OUR GLORIOUS PRESENTATION

A day is coming when we will be presented before the throne of God, perfected by His grace and completed by His power. The God who raised Jesus will raise us to stand before Him in His royal court. Paul expresses our expectation when he writes, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you (2 Corinthians 4:14). Raised with Jesus we are presented together as His perfect re-creation, fully sanctified at last we stand as one in Christ for all eternity.

The verb translated "will present" (παραστήσει) means to present in a formal, even legal, context BAGD, p. 627-628). For example, Jesus' parents presented the infant to the Lord in consecration at the temple in accordance with the Mosaic law following the days of purification (Luke 2:22). We, too, will be presented in consecration to the Lord at the resurrection of all believers. The predictive future can be either a simple assertion or a future promise (Burton, Moods and Tenses, p.34), but here Paul asserts the fact more than he promises the future. It will happen!

God will present "us with you," Paul writes. The "us" (ἡμᾶς) is carried over from the previous clause. God will raise us (ἡμᾶς) "with Jesus" (σὺν Ἰησοῦ) and will present us "with you" (σὺν ὑμῖν), Paul tells his readers. All believers, leading apostles, and normal Christians will be presented together as one glorious church raised with Jesus to eternal glory. Paul has absolute confidence that we will all experience the consummation together. No one runs ahead of anyone in the quest for glorification, and no one stands above anyone in the presence of God Almighty.

The New Testament commonly uses the verb with a strong sense of service (TDNT, 5:840). Who do we serve? Paul uses the same word to show us that we must not present our bodies to serve sin but we should present our bodies to serve righteousness resulting in sanctification (Rom. 6:13,19). In this life, we wrestle with that question, but there is coming a day when God will present us to perfectly serve Him forever finally freed from the presence of all sin. We will serve our King alone. The word was used to picture servants as standing in a position of honor before kings in the ancient world. We will stand before the King of Kings in His royal court as honored servants following the resurrection.

The verb can have a legal connotation meaning to stand before a judge (TDNT, 5:840). There is, perhaps, a hint of judicial review in the imagery of this verse since the context of the presentation following the resurrection leads to our standing before the Judgement Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10) where we are finally and irrevocably glorified (Meyer, Commentary, 6:500). Christ saves us to present us (Colossians 1:22) blameless and beyond reproach. The Judgment Seat of Christ is ultimately a purifying process - the end of our sanctification (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). All the dross is burned off and what remains is perfect. We become perfect servants to the King of Kings on that painfully glorious day.

Our goal as leaders is, like Paul, to present others to Christ perfect and pure (Colossians 1:28). We, like Paul, are jealous with a godly jealousy for those we lead to Christ because we want to present them to Christ as a father presents his pure virgin daughter to her husband (2 Corinthians 11:2). On that glorious day, the church - the bride of Christ - will be presented spotless to Christ, our groom. We will all finally be the gloriously pure bride Jesus came to save!