Bible Gateway passage: 2 Corinthians 5 - New King James Version (2024)

Assurance of the Resurrection

5For we know that if ^(A)our earthly ^[a]house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house ^(B)not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ²For in this ^(C)we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our ^[b]habitation which is from heaven, ³if indeed, ^(D)having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. ⁴For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, ^(E)but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also ^(F)has given us the Spirit as ^[c]a guarantee.

⁶So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. ⁷For ^(G)we walk by faith, not by sight. ⁸We are confident, yes, ^(H)well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

The Judgment Seat of Christ

⁹Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. ^10(I)For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, ^(J)that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. ¹¹Knowing, therefore, ^(K)the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.

Be Reconciled to God

¹²For ^(L)we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity ^(M)to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. ¹³For ^(N)if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. ¹⁴For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that ^(O)if One died for all, then all died; ¹⁵and He died for all, ^(P)that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

^16(Q)Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, ^(R)yet now we know Him thus no longer. ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone ^(S)is in Christ, he is ^(T)a new creation; ^(U)old things have passed away; behold, all things have become ^(V)new. ¹⁸Now all things are of God, ^(W)who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹that is, that ^(X)God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not ^[d]imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰Now then, we are ^(Y)ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. ²¹For ^(Z)He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become ^(AA)the righteousness of God in Him.