Day 154 – Monday, August 4, 2025

One Year Journey Through the New Testament

2 Corinthians 5

Welcome to our journey through the New Testament!

Assurance of the Resurrection

1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ² For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, ³ if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. ⁴ For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

⁶ So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. ⁷ For we walk by faith, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 

(2 Corinthians 5:1–8, NKJV)

Points to Ponder:

• Paul talks more about resurrection, but here in the sense of the bodily part of the resurrection.
• He describes the physical body as an earthly house. We are simply living in the temporary body into which God breathed a living soul.
• However, we have a heavenly home, built by God, which our soul and spirit long for.
• This knowledge gives us confidence that our future is bright. We may be absent from the express presence of the Lord, but we are not without Him. We walk by faith, not by sight. We long to be absent from this temporary home and to be present with the Lord, though. We anticipate the day!

The Judgment Seat of Christ

⁹ Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. ¹¹ Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences. 

(2 Corinthians 5:9–11, NKJV)

Points to Ponder:

• Paul segues to the thought that whether he is with them or away from them, that he will conduct himself as pleasing to God.
• We will all one day stand before Him for judgment. This should produce Godly terror to those who sin, but comfort to those who serve the Lord.

Be Reconciled to God

¹² For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. ¹³ For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. ¹⁴ For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; ¹⁵ and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

¹⁶ Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 

(2 Corinthians 5:12–21, NKJV)

Points to Ponder:

• Paul goes back to the letter of recommendation he discussed in a previous chapter by saying that they do not need one, but that their disciples should commend them or boast on their behalf.
• Paul’s apparent lunacy is simply because of his zeal for God, His word, and the gospel. If Christ died for us, then we should live for Him!
• Paul pledges not to be influenced by fleshly means, but rather only in the spiritual. The law is not the mode of salvation, but grace through faith in Christ.
• Therefore, the old is passed away and all things are new. Christ is reconciling the world to Himself, and has made a way for forgiveness and grace to those who believe.
• Paul is an ambassador of that grace, for Christ. He pleads with his readers to be reconciled to God.
• The last verse of this chapter is so powerful: “²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
• Lord, let that transformation happen in us as well!

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All Scriptures from New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

Join us this afternoon at 5:00 pm for a discussion of this chapter live online. Live@5 with Dr. Greg Sloop can be found on Facebook on the Dr. Greg Sloop page or on the Kannapolis Church of God Facebook page or Youtube page. Another blog will be posted each weekday at 6:00 a.m.