Chapter Five

¹ Chapter Five. For we know that if our earthly house of the tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Since he had said above that, as far as the outward man perishes, so far the inward is renewed, he seemed to be saying something strange; he says that rather, when this mortal and earthy body is wholly destroyed, then myriad good things will spring up for us; and at the same time he discourses to them again concerning the resurrection, though not so plainly as in the former epistle, lest he seem still to reckon them incorrigible. And he called the body an earthly house of the tabernacle; and by calling it a tabernacle, he showed its temporariness; for such is a tent. And if often the resting-places of the righteous also are called tents, yet it is with an addition; for they are eternal tents. And mark how against the earthly he set the heavenly; against the tabernacle, the eternal. And, augmenting the praise of the coming glory of our body, he added also Not made with hands; not as in contradistinction to this body—for neither is this made with hands. But some say that the house made with hands is the life on earth, and the tabernacle the body; so that the meaning is this: If the life of our body on earth be dissolved—which might also be called made with hands, as being put together by hands (for bread and wine, and such things, from which our life also comes, are made by hands)—we shall have another life in the heavens, incorruptible and not made with hands, that is, not needing the labour of our hands.

² For indeed in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven. What habitation? The incorruptible body. And he says it is from heaven, not because it comes down from above, but because from thence it has the grace of incorruption sent forth. So far, then, ought we not to grieve over the trials that befall the body in part, that on the contrary we ought rather to groan, because we do not wholly put off the corruptible body, that we may be clothed upon with this incorruptible one. For this reason he did not even call it a tabernacle, but a habitation, as more abiding.

³ If so be that being clothed also we shall not be found naked. Lest all should take courage on account of the incorruption of the body, he says: If so be that being clothed with incorruption, and having received an incorruptible body, we shall not be found naked of glory and security, as having unseemliness from sin. For the resurrection is common, but the honour is not.

⁴ For indeed we who are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened; in that we wish not to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life. Since what he was saying seemed burdensome—that We groan, desiring to be released from the body (for there is an unspeakable bond of the soul toward the body)—he says that Not for this do we groan, that we may simply be released from the body, but wishing to be clothed upon with incorruption; so that we do not even wish to be unclothed of this, but to be released from corruption, that the corruption may be consumed and spent by life, not the body. For we are burdened not simply on account of the body, but because it is corruptible. And hence the mouths of the heretics are utterly stopped. For the word is not concerning one body and another, but concerning corruption and incorruption.

⁵ And he who wrought us for this very thing is God. It is God, he says, who wrought us from the beginning for this very thing; for he created us that we might be incorruptible; and this did not seem good to him now, but from the beginning. So that it will assuredly come to pass.

⁶ Who also gave us the pledge of the Spirit. Do you wish, he says, a proof? I will give you another also. By giving us the Spirit through baptism, he gave the pledge of incorruption. For he sanctified both soul and body, and made both more divine, releasing them from sin, out of which comes death. So that since he has given the Spirit, it is manifest that he has released us from sin; and having released us from sin, he has also abolished corruption; for corruption is from sin. Thus, then, the Spirit is a pledge of the coming immortality. And in another way too: having now given us the Spirit in part, he has assuredly given a kind of pledge, so that he will give the whole also. And how should he give it, unless we were to be made incorruptible both in soul and in body? Having received here, then, the little, both in soul and in body, as a kind of pledge, hope that you will then have the whole also in its entirety.

⁷ Being therefore always confident, and knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight), we are confident, and are well pleased rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord. He still establishes that which he said above, that We are not anxious about the dangers; for the dangers, he says, and the deaths procure for us the thing to be prayed for, incorruption, for which we also groan, and bring us the sooner to our Master. Being therefore always confident, that is, Fearing neither persecutions, nor plots, nor deaths. And mark his wisdom, how he hid the names of death and of life; and he called the being at home a being toward the Lord, and the being absent a being away from the Lord, that no one might cling to the present life, as though it led away from the Lord. Then, lest anyone say, What then? does the body estrange us from God? he corrected this, saying, For we walk by faith, not by sight; that is, Here indeed we know him, but in measure; for this is the meaning of By faith; not, however, face to face, which is the meaning of By sight. And since these things are so, We are well pleased, that is, We greatly desire to put off this body, and to be with the Lord. And he did not say, To partake of incorruption, but the greater thing, To be with the Lord; for this is greater than incorruption.

⁸ Wherefore also we are ambitious, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing to him. This is the thing sought, to live in a manner well-pleasing to him. For lest, hearing of the departure, you should suppose that this suffices you for salvation, he says, Be earnest to depart approved, by living here in a manner well-pleasing to him.

⁹ For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ. He frightens here by the reminder of that fearful judgment-seat, and by saying, We must be made manifest. For do not suppose that there walls, and curtains, and the depth of the heart hide either the deeds or the counsels, but all are made manifest.

¹⁰ That each one may receive the things done through the body, according to what he has done, whether good or evil. By these words he makes the more hopeful those who have done well; and the more slothful more earnest through fear. And he confirms also the doctrine concerning the resurrection of the bodies; for that which ministered, whether to good or to base deeds, that assuredly is either crowned or punished. Hence too the mouths of the heretics are stopped.

¹¹ Knowing therefore the fear of God, we persuade men; but we have been made manifest to God; and I hope also to have been made manifest in your consciences. Knowing, he says, that fearful tribunal, we do all things so as not to give offence to men; for this is the meaning of We persuade men, instead of, We heal the occasions of stumbling. For even if we do nothing evil, yet give ground for suspicion, and, being able to dissolve the offence, do not dissolve it, we are condemned; to God, however, we are manifest, and he knows how we conduct ourselves; and there is no need to persuade him, as though he were offended. And to you also we have been made manifest, as to those who well know all our affairs. There is no need, therefore, to persuade you as though you had been offended.

¹² For we do not again commend ourselves to you, but are giving you occasion of glorying on our behalf. Continually he rubs off the suspicion of seeming to boast, and says that We came to these words not commending ourselves, that is, exalting our own praise, but that you might have occasion of glorying on our behalf against the false apostles, who disparage you.

¹³ That you may have something against those who glory in appearance, and not in heart. That you may have something to say and to glory on our behalf against the false apostles, who gloried in appearance; that is, in the things for display, in the things according to the outward face. For such were they, having indeed the mask of piety, but bearing in the heart nothing good. And he does not bid them glory always, but whenever those men exalt themselves.

¹⁴ For whether we were beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we are sober-minded, it is for you. Whether we utter anything great (for he calls this being beside oneself, as also elsewhere folly), we do it for God’s sake, that you, not thinking us mean, may not despise us and perish; or whether we say anything moderate and lowly, it is for your sakes, that you may learn to be humble-minded. Or also in another way: if anyone suspects us to be mad, we await the reward from God for the things in which we are suspected on such grounds; but if he deems us sober-minded, let him himself enjoy the benefit of our being sober-minded. And in another way: If we are mad, we are mad in such things for God’s sake, that we may present ourselves to him. And Paul, then, was mad with a love-madness, loving God, and living to him as a lover to the beloved—I mean, having gone out of himself, and wholly passed over to God; and not living his own life, but that of the beloved, as one exceedingly in love, or rather full of affection. If, then, we were beside ourselves, he says, of them, it was wholly to God that we were beside ourselves, instead of, for God’s sake.

¹⁵ For the love of Christ constrains us, because we thus judged, that if one died for all, then all died; that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and rose again. The love of God which he showed toward us constrains us and impels us to face danger for his sake, having judged this well within ourselves, that since he died for all, it is manifest that we all were perished, and for this reason he died for the perished and slain, that he might give us life. Since, then, he gave us life, we ought no longer to live to ourselves, but to him for whose sake we live; who not only died for us, but also rose again; that he might draw us up by way of recall,[1] that is, having led his own body up into heaven, and that he might also assuredly lead us up. For what need at all was there for him to ascend, unless we too were to obtain the like? So that both because he died for us, and because he gave us life, and because he gave us the pledges of incorruption, we ought to live to him, and not to our own desires.

¹⁶ So that we from now know no one according to the flesh. Since all, having been slain by sin, were brought to life again by Christ through baptism, with reason we know no one, he says, of the faithful as living according to the flesh, that is, according to the old and fleshly manner of life. For having been wholly regenerated by the Spirit, they pass over to a new and spiritual life.

¹⁷ But if we have also known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer. He shows that of this very thing also, the not living according to the flesh, I mean, we have Christ as leader; and he says that Even if Christ was once according to the flesh, yet now he is so no longer. What then? Did he lay aside the flesh? God forbid; for as he was taken up, so also will he come. And he was taken up in the flesh and with the body. What, then, does he mean? That we are said to live according to the flesh then, when we are in sins; and then not to live according to the flesh, when we do not sin. But Christ is said to have lived according to the flesh when he was in the natural and blameless passions, hungering, thirsting, sleeping, growing weary. But now, no longer according to the flesh; that is, he was released from these natural and blameless things, having an impassible and undefiled body; that he might, he says, assuredly teach us also out of his abundance to live no longer according to the flesh, and in the manner of sin, but according to the spirit.

¹⁸ So that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. If anyone has believed in Christ, he has come into another fashioning, and has become a new creation. We ought not, therefore, to live according to the old things.

¹⁹ The old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. What old things? Both the things of sin and the Jewish things; for the old sin too is passed away, and a new soul has come to be for us, and a new body; and in place of all the Jewish things, all things are new for us: instead of the law, the gospel; instead of Jerusalem, heaven; instead of the temple, the inner part within the veil, in which is the Trinity; instead of circumcision, baptism; instead of the manna, the body of God; instead of the water, the blood of the Master; instead of the rod of Moses or Aaron, the cross; instead of the lamb, the Son of God; and the rest likewise.

²⁰ But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ. And all these things have been given to us of God, who reconciled us to himself through the mediation of his Son. For we did not run to him, but he himself called us through the death of the Son.

²¹ And gave to us the ministry of the reconciliation. O depth of loving-kindness! For the Father, having sent the Son as ambassador, and then seeing him slain by those who had need of the reconciliation, not even so neglected men, but gave the ministry of the reconciliation to us, he says, to the apostles, that going about we might be ambassadors to the apostates from God, and bring them to him.

²² To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses. He said above that he himself reconciled us to himself. Lest, then, anyone say, And yet he sent the Son, he now says that He sent the Son indeed; but it was not the Son alone who entreated, but the Father also was reconciling the world to himself through Christ; for this is the meaning of In Christ; and showing such goodness to men that he not only did not punish, but was even reconciled; and not only forgave, but did not even reckon their sins. For indeed, if he had wished to demand an account, they would assuredly have perished.

²³ And put in us the word of the reconciliation. Nothing burdensome, then, were we appointed by God to do to you, but to reconcile you to him. For since those before Christ, he says, were not persuaded, do you remain entreating, until you persuade.

²⁴ On behalf of Christ, therefore, we are ambassadors, as though God were entreating by us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. On behalf of Christ, that is, in Christ’s stead we are ambassadors. For what he was about to do, we have now undertaken; and as through him the Father entreated us, so now also through us he entreats, that you may be reconciled to him. And he did not say, Reconcile God to yourselves, but, Be you reconciled to him. For you are at enmity with him, but he never with you; for he is God and Father. And as though God had offended against them, so he makes the embassy, that they may forgive God. O riches of compassion and of condescension!

²⁵ For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. That I may not mention, he says, all the rest—that you dishonoured your benefactor, that he did not demand satisfaction, that rather he himself first chose to be reconciled—is it not, even for what he did, now unworthy in you to be reconciled to him? What is this? That his Son, who knew no sin, that is, who is righteousness itself, he made to die on our behalf as a sinner and a malefactor. For cursed is everyone that hangs upon a tree; and, He was reckoned with the lawless. And he did not say that he made him a sinner, but sin; which is the greater thing. That what might come to pass? That we might be justified—not by works of the law, but by the grace of God. For this is the righteousness of God, when one is justified by grace, when no stain is found; for this reason he did not say, That we might become righteous, but, The righteousness of God, declaring the surpassing greatness of the grace.