For we know that if
the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God,
a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house
we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven; inasmuch as we, having
put it on, shall not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we
groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be
clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now He who
prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a
pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are
at home in the body we are absent from the Lord--for we walk by faith, not by
sight--we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the
body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore also we have as our ambition,
whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in
the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (2 Cor 5:1-10,
NASB)
Interestingly, some Evangelicals appeal to this pericope as evidence for
(1) eternal security/perseverance of the saints and/or (2) imputed
righteousness. While he himself is Reformed in his theology, Old Testament
scholar Paul Williamson correctly noted that this is pure eisegesis:
Some scholars reject
any allusion to the resurrection in these verses, suggesting that the ‘eternal
house’ or ‘heavenly dwelling’ refers not to resurrection bodies at all, but to
the secure mode of a believer’s existence with God in Christ, and that ‘being
naked’ refers not to post-mortem disembodiment, but to full exposure to God’s
penetrating gaze at judgment (i.e. without the clothing of Christ’s
righteousness). However, the immediate context (cf. 2 Cor. 4:7-19, esp. v. 14)
and the explicit mention of final judgment in v. 10 suggests otherwise. (Paul
R. Williamson, Death and the Afterlife:
Biblical perspectives on ultimate questions [New Studies in Biblical
Theology 44; London: Apollos, 2017], 89 n. 81)
