THE GARMENT OF IMMORTALITY

2 CORINTHIANS 5:4

A. "FOR WE 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"
  1. The context of the fifth chapter of second Corinthians, of which our text is a part shows:
    1. That Paul compares our present state being mortal - subject to death, with our future state being clothed with immortality
    2. He preferred to wear the garment of immortality as we all would
  2. But for the sake of helping our fellow mortals:
    1. To change their ways
    2. To aim for eternal life, immortality
    3. He was willing to continue in his present state being exposed constantly to death B. THE GARMENT OF IMMORTALITY
  3. Is, first of all, the garment of innocence:
    1. Adam and Eve, our first parents wore this garment - Gen. 2:25; so long as they wore that garment, they were not exposed to death and decay
    2. But they lost that garment because of the guilt of sin - Gen. 3:6-11
    3. Since that tragic experience, their posterity is, in their nature, clothed with filthy rags - Is. 64:6
    4. It is the garment of guilt - Rom. 3:23; Gal. 3:22
  4. So long as we wear this filthy garment:
    1. We are unfit for either the service of the Lord - Zech. 3:1-5
    2. Or the kingdom of glory - Matt. 22:1-12
  5. The term, garment, has a symbolical meaning having reference to our standing before God:
    1. It typifies man's character which is sinful and unfit for glory
    2. God, in mercy, changed the condition of our first parent, He clothed them - Gen. 3:21
    3. The righteousness of the second Adam, becomes the garment of salvation to all who accept him as their personal Saviour
    4. Says the prophet Isaiah, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garment of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness" - Is. 61:10 C. THE GARMENT OF IMMORTALITY
  6. Is, as we must understand, the gift of God:
    1. It comes to the believers through Jesus Christ our Lord
    2. Writes Paul, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" - Rom. 6:23
    3. Writes John, "He that hath the Son hath life; but he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" - I John 5:12
  7. The garment of immortality is like all the gifts of God, conditional:
    1. It was conditional in the Garden of Eden - Gen. 2:16-17; 3:22
    2. It still is subject to our being born again - John 3:3-9
    3. We must seek it - Rom. 2:6-7
    4. The test of being clothed with the garment of immortality is still loving obedience to the perfect will of God revealed in His holy law - Rev. 22:14; Is. 1:19-20; Matt. 5:17-19
  8. Paul understood and he taught:
    1. That immortality is dependent upon the first resurrection - I Cor. 15:50-57
    2. It will be given to the saints at the second coming of our Lord - I Thes. 4:13- 17; Mark 10:28-30
    3. Paul speaks of that blessed event to take place "at that day" - 2 Tim. 4:6-8
  9. Dear ones:
    1. We with Paul, do groan in this present body; we have pain and suffer much discomfort during our brief span of life
    2. Many of God's faithful children, lay on beds of affliction - their bodies filled with pain
    3. They long for death to come and free them from this pain
    4. But not without hope - for they look forward to the day when God will clothe them with immortality - eternal life - and that very soon
    5. Are we ready for that experience? Do we now wear the garment of salvation as Isaiah did?


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