For we that are in this tabernacle do groan
There are some of the saints who are not in the tabernacle, the
body. They were in it, but now are not; their bodies are in the
grave, the house appointed for all living; and their souls are in
the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, in
everlasting habitations, in the mansions prepared in Christ's
Father's house; and they have done groaning, being delivered from
every oppressor, sin, Satan, and the world; are at rest from all
their labours, and ate free from every burden; only the saints
who are in the tabernacle of the body, in an unsettled state,
groan, being in the midst of tribulation, and not yet in the
enjoyment of that happiness they are wishing for. The reason of
their groaning is, because they are
burdened
with the body itself, which is a clog and incumbrance to the soul
in its spiritual exercises; and oftentimes by reason of its
disorders and diseases a man becomes a burden to himself; but
what the saints are mostly burdened with in this life, and which
makes them groan the most, is the body of sin and death they
carry about with them; the filth of it is nauseous, grievous, and
intolerable; the guilt of it oftentimes lies very heavy on the
conscience; the weight of it presses hard, and is a great
hinderance to them in running their Christian race; nor have they
any relief under this burden, but by looking to a sin bearing and
sin atoning Saviour, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of
the world. They are also frequently burdened with Satan's
temptations, with blasphemous thoughts, solicitations to sin, the
fears of death, the pangs of it, and what will follow upon it;
though God is faithful, who will not suffer them to be tempted
above that they are able to bear; however, these temptations are
great burdens, and occasion many a groan: to which may be added
the various afflictions of life, which though comparatively
"light", are in themselves heavy, grievous burdens, and hard to
be bore; the nature, number, and continuance of them often make
them so; and especially they are such, when God is pleased to
hide his face, and withhold the discoveries of his love and
mercy. The apostle goes on to explain what he means by desiring
to be clothed,
not for that we would be unclothed;
that is, of our bodies; and this he says, not through any love
and liking he had to this animal life, or to the sensual methods
of living here, which make natural men in love with life, and
desirous of always living here; but from a principle of nature,
which recoils at death, does not like a dissolution, chooses any
other way of removing out of this world than by death; a
translation of soul and body together to heaven, like that of
Enoch and Elijah's, is more eligible even to a good man; or such
a change as will be upon the living saints at the coming of
Christ, which the apostle seems to have in view, who will be not
unclothed of their bodies, as men are at death,
but clothed upon;
as is here desired, with incorruption and immortality:
that mortality might be swallowed up of life;
not that the mortal body, or the substance of the body, which is
mortal, might be consumed and destroyed, but that mortality, that
quality to which it is subject by sin, might be no more: and he
does not say, that "death may be swallowed up of life", which
will be done in the resurrection morn; but mortality, which being
swallowed up by a translation, or such a change as will be at the
last day, will prevent death: and the phrase, swallowed up,
denotes the suddenness of the change, in an instant, in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, and that without any pain, or such
agonies as usually attend death; and also the utter, final, and
total abolition of mortality; so that there will never be more
any appearance of it; his desire is, that it may be swallowed up
"of the life", which is properly and emphatically life, as this
life is not; and means the glorious, immortal, and everlasting
life, which saints enter into as soon as they are rid of their
mortal bodies, and the mortality of them.