p. 792 | PRESENT WITH THE LORD by Dudley Marvin Canright

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 28, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 50.

PRESENT WITH THE LORD.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

“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. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven; if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight); we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.” 2 Cor. 5: 1-9.

A CORRESPONDENT who has lately accepted the truth, desires an explanation of the above scripture. It has been presented as proof that the soul is immortal, and that it exists as an intelligent, conscious entity separate from the body between death and the resurrection. It is said that “absent from the body” is the death of the body; and “present with the Lord” is the disembodied soul in the presence of God. But no such doctrine is taught by the apostle.

The subject of the apostle’s discourse which drew out the above words, was not the intermediate state; it was this life as contrasted with the life to come; it was this time of light affliction which was working out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; it was the things temporal as contrasted to the things eternal. The temporal things are seen by mortal eyes; the eternal are now seen only by faith. These were the objects before the apostle when he wrote the words which are quoted at the head of this article. In this scripture he presents not two conditions,—life and death,—but three conditions, this life, death, and the life to come. The first he describes by “the earthly house of this tabernacle,” “in this,” “this tabernacle,” “mortality,” and “at home in the body.” He designates the second condition—death—by the terms, “dissolved,” “found naked,” and “unclothed.” The third, the future immortal life, is indicated by “a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens,” “clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven,” “being clothed,” “clothed upon,” “swallowed up of life,” “absent from the body,” and “present with the Lord.” With this explanation of terms, the passage is easily understood.

The objective part of the apostle’s words is the future immortal life. That was the goal to be

reached, the object of his hope, the fulfillment of his most ardent desires. Obstacles may intervene, but it will come. Death may destroy this earthly tabernacle, but we know God has something better. “For we know,” says the apostle, “that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved [that is, though we may die], we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.” There is an immortal life, which Christ will give beyond the grave.

But the apostle did not wish to obtain it this way. He did not desire the intermediate state, and yet why should he not desire it, if that means to be “present with the Lord”? It does not mean this. Death is an enemy (1 Cor. 15: 26); it comes in consequence of sin (James 1: 15); it is the legitimate progeny of Satan, who has the power of death (Heb. 2: 14). Death was not what the apostle longed for; he longed for the presence of God, in the immortal life. While God will redeem us forever, though we do die or are dissolved, he will redeem some who do not pass through death, who are not “unclothed,” whose house is not dissolved. For this the apostle groans, “earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven.” He longs that “immortality” should be “swallowed up of life.” This takes place at the resurrection, when Christ comes again. “Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Cor. 15: 51-55. A parallel text to the scripture under consideration is Rom. 8: 23: “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” The redemption of our bodies will be when Christ comes. “For our conversation [citizenship] is in Heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” Phil. 3: 20, 21. Therefore, “mortality” will be “clothed upon,” or swallowed up of life, when Christ shall come again and make his faithful ones like himself.

“Present with the Lord” relates to the same time, the coming of Christ. Nowhere is it said in the Bible that we will be with the Lord at death; for death is the enemy that shuts the saints in the prison-house of the grave. 1 Cor. 15: 26, et al. But the Scriptures do expressly state that the saints are to be with the Lord at his second coming: “For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17; John 14: 1-3.

That the coming of Christ is the time to which Paul referred, is fully evident from the fact that the thing for which the apostle groaned was the thing for which God had wrought him. “Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God.” That is, God has worked out, produced us, quarried us out from the world, for this purpose. The same word is used in chapter 4: 17, where it is said that the light affliction worketh for us, or worketh out for us, an exceeding weight of glory. That is, these are the means by which God is fitting us for the glory beyond. He has not produced us for death, which is the consequence, or wages, of sin, or the end of wrath. He did not call us through Christ that we might be “unclothed,” and enter the grave’s dark portals. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” John 3: 36. “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake [are alive at Christ’s coming] or sleep [die before he comes], we should live together with him.” 1 Thess. 5: 9, 10. Therefore the self-same thing for which the apostle groaned, and for which God had called him, is immortal life in the presence of the Lord; and this life will be given at the second coming of Christ.

And to confirm this promise of the new life, God gives to each of his children “the earnest of the Spirit,” called in Rom. 8: 23, “the first-fruits of the Spirit.” “Earnest,” says Worcester, is “part of the price paid for property or goods sold, or money given in token that a bargain is ratified, or to bind a contract, often called ‘earnest money.’” That portion of his Spirit which God places upon his people is the earnest money, or pledge that God will do all that he has promised, if they will but meet the conditions. And God promises men life, not death. Christ’s coming is life, not death. Col. 3: 3. Then the faithful whose house has been “dissolved,” or taken down, will receive the house from Heaven, immortal life. Then the faithful who are “not found naked,” or “unclothed,” who are alive at his coming, will be “clothed upon” with immortality, and “mortality” will be “swallowed up of life.”

The passage therefore under consideration furnishes no proof whatever of a conscious intermediate state, but does present how highly the apostle regarded the coming of Christ, and how he longed for that coming. It is a strong proof of the real life and the glorified, resurrected body beyond the grave. M. C. W.