What happens to a believer at death, before the resurrection? Study 2 Corinthians 5 with context, apologetic analysis, and cross-references.
Dr. Lucas D. Shallua Commentary · 2 CORINTHIANS 5 — OUR HEAVENLY DWELLING AND THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION
Paul teaches that the believer goes to be "at home with the Lord." This is a conscious, personal presence with Christ, which he elsewhere calls "far better" than the present life (Philippians 1:23). The final state, however, is the resurrection of the body, and the intermediate state should not be confused with it.
Believers will appear before the judgment seat of Christ, but this judgment is about rewards and accountability, not condemnation. Paul has just affirmed that there is "no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). A saved person's works are examined, and the Lord rewards faithfulness. The believer's final security is not in question, although genuine faith is expected to show itself in works (Ephesians 2:8–10).
It is the doctrine of substitutionary atonement: Christ took the place of sinners, bearing their guilt and the judgment due them. He did not become a sinner, and His own righteousness was never compromised. The statement is the counterpart of the exchange on the believer's side: "that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." This is the heart of the gospel and the basis of the believer's assurance.
No. Paul speaks of a real change in the believer, who receives the Spirit and a new nature (Ephesians 4:22–24), and of a larger renewal that will include all of creation (Romans 8:19–21; Revelation 21:5). The change is real and not yet complete, and the Christian lives in the tension between the two.
Chapter 5 flows directly from chapter 4. Paul has been speaking of a wasting outer self and an inner self renewed day by day, and now he explains why he can face death without despair. The chapter has two halves that are closely connected. Verses 1–10 deal with the believer's future: death, the intermediate state, the resurrection body, and the judgment seat of Christ. Verses 11–21 deal with the believer's present mission, grounded in the cross: the love of Christ, the new creation, and the ministry of reconciliation. The movement of thought is from hope to calling: because of what awaits us, and because of what Christ has done, we serve. The chapter contains some of Paul's greatest statements on the atonement and on the nature of Christian ministry, and 5:21 is one of the most compressed summaries of the gospel in Scripture.
The confidence that Paul expresses about death in this chapter is striking against the background of ancient attitudes. The Greek and Roman world had no uniform hope. Many feared the underworld, others hoped vaguely in the soul's survival, and Epicureans taught that death is the end. The early Christians were noted for their calm in the face of death. The second-century Apology of Aristides describes Christians rejoicing and giving thanks to God when a believer died, as though he were setting out on a journey. Such confidence was based, not on an idea, but on the resurrection of Jesus and the experience of the Spirit as a guarantee. Paul's description of the atonement is also very early. Second Corinthians 5:21 was written within about twenty-five years of the crucifixion, and it already contains a developed understanding of Christ's death as a substitution for sin. This shows that the idea did not develop slowly over centuries, but belonged to the earliest layer of Christian teaching.
This study preserves the hard questions, explanations, context, apologetic note, and references from Dr. Shallua's Commentary.