Absolute Confidence

2 Corinthians 5:2-8    
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.    6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

How we who have been made new creations long for the finality of the heavenly change!  We will be not found naked in the lack of holiness due to remaining sin, but fully clothed inside and out in His perfection.  This mortal flesh of sin and death will find rest in His righteousness which we wear outwardly now in a sense, but in and throughout then.  He is preparing us and has guaranteed this by putting His own Spirit in us now as a seal, a down payment, and the ability to know and do for His good pleasure.  This then is how we live, taking each step in trust of God’s work in us.  Our confidence and pleasure rests in that absolute promise to be free of the last vestige of sin in these bodies and in the presence of the Almighty who is holy, righteousness, and true...