Paul said that to be “absent from the body” is to be “present with the Lord”? If, then, a Christian dies and is “absent from the body,” is he not immediately (and consciously) “present with the Lord”?

The expressions “absent from the body” and “present with the Lord” are found in 2 Corinthians 5:6,8. In the preceding verses, Paul speaks of the present mortal condition and the future glorified state. The mortal body is described as “our earthly house” (verse 1), “this tent” (verses 1,4), and our present “home” (verse 6). These descriptions are contrasted with the everlasting “building from God,” or “house not made with hands” (verse 1), which is “our habitation which is from heaven” (verse 2) with which we shall be “clothed” (verses 24).

A person who is “absent from the body” has put off the present clothing. He will remain “naked” (verse 3), or “unclothed” (verse 4), until he is “further clothed” (verse 4) with his “building,” “house,” or “habitation” from heaven. At that time, he will be “present with the Lord.”

Both the present mortality and the future immortality are described in terms of “clothing.” The mortal body a person occupies is his present clothing. His future clothing is the immortal body he will obtain at the resurrection, which takes place at the Second Coming of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:21–23,50–55; 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17). He is “naked,” or “unclothed,” between death and resurrection. Therefore, Paul did not mean that a person who is “absent from the body” is immediately and consciously “present with the Lord.”

In his previous epistle to the Corinthian believers, Paul wrote, “Behold! I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we [who are alive] shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:51–53). When will this occur? In the future, “at His coming” (verse 23).

Compare this with what Paul said to the same church in his next epistle: “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” (2 Corinthians 5:4).

It is inconceivable that in one epistle Paul links putting on immortality with the future resurrection, but in the other epistle he links putting on immortality with “going to heaven” at death. If Christians are clothed with immortality, or “swallowed up by life,” shortly after death, what is so glorious about the future resurrection?