Transcripción

Maybe you received an award at your high school or university graduation. I will never forget my high school award ceremony. The entire student body was there and all the faculty. My friends were winning athletic awards and academic awards. I knew I had not won anything, and I did not actually care. I was just glad to be graduating in a couple of days.

But then, near the end of the ceremony, my name was read, and to my surprise I was called to the front of the auditorium. It related to an elective class I had taken that year with one of my friends. We both needed one more credit to graduate, and we decided to take the typing class. Almost as a prank, we joined twenty senior high girls in that typing class. We were the only guys. I think that was rather strategic, wasn’t it?

Without knowing it and without trying to—maybe because of my years of playing the piano—I ended up typing faster than all the girls in that class. And now, to my great embarrassment, I was called to the front and given the Excellence in Typing Award. It is the only award I ever received in all my schooling. And I never did live that down.

As we sail into 2 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul is announcing several awards that believers have either been given or will be given one day. Here in the opening verses, we are told that we are going to be awarded a new, eternal body in heaven. Paul begins in verse 1:

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Paul was a tentmaker by trade. He knew that compared to houses, tents were temporary, and they were not nearly as comfortable. He compares the human body, “our earthly home,” to a tent. Just as tents wear out and disintegrate, so does the body.

Paul is already looking forward to his eternal, glorified body. He writes in verse 2, “For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.” No more aches and pains; no more weariness; no more disease or physical limitations.

Now do not lose heart as you wait for that eternal, perfected body. Paul writes in verse 6, “We are always of good courage.” Why? because even though we are currently assigned to this frail body, we have confidence that God is walking with us. That is what it means, Paul writes here in verse 7, to “walk by faith, not by sight.”

Can you imagine the thrill of that moment when you are called up—when walking by faith turns into walking by sight in your future, glorified body?

In the meantime, you have been awarded with a brand-new purpose in this present life. Paul writes that no matter where we are, “we make it our aim to please [the Lord]” (verse 9).

What is your purpose today? Beloved, pleasing the Lord is the ultimate purpose in life—whether you are performing surgery, fixing a broken window, writing a contract, or changing a diaper. “Lord, be pleased with the way I tackle my chores and my duties; be pleased with my life today.”

Now Paul gives us some really good motivation for living this way:

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. (verse 10)

There is an award ceremony coming. We are all going to give an account at the judgment seat of Christ—in the Greek language it is called the bēma. This appointment does not determine whether you or anyone else is getting into heaven. Everyone appearing before the judgment seat of Christ is already going to heaven—they are all believers. In fact, this judgment will take place after you have arrived in heaven.

This evaluation is not to see whether you go to heaven, but to reveal how you lived on the way there. This is an award ceremony for your acts of service, Paul writes here, whether they were “good or evil.”

I think it is a confusing translation to use the word “evil” here. Paul uses a different Greek word than the usual one that is translated “evil.” The word here is phalos, and it carries the idea of “worthless” rather than morally evil. This is not a judgment to reveal sin—your sin has already been covered by the blood of Christ. This judgment is to discern between what was worthless and what was worthwhile.

Why? So that the Lord can then reward you for every act of worthwhile service—every faithful duty performed—whether it was fixing that broken window or changing that diaper.

I think we are going to be surprised to find God rewarding our every effort. The Bible says, “God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name” (Hebrews 6:10). In other words, God is faithful to remember everything. There is an eagerness in God to reward every single act of service performed by His children.

Now with that, Paul tells us here that we have been awarded a new passion in life. He writes in verse 11, “Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” “Fear of the Lord” is not the kind of fear that makes you want to run and hide from God. Paul is referring to a profound respect and awe of God, and we want nothing more than to persuade others to respect and worship our true and living God.

There is something else motivating Paul. He writes about it in verses 14-15:

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Listen, beloved, we do not serve God because He is holding a club over our head. We serve Him because He loves us. He has accepted us, and we are safe and secure in Christ, who died for us.

In fact, His love has made everything new for us. Paul writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (verse 17).

We still have an aging body; we still have a sinful nature; but we have been redeemed and forgiven through faith in Christ, and the Holy Spirit now indwells us. The old life “has passed away.” Literally, Paul writes, it “is passing away,” little by little, and the new life has come.

Finally, Paul tells us that we have been awarded a new assignment. He writes in verse 20, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.”

You have been assigned to an embassy post, wherever you live. You might be living in your home country—the country of your birth—but you belong to the country of your new birth. You are a citizen of heaven, assigned as an ambassador by your king, in the place where God has appointed you.

God is making His appeal, His gospel appeal, through you—through your testimony as an ambassador of Christ.

So, be encouraged today. You have been given the award of a new assignment; live it out with a new passion, with a new purpose. And one day, you are going to be given the award of a new body, and a new home, in heaven.