To Be Absent From the Body is to Be Present with the Lord - 2 Corinthians 5:6-8

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord…

If we try to squeeze what the apostle Paul was saying into our religious paradigm, we will automatically think that Paul is saying that when we die we leave our sinful human body behind and our spirit goes to heaven to be with the Lord.

But that’s not what Paul was saying. The Apostle Paul was not a Gnostic. This is the same Paul that said: to whom God willed to make known what is riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory (Col. 1:27 NASB 1995). Here again:   I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20 KJV). 

It is obvious that Paul didn’t have a Gnostic mindset. He didn’t believe that the human body is evil. He didn’t believe that the physical realm is evil. He didn’t have a dualistic mindset. He didn’t believe that the physical world is separate from the spiritual world. But this is the paradigm on which many believers base their faith.  

Paul is saying that at the resurrection of the dead our body will be changed from mortal to immortal, and we will experience the full manifestation of the glory of God. God’s glory will be made fully manifested to us, while at the present time, while living in this tent, it is hidden (Col 3:3-4). 

In this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven (the resurrected body) (2 Cor. 5:2 NASB see the notes for vs 2 in NASB). 

While we are at home in this body, we are absent from the Lord [from the fullness of the glory of God – because we live in the tent or the temporary dwelling and not in the house – the immortal glorified body] (2 Cor. 5:6 NASB with my clarification). Obviously, Paul can't be talking about absent in the sense of our oneness. Go back and reread Col. 1:27, and Gal. 2:20.

For we walk by faith not by sight [believing that the gift of life will be fully manifested in us even though at the moment we don’t see it. Because we are still in this tent or the physical mortal body]  (2 Cor 5:7). 

But we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body [having already been changed from mortal to immortal and living in the glorious new body - God being fully manifested in us.] and to be at home with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8 NASB).  

Even though the abundant life is a present reality, it will be fully manifested when we go through our metamorphosis - when we are changed from mortal to immortal. “I have come that they might have life, and life more abundantly” (John 10:10). 

The time will come when we experience the fullness of life in our immortal, imperishable, body. “But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).  

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Heaven Or Iowa?

In the movie, "Field of Dreams," Ray Kinsella builds a baseball field in the middle of his corn fields after hearing a voice that tells him, "If you build it, he will come." Soon deceased baseball players, raised from the dead as young men, come out of Ray's cornfields. One of the players is Ray's father, John Kinsella. While Ray and John are renewing their relationship, John asks  Ray, "Is this heaven?" Ray replies, "It's Iowa," and then asks John, "Is there a heaven?"  John says, "Oh yeah, it's the place dreams come true."

The book of Genesis says that God called the "expanse," heaven (Gen. 1:8). The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us that God is in heaven (Eccl. 5:2). Jesus said, heaven is the throne of God (Mat. 5:34). God the Father is in heaven (Mark 11:25-26). The Holy Spirit descended from heaven as a dove, and rested upon Jesus (John 1:32).  Jesus said, no one has ascended to heaven, except the Son of Man, the Bread of God, who has descended from heaven (John 3:13; 6:33, 38, 41). Therefore, if we want to know about heaven, we have one source of information, and that's from the one who has descended from heaven, Jesus.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 3, Jesus was having a conversation with Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee. The Pharisees rejected Jesus, and his testimony.  He told Nicodemus that a person had to be born again, or born of the spirit,  to see, and enter into the kingdom of  God (or kingdom of heaven). He then went on to say that being born of the spirit, has to do with believing in the Son of God, Jesus (John 3:1-21).

We have placed so much emphasis on heaven being a place that we go to after we die, and little  emphasis on the relationship that we have with God in Christ Jesus. Heaven is a metaphor for salvation and eternal life. It is a present, and future reality. It's a relationship that we have with God. We have been brought into this relationship in Christ, because of who he is, and because of what he has done. Jesus said, "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3). It's necessary to believe in Jesus, to trust him, to "eat the bread of God," so that he lives within us, and so that we fully experience the life that he has already given us, for this is the will of the Father (John 6:40, 50-51). 

Jesus made these bold statements:

I am the Bread of Life (John 6:35). 

I am the Light of the World (John 8:12).

I am the Door (John 10:9). 

I am the Good Shepherd (John 10:11).

I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25). 

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). 

I am the True Vine (John 15:1).

I am, the Alpha and the Omega, the First, and the Last, the Beginning, and the End (Rev. 22:13).

Jesus is our life! In him we experience heaven. Salvation is a person, Jesus. Just like Jesus said, "I am...". 

The apostle Paul said, "When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory (Col. 3:4 my emphasis). When Christ is revealed, we will experience the fullness of heaven in our new, glorified bodies. We have borne the image of the man from earth [Adam], and we  will also bear the image of the heavenly man [Jesus] (1 Cor. 15:47-49). 

We are [already] seated with him in the heavenly realm (Eph. 2:5-6). We're seated with him, because we are one with him in his person.

The present heaven, and the present earth will both pass away (Luke 21:33).  But the good news is, Jesus is the pioneer of the new creation - the new earth, and new heaven (Isa. 65:17; Rev. 21:1-5).

Watch my latest video on heaven.