2 Corinthians 5:5

2 Corinthians 5:5

The Expectation and the Earnest.

I. What is it that the Apostle here alludes to in the expression "the selfsame thing" to which believers are wrought of God? It is the confident hope of, and longing desire for, the glories and felicities of the resurrection state. In his bosom and that of his fellow-believers, this hope and desire dwelt fresh and vigorous. They had not a mere vague wish to enjoy a future felicity of some sort, they knew not what. Theirs was a firm anticipation of a well-understood and clearly realised futurity of blessedness and glory.

II. But to what was it owing that the Apostles had this confident expectation, which so inspired, cheered, and ennobled them in the service of the gospel? The answer of the Apostle, in the words before us, is to the effect that God was the Author and Source of the state of mind of which he speaks. He had wrought in them the blessed hope which they exultingly entertained. He had moulded them wholly to it.

III. But the Apostles had something more than mere hope to sustain them and cheer them amid the trials and conflicts of life. They had in actual possession a portion of the promised blessing, and in that the pledge and assurance of the whole. God had given them the earnest of the Spirit.

W. Lindsay Alexander, Sermons, p. 168.

References: 2 Corinthians 5:5 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi., No. 912; G. Dawson, Sermons on Disputed Points, p. 152; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 99; L. Mann, Life Problems, p. 91. 2 Corinthians 5:5-10 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1303; Homilist, vol. iv., p. 107.