Rain is desirable. A dependable river of water is even more desirable.

Paul was crushed in order to make him an eternal source of eternal, incorruptible resurrection life.

As Abraham did before him, Paul wandered in an alien land (the earth), a land that afterward will be given to him as an inheritance.

Paul's crucifixion was the source of eternal life for the saints in Corinth. In the ages to come, Paul will be the source of life for multitudes of people. But in that day Paul, as is true of Christ now, will minister from the position of strength and unlimited joy, not from the cross of pain and grief.

Our goal is unlimited life, the crown of life, the power of endless life. Through eternal life we will receive the desires of our heart.

We shall reap what we sow. Paul goes on to say:

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; (II Corinthians 4:17)

The afflictions we are suffering are creating an eternal weight of glory, a weight of eternal life

The weight of eternal life is our house from Heaven.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (II Corinthians 5:1)

Our house from Heaven is a body fashioned from the substance of eternal life. After our flesh and bones are raised from the dead by the voice of the Lord Jesus we shall be clothed with whatever we have sown.

If we have sown to the will of God, to the Spirit of God, our resurrected flesh and bones will be clothed with a body of eternal life, of eternal energy, eternal joy, eternal love, eternal peace—a body with the power and ability to perform our will (as we abide in the Lord).

If we have sown to sin and self-will, our resurrected flesh and bones will be clothed with the spiritual corruption and death we have chosen.

This is true whether or not we profess belief in Christ. Whatever we sow we shall reap. This fundamental Kingdom law shall never be changed. We shall receive in our body what we have practiced in our body, whether good or evil. We shall be rewarded in our body according to our behavior.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. (II Corinthians 5:10)

To teach that we can sow sin, and then by grace reap eternal life and joy, is to invite delusion, to bring destruction upon one's self and one's hearers.

Paul's goal was eternal life in his body.

For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. (II Corinthians 5:4)

To be continued.