1999-02-09 - B2: The Body

The Holy Alphabet Series

Psalm 139:14, "I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well."

"The Body is the outward and earthly part of Man, made of the beginning of the dust of the earth, Gen. 2:7,:19." --Robert Port

The body is an amazing thing. We all seem to know this because we place such an emphasis on the body. Looking marvelous is the focus of so many publications, TV shows, books, and seminars. "If you look good, you will feel good", we are told. However, that's not true and we know it. There are lots of people who look great and feel horrible about the way they look. Here is a rough-and-ready look at the body and Scripture:

The body was created by God (Genesis 2:7, 21), and has the image of God (Genesis 9:16, Colossians 3:10). Sin made the body subject to death (Romans 5:12) and it became a instrument of evil (Romans 1:24-32). Salvation in Christ makes the body alive again to Christ (Romans 6:8-11, Philippians 1:20), redeemed (Romans 8:23), dead to sin (Romans 8:10), and renews the body as the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). In the resurrection our bodies will be raised (John 5:28, 29), transformed (Philippians 3:21), perfected (1 Thessalonians 5:23), and glorified (Romans 8:28,29).

1. In the Bible these are the key things about the body. How different than what we hear about us, from every direction, in our culture. Culture asks us if our breasts are big enough, or if we are fat, or if our nose is the right nose, and so on. The Bible never asks such questions. "...for you are dust, and to dust you shall return" is the pronouncement of God to us (Genesis 3:19).

2. Our bodies are things that we should be careful to take care of. They are a gift from God to us and as long as God sustains us and grants us breath, these bodies are tools to serve Him and worship Him. This means we should seek to be healthy. The fact that our bodies will one day be perfected is no excuse for an unhealthy lifestyle. While we do not want to be obsessed with our bodies as our culture would have us be, we ought, maybe, to become more concerned about being healthy, and staying healthy, so that we might have many days to serve God and worship Him here on earth.

"Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked." --Augustine

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

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