WHAT ABOUT OUR BODIES?

Regeneration includes every facet of our beings: "spirit, soul, and body" (1 Thess 5:23). The spirit of man is his essential person, and is the first to experience regeneration, or the new birth. In confirmation of our reconciled status, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God (Rom 8:16). Our "soul" is the rational and emotional part, capable of thought, decision, feelings, etc. This part has not yet been regenerated, being capable of the most profane as well as the most holy (Rom 7:14-25). We are custodians of our souls, and are to maintain them with diligence, appropriating the rest Jesus provides (Matt 11:29), while possessing them in patience, or endurance (Luke 21:19).

Our bodies are the most external part of our persons. They belong to us, being inextricably knit to our persons. They are included in salvation, and will be regenerated at the resurrection. Until then, they are a great liability to us. Yet, the Word God provides us with a well rounded view of them, assuring our hearts that while we wait for their change, they can be used to bring glory to God.

From the standpoint of the good fight of faith, our bodies are "vile," or bodies of humiliation (Phil 3:20). As they are now, they cannot enter into the Kingdom of God (1 Cor 15:50). They are frail in comparison with the glorified body we will inhabit (2 Cor 5:1), and are appropriately called "the body of this death" (Rom 7:25). The propensities of the body to sin are to be denied and put to death in the energy of the Spirit (Rom 8:13).

Still, because of our acceptance in Christ, we can "present" our bodies "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service," or worship (Rom 12:1). Because we are presently "partakers of Christ" (Heb 3:14), our bodies have become temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). It is not because of any sanctity of the body itself, but because it is part of us, and Christ is pledged to redeem it also. Without the sanctifying influence of the redeemed spirit and the Holy Spirit, our bodies have nothing at all that commends them.

Our bodies now become a means of bringing glory to God. As it is written, "For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body" (1 Cor 6:20, NASB). Because of the hope of the resurrection, it is affirmed that "your bodies are the members of Christ" (1 Cor 6:15). This makes fornication unlawful and unreasonable. As it is written elsewhere, "Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body" (1 Cor 6:13). Professed believers who drop off into immorality have failed to consider this, and thus have fallen prey to the deceiver.

Be followers of Paul, who confessed "I pommel my body and subdue it" (1 Cor 8:27, RSV). When you are tempted to give your body more attention than it deserves, remember the words of Jesus, "The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment" (Matt 12:23). You are a steward over your body, and are to bring it into harmony with the heavenly agenda. God has given you His own Holy Spirit to enable you to accomplish this. You have every reason to believe it can be done through his grace!

PRAYER POINT: Father, I thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit, for I find life would be altogether intolerable without Him. In the name of Christ Jesus, give me grace to so yield to the Spirit that my body will be a consistent vehicle for Your glory.

-- MONDAY: THE NOBILITY OF SALVATION --