Pryority7:
Bene, of course, you took this out of context like I predicted and of course added other readings to back up your claim. I’m a logical person. If the reading mentions "bad"things and “good things”, then obviously condemnation is for those who account for the things that were bad…it’s as simple as that. You’re little reasoning does not prove a thing…aside that you’re so good at twising scripture to your taste…like a free buffet…“A little bit of this and a little bit of that, and THEN I will enjoy my meal.” How does it taste?
How did I take it
“out of context.” Paul, in 2 Cor. 4:14, assures his readers that He who raised the Lord Jesus WILL also raise (bodily) all of us, and this according to divine
grace (vs. 15). He says that even though our
“outer man” is decaying (our physical body), our
“inner man” (
i.e. the “new man” in Christ) is being renewed day by day. And using his own experience he states:“For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17-18).He goes on to say in chapter five that when this earthly tent (present body) is torn down (dies) we will have a “
building from God” eternal in the heavens (speaking of the furture resurrection of these yet unredeemed bodies, a body whose architect is God).
Paul is consistent in his theology, because he writes to the Philippians:“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will
transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has to subject all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:20-21, cf. 1 Cor. 15:35-48).This verse (and the 1 Cor. reference) not only speaks of the future bodily resurrection of those who have “died in Christ,” but a future
translation of living saints at the time of the rapture of Christ’s Church: “
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (i.e., mortal to immortal, see 1 Cor. 15:51).
In 2 Cor. 5:5 Paul says that it is God Himself who prepared us for this very purpose (immortality) and gave us the Spirit as a “
pledge.” The Greek word being “
arrabona,” describing the portion of a purchase money paid on the receipt of goods as a
guarantee that the rest of the sum would eventually be forthcoming. The giving of the Spirit to indwell true believers is a surety of their future immortality.
You see, Pry, Christ on the cross redeemed the whole man: body, soul and spirit. The redemption of our bodies is yet to come (Rom. 8:23). Until then, “
we walk by faith and not by sight” in God’s immutable Word/promises (2 Cor. 5:7), and whether “at home” (in this present body) or “absent” (with the Lord) our ambition is to be pleasing to Him (2 Cor. 5:9).“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each of us may be recompensed for his deeds in the body (lit.
the things through the body), according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).The
context in which this tribunal is presented by Paul in this chapter speaks nothing of eternal damnation of true believers who have the Spirit from God as a
guarantee (
arrabon) of their future immortality. But this tribunal will assess, with complete justice and impartiality, the
worth of the believer’s actions in this present, unredeemed body AFTER conversion. It will
disclose both the “good” and the “bad.” The “good” being that which is valuable to the kingdom (and thus rewarded), and the “bad” being that which is worthless (hence not rewarded, see 1 Cor. 3:10-15).
No, my friend, it’s you who want to condemn believers. Not Paul according to the
context, not Christ who redeemed them, body, soul and spirit, nor God who gave them the Spirit as a
pledge, a
down payment, of eternal things to come - but you.
I pointed out in a previous post that 2 Cor. 5:5-8 reveals the total absence of the doctrine of “purgatory” in Paul’s theology. To him to be absent from this present body is to be instantly at “
home with the Lord.” There is no intermediate state for beleivers fully redeemed by Christ’s blood. There’s no room for it.
Blessings,
Bene