“We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8)

No doubt when you die, the appointed minister delivering the eulogy will use or perhaps misuse this Scripture to console the family and assure them that you, that is your immortal body is now in the presence of the Heavenly Father. Although, the objection of the presentation is intended to be a compassionate and noble jester; I believe the apostle leaves absolutely no room for misunderstanding when we examine the entire Scripture. Look again, the writer clearly presents the statement as a statement of choice; he  says I would rather be absent from the body. Certainly, he could have made a more definitive statement if he had desired. Here is where the greatest misunderstanding enters the picture. Some have thought that the “house from heaven” is put on at the moment of death. But the apostle clearly spells out the TIME when he will put on immortality.

A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME…

In the verse preceding our title Scripture, the writer is AGAIN confidently making almost the exact same statement and completing the forethought with even more clarification. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight: (2 Corinthians 5:6-7) Please allow me to continue unpacking this word. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5:1)

TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THAT IS THE QUESTION…

The ultimate object in both cases is to change this mortal body into the immortal body and to change this “earthly house” into the “house eternal in the heavens.” Please notice that in one verse Paul was “earnestly desiring to be clothed” with his house from heaven, and in the other verse his “earnest expectation” was the “redemption of the body.”The comparison proves that this clothing from heaven takes place at the “redemption of the body.” Paul adds the final clarification in (1 Corinthians 15:5 1-53) when he again describes the TIME this change takes place: “…we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump… this mortal must put on immortality.” In other words, even though death should dissolve this mortal body, Paul makes it very clear that we do not put on the house from heaven (immortality) until the coming of Jesus and the redemption of the body. This is also established by the repeated references to the “naked” or “unclothed” state.