwells, heaven is the house into which it enters when this earthly house is dissolved. Our Lord told his sorrowing disciples that they should soon be with him, that in his Father’s house, whiter he went, there were many mansions, and that he would receive them unto himself. 3. The description here given of the house of which the apostle speaks agrees with the descriptions elsewhere given of heaven. It is a building of God; compare Heb. 11:10, where heaven is said to be a city whose builder and maker is God. It is not made with hands, i.e. not of human workmanship or belonging to the present order of things. In the same sense the true tabernacle in heaven is said to be “not made with hands,” Heb. 9:11. It is eternal, because the state on which the soul enters at death is unchanging. And finally, this house is said to be “in heaven,” or, we are said to have it “in heaven.” This last clause is not consistent with the assumption that the house spoken of is the resurrection body. That body is not now in heaven awaiting our arrival there, nor is it to be brought down to us from heaven. But the mansion which Christ has gone to prepare for his people is in heaven; and therefore the apostle in raising his eyes heavenward could appropriately say, ‘If this tabernacle be dissolved I have a house in heaven.’ 4. The principal argument in favour of this interpretation is that the house spoken of is one on which the soul enters immediately after death. This is plain because Paul says, that if our earthly house be dissolved we have, i.e. we have at once, a house in heaven. The whole context requires this explanation to be given to ἔχομεν, we have. The apostle is speaking of the grounds of consolation in the immediate prospect of death. He says in effect that the dissolution of the body does not destroy the soul or deprive it of a home. His consolation was that if unclothed he would not be found naked. While at home in the body he was absent from the Lord, but as soon as he was absent from the body he would be present with the Lord. It is so obvious that the apostle is here speaking of what takes place at death, that those who maintain that the building referred to is the resurrection body, propose various methods of getting over the difficulty. Some, as Usteri, assume that Paul, when he wrote the first epistle to the Corinthians, believed that the resurrection was not to take place until the second advent of Christ, but changed his view and here teaches that it takes place at death. That is, that the soul when it leaves the present body is furnished with that spiritual body which in the former epistle he taught was not to be received until Christ comes the second time. To those who proceed on the assumption of the inspiration of Scripture, this unnatural explanation needs no refutation. In his epistle to the Philippians, written still later, he teaches the same doctrine that we find in First Corinthians. He must, therefore, have reverted to his former view. Paul was not thus driven about by every wind of doctrine. Even those who deny his inspiration must admit his consistency. Others say that as the apostle confidently expected to survive the second advent, he here speaks of what he anticipated in his own case. He believed he would not die, but be changed at once as described in 1 Cor. 15:51–52. But even admitting that Paul at this time did expect to survive the coming of the Lord, that is not the expectation here expressed. On the contrary, he is speaking of what would take place (ἐάν) even in case he should die. If, worn out by his sufferings, his earthly house should be dissolved before Christ came, still he knew he should have a house in heaven. Others again say that the interval between death and the resurrection is not taken into account, but that the apostle, after the manner of the prophets, speaks of events as chronologically coincident which in fact are separated by a long period of time. But this does not meet the difficulty. As the apostle is speaking of the ground of consolation in the prospect of death, he must be understood to refer, not to what might be expected at an indefinite period after that event, but to its immediate consequence. He did not glory in his afflictions because when his earthly house should be dissolved he would sink into a state of unconsciousness until the resurrection; but because he would have another and unspeakably better habitation. This is evident, because he speaks of his being absent from the body as the immediate antecedent of his being present with the Lord; which is only another form of saying he would be clothed upon with his house which is from heaven. 5. A fifth consideration in favour of the interpretation in question, is derived from the analogy of Scripture. The Bible in other places teaches that the souls of believers do at their death immediately pass into glory. Our Lord in refuting the Sadducees, who denied the existence of spirits, said, “Have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living,” Matt. 22:32. Abraham. Isaac and Jacob therefore are living, and not in a dreamy state of semi-conscious existence. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, we are told that when Lazarus died he was carried by angels into Abraham’s bosom, i.e. to heaven. On the mount of transfiguration, Moses and Elias appeared talking with Christ. Our Lord said to the dying thief; “This day shalt thou be with me in paradise,” and paradise, as we learn from 2 Cor. 12:2 and 4, is the third heaven. In Phil. 1:22–24, Paul says that although he had a desire to depart and be with Christ, yet his abiding in the flesh was more needful for them. This clearly implies that as soon as he departed from the flesh he expected to be present with the Lord. This flows from the perfection of Christ’s work. As his blood cleanses from all sin, there is no process of expiation or purification to be endured or experienced by believers after death. And as we know, as our Lord says, that they still live, they must enter on the blessedness secured by his merits. Accordingly the apostle says that the saints on earth and the saints in heaven form one communion. “We are come unto Mount Zion—and unto the spirits of just men made perfect,” Heb. 12:23.