So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. (7) For we walk by faith, not by sight. (8) We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. (9) Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. (10) 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.

The second letter to the Corinthians was written by the apostle Paul. In our verses today, Paul makes it clear that there is the inside man and the outward or physical man that we see. The inward man dwells in our bodies and this man we cannot see except for behaviors. Our earthly house (body) is dissolving and every passing year brings us closer to the time when the faithful shall see the face of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Every passing year means less conflict with the world with no possibility of failure for the faithful. As the outward man perishes the inner man is renewed. But the faithful do not enter the new glorified resurrected body the moment we die – we will leave the body and our pure spirits enter into the presence of the Lord. Linked with all this teaching is the judgment seat of Jesus Christ – for the faithful there is no more judgment in Christ and no more judgment in the sense of condemnation. Thus the believer has no more fear of death for he/she knows what awaits them.

Nowhere in Scripture is it taught that the disembodied spirits of the redeemed are to be clothed with a glorified body before the resurrection takes place. Paul is contrasting the present with the glory of the future. The evidence of this glory is the indwelling Spirit who has made the bodies of the believer His temple. When we die we will not be alone because we will be with Jesus forever. We are going from the land of the dying to the land of the living. We are saved from the penalty and the power of sin – we are saved from the presence of sin. Paul longed to be at home with the Lord; he didn’t believe in annihilation , soul sleep or purgatory but instead when a Christian dies he/she enters the presence of the Lord. If we have believed in Christ in this life we have been saved. Out eternal life is not at stake at the judgment seat – we stand before the Lord alone where we are judged for things done through the body and are rewarded for our deeds in the body. Though forgiven in Christ, in faith, we still face the scrutiny of the Lord directed toward our service as believers for Him. The unbelievers face the ultimate judgment of the great white throne at which the lost will appear.

The Christian conquers fear of death and dying; the believer begins to live in eternity and stops living for the temporary. Physical death is nothing to the believer – no more crying, no more dying. Trusting God in death causes us to trust God in life and live by faith. I’m closing with verses from Paul’s last letter to Timothy (2Timothy, 4: 6-8), for Paul knew his time of death was near. “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. (7) I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. (8) Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.” So today is the day of responsibility and opportunity.