(1) For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2) For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: (3) If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. (4) For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. (5) Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
The Apostle opens this Chapter with a beautiful similitude, in comparing the human body, to that of an house, in which the soul is supposed to reside. And, from a well-grounded confidence, of an interest in Christ, he contemplates the prospect of the dissolution of the body, as an object more to be desired, than dreaded; knowing, as he saith, that when absent from the body, he should be present, in spirit, with the Lord. There is also another subject to which it hath respect, in allusion to the Lord Jesus. For as the personal body of Christ, became the temple of the indwelling residence of his divine nature; so the bodies of God's people, are said to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, 2 Corinthians 6:16. When, therefore, the bodies of God's people are dissolved, that is, the earthly part returns to its original dust; there is still an union with Christ, both of soul, and body; and there is a portion, which death destroys not: for the saints of God, are said to sleep in Jesus, 1 Thessalonians 4:14. The voice from Heaven which John heard, declared them blessed which die in the Lord, Revelation 14:13. Death cannot dissolve this union. And it is remarkable, that God our Savior called himself the God of Abraham, many hundred years after his death. And Job speaks as from the grave, of being remembered by the Lord, Job 14:15; Matthew 22:32
The groaning Paul speaks of, every regenerated child of God knows. For carrying about with us a body of sin and death, how is it possible but to groan, while the corrupt, and unrenewed nature of the body, is forever opposing the soul if the Reader would attend a spiritual anatomical lecture on the dissection of the human heart, he may do it by reading the seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans (Romans 7:1); especially from the 7th verse (Romans 7:7) to the end: where the Apostle hath opened in his own history, a complete view, of the inward frames, and workings, of a child of God, when regenerated, and brought into an acquaintance with his own corrupt nature. From such a body of sin and death, when once a child of God is awakened, and regenerated; he groans to be delivered. Reader! do you know anything of this? Have you that self-loathing, that self-abhorrence, from a conscious corrupt, sensual, earthly-minded heart; that you look toward to the humiliation of the grave, as a period of privilege, and deliverance, peculiarly dear to a regenerated soul? This is a trying question. But sure I am, the soul, whom God the Spirit hath regenerated, and brought into an acquaintance with himself; and with Christ, will know how to answer it, will enter into my views, by his own. My Brother! (I would say to everyone of this description), It is blessed, so to love Christ, as to loath self.
I admire the Apostle's referring all the work, as ultimately we shall all the glory, to God. He is indeed the Almighty Source, that causeth the whole change, from nature to grace; and maketh all that difference between the children of the kingdom, and the whole Adam-nature of darkness. It is God which worketh in us, both to will, and to do of his good pleasure. Reader! what a sweet thought! If you, or I, have our minds seasoned with grace: If God the Father from all eternity chose us in Christ: If Jesus the Son of God, betrothed our persons to himself before all worlds; and hath redeemed us in this time state of our nature: If God the Holy Ghost hath called us with an holy calling, and by his regenerating influence, hath made us new creatures in Christ: let us be always ready to ascribe all the glory to Him; for this is the earnest, and sure pledge of the Spirit!