Dorothy West

Horatio Spafford

1 Corinthians 5:1-10

Haratio Gates Spafford was a Presbyterian layman from Chicago who was close friends with Dwight L. Moody. He was a devout Christian who had a successful law practice.

In 1871, Spafford lost most of his wealth to the Chicago fire. Just a few years before, he was bereaved at the loss of his son. Spafford was in a season of despair.

In 1873, Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey were due to launch a campaign (much like a Billy Graham Crusade) in Great Britain. Spafford desired to assist Moody and so he planned a European trip for his family. In November of that year, the family expected to depart for Great Britain. Spafford, however had to send his wife and four daughters ahead because he got held up on last minute business. His wife and four daughters boarded the vessel S.S. Ville Du Havre and Spafford stayed behind expecting to follow a few days later.

On November 22, their ship was struck by an English vessel and sank in twelve minutes. A few days later, Horatio Spafford received a cable wire from his wife that said, “Saved alone.”

Spafford left immediately to join his wife. When the captain came to the place where the vessel sank, he stopped the ship for a moment of respect for the lost. It is there Haratio Gates Spafford penned the Famous words, “When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, "It is well, it is well with my soul."

So many of us have found comfort in the words of Spafford’s hymn not realizing the hymn was written out of such suffering. Once a I realized the story behind the hymn, I had to ask myself, “How can a man find such courage to write a hymn so deeply encouraging out of such agony?”

The short answer is that he believed the gospel. He believed the good news that Jesus Christ came to earth as God’s Messiah, lived a perfect life obeying all of the Mosaic law, died a sinners death receiving the wrath that every sinner deserves, and was raised from the dead three days later, satisfying God’s wrath and now sits at the right hand of the father. Horatio Spafford believed the promise of God, that if you confess your sin, repent from it, and trust in the work of Christ, you will be saved from God’s wrath. For all have sinned. And the wages of sin is death, God’s eternal judgment, but the gift of God is Jesus Christ. If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead for your sake, you will be saved. Spafford believed the gospel to be true and right, and he believed the promises that come with the gospel, and it gave him courage to hold fast to the faith. I did not get to know Dorothy well, but I’m told she believed this gospel to be true as well.

My question for us today is,

How does the gospel give you courage of heart in the face of death?

Paul answers this question in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. In short, we have courage in the face of death because through Christ God assured our resurrected bodies, guaranteed our transformation, and solidified our place in his presence.

God Assured our Resurrected Bodies

“ For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (5:1)”

Paul begins verse one with, “For we know…” The grammar in the Greek conveys the idea that the Corinthians know this truth because Paul has taught it to them often. It is an essential doctrine for the faith. As a matter of fact, every time Paul speaks about death, he always brings up life, eternal life, and the resurrection.

Paul gets a little metaphorical on us to convey the big idea. I think he does this to give us a picture or a portrait to look at often for encouragement. He refers to our earthly bodies as tents in this life that can be destroyed. Previously in chapter 4, Paul referred to our earthly bodies as “Jars of clay.” They are made of earth, easily worn down, prone to break and shatter. In 5:1, he refers to the body as a tent, easily put up and easily taken down.

The point he is making is that our earthly bodies are broken. We are not made for eternity in our current body. Sin brought the curse of death. Death destroys everything, whether it is a plant or tree or animal, or even a new car or house. Everything decays and eventually dies. Paul says in 4:16, that “our outer self is wasting away.” This means we are prone to suffer affliction from disease and death.

The tent refers to our earthly bodies, the building and the house refer to our heavenly bodies. Our earthly tents, that is our earthly bodies, are easily torn down by human hands or strong winds. Tents do not have a foundation. They are held in by pegs and ropes. But Paul says our heavenly bodies are like firmly established houses with foundations deep in the ground, built to withstand any storm. They will never decay or rot or be affected by ill weather. Meaning, our new glorified bodes will never suffer affliction again. There is no such thing as cancer in heaven, nor are their heart attacks or organ failure. There is no violence or accidents. Our new glorified bodies will be like Jesus’s body. Think about Jesus’ body.

Jesus’s resurrected body could be touched, “the disciples took hold of his feet (Matthew 28:9). He appeared on the road to Emmaus as a traveler walking on the road (Luke 24:15-18, 28-29). He took bread and broke it (Luke 24:30) and he ate a piece of fish to clearly demonstrate he was not a spirit. Mary thought he was a gardener (John 21:12-13). He invited Thomas to touch his hands and his side (John 20:27). He prepared breakfast for his disciples (John 21:12–13), and that he explicitly told them, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). Peter said that the disciples “ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead” (Acts 10:41).

His resurrected body was supernatural. He was able to appear and disappear out of sight (Luke 24:31, 36; John 20:19, 26). He was able to walk through walls. Jesus came and stood among the disciples on two occasions when the doors were “shut” (John 20:19, 26). When God raised Jesus from the dead He assured your resurrected body will be in the most part, like Jesus’s body.

Married couples often like to hold hands. Your spouse is the one person you can let into your personal bubble and feel safe. That is the sign of a healthy marriage and loving relationship. From what I understand, George died sometime before Dorothy. Dorothy had to mourn the loss of her husband. She did not get to hold his hand anymore or feel his embrace. The gospel promised Dorothy that one day she will touch him again with real hands, giving him a real hug, feeling the warmth of his breathe on her neck, and the firmness of his embrace on her body. You will do the same with Jesus. This gives your heart courage in the face of death because you know that God will give you a new resurrected body that will be every bit the body you have and more. Furthermore, it will never again be taken from you.

God Guaranteed our Transformation (v2)

“2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.”

Because of our affliction, we groan, according to verse 2. We long for the cure for the curse of sin to be released and for us to have new life. No one enjoys going to a funeral. Funeral’s only happen in broken realities like ours. God promises to transform this sinful reality into a new heavens and new earth. So, every person who is a believer, groans, desiring Jesus to come quickly and restore everything.

The transformation Paul speaks of is the unclothed nature of the tent will become the clothed nature of the house. Essentially what he is saying is that while we are on earth, it is as if we are naked, meaning in our flesh we experience shame and humiliation and separation from God. We long to be clothed, that is we long to have our resurrected bodies and to be transformed into the image of Christ. That is God’s goal for every believer is to transform them into the image of his Son. In Chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians verse 18, Paul says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.’ He also says in Romans 8:29, “For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.”

What Paul is getting at here is the idea of renewal. We long for God to clothe us with our new glorified bodies, to restore us to how it was supposed to be like in the Garden of Eden. We long to be transformed into the image of our Savior, and through his life, death, and resurrection, God guarantees we will be transformed upon our death. We will no longer have to live by faith, but by sight. We will not have to struggle between two realities heaven and earth. One day will live in one reality, heaven-where there are no tears of pain or fear or anxiety.

Paul says in Philippians 3:21, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.”

The reason why God’s guarantee of your transformation gives you courage in the face of death is because He is making it clear that one day death will have no power to afflict you again. When Jesus conquered the grave, he sealed the fate of death. As long as we are in this body, death threatens to rob our joy. That is why Paul has to instruct the Thessalonian church to grieve with hope. Death takes our hope away and makes our joy turn to misery.

When Paul speaks of Jesus’s resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:54-56, he says death is defeated. “

54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

55 “O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Finally, you can have courage in the face of death because Jesus solidified your place in His presence.

Solidified our Place in His Presence

“5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

What happens to a believer the moment they die? For Dorothy, when she closed her eyes in death, she immediately opened them in the presence of her Savior, King Jesus. Paul’s says, “ . We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.” What Dorothy’s eyes strained to see by faith, now fills his eyes. And Paul says that what Dorothy is experiencing is preferable. Verse 8 says, we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. What he means is that if Dorothy could choose to come back, she would not want to. Why? Because her joy is complete. Paul says, in Philippians 1:22, it is far better to be with Jesus in heaven than to be here on earth. Christ is Dorothy’s all in all, as he is your all in all if you have accepted his gift of salvation. Every Christian wants to be in the presence of Jesus. We make it our aim in this life to please him and to live our lives to reflect him, so that we can hear from him when we stand at his judgement, “Well done thy good and faithful servant.

The presence of God is what humans were made for. God’s presence is what gives us joy and satisfaction. Psalm 16:11 speaks to this. It says, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” For the first time in Dorothy’s life, she is experiencing the fullness of joy, not snippets of it, like she did here on earth. Her husband brought her joy. Her children brought her joy. Her work brought her joy. But on earth, her joy was elusive and evading. Sin and death and disease disrupted it, as it does ours. Dorothy will never have her joy interrupted in the presence of Christ. He sealed her place in heaven with his blood and her faith.

She accepted Jesus’s free gift of salvation, and she would encourage everyone of you to do the same, otherwise, when you die it is God’s condemnation that will never be interrupted. Because Dorothy loved Jesus, God assured her future resurrection. Dorothy is looking forward to a day when she will run with new legs, work with new hands, and sing with a new voice. For now, God has provided an intermediate body that will do until the second coming. However, Dorothy is excited about what is to come. Third, Dorothy is enjoying the renewal of her soul, the transformation into the image of Christ. Death no longer is worthy of her attention. She is living life abundantly. Finally, her joy is complete. She is at rest. Nothing can take her joy away. When Israel was given the promise land, God took away all the wild beasts, the disease, and their enemies. They lived is prosperity with no fear of harm. Death is our final enemy. Jesus conquered death on the cross. Dorothy will never have to fear death again. Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, and that is where Dorothy is, and we know nothing can take you away from God’s righteous right hand. Therefore, Dorothy’ s joy will never be interrupted.

I now understand how Horatio Spafford, after enduring such tragedy at the loss of his son, his wealth, and his four daughters, can write such an encouraging song. He beloved the gospel. He believed God assured his resurrection, and those of his family who loved Jesus. He looked forward to the transformation and living in the presence of God. I know this because the last stanza of his hymn sings, “And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll; The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, Even so, it is well with my soul.”