Questions and Answers By R. A. TORREY
Lord.” This is not our perfect state, or final state, but it is a happier state than our present state, so that the truly instructed believer as far as his own blessedness is concerned is “willing to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” Third, our final and perfect state: When we are not merely unclothed from this pres ent imperfect tabernacle with all its limita tions and weaknesses and sufferings and pains, but when we are “clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven,” i. e. with our resurrection body. This is that for which we long. This resurrection body we get at the return of our Lord (1 Thess. 4: 15-17; 1 Cor. 15:51, 52). While “un clothed,” “absent from the body,” we are “with the Lord,” “at home with the Lord.” The moment we leave our present earthly body, “the earthly house of our tabernacle,” we depart to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23) and, though this is not a perfect state until we get our resurrection body, it is “very far better” than our present state (Phil. 1:23 R. V.). The day that the penitent and for given thief departed from his body that hung upon the cross he was with Christ in Paradise (Luke 23:40-43). Seemingly Par adise was then in the subterranean world, but our Lord Jesus at His resurrection led a captivity captive (Eph. 4:8), i. e. emptied Hades of the redeemed and took Paradise up with Him on High into the eternal glory. So the man whom Paul mentions as enter ing Paradise did not go down into that part of Hades which before our Lord’s ascen sion was reserved for the righteous dead, i. e. Paradise but was “caught up Into Para dise” (2 Cor. 12:4).
Where are the saints of this dispensation while awaiting the return of their Lord and their resurrection body? This question is answered very plainly and explicity in 2 Corinthians S:l-8, “For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven; if so be that being clothed we' shall not be found naked, for indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life. Now he that wrought us for this very thing is God, who gave unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Being therefore always of good courage, and 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 of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.” According to the teaching of these verses, there are three states in which the believ ers exist: First, our present state, i. e. be fore death, when we are in the “earthly house of our tabernacle,” i. e. in our pres ent body. In this state we groan longing for our resurrection body, “longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven,” i. e. longing for our perfect resurrection body (cf. Rom. 8:23). Sec ond, our state after death before the com ing of the Lord: In. this state we are “ab sent from the body,” “but at home with the
So fades a summer cloud away; So sinks the gale when storms are o’e r; So gently shuts the eye of day; So dies a wave along the shore.
T TOW blest the righteous when he dies! When sinks a weary soul to rest, How mildly beam the closing eyes; How gently heaves the expiring breast!
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