The holy spirit guarantee

THE HOLY SPIRIT GUARANTEE
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
2 Corinthians5:5 5Now the one who has fashionedus
for this very purpose is God, who has given us the
Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
"the EarnestOf The Spirit."
2 Corinthians 5:5
R. Tuck
The apostle has been referring to the greathope set before us in the gospel,
which, as he regards it, is this, that "mortality might be swallowedup of life."
That is the objectof the Divine working in the believer, and of its final
realization he has this "earnest," orpledge of assurance,Godhas given us
already the "earnestof the Spirit," who is the power that alone canwork out
such a sublime result as our final triumph over the flesh and sin, and meetness
to take our place and part in a spiritual and heavenly state. "It is because the
Spirit dwells in us by faith while we are here that we are to be raised
hereafter. The body thus possessing a principle of life is as a seedplanted in
the ground to be raisedagain in God's goodtime" (comp. the sentence in 2
Corinthians 1:22 and Romans 8:1-11). Observe that the Holy Spirit is
presentedto us under many aspects andfigures; no one representationof his
Divine missioncan exhaust his relations to us. We must see his work on one

side after another, and be willing to learn from all She figures under which it
is presented.
I. WHAT IS MEANT BY AN "EARNEST"?It is something offered as a
pledge and assurance that what is promised shall surely be given. But it has
been well pointed out that an "earnest"materially differs from a "pledge." A
pledge is something different in kind, given as assurance forsomething else, as
may be illustrated by the sacraments;but an earnestis a part of the thing to
be given, as when a purchase is made and a portion of the money is paid down
at once. The idea of the "earnest" may be seenin the "firstfruits," which are a
beginning of, and assure the characterof, the coming harvest.
II. WHAT IS THE SPIRIT AS "EARNEST" TO US NOW? St. Paul's one
point here is that it is an assurance ofthe final victory of the higher life over
the lower. We have indeed that higher life now, in its initial and rudimentary
stages,in having the Spirit dwelling in us.
III. WHAT FUTURE IS PLEDGED IN OUR HAVING THE SPIRIT NOW?
Preciselya future in which the spiritual life shall be victorious and supreme,
and our vehicle of a body simply within the use of the Spirit. That is full
redemption, glory, and heaven. - R.T.

Biblical Illustrator
Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God. &&&
2 Corinthians 5:5
The patient Divine Workman and His purpose
A. Maclaren, D. D.
These words penetrate deep into the secretsofGod. To Paul everything is the
Divine working. Life is to him no mere blind whirl of accidentalforces, but
the slow operationof the greatWorkman. And he believes that the clear
perception of the Divine purpose will be a charm againstall sorrow, doubt,
despondency, or fear.
I. GOD'S PURPOSE IN ALL HIS WORKING.
1. What is that "self-same thing"? The apostle has been speaking aboutthe
instinctive reluctance that even goodmen feel at the prospect of "putting off
the earthly house of this tabernacle." He distinguishes betweenthree different
conditions in which the human spirit may be — dwelling in the earthly body,
stripped of that, and "clothedwith the house which is from heaven";and this
last and highest state is the very thing for which God has wrought us — i.e.,
the highestaim of the Divine love in all its dealings with us is not merely a
blessedspiritual life, but the completion of our humanity in a perfectspirit
dwelling in a glorified body.
2. That glorified body is described in our context.
II. THE SLOW PROCESS OF THE DIVINE WORKMAN.
1. The apostle employs a term which conveys the idea of continuous and
effortful work, as if againstresistance.Like some sculptor with a hard bit of
marble, or some metallurgist with rough ore, so the loving, patient, Divine
Artificer labours long and earnestlywith somewhatobstinate material, by
manifold touches, here a little and there a little, and not discouragedwhenHe
comes upon a black vein in the white marble, nor when the hard stone turns

the edge of His chisels. Learn, then —(1) That God cannotmake you fit for
heaven all at a jump, or by a simple act of will. He can make a world so, not a
saint. He cannot say, and He does not say, "Let there be holiness," and it
comes. Notso can God make man meet for the "inheritance of the saints in
light." And it takes Him all His energies, forall a lifetime, to prepare His child
for what He wants to make of him.(2) That God cannot give a man that
glorified body of which I have been speaking unless the man's spirit is
Christlike. By the necessitiesofthe case it is confined to the purified, because
it corresponds to their inward spiritual being. It is only a perfectspirit that
can dwell in a perfect body. Some shall rise to glory and immortality, some to
shame and everlasting contempt. If we are to stand at the lastwith the body of
our humiliation changedinto a body of glory, we must begin by being changed
in the spirit of our mind.
2. Considerthe three-fold processes which, in the Divine working, terminate
in this greatissue.(1)God has wrought us for it in the very actof making us
what we are. Human nature is an insoluble enigma if this world is its only
field. Amidst all the mysterious waste of creation, there is no more profligate
expenditure of powers than that which is involved in giving a man such
faculties and capacities ifthis be the only field on which they are to be
exercised. All other creatures fit their circumstances;nothing in them is
biggerthan their environment. They find in life a field for every power. But
we have an infinitude of faculty lying half dormant in eachof us which finds
no work at all in this present world. What is the use of us if there is nothing
exceptthis poor present? God, or whoevermade us, has made a mistake; and,
strangelyenough, if we were not made, but evolved, evolution has workedout
faculties which have no correspondencewith the things around them. Life,
and man, is an insoluble enigma excepton the hypothesis that this is a
nursery-ground, and that the little plants will be prickedout some day, and
planted where they are meant to grow.(2)Another field of the Divine
operationto this end is in what we roughly call "providences." Whatis the
meaning of all this discipline through which we are passedif there is nothing
to be disciplined for? What is the goodof an apprenticeship if there is no
journeyman's life to come after it, where the powers that have been slowly
acquired shall be nobly exercisedupon broader fields? Life is an insoluble

riddle unless the purpose of it lie yonder, and unless all this patient training of
our sorrows andour gladnessesis equally meant for training us for the perfect
life of a perfectsoul, moving a perfectbody in a perfectuniverse. And who
can think of life as anything but a wretchedfragment unless he knows that all
which begins here runs upwards into the room above, and there finds its
explanation and its completion?(3)So in all the work and mystery of our
redemption this is the goalthat God has in view. It was not worth Christ's
while to come and die if nothing more was to come of it than the imperfect
receptionof His blessings and gifts which the noblest Christian life in this
world presents. The meaning and purpose of the Cross, the meaning and
purpose of all the patient dealings of His whispering Spirit, is that we shall be
like our Divine Lord in spirit first, and in body afterwards.
3. And everything about the experiences ofa true Christian spirit is charged
with a prophecy of immortality. The very desires which God's good Spirit
works in a believing soul are themselves confirmations of their own fulfilment.
III. THE CERTAINTYAND THE CONFIDENCE.
1. "He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God." Then we may be
sure that, as far as He is concerned, the work will not be suspendednor vain.
This Workman has infinite resources,anunchanging purpose, and infinite
long-suffering. In the quarries of Egypt you will find gigantic stones, half-
dressed, and intended to have been transported to some greattemple. But
there they lie, the work incomplete, and they never carried to their place.
There are no half-polished stones in God's quarries. They are all finished
where they lie, and then borne across the sea, like Hiram's from Lebanon, to
the temple on the hill.
2. But it is a certainty that you can thwart. It is an operationthat you can
counter-work. Oh! do not let all God's work on you come to naught, but yield
yourselves to it. Rejoice in the confidence that He is moulding your character,
cheerfully welcome the providences, painful as they may be, by which He
prepares you for heaven.
(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Preparationfor heaventhe work of God
J. A. Sartorius.
There are five steps in orderly successionwhereby we are wrought, made fit,
for the kingdom of God.
I. The first of these is the DIVINE CALL, by which we are excited and urged
to seek salvation.
II. The secondstepin the preparation of the soul for heaven is DIVINE
ILLUMINATION.
III. The spiritual illumination of the inner man is followedby
REPENTANCE.
IV. And this conducts us to the fourth stepin the process ofreligion —
namely, FAITH IN CHRIST.
V. The final stepin the method of salvation is the SANCTIFICATION OF
THE SOUL.
(J. A. Sartorius.)
Preparationfor heaven
C. H. Spurgeon.
I. THE WORK OF PREPARATION.
1. It is almost universally admitted that some preparation is essential.
Whenever death is announced, you will hear the worst-instructedsay, "I
hope, poor man! he was prepared."(1)Men need something to be done for
them.(a) Goddeclares that we are enemies to Him. We need, therefore, that
some ambassadorshould come to us with terms of peace, and reconcile us to
God.(b) We are debtors also to our Creator — debtors to His law. Some
mediator, then, must come in to pay the debt for us, for we cannot pay it,

neither canwe be exempted from it.(c) In addition to this, we are all criminals
— condemned already; in fearof executionunless some one come in between
us and punishment. Say, then, has this been done for you? Many of you can
answer, "Blessedbe God, I have been reconciledto Him through the death of
His Son; my debts to God are paid; I have lookedto Christ, my Substitute,
and I am no longercondemned" (Romans 8:1). Come, let us rejoice in this,
that He hath wrought us for this self-same thing.(2) Something must be
wrought in us.(a) We are all dead in trespassesandsins. Shall dead men sit at
the feasts ofthe eternalGod? Only the Jiving children caninherit the
promises of the living God, for He is not the God of the dead, but of the
living.(b) By nature we are all worldly. We "mind earthly things"; the world's
maxims govern us, its fears alarm us, its hopes and ambitions excite us. But
we cannot go to heavenas worldly men, for there would be nothing there to
gratify us. The joys and glories of heavenare all spiritual.(c) We are unholy
by nature; but in heaven they are "without fault before the throne of God."
No sin is toleratedthere. What a change, then, must come over the carnal man
to make him holy? What canwash him white but the blood of Christ? That a
greatchange must be wrought in us even ungodly men will confess,since the
Scriptural idea of heavenhas never been agreeable to unconverted men.
When Mahomet would charm the world into the belief that he was the
prophet of God, the heaven he pictured was a heaven of unbridled sensualism.
Could a wickedman enter into heaven, he would be wretchedthere. There is
no heaven for him who has not been prepared for it by a work of grace in his
soul.
2. If we have such a preparation, we must have it on this side of our death. As
the tree falleth, so it must lie. While the nature is softit is susceptible of
impression, stamp what sealyou may upon it; once let it grow cold and hard,
you cando so no more; it is proof againstany change. We have no intimation
in the Word of God that any soul dying in unbelief will afterwards be
converted. "He that is holy, let him be holy still; he that is filthy, let him be
filthy still." Moreover, we ought to know, for it is possible for a man to know
whether he is thoroughly prepared. Jesus Christ has not left us in such a
dubious ease that we always need to be inquiring, "Am I His, or am I not?"
He tells us that "he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved." If we have

obeyed these commands we shall be saved, for our God keepethHis word. We
need not harbour endless questionings.
3. Masthow many put off all thoughts of being prepared to diet They are
prepared for almostanything exceptthe one thing needful. "Prepare to meet
your God."
II. THE AUTHOR OF THIS PREPARATIONFOR DEATH. Who made
Adam fit for Paradise but God? And who must make us fit for the better
Paradise above but God? That we cannot do it ourselves is evident. We are
dead in trespassesand sins. Can the dead start from the grave of their own
accord? The dead shall surely rise, but because Godraises them. Conversion,
which prepares us for heaven, is a new creation. The original creationwas the
work of God, and the new creationmust likewise be of God. Think of what
fitness for heaven is! To be fit for heavena man must be perfect. Go, you who
think you can prepare yourselves, be perfect for a day. Man's work is never
perfect. God alone is perfect, and He alone is the Perfecter.
III. THE SEAL OF THIS PREPARATION."The earnestofthe Spirit."
Masters frequently pay during the week a part of the wages whichwill be due
on Saturday night. God gives His Holy Spirit, as it were, to be a part of the
reward which He intends to give to His people when, like hirelings, they have
fulfilled their duty. So God gives us His Holy Spirit to be in our hearts as an
earnestof heaven. Have you receivedthe Holy Spirit? Do you reply, "How
may I know?" Whereverthe Holy Spirit is, He works certaingracesin the
soul, such as repentance, patience, forgiveness, holycourage, joy, etc. This
gift, moreover, will be conspicuouslyevidenced by a living faith in Christ.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The greathope and its earnest
A. Raleigh, D. D.
I. WHAT "THIS SELF-SAME THING" IS FOR WHICH WE ARE
"WROUGHT." Studying the context, we find it to be a certain state of mind

in regard to many things. We must go back to chap. 2 Corinthians 4. to
understand this fully. And I think it must be allowedthat it is a very greatand
heroic attitude. He who can take up the language ofa passage like this, and
honestly adopt it as the description of the state and feeling of his mind, is a -
very king, and must be among the happiest of men. We have around us here
and now the world — God-denying and anti-Christian — which was around
the Apostle Paul. It is not changed!The apostle seems to have lived in a tough
house, and yet a house that, after years of toil and hardship, became worn out
and frail. If it was a greatthing for him to triumph over bodily suffering, and
to face death, must it not be a greatthing for afflicted and suffering people to
do the same now? And is it not a greatthing, in these times, to be able to look
to that "beyond" in faith and confidence, to castanchor of thought and faith,
as well as of desire and hope, in another life? While atheism spreads blackness
over the universe, while materialism drags men down to the dust, while
heartless philosophies and flippant literatures tell us "it does not matter" —
in times like these it is a great thing to stand on the old watch-tower, and to
look by faith clearly beyond the visible into the invisible, declaring, "Yes, I see
it. I know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle," etc.
II. IT IS WHOLLY THE RESULT OF A DIVINE PROCESS. Itis not a
natural development. If it were so, the apostle might have said, "He who
createdus, when we were born, for this self-same thing is God"; or, "He who
gave us life, and gave us powerto mould and renew our own nature till we rise
into all goodness,is God." But his words take another line. "He who hath
wrought us" — createdus anew in Christ Jesus — "wroughtus," as the block
of marble is wrought into the shape of the fair figure. So are we "wrought" by
God. His work is marvellous. He must have wrought a greatwork in Stephen
before he could stand up fearlessly, with an angelface, amid the showerof
deathdealing stones. He works always along main lines, amid infinite variety
of circumstance, but always with a view to the "self-same thing," and
therefore in some degree along the same road to reach it; and this is the road
(Romans 8:29, 30).
III. ALL THIS IS MADE SURE TO US, NOT ONLY IN DIVINE PROMISE,
BUT BY "THE EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT." Thatis to say, this "self-same
thing" means not merely a hope that something goodand greatis coming by

and by, but that it is in part matter of experience now. There are estates in
this world which you can enter by crossing a river, or going over a chain of
hills. You are then in the estate, and if you know the proprietor, and he
accounts you his friend, you have some feeling of safety as you travel on over
moor and moss, through gloomy forestand dark defile; but if you are going to
the mansion — that is twenty or thirty miles distant, perhaps, and many
adventures may come to you by the way. Still, if you walk well, and walk right
on — not stopping for every dog that barks, or sheltering from every shower
that falls, but pressing always on — why, then, just about sunset, perhaps, the
westernsky all gold, sweetevening breathing peace overthe earth, you will
see the towers of the castle whither you are going. And the landscape will
begin to soften and glow;the grass is greenernow; the trees are more select;
the road — how smooth it is, compared with some of the first miles you trod!
And then you pass the greatiron gate, and lo! yonder in the doorway is your
friend who has sent for you, and who is lord of all the wayby which you have
come. Such is our heavenly way. Every step of it is on King's ground. We are
in heaven when we begin to live to heaven's King. But it is a wide estate, and
looking, and longing, and praying as they travel; and this is "the earnestof
the Spirit" this is the witness in the man himself that he has "passedfrom
death unto life," and that he shall win the life immortal at length.
(A. Raleigh, D. D.)
The glorious hereafterand ourselves
C. H. Spurgeon.
It is a very comforting thing to be able to see the work of God in our own
hearts. We have not to searchlong for the foul handiwork of Satanwithin us.
The apostle found indications of the Divine work in a groan. Believers may
trace the finger of God in their holy joys, yet just as surely is the Holy Spirit
present in their sorrows and groanings which cannotbe uttered. So long as it
is the work of God, it is comparatively a small matter whether our hearts'
utterance be song or sigh.

I. GOD'S WORKIS SEEN IN CREATING IN US DESIRES AFTER BEING
"CLOTHED UPON WITH OUR HOUSE WHICH IS FROM HEAVEN."
1. The Christian is the most contentedman in the world, but he is the least
contentedwith the world. He is like a traveller, perfectly satisfiedwith the inn
as an inn, but his desires are ever towards home. He is like a sailor, well
content with the goodship for what it is, but he longs for harbour.
2. What is it that makes the Christian long for heaven?(1)A desire for the
unseen. The carnal mind is satisfiedwith what the eyes cansee, etc., but the
Christian has a spirit within him which the sensescannotgratify.(2) A
yearning after, holiness. He who is born againof incorruptible seedfinds his
worsttrouble to be sin. What bliss to be without the tendency or possibility to
sin!(3) A sighing after rest, which we cannot, find here.(4)A thirst for
communion with God. Here we do enjoy fellowshipwith God, but it is remote
and dark.
3. This desire is above ordinary nature. All flesh is grass, andthe grass loves
to strike its root deep into the earth; it has no tendrils with which to claspthe
stars. Man by nature would be content
to abide on earth for ever.
4. While they are contrary to the old nature, such aspirations prove the
existence ofthe new nature. You may be quite sure thai you have the nature of
God in you if you are pining after God.
5. Note the means by which the Holy Spirit quickens these desires within our
spirits.(1) They are infused in us by regeneration, which begets in us a
spiritual nature, and the spiritual nature brings with it its own longings —
viz., after perfectionand God.(2) They are further assistedby instruction. The
more the Holy Ghostteaches us of the world to come, the more we long for
it.(3) They are further increasedby sanctifiedafflictions. Thorns in our nest
make us take to our wings; the embittering of this cup makes us earnestly
desire to drink of the new wine of the kingdom.(4) They are increasedby the
sweets as wellas the bitters. Communion with Christ sharpens the edge of our

desire for heaven. And so does elevation of soul. The more we are sanctified
and conformed unto Jesus, the more we long for the world to come.
II. THE FITNESS FOR HEAVEN WHICH IS WROUGHT IN US.
1. Who fits us.(1) God the Father, by adopting us into His family, by justifying
us through Christ, by preserving us by His power.(2)God the Son, by blotting
out our iniquities, by transferring to us His righteousness, by taking us into
union with Himself.(3) The Holy Spirit, by giving us food for the new nature,
instruction, etc.
2. In what this fitness consists.(1)In the possessionofa spiritual nature. The
unregenerate would not by any possibility be able to enjoy the bliss of heaven.
They would be quite out of their element. A bee in a gardenis at home, and
gathers honey from all the flowers;but admit a swine, and it sees no beauty in
lilies and roses, andtherefore it proceeds to root, and tear, and spoil in all
directions.(2)In a holy nature. If a man has no delight in Godhe has no
fitness for heaven.(3)In love to the saints. Those who do not love the people of
God on earth would find their company very irksome for ever.(4)In joy in
service.(5)In conformity to Christ. Much of heaven consists in this.
3. The unfitness of unrenewed souls for heaven may be illustrated by the
incapacity of certain persons for elevatedthoughts and intellectual pursuits.
Alphonse Karr tells a story of a servant-man who askedhis masterto be
allowedto leave his cottage and sleepover the stable. What was the matter
with his cottage? "Why, sir, the nightingales all around make such a "jug, jug,
jug" at night that I cannot bear them." A man with a musical earwould be
charmed with the nightingales'song, but here was a man without a musical
soul, who found the sweetestnotes a nuisance.
III. THE LORD HAS GRACIOUSLY GIVEN TO US AN EARNEST OF
GLORY. An earnestis unlike a pledge, which has to be returned when the
matter which it ensures is obtained; it is a part of the thing itself. So the Holy
Spirit is a part of heaven. His work in the soulis the bud of heaven.

1. His very dwelling in our soul is the earnestof heaven. If God Himself
condescends to make these bodies His temples, is not this akin to heaven's
honours?
2. When He brings to us the joys of hope, this is an earnest. While singing
some glowing hymn our spirit shakes offall her doubts and fears, and
anticipates her everlasting heritage.
3. When we enjoy the full assurance offaith, and read our title clearto
mansions in the skies;when faith knows whom she has believed, and is
persuaded that He is able to keepthat which she has committed to Him — this
is an earnestofheaven.
4. Heaven is the place of victory, and when the Holy Spirit enables us to
overcome sin we enjoy an earnestof the triumph of heaven.
5. When through the Spirit we enjoy fellowshipwith Christ, and with one
another, we have a foretaste ofthe fellowship of heaven.Conclusion:If these
things be so, believers —
1. Be thankful. Remember these things are not your ownproductions; they
have been planted in your soul by another hand, and wateredby a superior
power.
2. Be reverent. When a scholarknows that all he has learned has been taught
him by his master, he looks up from his master's feet into his master's face
with respectfulesteem.
3. Be confident. If the goodthing had been wrought by ourselves we might be
sure that it would fail before long. Nothing of mortal man was everperfect.
But, if He that hath begun the goodwork be God, there is no fearthat He will
forsake orleave His work undone.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Detaching
M. R. Vincent, D. D.

I. IN GOD'S ECONOMYTHIS LIFE IS A PROCESSOF
DISENTANGLING FROMITS OWN CONDITIONS.Mortallife is a getting
loose.
1. Note the imagery of the context. We mortals are as dwellers in a tent. This
tent is being gradually "looseneddown." The same word was usedby our
Lord of the stones of the temple at Jerusalem, and indicates a gradual
destruction, stone after stone. So in striking a tent. Paul has a like figure in
Philippians, where he desires to "depart," or, literally, "to break camp." This
gradual loosening, this detachment, is a familiar factof our life. We are
breaking up, and God hath wrought us for this very thing. One of the most
puzzling things about the world is that such superhuman ingenuity, such
perfect finish of workmanship, will crumble to dust. How exquisite is the
structure of a bee or of a butterfly, and yet how short-lived they are.
2. These are familiar facts. What is our attitude toward them?(1) The average
man ignores them. He strikes out the tabernacle from the text, and substitutes
a building. He lives and plans as if both he and the world were eternal. The
earlier stagesoflife are occupied with amassing instead of throwing off. The
love and intimacy of the family circle are taking the boy deeperinto
themselves. Then his socialnature is throwing out tendrils and attaching itself
to schooland college friends. Then comes socialand business or professional
life. The bonds multiply; more and more the man is getting wrapped round
and tied up. Domestic life encircles him. Business becomes engrossing. So the
world winds round him, coilafter coil. If the house of his earthly habitation is
a tent, it is a substantial tent, or so it seems. It has stood a goodmany hard
blasts. The man himself, too, has been all along growing. All is increase,
enlargementof range.(2)But as time goes onyou notice a change. The man
has reachedhis altitude. The cords on the rear of the tent begin to slacken. A
father or a mother dies. Brothers and sisters form homes for themselves, and
their interests and his diverge. The old circle of kindred begins to break up. It
goes onquietly, like the undermining of a bank. And as time goes onthe
connections with his owngenerationgradually break. The push of younger,
fresher life crowds him back or on one side. Some day he realises that almost
all his old comrades are gone. The break is heading towards the centres of life.
He has lost some ambition. He is not so ready for the undertakings which

make a drain on nerve and strength. He gives up more easilythan of yore.
And so the final stage sets in; physical wreck, mental feebleness,complete
withdrawal from the busy world. Let it go on its way. He cares no longer. The
tent, with its loosenedcords, flaps and strains, then collapses. The earthly
house of this tabernacle is dissolved; and yet He that wrought us for this very
thing is God. God meant this.
3. This is a very sadpicture if this is all. Nay, it is an insult to common sense to
ask us to believe that this wondrous frame of nature and of man are made
merely to be destroyed. God did not make us for death, but for life. If He has
appointed a tent for our sojourn, He has reared a building for our dwelling.
Moses,in Psalm 90., voices the truth. There is nothing eternalbut God. There
is no warrant of man's eternity but God. There is no eternal home for man
but in God.
II. And so we turn to the other side of our text. GOD HAS MADE US FOR
THE TENT, BUT HE HAS ALSO MADE US FOR THE BUILDING.
1. The important point is that we should see these two things as part of one
economy— the tent and the building as relatedto eachother. Even if sin had
never entered the world, I doubt whether this human life and body would
have been any more than a temporary stage ofexistence through which men
would have passedinto a purely spiritual life. BecauseI find that this is
according to the analogyof God's working elsewhere.God's plans unfold.
They do not flash into consummation. They involve progressive stages. The
line of His purpose runs out to eternity, but it runs through time.
2. Thought has tended too much to the violent separationof the mortal life
from the eternallife — has tended to setthem in contrastand opposition
instead of in harmony. For instance, we draw the line sharply betweenlife and
death; and yet many a scientistwill tell you that death is the beginning of life,
and Christ and Paul tell you that in unmistakable terms. And what we want
clearly to apprehend is that this mortal, transitory tent-life has a definite
relation to the permanent spiritual life of the future; that it serves a purpose
of preparation and development toward that life; that it furnishes a soil in
which the seeds ofthe spiritual life are sown; and that, therefore, instead of

being despisedand neglectedbecause it is temporary and destined to
dissolution, it is to be cultivated as the effective ministrant of the eternal life.
"He that wrought us for this very thing is God."
3. We have in nature a greatmany illustrations and analogiesofthis. Take,
e.g., the soil. Existence underground, in the dark, is a low form of life, and yet
the seedmust be castinto the ground, and remain there for a time, before the
beauty and fruitfulness and nourishment of the fruit or grain canbecome
facts. And that stage ministers directly to the higher form of life. So in animal
life. What a delicate and beautiful structure is the egg of the fowl! It is made,
as we all see, to be broken, and an egg-shellis a synonym for something
worthless. And yet there have been lodgedin that frail and temporary thing
forces which minister to life. So the worm rolls himself up in the cocoon, but
within the cocoonthe purple and goldenglories of the butterfly are silently
elaborating themselves. Even so it is God's intent that the immortal, the
spiritual life should be taking shape under the forms of the mortal life — that
in the tent man should be shaping for the eternalbuilding.
4. This feature of our mortal life is intended to show itself early. The average
human life, as we have seen, tends to become more and more envelopedin the
wrappings of this world, and to considernothing else;and many practically
reasonthat attention to the interests of the next world may be deferred until
the process ofdetachment from the things of time has fairly and consciously
setin. On the contrary, the life should be shaped for eternity from the
beginning. The ministry of the soil begins with the very first stage of the seed-
life. The world to come does not appeal merely to manhood and old age. It is
the child that is most inquisitive about the sky, to whom the stars are a
wonder. Why not the same fact in spiritual life? Why should not heavenly
aspirations characterisechildhood? Why should not the child-life be touched
and quickenedby contactwith heaven? Within and under the life of society,
the life of business, the domestic life, an eternal, spiritual manhood may be
outlining itself.
5. When men have undertaken to shut themselves out as much as possible
from the contactof this life, they have not seenthat He that hath wrought us
for this very thing is God.

6. Foryears, as the traveller on the Rhine came in sight of Cologne, the first
objectwhich greetedhis eye was the unsightly mass of scaffolding around the
cathedralspires. It is all gone now, and the twin spires soarheavenwardfrom
their base, and cut the horizon with their clean, sharp lines of stone. Yet the
scaffolds were necessaryto the building. Whether this life is to be more than
scaffolding depends on the man who lives — depends on whether or not he
mistakes scaffolding for building. If the cocoonis all that the worm comes to,
poor worm! Worthless cocoon!If business, politics, sociallife, fame, are all the
man comes to, poor man! The tent will fall. Shall you be left uncovered?
Beware, beware ofthese same wrappings. They are folding you in closely.
Detachmentmay mean for you victory and immortality. God hath wrought
you for the eternalbuilding in the heavens no less than for the frail, perishing
tent on earth.
(M. R. Vincent, D. D.)
Who also hath given unto us the earnestof the Spirit
The earnestof the Spirit
T. Manton, D. D.
I. WHAT IS GIVEN BY WAY OF EARNEST.
II. THE NATURE OF AN EARNEST.
1. An earnestsupposeth a bargain and contract. The right to eternal life
cometh to believers in a way of covenant; they resignthemselves to God by
faith, and God bindeth Himself to give them forgiveness ofsins.
2. Earnestis given when there is some delay of the thing bargainedfor. As
soonas we enter into covenantwith God we have a right; but our blessedness
is deferred, not for want of love in God, but partly that in the meantime we
may exercise ourfaith and love (Philippians 3:21; Romans 8:23), and partly
that the heirs of salvationmay glorify Him here upon earth (Matthew 5:16; 1
Peter2:12).

3. An earnestis part of the whole bargain, though but a little part. So the
saving gifts, graces, andcomforts of the Spirit are a small beginning, ors part
of that glory which shall then be revealed. Grace is begun glory, and they
differ as an infant and a man. Regenerationis an immortal seed, a beginning
of eternal life.
4. Earnestis given for the security of the party that receivethit, not for him
that giveth it. There is no danger of breaking on God's part; but God "was
willing more abundantly to show to the heirs of promise the immutability of
His counsel";because ofour frequent doubts and fears in the midst of our
troubles and trials, we need this confirmation.
5. It is not takenawaytill all be consummated, and therein an earnest
differeth from a pawn or pledge. A pledge is something left with us, to be
restoredor taken awayfrom us; but an earnestis filled up with the whole
sum. So God giveth part to assure us of obtaining the whole in due season
(Philippians 1:6; 1 Peter1:9).
III. THE USE AND END OF AN EARNEST IS —
1. To raise our confidence of the certainty of these things. There is some place
for doubts and fears, till we be in full possession, from weaknessofgrace and
greatness oftrials.
2. To quicken our earnestdesires and illustrious diligence. The firstfruits are
to show how good, as well as earnesthow sure.
3. To bind us not to depart from these hopes.
(T. Manton, D. D.)
STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES
Adam Clarke Commentary

Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing - God has given us our
being and our body for this very purpose, that both might be made immortal,
and both be glorified together. Or, God himself has given us this insatiable
hungering and thirsting after righteousness andimmortality. Mr. Addison has
made a beautiful paraphrase of the sense of the apostle, whether he had his
words in view or not: -
" - Whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?
Or whence this secretdread and inward horror
Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us;
'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man. -
The soul, securedin her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years;
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,
The wreck ofmatter, and the crush of worlds."
The earnestof the Spirit - See the note on 2 Corinthians 1:22.
Copyright Statement

These files are public domain.
Bibliography
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:5". "The Adam Clarke
Commentary". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/acc/2-
corinthians-5.html. 1832.
return to 'Jump List'
Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing - The phrase “self-same
thing” here means this very thing, that is, the thing to which he had referred -
the preparation for heaven, or the heavenly dwelling. The word “wrought”
here ( κατεργασάμενος katergasamenos)means that God had formed or made
them for this; that is, he had by the influences of the Spirit, and by his agency
on the heart, createdthem, as it were, for this, and adapted them to it. God
has destined us to this change from corruption to incorruption; he has
adapted us to it; he has formed us for it. It does not refer to the original
creationof the body and the soul for this end, but it means that God, by his
own renewing, and sanctifying, and sustaining agency, had formed them for
this, and adapted them to it. The objectof Paul in stating that it was done by
God, is to keepthis truth prominently before the mind. It was not by any
native inclination, or strength, or power which they had, but it was all to be
tracedto God; compare Ephesians 2:10.
Who also hath given - In addition to the fitting for eternal glory he has given
us the earnestof the Spirit to sustain us here. We are not only prepared to
enter into heaven, but we have here also the support produced by the earnest
of the Spirit.
The earnestof the Spirit - On the meaning of this, see the note on 2
Corinthians 1:22. He has given to us the Holy Spirit as the pledge or assurance
of the eternalinheritance.

Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Barnes, Albert. "Commentaryon 2 Corinthians 5:5". "Barnes'Notesonthe
New Testament". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bnb/2-
corinthians-5.html. 1870.
The Biblical Illustrator
2 Corinthians 5:5
Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God.
The patient Divine Workman and His purpose
These words penetrate deep into the secretsofGod. To Paul everything is the
Divine working. Life is to him no mere blind whirl of accidentalforces, but
the slow operationof the greatWorkman. And he believes that the clear
perception of the Divine purpose will be a charm againstall sorrow, doubt,
despondency, or fear.
I. God’s purpose in all his working.
1. What is that “self-same thing”? The apostle has been speaking aboutthe
instinctive reluctance that even goodmen feel at the prospect of “putting off
the earthly house of this tabernacle.” He distinguishes betweenthree different
conditions in which the human spirit may be--dwelling in the earthly body,
stripped of that, and “clothedwith the house which is from heaven”;and this
last and highest state is the very thing for which God has wrought us--i.e., the
highest aim of the Divine love in all its dealings with us is not merely a blessed
spiritual life, but the completionof our humanity in a perfect spirit dwelling
in a glorified body.
2. That glorified body is described in our context.

II. The slow process ofthe divine workman.
1. The apostle employs a term which conveys the idea of continuous and
effortful work, as if againstresistance.Like some sculptor with a hard bit of
marble, or some metallurgist with rough ore, so the loving, patient, Divine
Artificer labours long and earnestlywith somewhatobstinate material, by
manifold touches, here a little and there a little, and not discouragedwhenHe
comes upon a black vein in the white marble, nor when the hard stone turns
the edge of His chisels. Learn, then--
2. Considerthe three-fold processes which, in the Divine working, terminate
in this greatissue.
3. And everything about the experiences ofa true Christian spirit is charged
with a prophecy of immortality. The very desires which God’s goodSpirit
works in a believing soul are themselves confirmations of their own fulfilment.
III. The certainty and the confidence.
1. “He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God.” Then we may be
sure that, as far as He is concerned, the work will not be suspendednor vain.
This Workman has infinite resources,anunchanging purpose, and infinite
long-suffering. In the quarries of Egypt you will find gigantic stones, half-
dressed, and intended to have been transported to some greattemple. But
there they lie, the work incomplete, and they never carried to their place.
There are no half-polished stones in God’s quarries. They are all finished
where they lie, and then borne across the sea, like Hiram’s from Lebanon, to
the temple on the hill.
2. But it is a certainty that you can thwart. It is an operationthat you can
counter-work. Oh! do not let all God’s work on you come to naught, but yield
yourselves to it. Rejoice in the confidence that He is moulding your character,
cheerfully welcome the providences, painful as they may be, by which He
prepares you for heaven. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Preparationfor heaventhe work of God
There are five steps in orderly successionwhereby we are wrought, made fit,
for the kingdom of God.
I. The first of these is the divine call, by which we are excited and urged to
seek salvation.
II. The secondstepin the preparation of the soul for heaven is divine
illumination.
III. The spiritual illumination of the inner man is followedby repentance.
IV. And this conducts us to the fourth stepin the process ofreligion--namely,
faith in Christ.
V. The final stepin the method of salvation is the sanctificationof the soul. (J.
A. Sartorius.)
Preparationfor heaven
I. The work of preparation.
1. It is almost universally admitted that some preparation is essential.
Whenever death is announced, you will hear the worst-instructedsay, “I hope,
poor man! he was prepared.”
(a) God declares that we are enemies to Him. We need, therefore, that some
ambassadorshould come to us with terms of peace, and reconcile us to God.

(b) We are debtors also to our Creator--debtors to His law. Some mediator,
then, must come in to pay the debt for us, for we cannot pay it, neither can we
be exempted from it.
(c) In addition to this, we are all criminals--condemned already; in fear of
executionunless some one come in betweenus and punishment. Say, then, has
this been done for you? Many of you cananswer, “Blessedbe God, I have
been reconciledto Him through the death of His Son; my debts to Godare
paid; I have lookedto Christ, my Substitute, and I am no longercondemned”
(Romans 8:1). Come, let us rejoice in this, that He hath wrought us for this
self-same thing.
(a) We are all dead in trespassesand sins. Shall dead men sit at the feasts of
the eternalGod? Only the Jiving children caninherit the promises of the
living God, for He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
(b) By nature we are all worldly. We “mind earthly things”; the world’s
maxims govern us, its fears alarm us, its hopes and ambitions excite us. But
we cannot go to heavenas worldly men, for there would be nothing there to
gratify us. The joys and glories of heaven are all spiritual.
(c) We are unholy by nature; but in heaven they are “without fault before the
throne of God.” No sin is toleratedthere. What a change, then, must come
over the carnal man to make him holy? What canwash him white but the
blood of Christ? That a great change must be wrought in us even ungodly
men will confess,since the Scriptural idea of heaven has never been agreeable
to unconverted men. When Mahomet would charm the world into the belief
that he was the prophet of God, the heaven he pictured was a heavenof
unbridled sensualism. Coulda wickedman enter into heaven, he would be
wretchedthere. There is no heaven for him who has not been prepared for it
by a work of grace in his soul.
2. If we have such a preparation, we must have it on this side of our death. As
the tree falleth, so it must lie. While the nature is softit is susceptible of
impression, stamp what sealyou may upon it; once let it grow cold and hard,
you cando so no more; it is proof againstany change. We have no intimation
in the Word of God that any soul dying in unbelief will afterwards be

converted. “He that is holy, let him be holy still; he that is filthy, let him be
filthy still.” Moreover, we ought to know, for it is possible for a man to know
whether he is thoroughly prepared. Jesus Christ has not left us in such a
dubious ease that we always need to be inquiring, “Am I His, or am I not?”
He tells us that “he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved.” If we have
obeyed these commands we shall be saved, for our God keepethHis word. We
need not harbour endless questionings.
3. Masthow many put off all thoughts of being prepared to diet They are
prepared for almostanything exceptthe one thing needful. “Prepare to meet
your God.”
II. The author of this preparation for death. Who made Adam fit for Paradise
but God? And who must make us fit for the better Paradise above but God?
That we cannotdo it ourselves is evident. We are dead in trespassesandsins.
Can the dead start from the grave of their own accord? The deadshall surely
rise, but because Godraises them. Conversion, which prepares us for heaven,
is a new creation. The original creationwas the work of God, and the new
creationmust likewise be of God. Think of what fitness for heaven is! To be fit
for heavena man must be perfect. Go, you who think you canprepare
yourselves, be perfectfor a day. Man’s work is never perfect. God alone is
perfect, and He alone is the Perfecter.
III. The sealof this preparation. “The earnestof the Spirit.” Masters
frequently pay during the week a part of the wages whichwill be due on
Saturday night. God gives His Holy Spirit, as it were, to be a part of the
reward which He intends to give to His people when, like hirelings, they have
fulfilled their duty. So God gives us His Holy Spirit to be in our hearts as an
earnestof heaven. Have you receivedthe Holy Spirit? Do you reply, “How
may I know?” Whereverthe Holy Spirit is, He works certaingracesin the
soul, such as repentance, patience, forgiveness, holycourage, joy, etc. This
gift, moreover, will be conspicuouslyevidenced by a living faith in Christ. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)

The greathope and its earnest
I. What “this self-same thing” is for which we are “wrought.” Studying the
context, we find it to be a certain state of mind in regardto many things. We
must go back to chap. 4. to understand this fully. And I think it must be
allowedthat it is a very greatand heroic attitude. He who can take up the
language ofa passage like this, and honestly adopt it as the description of the
state and feeling of his mind, is a -very king, and must be among the happiest
of men. We have around us here and now the world--God-denying and anti-
Christian--which was around the Apostle Paul. It is not changed!The apostle
seems to have lived in a tough house, and yet a house that, after years of toil
and hardship, became worn out and frail. If it was a greatthing for him to
triumph over bodily suffering, and to face death, must it not be a greatthing
for afflicted and suffering people to do the same now? And is it not a great
thing, in these times, to be able to look to that “beyond” in faith and
confidence, to castanchorof thought and faith, as well as of desire and hope,
in another life? While atheism spreads blackness overthe universe, while
materialism drags men down to the dust, while heartless philosophies and
flippant literatures tell us “it does not matter”--in times like these it is a great
thing to stand on the old watch-tower, and to look by faith clearly beyond the
visible into the invisible, declaring, “Yes, I see it. I know that if the earthly
house of this tabernacle,” etc.
II. It is wholly the result of a divine process. It is not a natural development. If
it were so, the apostle might have said, “He who createdus, when we were
born, for this self-same thing is God”;or, “He who gave us life, and gave us
powerto mould and renew our own nature till we rise into all goodness, is
God.” But his words take anotherline. “He who hath wrought us”--createdus
anew in Christ Jesus--“wroughtus,” as the block of marble is wrought into
the shape of the fair figure. So are we “wrought” by God. His work is
marvellous. He must have wrought a greatwork in Stephen before he could
stand up fearlessly, with an angelface, amid the showerof deathdealing

stones. He works always along main lines, amid infinite variety of
circumstance, but always with a view to the “self-same thing,” and therefore
in some degree along the same road to reachit; and this is the road (Romans
8:29-30).
III. All this is made sure to us, not only in Divine promise, but by “the earnest
of the spirit.” That is to say, this “self-same thing” means not merely a hope
that something good and greatis coming by and by, but that it is in part
matter of experience now. There are estates in this world which you can enter
by crossing a river, or going over a chain of hills. You are then in the estate,
and if you know the proprietor, and he accounts you his friend, you have some
feeling of safetyas you travel on over moor and moss, through gloomyforest
and dark defile; but if you are going to the mansion--that is twenty or thirty
miles distant, perhaps, and many adventures may come to you by the way.
Still, if you walk well, and walk right on--not stopping for every dog that
barks, or sheltering from every showerthat falls, but pressing always on--
why, then, just about sunset, perhaps, the westernskyall gold, sweetevening
breathing peace over the earth, you will see the towers ofthe castle whither
you are going. And the landscape will begin to soften and glow;the grass is
greenernow; the trees are more select;the road--how smooth it is, compared
with some of the first miles you trod! And then you pass the greatiron gate,
and lo! yonder in the doorwayis your friend who has sent for you, and who is
lord of all the way by which you have come. Such is our heavenly way. Every
step of it is on King’s ground. We are in heaven when we begin to live to
heaven’s King. But it is a wide estate, and looking, and longing, and praying
as they travel; and this is “the earnestof the Spirit” this is the witness in the
man himself that he has “passedfrom death unto life,” and that he shall win
the life immortal at length. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
The glorious hereafterand ourselves
It is a very comforting thing to be able to see the work of God in our own
hearts. We have not to searchlong for the foul handiwork of Satanwithin us.
The apostle found indications of the Divine work in a groan. Believers may

trace the finger of God in their holy joys, yet just as surely is the Holy Spirit
present in their sorrows and groanings which cannotbe uttered. So long as it
is the work of God, it is comparatively a small matter whether our hearts’
utterance be song or sigh.
I. God’s work is seenin creating in us desires after being “clothedupon with
our house which is from heaven.”
1. The Christian is the most contentedman in the world, but he is the least
contentedwith the world. He is like a traveller, perfectly satisfiedwith the inn
as an inn, but his desires are ever towards home. He is like a sailor, well
content with the goodship for what it is, but he longs for harbour.
2. What is it that makes the Christian long for heaven?
3. This desire is above ordinary nature. All flesh is grass, andthe grass loves
to strike its root deep into the earth; it has no tendrils with which to claspthe
stars. Man by nature would be contentto abide on earth for ever.
4. While they are contrary to the old nature, such aspirations prove the
existence ofthe new nature. You may be quite sure thai you have the nature of
God in you if you are pining after God.
5. Note the means by which the Holy Spirit quickens these desires within our
spirits.
II. The fitness for heavenwhich is wrought in us.
1. Who fits us.
2. In what this fitness consists.
3. The unfitness of unrenewed souls for heaven may be illustrated by the
incapacity of certain persons for elevatedthoughts and intellectual pursuits.
Alphonse Karr tells a story of a servant-man who askedhis masterto be
allowedto leave his cottage andsleepover the stable. What was the matter

with his cottage? “Why, sir, the nightingales all around make such a “jug, jug,
jug” at night that I cannot bear them.” A man with a musical earwould be
charmed with the nightingales’song, but here was a man without a musical
soul, who found the sweetestnotes a nuisance.
III. The Lord has graciouslygiven to us an earnestof glory. An earnestis
unlike a pledge, which has to be returned when the matter which it ensures is
obtained; it is a part of the thing itself. So the Holy Spirit is a part of heaven.
His work in the soulis the bud of heaven.
1. His very dwelling in our soul is the earnestof heaven. If God Himself
condescends to make these bodies His temples, is not this akin to heaven’s
honours?
2. When He brings to us the joys of hope, this is an earnest. While singing
some glowing hymn our spirit shakes offall her doubts and fears, and
anticipates her everlasting heritage.
3. When we enjoy the full assurance offaith, and read our title clearto
mansions in the skies;when faith knows whom she has believed, and is
persuaded that He is able to keepthat which she has committed to Him--this
is an earnestofheaven.
4. Heaven is the place of victory, and when the Holy Spirit enables us to
overcome sin we enjoy an earnestof the triumph of heaven.
5. When through the Spirit we enjoy fellowshipwith Christ, and with one
another, we have a foretaste ofthe fellowship of heaven.
Conclusion:If these things be so, believers--
1. Be thankful. Remember these things are not your ownproductions; they
have been planted in your soul by another hand, and wateredby a superior
power.

2. Be reverent. When a scholarknows that all he has learned has been taught
him by his master, he looks up from his master’s feetinto his master’s face
with respectfulesteem.
3. Be confident. If the goodthing had been wrought by ourselves we might be
sure that it would fail before long. Nothing of mortal man was everperfect.
But, if He that hath begun the goodwork be God, there is no fearthat He will
forsake orleave His work undone. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Detaching
I. In God’s economy this life is a process ofdisentangling from its own
conditions. Mortal life is a getting loose.
1. Note the imagery of the context. We mortals are as dwellers in a tent. This
tent is being gradually “looseneddown.” The same word was used by our
Lord of the stones of the temple at Jerusalem, and indicates a gradual
destruction, stone after stone. So in striking a tent. Paul has a like figure in
Philippians, where he desires to “depart,” or, literally, “to break camp.” This
gradual loosening, this detachment, is a familiar factof our life. We are
breaking up, and God hath wrought us for this very thing. One of the most
puzzling things about the world is that such superhuman ingenuity, such
perfect finish of workmanship, will crumble to dust. How exquisite is the
structure of a bee or of a butterfly, and yet how short-lived they are.
2. These are familiar facts. What is our attitude toward them?
3. This is a very sadpicture if this is all. Nay, it is an insult to common sense to
ask us to believe that this wondrous frame of nature and of man are made
merely to be destroyed. God did not make us for death, but for life. If He has
appointed a tent for our sojourn, He has reared a building for our dwelling.
Moses,in Psalms 90:1-17., voices the truth. There is nothing eternal but God.
There is no warrant of man’s eternity but God. There is no eternalhome for
man but in God.

II. And so we turn to the other side of our text. Godhas made us for the tent,
but He has also made us for the building.
1. The important point is that we should see these two things as part of one
economy--the tent and the building as related to eachother. Even if sin had
never entered the world, I doubt whether this human life and body would
have been any more than a temporary stage ofexistence through which men
would have passedinto a purely spiritual life. BecauseI find that this is
according to the analogyof God’s working elsewhere.God’s plans unfold.
They do not flash into consummation. They involve progressive stages. The
line of His purpose runs out to eternity, but it runs through time.
2. Thought has tended too much to the violent separationof the mortal life
from the eternallife--has tended to set them in contrastand oppositioninstead
of in harmony. For instance, we draw the line sharply betweenlife and death;
and yet many a scientistwill tell you that death is the beginning of life, and
Christ and Paul tell you that in unmistakable terms. And what we want
clearly to apprehend is that this mortal, transitory tent-life has a definite
relation to the permanent spiritual life of the future; that it serves a purpose
of preparation and development toward that life; that it furnishes a soil in
which the seeds ofthe spiritual life are sown; and that, therefore, instead of
being despisedand neglectedbecause it is temporary and destined to
dissolution, it is to be cultivated as the effective ministrant of the eternal life.
“He that wrought us for this very thing is God.”
3. We have in nature a greatmany illustrations and analogiesofthis. Take,
e.g., the soil. Existence underground, in the dark, is a low form of life, and yet
the seedmust be castinto the ground, and remain there for a time, before the
beauty and fruitfulness and nourishment of the fruit or grain canbecome
facts. And that stage ministers directly to the higher form of life. So in animal
life. What a delicate and beautiful structure is the egg of the fowl! It is made,
as we all see, to be broken, and an egg-shellis a synonym for something
worthless. And yet there have been lodgedin that frail and temporary thing
forces which minister to life. So the worm rolls himself up in the cocoon, but
within the cocoonthe purple and goldenglories of the butterfly are silently
elaborating themselves. Even so it is God’s intent that the immortal, the

spiritual life should be taking shape under the forms of the mortal life--that in
the tent man should be shaping for the eternal building.
4. This feature of our mortal life is intended to show itself early. The average
human life, as we have seen, tends to become more and more enveloped in the
wrappings of this world, and to considernothing else;and many practically
reasonthat attention to the interests of the next world may be deferred until
the process ofdetachment from the things of time has fairly and consciously
setin. On the contrary, the life should be shaped for eternity from the
beginning. The ministry of the soil begins with the very first stage of the seed-
life. The world to come does not appeal merely to manhood and old age. It is
the child that is most inquisitive about the sky, to whom the stars are a
wonder. Why not the same fact in spiritual life? Why should not heavenly
aspirations characterisechildhood? Why should not the child-life be touched
and quickenedby contactwith heaven? Within and under the life of society,
the life of business, the domestic life, an eternal, spiritual manhood may be
outlining itself.
5. When men have undertaken to shut themselves out as much as possible
from the contactof this life, they have not seenthat He that hath wrought us
for this very thing is God.
6. Foryears, as the traveller on the Rhine came in sight of Cologne, the first
objectwhich greetedhis eye was the unsightly mass of scaffolding around the
cathedralspires. It is all gone now, and the twin spires soarheavenwardfrom
their base, and cut the horizon with their clean, sharp lines of stone. Yet the
scaffolds were necessaryto the building. Whether this life is to be more than
scaffolding depends on the man who lives--depends on whether or not he
mistakes scaffolding for building. If the cocoonis all that the worm comes to,
poor worm! Worthless cocoon!If business, politics, sociallife, fame, are all the
man comes to, poor man! The tent will fall. Shall you be left uncovered?
Beware, beware ofthese same wrappings. They are folding you in closely.
Detachmentmay mean for you victory and immortality. God hath wrought
you for the eternalbuilding in the heavens no less than for the frail, perishing
tent on earth. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.)

Who also hath given unto us the earnestof the Spirit.--
The earnestof the Spirit
I. What is given by wayof earnest.
II. The nature of an earnest.
1. An earnestsupposeth a bargain and contract. The right to eternal life
cometh to believers in a way of covenant; they resignthemselves to God by
faith, and God bindeth Himself to give them forgiveness ofsins.
2. Earnestis given when there is some delay of the thing bargainedfor. As
soonas we enter into covenantwith God we have a right; but our blessedness
is deferred, not for want of love in God, but partly that in the meantime we
may exercise ourfaith and love (Philippians 3:21; Romans 8:23), and partly
that the heirs of salvationmay glorify Him here upon earth (Matthew 5:16; 1
Peter2:12).
3. An earnestis part of the whole bargain, though but a little part. So the
saving gifts, graces, andcomforts of the Spirit are a small beginning, ors part
of that glory which shall then be revealed. Grace is begun glory, and they
differ as an infant and a man. Regenerationis an immortal seed, a beginning
of eternal life.
4. Earnestis given for the security of the party that receivethit, not for him
that giveth it. There is no danger of breaking on God’s part; but God “was
willing more abundantly to show to the heirs of promise the immutability of
His counsel”;because ofour frequent doubts and fears in the midst of our
troubles and trials, we need this confirmation.
5. It is not takenawaytill all be consummated, and therein an earnest
differeth from a pawn or pledge. A pledge is something left with us, to be
restoredor taken awayfrom us; but an earnestis filled up with the whole

sum. So God giveth part to assure us of obtaining the whole in due season
(Philippians 1:6; 1 Peter1:9).
III. The use and end of an earnestis--
1. To raise our confidence of the certainty of these things. There is some place
for doubts and fears, till we be in full possession, from weaknessofgrace and
greatness oftrials.
2. To quicken our earnestdesires and illustrious diligence. The firstfruits are
to show how good, as well as earnesthow sure.
3. To bind us not to depart from these hopes. (T. Manton, D. D.)
Copyright Statement
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliography
Exell, JosephS. "Commentary on "2 Corinthians 5:5". The Biblical
Illustrator. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tbi/2-corinthians-
5.html. 1905-1909.New York.
Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible
Now he that wrought us for this very thing is God, who gave us the earnestof
the Spirit.

Other references ofthe apostle to the "earnest" ofthe Holy Spirit are in 2
Corinthians 1:22 and Ephesians 1:13. The meaning of "earnest" is exactly
that of the word as used by realtors in sealing the purchase of a piece of
property. It is a token, or pledge, that the whole contractualprice will be paid.
The application is that through God's impartation of the Holy Spirit (in token
measure)to all who are baptized into Christ, there is a pledge of the total
redemption God promised to them that believe and obey his word. Some have
takenthis "gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38), or "Holy Spirit of promise"
(Ephesians 1:13), as it is called, for a promise of direct guidance of his
children on the part of God, without regardto the sacredscriptures;but, of
course, this is the grossesterror. In any language, a "token" may not be
misconstrued as the full possessionofGod's gracious gift of the Spirit.
Evidence of possessionofthis gift is found in the manifestation of the fruits
mentioned in Galatians 5:22.
Copyright Statement
James Burton Coffman Commentaries reproduced by permission of Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. All other rights reserved.
Bibliography
Coffman, James Burton. "Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:5". "Coffman
Commentaries on the Old and New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/2-corinthians-5.html.
Abilene Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. 1983-1999.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing,.... By "the selfsame
thing" is meant, either the cross, the burden of sorrows and afflictions, under
which the saints groan whilst here, which God has appointed them unto, and
therefore to be bore patiently by them; or that glory and immortality, which
they, as vessels ofmercy, were prepared by him for from everlasting;for

which their bodies and souls are formed by him in creation, and for which
they are made meet in regeneration, by the curious workmanshipof his Spirit
and grace upon them: and seeing he "is God", and not man, who hath
wrought them for this, either by his secretpurposes and preparations of grace
in eternity, or by his open works of creationand regenerationin time; there is
no doubt but they shall certainly enjoy it, since his counsels are immutable,
and he is a rock, and his work is perfect; whatever he begins he finishes, nor is
he ever frustrated of his end: one of Stephens's copies adds, "and hath
anointed us", which seems to have been transcribed from 2 Corinthians 1:21.
Who also hath given us the earnestof the Spirit; and therefore may be
assuredof possessing the inheritance, of which he is the earnest;see 2
Corinthians 1:22.
Copyright Statement
The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Modernisedand adapted
for the computer by Larry Pierce of Online Bible. All Rightes Reserved,
Larry Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario.
A printed copy of this work can be ordered from: The Baptist Standard
Bearer, 1 Iron Oaks Dr, Paris, AR, 72855
Bibliography
Gill, John. "Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:5". "The New John Gill
Exposition of the Entire Bible".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/2-corinthians-5.html.
1999.
Geneva Study Bible
Now he that hath c wrought us for the selfsame thing [is] God, who also hath
given unto us the earnestof the Spirit.

(c) He means that first creation, to show us that our bodies were made to this
end, that they should be clothed with heavenly immortality.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Beza, Theodore. "Commentaryon 2 Corinthians 5:5". "The 1599 Geneva
Study Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/gsb/2-
corinthians-5.html. 1599-1645.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
wrought us — framed us by redemption, justification, and sanctification.
for the selfsame thing — “unto” it; namely, unto what is mortal of us being
swallowedup in life (2 Corinthians 5:4).
who also — The oldestmanuscripts omit “also.”
earnestof the Spirit — (See on 2 Corinthians 1:22). It is the Spirit (as “the
first-fruits”) who creates in us the groaning desire for our coming deliverance
and glory (Romans 8:23).
Copyright Statement
These files are a derivative of an electronic edition prepared from text
scannedby Woodside Bible Fellowship.

This expanded edition of the Jameison-Faussett-BrownCommentary is in the
public domain and may be freely used and distributed.
Bibliography
Jamieson, Robert, D.D.;Fausset,A. R.; Brown, David. "Commentary on 2
Corinthians 5:5". "Commentary Criticaland Explanatory on the Whole
Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jfb/2-corinthians-
5.html. 1871-8.
Vincent's Word Studies
Wrought ( κατεργασάμενος)
The compound is significant, indicating an accomplishedfact. Through the
various operations of His Spirit and the processes ofHis discipline, God has
workedus out (Stanley, workedup ) for this change. The process includes the
dissolution of what is mortal no less than the renewal. The one is a step to the
other. See 1 Corinthians 15:36.
Earnestof the Spirit
See on 2 Corinthians 1:22, and compare Romans 8:11. Of the Spirit is
appositional, the Spirit as the earnest.
Copyright Statement
The text of this work is public domain.
Bibliography
Vincent, Marvin R. DD. "Commentaryon 2 Corinthians 5:5". "Vincent's
Word Studies in the New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/vnt/2-corinthians-5.html.
Charles Schribner's Sons. New York, USA. 1887.

Wesley's ExplanatoryNotes
Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath
Now he that hath wrought us to this very thing — This longing for
immortality.
Is God — For none but God, none less than the Almighty, could have wrought
this in us.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that
is available on the Christian ClassicsEtherealLibrary Website.
Bibliography
Wesley, John. "Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:5". "John Wesley's
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/wen/2-corinthians-5.html.
1765.
Abbott's Illustrated New Testament
The earnestof the Spirit; the influences of the Spirit as the earnest, or pledge
of the divine love.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Abbott, John S. C. & Abbott, Jacob. "Commentaryon 2 Corinthians 5:5".
"Abbott's Illustrated New Testament".

https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/ain/2-corinthians-5.html.
1878.
Calvin's Commentary on the Bible
5.Now he that hath fitted us. This is added in order that we may know, that
this disposition is supernatural. Formere natural feeling will not lead us
forward to this, for it does not comprehend that hundredfold recompense
which springs from the dying of a single grain. (John 12:24.)We must,
therefore, be fitted for it by God. The manner of it is at the same time
subjoined — that he confirms us by his Spirit, who is as it were an earnestAt
the same time the particle also seems to be added for the sake ofamplification.
“It is God who forms in us this desire, and, lestour courage shouldgive way
or waver, the Holy Spirit is given us as an earnest, becauseby his testimony he
confirms, and ratifies the truth of the promise.” For these are two offices of
the Holy Spirit — first, to show to believers what they ought to desire, and
secondly, to influence their hearts efficaciously, andremove all their doubt,
that they may steadfastlypersevere in choosing whatis good. There would,
however, be nothing unsuitable in extending the word fitted, so as to denote
that renovation of life, with which God adorns his people even in this life, for
in this way he already separates themfrom others, and shows that they are,
by means of his grace, markedout for a peculiar condition.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography

Calvin, John. "Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:5". "Calvin's Commentary
on the Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/cal/2-
John Trapp Complete Commentary
5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath
Ver. 5. He that hath wrought us] Curiously wrought us in the lowermostparts
of the earth, that is, in the womb, as curious workmen perfecttheir choice
pieces in private, and then setthem forth to public view, Psalms 139:15;cf.
Ephesians 4:9. Others expound it by Romans 9:23.
The earnestof the Spirit] He saith not the pawn, but the earnest. A pawn is to
be returned again, but an earnestis part of the whole bargain.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Trapp, John. "Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:5". John Trapp Complete
Commentary. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jtc/2-

Sermon Bible Commentary
2 Corinthians 5:5 (R.V.)
Detaching.
The idea of this passageis that the change from the mortal to the immortal is
no accident. It is the result of a Divine intent. God wrought us for this very
thing, and has given us the earnest, the foretaste and pledge of this change,
through His Spirit. Our text, therefore, is the expressionof the truth that in
God's economy this life is a process ofdisentangling and detachment from its
own conditions. Mortal life, so far as related to itself, is a getting loose.
I. Considerthe imagery of the text. We mortals are as dwellers in a tent. This
tent is being gradually looseneddown;such is the literal meaning of the word
dissolved. Plainly enoughthe average man ignores this fact. He strikes out the
tabernacle from the text and substitutes a building. He lives and plans as if
both he and the world were eternal. God meant that our earthly house should
be a tent and not a building; meant that it should be transitory and not
eternal.
II. God has made us for the tent, but He has also made us for the building. It
is God's intent that the immortal, the spiritual life should be taking shape
under the forms of mortal life; that in the tent man should be shaping for the
eternal building; that in this frail, fleshly environment we should be growing
familiar with the powers of the world to come;should be coming more and
more under their influence; should be growing more and more into sympathy
with the principles and ideas of the eternalworld; growing in aspiration for
their largerrange, and even welcoming the dissolution of the tent as the signal
and medium of entrance into the eternalbuilding. The tent will fall. Shall you
be left uncovered? Beware ofthe wrappings. They are folding you in too
closely. You are growing in reputation and wealth, and the world is a very
pleasantplace to you. All well, perhaps, if these things are not all; if, under
your busy life, there is the constantpresence of God, a carefully fosteredkeen
consciousnessofthe touch of God; an unbroken connectionbetweenheaven
and your tent; a daily interchange betweenChrist and you; if, in short, your

citizenship is in heaven, and the mark of heaven is on your words and your
life and your spirit.
M. R. Vincent, The Covenant of Peace, p. 219.
The Expectationand the Earnest.
I. What is it that the Apostle here alludes to in the expression"the selfsame
thing" to which believers are wrought of God? It is the confident hope of, and
longing desire for, the glories and felicities of the resurrectionstate. In his
bosom and that of his fellow-believers, this hope and desire dwelt fresh and
vigorous. They had not a mere vague wish to enjoy a future felicity of some
sort, they knew not what. Theirs was a firm anticipation of a well-understood
and clearlyrealisedfuturity of blessedness andglory.
II. But to what was it owing that the Apostles had this confident expectation,
which so inspired, cheered, and ennobled them in the service of the gospel?
The answerof the Apostle, in the words before us, is to the effect that God was
the Author and Source of the state of mind of which he speaks. He had
wrought in them the blessedhope which they exultingly entertained. He had
moulded them wholly to it.
III. But the Apostles had something more than mere hope to sustainthem and
cheerthem amid the trials and conflicts of life. They had in actualpossessiona
portion of the promised blessing, and in that the pledge and assurance ofthe
whole. God had given them the earnestof the Spirit.
W. Lindsay Alexander, Sermons, p. 168.
References:2 Corinthians 5:5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi., No. 912;G.
Dawson, Sermons onDisputed Points, p. 152;G. Brooks, Five Hundred
Outlines, p. 99;L. Mann, Life Problems, p. 91. 2 Corinthians 5:5-10.—
Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1303;Homilist, vol. iv., p. 107.

Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Nicoll, William R. "Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:5". "SermonBible
Commentary". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/sbc/2-
corinthians-5.html.
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible
2 Corinthians 5:5. Now he that hath wrought us, &c.— "To these noble views
and sublime desires." This is a most emphaticalmanner of speaking;not only
asserting that God is the author of it, but ascribing Deity to the author. As if
he had said, "None but God could have raisedus to such a temper." The
Spirit is frequently mentioned as the pledge and earnestof immortality; more
particularly Ephesians 1:13-14.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Coke, Thomas. "Commentaryon 2 Corinthians 5:5". Thomas Coke
Commentary on the Holy Bible.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tcc/2-corinthians-5.html.
1801-1803.
Expository Notes with PracticalObservations onthe New Testament

That is, he that hath wrought and appointed us, he that hath prepared and
fitted us, for this glorious change, and hath setour souls a-longing for this
immortal state, is God; who hath also given us by his Spirit those holy
affections, fervent desires, and faithful endeavours, which are the earnestof
heaven before we enjoy it.
Learn hence, 1. That Almighty Goddoth fit and frame his people for that
happy state of bliss and glory, which he has designedthem for, and appointed
them unto: He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God.
Learn, 2. That to the intent his saints may look and long for that glorious and
immortal state with the greatervehemencyand desire, he has already given
them an earnestand foretaste ofit, by his Holy Spirit in their hearts.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Burkitt, William. "Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:5". Expository Notes with
PracticalObservations onthe New Testament.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/wbc/2-corinthians-5.html.
1700-1703.
Greek TestamentCriticalExegeticalCommentary
5.] This greatend, the καταποθῆναι τὸ θνητὸνὑπὸ τῆς ζωῆς, is justified as the
objectof the Apostle’s fervent wish, seeing that it is for this very end, that this
may ultimately be accomplished, that God has wrought us (see below)and
given us the pledge of the Spirit;—But (and this my wish has reason:for) He
who wrought us out (prepared us, by redemption, justification, sanctification,
which are the qualifications for glory) unto this very purpose (viz. that last
mentioned— τὸ καταποθῆναιτὸ θνητὸνἡμῶν ὑπὸ τ. ζωῆς,—notτὸ

ἐπενδύσασθαι, a mere accidentof that glorious absorption: see below)is God,
who gave unto us (a sign that our preparation is of Him: ‘quippe qui
dederit’.…) the earnest(reff. and note) of (gen. of apposition) the (Holy)
Spirit. The Apostle in this verse, is no longertreating exclusively of his own
wish for the more summary swallowing up of the mortal by the glorified, but
is shewing that the end itself, which he individually, or in common with others
then living, wishes accomplished in this particular form of ἐπενδύσασθαι, is,
under whatever form brought about, that for which all the preparation, by
grace, ofChristians, is carriedon, and to which the earnestof the Spirit points
forward. Meyerwould limit this verse entirely to the wish expressedin the
last: but he is certainly wrong: for it forms a note of transition to θαῤῥοῦντες
οὖν πάντοτε in the next: see below.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Alford, Henry. "Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:5". Greek Testament
Critical ExegeticalCommentary.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/hac/2-corinthians-5.html.
1863-1878.
Heinrich Meyer's Critical and ExegeticalCommentaryon the New Testament
2 Corinthians 5:5. δέ] not antithetic (Hofmann), but continuative; this wish is
no groundless longing, but we are placed by God in a positionfor the longed-
for change which swallowsup death. Now He who has made us ready for this
very thing is God.
εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο]for this very behalf, for this very thing, Romans 9:17; Romans
13:6; Ephesians 6:18; Ephesians 6:22; Colossians 4:8. According to the

context, it cannot apply to anything else than to the ἐπενδύσασθαι, whereby
the mortal will be swallowedup of life. Forthis preciselyPaul knew his
individuality to be disposedby God, namely (see what follows)through the
Holy Spirit, in the possessionof which he had the divine guarantee that at the
Parousia he should see his mortal part swallowedup of life, and consequently
should not be amongstthose liable to eternal destruction. In this waythe usual
reference of αὐτὸ τοῦτο to the eternal glory is to be limited more exactlyin
accordancewith the context; comp. also Maier. Bengelwrongly refers it to the
sighing, pointing to Romans 8:23.(217)But how inappropriate this is to the
context! And how unsuitable in that case wouldbe the description of the Holy
Spirit as ἀῤῥαβών, since, according to Bengel, He is to be conceivedas
“suspiria operans”!Quite as unsuitable is the reference ofκατεργ. to the
creation(Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Beza, and others, also
Schneckenburger), whichhas no place here even as the beginning of the
preparation indicated (in opposition to Ewald); Rückertremains undecide.
ὁ δοὺς ἡμῖν κ. τ. λ.] predicative more precise definition of the previous ὁ δὲ
κατεργ. ἡμᾶς … θεός; He who (quippe qui) has given to us the Spirit as
earnest;see on 2 Corinthians 1:22. As earnest, namely, of the factthat we
shall not fail to be clothed upon with the heavenly body at the Parousia (which
Paul was convincedhe would live to see). Comp. Romans 8:11, and the
Remark thereon. The usual reference ofτ. ἀῤῥαβ.:arrham futurae gloriae, is
here too generalfor the context. The view of Hofmann regarding ὁ δοὺς ἡμῖν
κ. τ. λ., that the possessionofthe Spirit, etc., cancels the distinction between
being unclothed and being clothed over, and takes awaythe natural shrinking
from death, falls with his explanation of κατεργασ. ἡμ. εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο;see the
Remark.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography

Meyer, Heinrich. "Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:5". Heinrich Meyer's
Critical and ExegeticalCommentary on the New Testament.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/hmc/2-corinthians-5.html.
1832.
Johann Albrecht Bengel's Gnomonof the New Testament
2 Corinthians 5:5. κατεργασάμενος,He that hath wrought or prepared us) by
faith.— εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο, forthis selfsame thing) viz. that we should thus groan,
Romans 8:23.— καὶ) also;new proof [tokento assure us] of our coming
blessedness.— τὸναῤῥαβῶνα, the earnest)ch. 2 Corinthians 1:22, note.— τοῦ
πνεύματος, of the Spirit) who works in us that groaning.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Bengel, JohannAlbrecht. "Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:5". Johann
Albrecht Bengel's Gnomonof the New Testament.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jab/2-corinthians-5.html.
1897.
Matthew Poole's EnglishAnnotations on the Holy Bible
The selfsame thing is the life, the eternal life, mentioned in the former verse;
the house in the heavens, not made with hands, 2 Corinthians 5:1. God
hath wrought us for it (as some interpret the text) in creation, and by his
providence, forming our bodies in the womb: but it is much better interpreted
by others concerning regeneration;for in the first birth (without respectto
the decree ofelection)God hath no more wrought us for it, than the worstof

men. The apostle therefore is, doubtless, to be understood, as speaking
concerning the work of grace, whichis here attributed to God; we have not
wrought ourselves into or up to any fitness or any grounded expectationof the
future blessedand glorious estate;but it is God who hath prepared us for it,
and wrought such a lively hope of it in us.
Who also hath given unto us the earnestof the Spirit; and hath also given us
his Holy Spirit as the pledge and earnestof it; (concerning this, see 2
Corinthians 1:22) he hath given us his Spirit to dwell and to work in us, and to
assure us of what we speak of, viz. the house in the heavens, the building of
God, that is not made with hands. The Spirit of grace givento the people of
God, working and dwelling in them, is a certainpledge of that glory and life
eternal, which he hath prepared for them.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Poole, Matthew, "Commentaryon 2 Corinthians 5:5". Matthew Poole's
English Annotations on the Holy Bible.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/mpc/2-corinthians-5.html.
1685.
Alexander MacLaren's Expositions ofHoly Scripture
2 Corinthians
THE PATIENT WORKMAN
2 Corinthians 5:5.

These words penetrate deep into the secretsofGod. They assume to have read
the riddle of life. To Paul everything which we experience, outwardly or
inwardly, is from the divine working. Life is to him no mere blind whirl, or
unintelligent play of accidentalforces, nor is it the unguided result of our own
or of others’wills, but is the slow operation of the great Workman. Paul
assumes to know the meaning of this protracted process, thatit all has one
design which we may know and grasp and further. And he believes that the
clearperception of the divine purpose, and the habit of looking at everything
as contributing thereto, will be a magic charm againstall sorrow, doubt,
despondency, or fear, for he adds, ‘Therefore we are always confident.’ So let
us try to follow the course of thought which issues in such a blessedgift as that
of a continual, courageous outlook, and buoyant though grave
lightheartedness, becausewe discernwhat He means ‘Who workethall things
according to the counselof His own will.’
I. The first thought here is, God’s purpose in all His working;‘He that hath
wrought us for the self-same thing is God.’
What is that ‘self-same thing’ ? To understand it we must look back for a
moment to the previous context. The Apostle has been speaking aboutthe
instinctive reluctance which even goodmen feelat prospect of dying and
‘putting off the earthly house of this tabernacle.’He distinguishes between
three different conditions in which the human spirit may be-dwelling in the
earthly body, stripped of that, and ‘clothed with the house which is from
Heaven,’ and to this last and highest state he sees that for him and for his
brethren there were two possible roads. They might reachit either through
losing the present body, in the act of death, and passing through a period of
what he calls nakedness;or they might attain it by being ‘superinvested,’ as it
were, with the glorious body which was to come to saints with Christ when He
came;and so slip on, as it were, the wedding garment over their old clothes,
without having to denude themselves of these. And he says that deep in the
Christian heart there lay reluctance to take the former road and the
preference for the latter. His longing was that that which is mortal might be
‘swallowedup of life,’ as some sand-bank in the tide-way may be gradually
coveredand absorbedby the rejoicing waters. And then he says, ‘Now He that
hath wrought us for this very thing, is God.’

Of course it is impossible that he can mean by this ‘very thing’ the secondof
the roads by which it was possible to reachthe ultimate issue, because he did
not know whether his brethren and he were to die or to be changed. He speaks
in the context about death as a possible contingency for himself and for them,-
’If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,’and so on. Therefore
we must suppose that ‘the self-same thing’ of which he is thinking as the
divine purpose in all His dealings with us, is not the manner in which we may
attain that ultimate condition, but the condition itself which, by one road or
another, God’s children shall attain. Or, in other words, the highest aim of the
divine love in all its dealings with us Christian men, is not merely a blessed
spiritual life, but the completionof our humanity in a perfect spirit dwelling
in a glorified body. Corporeity-the dwelling in a body by which the pure spirit
moves amidst pure universes-is the highestend of God’s will concerning us.
That glorified body is described in our context in wonderful words, which it
would take me far too long to do more than just touch upon. Here we dwell in
a tent, there we shall dwell in a building. Here in a house made with hands, a
corporealframe derived from parents by material transmissionand
intervention; there we shall dwell in a building of which God is the maker.
Here we dwell in a crumbling claytenement, which rains dissolve, which
lightning strikes, and winds overthrow, and which finally lies on the ground a
heap of tumbled ruin. There we dwell in a building, God’s direct work,
eternal, and knowing no corruption nor change. Here we dwell in a body
congruous with, and part of, the perishable earthly world in which it abides,
and with which it stands in relation; there we dwell in a house partaking of
the nature of the heavens in which it moves, a body that is the fit organof a
perfect spirit.
And so, says Paul, the end of what God means with us is not stated in all its
wonderfulness, when we speak of spirits imbued with His wisdom and
surchargedwith His light and perfectness, but when we add to that the
thought of a fitting organin which these spirits dwell, whereby they can come
into contactwith an external universe, incorruptible, and so reachthe summit
of their destined completeness. ‘The house not made with hands,’ eternal, the
building of God in the Heavens, is the end that God has in view for all His
children.

II. So, then, secondly, note the slow process ofthe Divine Workman.
The Apostle employs here a very emphatic compound term for ‘hath
wrought.’ It conveys not only the idea of operation, but the idea of continuous
and somewhattoilsome and effortful work, as if againstthe resistance of
something that did not yield itself naturally to the impulse that He would
bestow. Like some sculptor with a hard bit of marble, or some metallurgist
who has to work the rough ore till it becomes tractable, so the loving, patient,
Divine Artificer is here representedas labouring long and earnestly with a
somewhatobstinate material which can and does resistHis loving touch, and
yet going on with imperturbable and patient hope, by manifold touches, here
a little and there a little, all through life preparing a man for His purpose. The
greatArtificer toils at His task, ‘rising early’ and working long, and not
discouragedwhenHe comes upon a black vein in the white marble, nor when
the hard stone turns the edge of His chisels.
Now I would have you notice that there lies in this conceptiona very
important thought, viz. God cannot make you fit for heavenall at a jump, or
by a simple actof will. That is not His wayof working. He can make a world
so, He cannot make a saint so. He canspeak and it is done when it is only a
universe that has to be brought into being; or He can say, ‘Let there be light,’
and light springs at His word. But He cannot say, and He does not say, Let
there be holiness, and it comes. Notso can God make man meet for the
‘inheritance of the saints in light.’ And it takes Him all His energies, forall a
lifetime, to prepare His child for what He wants to make of him.
There is anotherthought here, which I can only touch, and that is that God
cannot give a man that glorified body of which I have been speaking, unless
the man’s spirit is Christlike. He cannot raise a bad man at the resurrection
with the body of His glory. By the necessitiesofthe case it is confined to the
purified, because it corresponds to their inward spiritual being. It is only a
perfect spirit that candwell in a perfectbody. You could not put a bad man,
Godless and Christless, into the body which will be fit for them whom Christ
has changedfirst of all in heart and spirit into His own likeness. He would be
like those hermit crabs that you see on the beachwho run into any kind of a
shell, whether it fits them or not, in order to geta house.

There are two principles at work in the resurrection of the dead. The glorified
body is not the physical outcome of the material body here, but is the issue
and manifestation, in visible form, of the perfect and Christlike spirit. Some
shall rise to glory and immortality, some to shame and everlasting contempt.
If we are to stand at the last with the body of our humiliation changedinto a
body of glory, we must begin by being changedin the spirit of our mind. As
the mind is, so will the body be one day. But, passing from such thoughts as
these, and remembering that the Apostle here is speaking only about
Christian people, and the divine operations upon them, we may still extend
the meaning of this significantword ‘wrought’ somewhatfurther, and ask you
just to consider, and that very briefly, the three-fold processeswhich, in the
divine working, terminate in, and contemplate, this greatissue.
God has wrought us for it in the very act of making us what we are. Human
nature is an insoluble enigma, if this world is its only field. Amidst all the
waste, the mysterious waste, ofcreation, there is no more profligate
expenditure of powers than that which is involved in giving a man such
faculties and capacities,if this be the only field on which they are to be
exercised. If you think of what most of us do in this world, and of what it is in
us to be, and to do, it is almostludicrous to considerthe disproportion. All
other creatures fit their circumstances;nothing in them is bigger than their
environment. They find in life a field for every power. You and I do not. ‘The
foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have roosting-places.’Theyall
correspondto their circumstances, but we have an infinitude of faculty lying
half dormant in eachof us, which finds no work at all in this present world.
And so, looking at men as they are with eternity in their hearts, with natures
that go reaching out towards infinity, the question comes up: ‘Wherefore hast
Thou made all men in vain? What is the use of us, and why should we be what
we are, if there is nothing for us exceptthis poor present?’God, or whoever
made us, has made a mistake;and strangelyenough, if we were not made, but
evolved, evolution has workedout faculties which have no correspondence
with the things around them.
Life and man are an insoluble enigma excepton one hypothesis, and that is
that this is a nursery-ground, and that the plants will be pricked out some
day, and planted where they are meant to grow. The hearts that feelafter

absolute and perfect love, the spirits that can conceive the idea of an infinite
goodness,the dumb desires, the blank misgivings that wander homeless
amidst the narrowness ofthis poor earth, all these things proclaim that there
is a region where they will find their nutriment and expatiate, and when we
look at a man we canonly say, He that hath wrought him for an infinite
world, and an endless communion with a perfect good, is God.
Still further, another field of the divine operation to this end is in what we
roughly call ‘providences.’What is the meaning of all this discipline through
which we are passed, if there is nothing to be disciplined for? What is the good
of an apprenticeship if there is no journeyman’s life to come after it, where
the powers that have been slowly acquired shall be nobly exercisedupon
broader fields? Why should men be taken, as it were, and, like the rough iron
from the ground,
‘Be heatedhot with hopes and fears,
And plunged in baths of hissing tears,
And battered with the shocksofdoom,’
if, after all the process, the polished shaft is to be brokenin two, and tossed
awayas rubbish? If death ends faculty, it is a pity that the faculty was so
patiently developed. If God is educating us all in His school, and then means
that, like some wastrelboys, we should lose all our educationas soonas we
leave its benches, there is little use in the rod, and little meaning in the
training. Brethren! life is an insoluble riddle unless the purpose of it lie
yonder, and unless all this patient training of our sorrows and our gladnesses,
the warmth that expands and the cold that contracts the heart, the light that
gladdens and the darkness that saddens the eye and the spirit, are equally
meant for training us for the perfect life of a perfectsoul moving a perfect
body in a perfect universe. Here is a pillar in some ancienthall that has fallen
into poor hands, and has had a low roof thrown across the centre of the
chamber at half its height. In the lowerhalf there is part of a pillar that means
nothing; ugly, bare, evidently climbing, and passing through the aperture, and
awayabove yonder is the carved capitaland the great entablature that it
carries. Who could understand the shaft unless he could look up through the

The holy spirit guarantee

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to The holy spirit guarantee

Similar to The holy spirit guarantee (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

The holy spirit guarantee