2 Cor. 5:6, “Being therefore always of good courage, and knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.” Phil. 1:23, “But I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better.”
The experience (death-sleep) through which the believer passes ushers him at once into the presence of Christ. It takes him instantly to be “at home” with the Lord. Surely there can be no hint of unconsciousness or the sleeping of the soul in these words. It would seem from Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:1–5 that some kind of spiritual body is given to the believer during the period of his waiting for the resurrection body. What Paul longs for is not to be in a bodiless state, but to put on another body which shall not be subject to death. “At home with the Lord”—that is what “death” (?) means to the believer.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
PASTOR ANDRA HIGGINBOTHAM