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(ii) THE HOUSE FROM HEAVEN

John Wright

We have, beloved brethren, in this section, the contrast between our earthly tabernacle house and the house which is from heaven which is something that ever, believer in Christ will have. It says, “ardently desiring to have put on our house which is from heaven”. Paul had that desire. It is a wonderful thing to have that desire to have this house which is from heaven. We have witnessed with our beloved brother the frailty of the tabernacle house, which is the earthly one. Paul says, “we know that if our earthly tabernacle house be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”. The house which is from heaven is from God. It is made by God, and it is prepared for us by God. God is taking account of what is going on in the present tabernacle house and there is something there which is going through, and it will be housed suitably, eternally. It will be glorious, and it links with what our brother has been saying as to the spiritual body, but it is referred to as a house here, something that will suitably house what is of God which is going through. There is the outward man, “Wherefore we faint not; but if indeed our outward man is consumed”. With Paul it was being consumed. There was, of course, with it the outward decay and decline, as we have seen with our brother, but it was being consumed. It was being consumed in service to the saints, but he says, “the inward is renewed day by day”. It is wonderful to have a link with God now, and with what is eternal. God is preparing a house eternal in the heavens. Let us be engaged with what is eternal. Paul says, “our momentary and light affliction works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory”. There was something being worked out in the suffering and in the pressure. There is much suffering and much pressure among the saints, and God is working something out, He says it “works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are for a time, but those that are not seen eternal”. How real, beloved brethren, are the unseen things, the eternal things, to me? Christianity is not just in word, it is in substance, it is in things which are eternal. So that Paul was engaged with these things and he had the desire to be clothed with this house. He speaks of “we who are in the tabernacle groan, being burdened; while yet we do not wish to be unclothed, but clothed, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life”. That could happen very quickly, that could happen today, when the Lord comes, “that is what is mortal may be swallowed up by life”. Let us be in expectancy. Then he says, “Now he that has wrought us for this very thing is God, who also has given to us the earnest of the Spirit”. “The earnest of the Spirit”, beloved brethren, to have the blessedness of the Spirit as the earnest in this way. Eternal things become real to us as having the earnest of the Spirit. We shall enter into them in actuality soon, but we have the earnest of them, we have the earnest of the Spirit; and the Spirit would give us some impression of what is before us and would sustain us in the little time that remains. Our beloved bereaved brethren will realise what there is in the Spirit and what there is to be engaged with in a forward look into eternal things, which would sustain us at the present time. Then he says, “we are always confident, and know that while present in the body we are absent from the Lord, (for we walk by faith, not by sight); we are confident, I say, and pleased rather to be “absent from the body and present with the Lord”. That is another desire that Paul had. Be then he says, “Wherefore also we are zealous, whether present or absent, to be agreeable to him”. The effect upon us of eternal things being before us and being with the Lord would be that “we are zealous, whether present or absent, to be agreeable to him. For we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of the Christ”. We shall be in our heavenly tabernacle house, then, and the judgment-seat is not for punishment but to get the Lord’s review of all that we have done in this present body, right from the beginning to the end of our course, and we shall get the Lord’s assessment of it, some things will be for profit, some things will be for loss. I just felt led to speak of this, beloved brethren, that these eternal things and being with the Lord may stimulate us at the present time that we may be helped to be agreeable to Him. May it be so, in His Name.

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