Why does it say ' absent from the body is to be with the lord' and then it says that 'the dead in Christ shall rise first' as if we're in the grave?

Answer 1

Paul states in 2 Cor. 5:6b:

"We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord."

Here Paul speaks of being at home "in" the body. Whilst being at home "in" the body, we are "away" from the Lord. It is implied here that the "real" us, that is the part of us which is conscious, lives within the body...our soul or spirit. We live on earth in a body. Christ, though everywhere present in spirit, dwells physically in heaven. In a spatial sense we are "away from the Lord," even though spiritually He dwells in us if we have been born of God.

Then, he states in vss. 8-9:

"Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him."

Here Paul states that to be "away" from the body (physical death) means to be "at home with the Lord" in heaven. When we are alive, we are living in a body, while Christ is physically in heaven. When we die, we are away from our body, and united with Christ who is physically in heaven.

Before this, in verse 4, Paul said:

"For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened---not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life."

Paul's statements that we have seen should be understood in light of this statement. The term "this tent" refers to the physical, mortal body, and the term implies a temporary dwelling place. In this body, we groan. What does Paul say we groan for? Not to be unclothed...in other words, we don't yearn just to die...but to be further clothed "so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." --what is mortal, the physical body that dies, may be swallowed up by life.

In other words, even though when we die we go to be with the physical Lord in heaven, this is not what we yearn for. We yearn for our physical bodies that die to be swallowed up by life-- a reference to the physical resurrection of the body. So it is not an "either/or," but a "both/and". If we are truly saved, when we die we leave this "house" of our body, and go to be with Jesus in heaven. Yet this body will not remain dead forever. It will one day be raised from the dead. It is implied, therefore, that though we are with the Lord in heaven until the resurrection, we will be reunited with our "house" once it has been swallowed up in life, meaning glorified in the resurrection, becoming immortal.

In 1 Thes. 4:13-18 Paul states:

"13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the Trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words."

In New Testament language, "sleep" refers to death. Paul states that God will "bring with" Jesus, when He returns physically on the last day, those who have "fallen asleep", which means simply those who have died. Here is implied what Paul stated in the above passage, namely that those who die are with Jesus in heaven, not in the ground, so that they come with Jesus when He comes. At the same time, Paul then states that the first to be resurrected will be those who come with Christ, namely, those who are physically dead when Christ returns. The dead in Christ, (those who are physically dead, but spiritually with Christ) are contrasted here with those who are still physically alive, and therefore, apart from Christ which again mirrors the 2 Corinthian passage above.

So, to summarize, Paul states the following facts:

1. While Christians are physically alive, they live in a body, and are separated from the physical Christ.

2. When Christians die, they are united with the physical Christ and separated from the physical body in which they once lived.

3. When Christ returns, those who had died, and were with Christ in heaven will return with Him.

4. Those who had physically died, and returned with Christ will be reunited with their physical bodies, which will have been resurrected and glorified.

5. Those who are alive physically at the return of Christ will then also be transformed and glorified without experiencing physical death.

This view, in my opinion, is the most accepted, traditional view of the Church. However, there are some such as the Seventh Day Adventists, who believe Christians literally fall asleep when they die, remain with their body but are unconscious of the passage of time, and are awakened at the resurrection. Thus Adventists deny the concept of the "intermediate state" which is what I have described above.

I believe Paul teaches the intermediate state of Christians.

It says that because both assertions are true. The dead in Christ are "present with the Lord" (II Corinthians 5:8) in the sense that their disembodied spirits are in His presence in eternity (Luke 16:22, 23; Revelation 6:9), even though their bodies are presently in the grave... or even atomized. However, The Bible speaks of a bodily resurrection of the righteous (Revelation 14:16) wherein the deceased righteous spirits are given new physical bodies and remain - in that form - with the Lord forever. (I Thessalonians 4:16, 17) [It is one of the primary doctrines of Scripture, first expressed by the prophet Job. (Job 19:25, 26)] The kind of body that Jesus had after He resurrected is the kind of body all believers will have, both those who have died and those still living at that time (I Corinthians 15:20). It was physical, but it was incorruptible, immortal (Luke 24:39; I Corinthians 15:50-54).

THE SHORT ANSWER:

Your question appears to have uncovered a conflict or mistake in Scripture. But there are no conflicts in the word of God. "To be absent from the body and present with the Lord" is saying that when a Christian dies their body goes to the grave and their soul goes to be with the Lord. Then the other Scripture tells us that "the dead in Christ shall rise first" and that is true, but it is the BODY that was put in the grave that shall rise first as the soul is already with the Lord. At that time the body and soul with be joined together again. The answer above tells us the same thing but in more detail.