dwell in, it was not meet that the glory of the Lord should dwell between curtains. The Tabernacle passed away; and the established, enduring Temple took its place. So, says St. Paul-"We know that if this tent-dwelling of ours be dissolved, we have a building of God, a house. eternal." Our present body is not our permanent home. It is but a tent of the desert, to-day pitched, and tomorrow struck. It belongs to the natural, and we are of the spiritual. It is earthly, and our calling is to be heavenly. It cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. And therefore we, who are heirs of that Kingdom, in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. We earnestly desire its change into that building which God has prepared for it, which shall be eternal because fitted to its eternal inhabitant, spiritual as it is spiritual, heavenly as it is heavenly. We desire that the mortality of our present body may be swallowed up of, absorbed in, life. For this God has wrought us: and in giving us of His Spirit He gives us of this very thing an earnest,-a first fruits and a pledge. Regeneration is resurrection begun in the spirit; and resurrection is regeneration completed in the body. "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal body by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."* 66 The body which shall be our spirit's future home is "eternal," as being immortal and incorruptible. It is farther characterized as a house not made with hands." The force of this expression is explained in the Epistle to the Hebrews. "Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, *Rom. viii. II. not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,"* or rather, of this creation. "Made with hands means-of this order of things, belonging to this earthly, temporary condition: "not made with hands" implies a standing among the good things to come, the unseen things which are eternal. It is a house not fashioned with bricks and mortar, as human hands would rear it; but a Divine structure, our dwelling in that city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Once more:-our house that is to be is described as now" in the heavens," when we receive it we are said to receive it from heaven." What does this mean? Not, surely, that the substance of the resurrection body is now locally in heaven, and shall come locally therefrom. If it could be so for those that sleep, it could not be for those who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord. The new body for them at least is the former one changed,† not another substituted for it. And the Apostle earnestly desires, as we shall see, that with the house from heaven he may be clothed upon without being first disrobed of his earthly tabernacle. The clue to his meaning is just the phrase "earthly" applied to the body we now have. It is made of the dust of the ground, and imbued with the animal life. But in our renewed spirits we are already seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, seeking the things which are above where He sitteth at the right hand of God, and mortifying our members which are yet upon the earth. This new heart which has been put in us is surely from heaven. From heaven also, then, is the new body in which that heart shall one day beat aright, and send through every vein the very life of God. All that makes it new, all *Heb. ix. II. † Phil. iii. 20, 21. Col. iii. that constitutes it immortal, incorruptible, tireless, spiritual, is from heaven ;-is now hid there with Christ in God, and shall come from thence when He, our Life, shall appear, and we also shall appear with Him in glory. "He shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." That body of His is heavenly after a like manner. "The first man is of the earth, earthy; the Second Man is of heaven."* It is the body of the Second Adam as of the first which is contemplated, in which the contrast lies. The first of dust, and to dust returning; the Second quickened from death by the power of an endless life, raised up by the glory of the Father, made for Him a house indeed from heaven. He was made flesh, and tabernacled among us. But now the temple of His body has been builded up,† and He abides therein for ever. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. We know that we too have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. 2. The second image used in this Scripture to express the relation of man's body to his spirit is that of a vesture. It is linked on to the first. 66 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." Without a body, it is implied, the human spirit would be not houseless merely, but naked. And this it is far from desiring. "Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon" is the burden of its groaning. Its only consolation, should its present house perish, is the hope of another more enduring: and if it must for a time remain "bare of the body," its longing is to be * 1. Cor. xv. 47. † John ii. 19-21. clothed again. It has laid aside its garments since it has fallen on sleep; but it must resume them when the morning appears, and the work of the day begins anew for it in the light of God. The image is a familiar one with St. Paul. When he writes" Ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man"-he is using it; and again when he says to the Galatians—“ As many as have been baptized into Jesus Christ have put on Christ."* That earnest of the Spirit which we have already is thus as a garment of God in whose fair beauty our inward being is wrapped; and a garment which does not cover only, but is operative. It clings to us like the poisoned shirt of the fable, and sends its influence into our very bones: only it is not poison, but balm, which it infuses. And hence appears the force of the phrase " clothed upon with our house from heaven." The word signifies the putting of one garment over another, as a cloak over a coat. It has reference to the change which shall pass upon those who are alive and remain. As they have put on the new man in their spirits, so shall they then put it on in their bodies. This corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal, immortality "+-not to hide corruption, but to transform it, "that mortality should be swallowed up of life." The image of the vesture is not followed out by the Apostle, as is that of the dwelling place. Had he wished to characterize it, he would doubtless have spoken of the one as of the other. The beautiful garment to be put on at the morning of the resurrection will be of Divine handiwork, of heavenly texture, of lasting material. It * Col. iii 9-11.; Gal. iii. 27, 28. † 1 Cor. xv. 53. is that "fine linen clean and bright "-clean because washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb, bright because shining with the pure light of heaven— "which is the righteousness of saints." "They shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy."* It is the likeness of Christ's body of glory passing upon the sackcloth of this body of humiliation, clothing the Christ in us with the Christ about us, making us appear with Him in glory, manifesting the sons of God.t "Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is."‡ We have suffered the words of the Apostle to grow one by one upon our view. We have put no constraint upon them, or endeavoured to bend them into accordance with preconceived notions. But now consider how weighty are the inferences and conclusions we must draw, regarding him as we do as an authentic expositor of the mind of Christ, of the truth of God. I. Observe how unhesitatingly St. Paul assumes that the personality of man-the "I"-belongs to his spirit and not to his body. The body is our house, our garment : it is not ourself. We may put it off, or change it but we remain. We may be naked without it, but though naked we exist. Such an assumption assuredly contradicts no instinct of our nature; and it underlies our hope of immortality. If we are nothing more than living bodies, if thought and conscience and love and joy are but functions of our animal life as breathing is, then death *Rev. xix. 8; vii. 14; iii. 4. † Rom. viii. 19, 23. 1 John iii. 2. |