In 2 Corinthians 5:7 Paul tells the Corinthian believers “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
It is interesting that this statement is ‘declarative’, not ‘imperative’. He is not saying that we ought to walk by faith, but that we do.
I have thought a lot about this statement recently; particularly as it relates to the context of chapter 5, which is the resurrection body prepared for us in heaven. I don’t think he is saying that we will only have it in heaven, but that it is heavenly in its making.
Paul (in the ‘definitive’ passage on the resurrection) tells us that our resurrection body will be a ‘spiritual’ one. I have wrestled with that for many years, and listened to a number of explanations, that it will be spiritual in the sense that our Lord’s resurrection body is; but that doesn’t answer the questions in my mind. Does that mean we will be able to interact with the physical in the same way He did; appearing without warning, entering a room without opening the door? I don’t know.
We receive eternal life upon believing. Is that eternal in the sense of its duration, or in the sense of its quality? Perhaps both?
Recently I read this passage in 2 Corinthians at the graveside of a dear sister who had gone to be with the Lord. The undertaker had offered me a little bottle of material to sprinkle on the casket. For some reason it struck me as comical. What would that little gesture have meant? What would those standing around have taken it to mean? I declined.
We walk by faith. What does it mean? I would suggest that it has a variety of thoughts: we walk not seeing the reality of what God has prepared for us; we walk confidently in the dark; we walk with the full assurance of the Word of God (the One who cannot lie).
But implicit in Paul’s statement is the thought that there will be a moment when ‘faith will give way to sight’. Job spoke of that:
“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”
Job’s next statement is precious: “How my heart yearns within me!”
I wrote a time ago about “…the daystar arising in our hearts” and perhaps this is what is implied in that statement by Peter.
