One of our young readers has written, asking the meaning of 2 Cor. 5:33If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. (2 Corinthians 5:3) and that it be answered in “Messages of love” for the benefit of others.
In the first verse of the chapter, the “earthly house” refers to the body in which the believer now dwells, which, at death, is laid aside. But we (believers) have a house not made with hands a new body—which is eternal and this all believers will receive when the Lord comes.
In the 3rd verse there is another word used, and that is “naked.” Those who will be clothed with their house from heaven will not be “naked” before God, for they will have God’s righteousness upon them; but there will be those who will stand before God, in another day, in their earthly house or body—but they will be naked sinners, without the robe of righteousness, without Christ as their Saviour, who will hear from the lips of the Judge the dread sentence, “Depart from Me,” and they will go into everlasting punishment. How sad and how different their portion will be compared to that of those who have rested in Christ alone for their salvation.
When “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God,” all who have died in Christ—who are now unclothed—will hear the voice of Him who is “the resurrection and the life,” and at His bidding they will be raised in their new bodies; and those believers why have not laid aside their earthly bodies, will hear the same voice calling them to meet Him in the air, and their bodies will be changed and be made new bodies and that is the “house which is from heaven.” What a blessed hope, for they will be with their Lord forever; and that is the common portion of all the people of God. Our prayer is, that this may be the portion of all the readers of “Messages of Love.”
ML 03/01/1903