Swallowed by Life
For Meditation
As a young couple moving from Scotland to Charlottesville, I can remember how much we longed to buy our first home.
We had moved eight times in four years, lived in three states and two different continents. I can remember all of the apartments we have ever lived in over the years. Our first apartment was 205 Graham Hall at Gordon Conwell. Then we lived with a family in Beverly, Massachusetts. As I worked on a ThM at the University of Edinburgh we rented a sweet little flat on the western edge of Dean Bridge at 12 Buckingham Terrace. In Charlottesville, we first lived at Riverbend Apartments, finally we occupied the entire top floor of a home on Oakhurst Circle, just behind Cabell Hall.
Now don’t get me wrong. We loved the life we forged together in those early years. But we also craved…more. More space. More permanence. More stability. More hospitality. The temporary nature of apartment living exposed within us a longing for something else. Something that could hold even more of the life we loved.
I think this is similar to what Paul is describing in 2 Corinthians 5:4 when he says, “for while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened – not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed so that what is mortal may be swallowed up in life.”
Paul has in mind here the tabernacle of the Old Testament. The tabernacle, or the tent of meeting, was the portable dwelling place of the Lord from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Nearly 440 years after being constructed, the tabernacle was superseded by Solomon's Temple. Just as the tabernacle was the temporary dwelling of God until the more permanent temple in Jerusalem was built, so Paul is saying our mortal bodies are temporary and will be replaced by an imperishable resurrection body. As followers of Christ, we do not groan because life in this earthly body has no purpose. Not at all! Instead, we long for our mortal existence to experience the resurrection life of Jesus here and now. And we groan for the day when we shall put on our glorious spiritual bodies, and be fully transformed into the likeness of Christ's glorified self. (Philippians 3:21).
This passage reminds us of many things, not least of which is this: we have not been saved to lives of indifference. There is more than just this mortal life that we can see, touch, smell and feel. We have been saved to lives of eternal and glorious purpose, lives swallowed up by the very life of the Triune God of Grace.
As you prepare for Sunday, set aside 15–20 minutes to be with the Lord:
Reread the 2 Corinthians 5:1–10 passage aloud.
Take five to ten minutes to write out, in your own words, the specific ways you long for new creation, that you long for resurrection life. What are the relationships/experiences/situations where your mortal existence needs to be swallowed up in God’s life?
Then take five minutes to share your longing, your burden for resurrection, with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:1–10
1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.