A Bible for the Intermediate State?

2 Corinthians 5:5-10

The Intermediate State

If we are to be judged at the judgment seat of Christ for what we have done in the body, how come older (wiser) believers seem to spend so much of their time reading their Bibles? Is the intermediate state going to be a sort of heavenly Sunday School where there will be sweets on offer for answering Bible knowledge questions?

Right, before you start rhapsodising about what literally heavenly sweets might taste like, let me remind you that we won't have bodies in the intermediate state (so what good would sweets do you?) and let me confess that I don't tend to think of reading as something done either, but it is.
• We think wrong if we think that time spend Bible reading could be better spend doing something 'useful.'
• We ought not to think of time spent in prayer as time taken away from doing something useful.
• Do we think that Mary (as in Mary-and-Martha) will have lost her reward in heaven because she chose the better part of sitting, listening to Jesus?

Prayer, Bible reading and meditation are all works that will stand in the judgment as good and for pursuing them there will be the reward for the faithful servant but the wise pursuit of these things is not entered into merely to lay up treasure in heaven. These things are 'means of grace' whereby we practice the presence of Christ now in the hope of being in his presence ere long.

And it isn't as though the Word of God isn't going to be in heaven!
• There will be no temple in the New Jerusalem because 'its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb' [Revelation 21:22.]
• There is no need of either Sun or Moon because there is no night; 'the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb' [Revelation 21:23.]
• And we won't need our Bibles there because the Lamb is the Word of God.

But Revelation doesn't talk about there being no Bibles there. Instead it says, 'No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him' [Rev 22:3.] Because of the one who was once accursed there will be no longer anything accursed. Be encouraged in the faith to do well, not for merit but for Jesus, who, needing no merit for himself, did all and bore all for us.

Prayer is a Pre-Trial Hearing

2 Corinthians 5:5-10

The Intermediate State

Since we are twice-over encouraged to live life here in the Spirit and to face dying and being with Christ without fear, surely we ought to be encouraged to face the judgment seat of Christ without fear also.

These things do not just hang together loosely. It is the Spirit of God who gives us access to God in prayer as we cry 'Abba Father':-
• Jesus addressed God as 'Abba Father' in prayer while facing impending death [Mark 14:36.]
• The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of adoption enables us to pray, 'Abba Father' [Romans 8:15.]
• The Holy Spirit himself, as the Spirit of the Son, cries 'Abba Father' within our hearts [Galatians 4:6.]

Similarly, to be absent from the body will be to be at home with the Lord and what is it that Jesus is doing right now? Believers ought to be encouraged to face the judgment seat, which is after all the judgment seat of Christ, because he has both passed through judgement and condemnation in our place and is now in heavenly session interceding for us [1 John 2:1; Romans 8:34.]

None of us need fear the trial since it is God himself who prepares us for it and he is available to us any time we approach. One of his purposes in adopting us is so that we might have access into his presence as a privilege of sonship so we ought to use the privilege.

Anticipation of Heaven the 3rd Dimension of Life in the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 5:5-10

The Intermediate State

The two aspects of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer that get most of our attention are the anointing on our present lives [2 Corinthians 1:21f.] and our expectation of having God himself as our inheritance [Ephesians 1:13f.] Alongside these two we ought to cultivate the anticipation of heaven.

It ought not be lost among our other reasons for gathering together that we do so with the object of sharing anticipation of heaven. It isn't that we know a great deal about what it will be like to be there, but our fears of being bodiless for a season are removed by the experience of life in the Spirit here and now. Praising God in the middle of the assembly of his people ought to be a foretaste of heaven to those anticipating going there.

Heaven isn't filled with dread about what it will be like to get new bodies either since it isn't a case of spirits good / bodies bad, despite there always having been some people who have thought that way. There are none such in heaven and in fact patience about things being put right and the resurrection of the body is needed by and given to those in heaven who have been martyred [Revelation 6:9-11.] While we are in the body we ought to look with joy both for the upward call and for the return of Christ. Whichever shall come first, the return of Christ for all who believe is certain so that provides a central plank of our spiritual comfort and anticipation of heaven in the meantime ought to comfort us also.

The Intermediate State

2 Corinthians 5:5-10

A Trinitarian Impression of Heaven
Heaven is a Christ-Centred State of Mind
The Due Anticipation of Judgment

The great separation of the eternal state is anticipated by the great gulf fixed in the intermediate state between those who have done good and gone to their reward and those who have done evil. The intermediate state lasts from the the surrendering up of the spirit at death until the reception of new bodies at the general resurrection of the dead. Preparation for the intermediate state begins now as the Father adopts us, the indwelling Spirit encourages us and the Son prepares a place for us so that all our desire is to be sure of our place there, to lay up treasure for there and to be there.

The Due Anticipation of Judgment

2 Corinthians 5:5-10

10 • For we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ,

• so that each one may receive what is due

• for what he has done in the body,
whether good or evil.

Because heaven is the place where rewards are to be received and loss suffered [1 Corinthians 3:15] we ought to live in the light of going there in the here and now, storing up the proverbial treasure in heaven. Jesus said:

[Matthew 6:19-21] "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, (20) but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. (21) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

and the consideration of what reward will be received out of the body ought to govern our service for him while still in the body.

The flip side of all this is of course that those who put no trust in Christ, who have no hope in God, who do not know God's Spirit, are neither ready for heaven nor can hold out any real hope of going there. The contemplation of how awful their judgement in the intermediate state will be ought to spur them to seek mercy while it may be found to avoid the 'second death' of their resurrected body, which is too awful to contemplate.

Heaven is a Christ-Centred State of Mind

2 Corinthians 5:7-9

7 • for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 Yes, we are of good courage,

• and we would rather be away from the body
and at home with the Lord.

9 • So whether we are at home or away,
we make it our aim to please him.

We are encouraged to look forward to heaven through faith in Christ and are confirmed in our courage as we do so. We have a longing to be gone from here for no other reason than that we might be with him, where he is.

That being said, whether we are here or there is neither here nor there when it comes to fulfilling the desire we also have to please him rather than ourselves [Philippians 1:23f.]

A Trinitarian Impression of Heaven

2 Corinthians 5:5-6

5 • He who has prepared us for this very thing is God,

• who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always of good courage.

• We know that while we are at home in the body
we are away from the Lord,

To explain the 'this very thing' of verse 5 we ought to expand it with words from verse 4 to: 'He who has prepared us for [what is mortal being swallowed up by life] is God.' It is God the Father who has prepared us for the mortal being swallowed up by life — or in less expressive language — he has prepared us for the life of heaven after we die.

The Father prepares us for heaven in three ways:
• He adopts us into his family so that we have a title to go there.
• He gives us his Holy Spirit now, not only as a guarantee — 'guarantee' doesn't convey the whole meaning — but as an earnest to encourage us. An earnest is more than a guarantee because a guarantee can simply be a token whereas an earnest is a down payment of what is guaranteed. When the Spirit is given as an earnest of our inheritance [Ephesians 1:14] it is because God is our full inheritance so the Spirit given now as an earnest of the life we will live in heaven enables us to anticipate without anxiety life without the body in the intermediate state.
• He retains his Son in heaven preparing a place for us [John 14:2] so that we no longer feel fully at home in the body and look to be at home where Jesus is and to go home to there.