Hey all, Pastor John here. Thanks for tuning
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Now let's dive into this week's message. We are
in a series called True and Better, a Gospel
Identity. And today we're moving into the topic
embodied, not just emotional. Embodied, not just
emotional. We live in a moment of deep confusion
about the human body. Many believe that who we
really are lives somewhere deep inside of us,
in our feelings, in our desires. The body is
nothing more than raw material to be shaped or
edited or deleted or ignored altogether. Most
striking is possibly the idea that when the body
conflicts with desire, well, desire wins. But
scripture does not share this disconnect of flesh
and feelings or body and soul. Scripture begins
with God. who creates human beings as embodied
creatures and calls that creation good. From
the very beginning, the Bible refuses to separate
who we are from our physical lives. See, if the
body is incidental, then what we do with it is
morally insignificant. But if the body is God's
creation, then what we do with it is either an
act of worship or an act of rebellion. And that's
why the modern confusion about the body isn't
just a cultural issue, it is a theological one
as well. The Christian faith does not teach that
we are souls trapped in bodies. It teaches that
we are integrated embodied beings created fallen,
redeemed in Christ, and destined for resurrection.
And until we recover the truth, we will remain
confused about sin, about holiness, about freedom,
about sexuality, about self -control, and even
worship itself. And so today, we're gonna begin
where Scripture begins, not with how we feel
or what we want, but with what God has made.
You are not merely, or you don't merely have
a body, you are an embodied creature created
to worship God with your whole self. If you're
taking notes, the first point I'll have you write
down is integrated embodied beings. And so to
understand what the Bible says about the body,
we have to begin again, as we have almost every
week, I think, with the creation story back in
Genesis chapter two. Scripture describes the
first human beings in Genesis two, seven. It
says, then the Lord God formed the man out of
the dust from the ground and breathed the breath
of life into his nostrils and the man became
a living being. And so God, like a skilled craftsman,
forms a body from the dust. God and God alone
creates mankind. And God breathes life into that
body. God alone is the source of life, directly
placed in mankind by God. And the result is not
just a soul inside a body. The text says the
man became a living creature. In other words,
the union of body and breath is the human being.
Scripture does not describe Adam as a soul that
receives a body. It describes him as dust animated
by God's breath. From the very beginning, the
Bible presents human beings as integrated, not
divided, physical, rational, spiritual beings.
And this goes on to be reinforced throughout
scripture. In the Old Testament, the word that's
often translated, soul, does not mean a detachable,
invisible part of us. It has come to mean that,
and most of the time when we say it, it's this
kind of invisible, ethereal, out there part of
us that we don't see. But in the Old Testament
though, the word translated soul, it usually
means the living person, the whole thing. When
scripture speaks of a soul thirsting or rejoicing
or sinning or dying, it is speaking about the
whole embodied life. You listen to Psalm 63 .1
in the English Standard Version. It says, oh
God, you are my God. Earnestly, I seek you. My
soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you
as in a dry and weary land where there is no
water. You notice how scripture speaks there.
The soul thirsts and the flesh faints. But these
are not two separate selves competing with one
another. They are two ways of describing the
same person in relation to God. The version we
use here at Village usually is the Christian
Standard Bible, and it kind of clarifies it in
the translation. It says, God, you are my God,
I earnestly seek you. Instead of saying, my soul
thirsts, it says, I thirst for you. The scripture
presses a little further in Psalm 139 when it
says, for it was you who created my inward parts.
You knit me together in my mother's womb. I will
praise you because I have been remarkably and
wondrously made. Your works are wondrous and
I know this very well. You notice the psalmist
does not thank God merely for thoughts and feelings,
right? He praises God for embodied existence,
formed and knit together, intentionally made,
which means your body is not an accident of biology.
It is not a temporary shell, not morally irrelevant.
It is part of God's intentional creation of you.
And this directly confronts the modern story.
We are often told that the body is something
we own. It's something we control in order to
express who we really are inside. The scripture
says the opposite. To be human is not to use
a body, but to be embodied. Your body is not
a tool for expressing identity. It is the concrete
form that your identity takes. You do not merely
have a body, you are a body animated by God's
breath. And so if God created us as embodied
beings, then our physical lives are the arena
in which faithfulness is lived. What does it
mean to be faithful? What does it mean to obey?
What does it mean to worship God? Well, it must
mean that it's in the embodied existence with
which God made us But we also know that sin is
embodied too, isn't it? There is no such thing
as a disembodied spiritual life To follow God
as a human has always meant to follow him with
our whole selves, our minds, our desires, our
actions, and our bodies. And this is why what
we do with our bodies matters to God. Number
two, embodied rebellion. Once scripture establishes
that we are integrated in body and beings, it
becomes impossible to treat sin as merely internal.
Sin is not only something we think or feel, it
is something we do even with our bodies. This
is why the New Testament speaks frequently and
directly about bodily sin. Listen to what the
Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, we'll kind
of be in that chapter for a little bit. 1 Corinthians
chapter 6, verse 12 and 13, Paul says, everything
is permissible to me, or for me. And notice as
I'm reading that, the quotes around it. Everything
is permissible for me, but not everything is
beneficial. Everything is permissible for me,
but I will not be mastered by anything. Food
is for the stomach and the stomach for food,
and God will do away with both of them. However,
the body is not for sexual immorality, but for
the Lord and the Lord for the body. You see those
quotes there, Paul is quoting a slogan of his
day that people would say. He's saying, oh, everything
is permissible to me. And that slogan sounds
very modern, doesn't it? If it feels natural,
it must be permissible. If it's physical, well,
does it really matter? It's just my body, like
the real me is inside. What I do with my body
is morally neutral. But Paul says, um, no. The
body is not incidental. It's not a long for the
ride, not a major part of the life. No, the body
is not an accessory of personal, psychological
expression. The body is for the Lord. And Paul
kind of presses the issue even further in 1 Corinthians
18. flees sexual immorality. Every other sin
a person commits is outside the body, but the
person who is sexually immoral sins against his
own body. Now Paul's not isolating sexual sin
as the only sin that involves the body. There
are many other sins that involve the body. But
why is he highlighting sexual sin in the way
that he does? Because sexual sin is distinct
from other kinds of sin in the body. How? Well,
because it uniquely touches the meaning of embodied
personhood itself. See, in sexual union, the
body is not merely an instrument of desire. as
our culture and many of us would think. The body
is just an instrument of desire. I use it wherever
I want to fulfill desire. But in sexual union,
the body is not merely that in God's design.
It is the means by which a person gives themselves
to another person. And so sexual sin fractures
the God -given unity between body and soul and
the covenantal purposes of giving one yourself.
In scripture, sex is never treated as merely
a physical act. It is the bodily expression of
complete and total self -giving union within
the covenant of marriage between one man and
one woman. Sexual sin on the other hand, tears
those things apart. It uses the body to enact
a kind of union with another person. while at
the same time denying the complete and total
lifelong mutual self -giving and covenantal commitment
that God baked into sex. And in doing so, it
separates what God designed to be held together,
our body and soul, commitment, covenant, and
it leaves a person divided rather than whole.
It is not just a spiritual failure that happens
to use the body, but it is a sort of rebellion
enacted at the level of who we are as embodied
beings. It distorts the way our bodies were created
to communicate belonging and fidelity and self
-giving. in God's good design. But scripture
does not limit, obviously, bodily sin to sexuality.
If you read in Romans chapter six, Paul also
says, therefore, do not let sin reign in your
mortal body so that you obey its desires. And
do not offer any part of it to sin as weapons
for unrighteousness. Guys, you should like this
scripture. We're talking about weapons today,
right? Here we go, weapons. Weapons for unrighteousness,
weapons for righteousness. Do not offer any part
of your body to sin as weapons for unrighteousness.
But as those who are alive from the dead, offer
yourself to God, all the parts of yourself to
God as weapons for righteousness. You notice
Paul's language, sin reigning in body and our
body parts, the parts of our body can become
instruments or weapons of righteousness or weapons
of unrighteousness in this world. How we yield
them in the embodied life that we live will determine.
And that means that sin is lived through our
embodied existence, sexual immorality, drunkenness,
gluttony, violence. sloth, slander, self -harm,
neglect of responsibility, gossip, we could go
on and on and on. Weapons of unrighteousness.
These are not merely mistakes of emotion. I just
was feeling it so strong, I had to, my body had
to obey. These are embodied sins. I had to be
true to what I was feeling, so I said what I
had to say. They're embodied acts of sin. And
scripture refuses to reduce sin merely to intention
alone, because sin is not merely what we mean
in our hearts, but what we actually do with our
bodies in this world. We are integrated beings.
And the Bible treats the body as the place where
obedience is either practiced, or refused. Sin
always takes shape in real lives, in real bodies
with real consequences. It doesn't stay merely
internal. And if we misunderstand the body, then
we misunderstand sin, and if we misunderstand
sin, then we will certainly misunderstand grace.
So if you're taking notes, number three, redeemed
and claimed. After naming embodied rebellion,
Paul grounds obedience, embodied obedience in
redemption, not shame. You listen again to 1
Corinthians 6, 19 through 20. Don't you know
that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit
who is in you, whom you have from God? You are
not your own. You were bought at a price. So
glorify God with your body. Why does the body
matter? Well, the body matters because it belongs
to God. Your body is a temple, not because you
hit the gym 10 times a day and it looks sweet,
right? Your body is a temple because God has
chosen to dwell there. You are not your own.
And that sentence cuts directly against the modern
story of our time. We're told, my body, my choice.
You don't owe anyone anything. Do what feels
right to you. But scripture says you are not
your own, because you have been redeemed in Christ.
You were bought with a price, and that price
was not paid only for your inner thoughts and
your inner life, but Christ shed his blood for
embodied people. Amen? Golf clap. Redemption
does not rescue us from our bodies. It claims
us as embodied people. And scripture presses
again this hope even further in 1 Corinthians
15. 42. So it is with the resurrection of the
dead, sown in corruption and raised in gain corruption,
sown in dishonor, raised in glory, sown in weakness,
raised in power, sown a natural body, raised
a spiritual body. If there is a natural body,
there is also a spiritual body. But don't hear
when I say, when Paul says spiritual body, he
does not mean a non -physical one. When Paul
says he raised a spiritual body does not mean
a non -physical one it means a body that is fully
restored fully healed and fully ordered by the
spirit a Spiritual body is one that is restored
and reordered according to the spirit If God
intended to discard bodies resurrection doesn't
make any sense does it Jesus was raised bodily.
It's a tenant of the faith. He ate, he spoke
to his disciples, he showed them the scars, they
touched his body. His spiritual body, his glorified
body. And scripture tells us Jesus is not the
exception. Jesus is the first fruits of all who
will come after him. Everyone who will experience
the resurrection of life will experience the
same thing. Jesus is just the first fruits. He's
the picture. He's the prototype. In other words,
it's our future. The body is not disposable.
It is destined for glory. And so when Paul says,
glorify God in your body, he's declaring a truth.
Your body is claimed by God if you are in Christ.
And God claims it by sending his spirit. Indwelt
by the spirit he claims it because of the redemption
of Christ Christ claims your embodied existence
and promises you resurrection Resurrection he
will make your body restored healed and whole
And this is why embodied obedience is responsive
It's not something we do to earn favor, it's
responsive. He's already given himself to us
if we're in Christ. And so that leads to number
four, embodied worship. If our bodies are created
by God and corrupted by sin, but redeemed by
Christ, then worship can never be merely internal.
Scripture consistently defines worship as something
we do with our bodies. Listen to Romans 12. Therefore,
brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies
of God, I urge you to present your bodies as
a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
This is your true worship. Present your bodies.
Worship according to scripture is embodied obedience.
And again, Paul anchors this command in grace.
It's not do this in order to earn God's favor.
It's in view of God's mercy and view of God's
favor. This is how you should respond by offering
your whole embodied self as worship. Obedience
is not the path to mercy, it is in response to
mercy, and that's why scripture can command things
of believers that sometimes feel impossible at
first. Scripture can command us as believers
to forgive. You ever been under the command of
scripture to forgive and went, no thanks, right?
No thanks. Or the, The scripture can say, exercise
self -control over your bodies, and you go, oh
my gosh. Or the scripture can say, be faithful,
and our hearts are prone to wonder. Or it can
say, endure hardship. We can go, man, I want
out of this. Forgiveness, self -control, faithfulness,
endurance, these are not mere emotional achievements.
Every one of those are embodied acts of trust.
Jesus himself ties love to obedience in John
chapter 14. He says, if you love me, you will
what? If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
See, love is not measured by intensity of feeling.
It is measured by embodied faithfulness. If we
have any married folks out there, you guys know
that already. I can tell my wife, tell him, hey
baby, I love you. I can say it passionately,
I love you so much. But if my embodied reality
is anything but faithful, do you think that that
is love? If I go run off to do this or to hook
up with so -and -so, do you think that is love?
No, because love is not the intensity of feeling
or emotion. Love is measured by faithfulness.
We're told that authenticity in this life means
acting in line with whatever we feel most strongly
in the moment. But scripture tells us that faithfulness
often means acting in line with God's will before
our emotions catch up. Say that again. Scripture
tells us that faithfulness often means acting
in line with God's will, and God's will is God's
commands, and God's commands, we can know them
in his word. Acting in line with God's will before
our feelings, our emotions, our inner life catch
up. And this is expressed bodily all the time.
Taking a forgiving posture even as you struggle
internally with the pain that lingers. restraining
desire when temptation comes strong. Showing
up physically even when withdrawal and hiding
feels a whole lot easier. Choosing patience when
anger feels justified. These are all acts of
worship. And they're costly, but they are also
how God forms us. Because the body is the arena
in which allegiance to God is actually practiced.
Number five. promised resurrection. So after
everything scripture has told us about the body,
creation, the corruption of the body, redemption
in Christ, the final question remains, what is
God's ultimate purpose for our bodies? And really
quickly, just so that we have some scripture
here, the answers that scripture gives is not
that we escape, it's resurrection of the body.
The Christian hope is not that we are finally
free from our bodies, we float off into space
as disembodied souls that can float around the
universe for the rest of our existence. That's
not the Christian hope. That's some weird Greek
Roman thing from back in the day. The Christian
hope is that God will raise our bodies by his
power. That eternity will be an embodied existence,
just as Christ demonstrated in his resurrection.
The New Testament is clear, resurrection is not
something we achieve, it's something that God
does to us. And in Philippians chapter three,
20 and 21, Paul says that Christ will return
and when he does, he will transform our lowly
bodies to be like his glorious body by his power,
not by our effort. The resurrection body is a
gift. And yet, at the same time, Scripture also
insists that the body God raises is not irrelevant
to how we live now. In other words, we can't
go, well, I can just abuse this body and do anything
I want with it and to it while I wait for my
great, glorious, resurrected body. Woo -hoo.
We laugh at it, but there's like whole movements
that say that's the way it is, right? Even some
of the early church heresies or errors had to
be fought against the idea like, do whatever
you want with your body. There's a new one coming,
right? Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, we read it already.
He said, what is sown will then be raised. Why
does Paul say that? Why doesn't he just say,
what is will be wiped out and what will be is
new, because Paul is trying to affirm some sort
of continuity between our bodies now and the
body we will receive then. We can kind of see
that in a picture. It doesn't tell us a whole
lot about what that means, but you can see that
in Christ. He was resurrected with his scars,
resurrected with the marks of his redemption.
all over his body, and yet he was not the same.
People eventually could recognize him, but after
first not recognizing him, there's a mystery
about the resurrected body, but whatever it is,
Paul wants us to know there's some sort of continuity
to what is planted and what is grown, in the
same way that a seed does not look like the plant
that comes up, and yet there's some sort of continuity
there. The body that is raised is the body that
God redeems. And so what we do with our bodies
honors the body God intends to raise. A lot of
our Christian life is about living out of what
is true of us already, but what we don't see.
And so we honor the body that God intends to
raise by the way we live now. In fact, John,
in First John, John talks about this when he
says, he's like, everyone who hopes in the resurrection,
anyone hope in the resurrection? Woo -hoo. No
more joint pain, no more back pain. Jumping around
like gazelles. Get off there, Becky, get down
here. Right? Woo -hoo, anyone who hopes in the
resurrection, what does John say in First John?
What do they do now, if you hope in the resurrection?
First John says, anyone who hopes in the resurrection
purifies himself now. Anyone who hopes in the
resurrection gets himself ready by beginning
to walk in obedience, embodied obedience now.
Not to earn it, but because it's coming. and
I wanna get ready. So embodied obedience is about
living faithfully as the people that God has
already claimed. We resist sin with our bodies.
We practice faithfulness with our bodies. We
worship with our bodies, not because resurrection
depends on it, but because resurrection is certain.
The Christian hope is not that we become less
human, a sort of disembodied eternal state of
existence. The hope of the Christian is that
we become fully human, raised and made whole
by the power of God. from the very beginning,
scripture has told us the same story, we are
not souls trapped in bodies, we are embodied
creatures. We are created by God, we are corrupted
by sin, we are redeemed by Christ, and we are
destined for resurrection. Which means the body
is not incidental to the Christian life, it is
the place where faith is lived. And what does
that mean practically? Well I'll give you three.
points really quickly. I won't expound on them.
If they hit you, as soon as I say it, it was
for you. Don't worship your body, be it through
beauty or fitness. Don't worship your body. Don't
neglect your body as if it's disposable and it
doesn't mean anything. Instead, steward your
body. Remember that it belongs to God, and a
stewardship is it's not mine. I received it.
You guys ever borrow someone's car? Just crank
it up to 150, right? Trash it, throw the fries
everywhere and then give it back? You ever done
that? Can I borrow your car later? No. You would
never, would you? I would never, how dare you
say no. Here we are. Here we are. Borrowed bodies.
Stewards of what God has given. Here we are.
We trashing it, we taking it for a joy ride.
Or we leaning in to listen. not elevating the
body as if it's an object of worship, not neglecting
the body as if it doesn't matter at all in the
end, but stewarding the body because it belongs
to God and it is for his glory and for others
good. Remember, Jesus gave his body for you and
you now can offer your body to him, not to earn
love, but because you're already loved. And so,
I think the word to end on is, let our bodies
become an area of discipleship. This has been
a journey for me. On December 6th, after a conversation
with my brother over here, there was a decision
made about being a better steward of this thing.
This thing. And saying, hey, I... I can't live
in nihilism as if it doesn't matter at all. Or
like, God, I'm gonna just be reckless and just
squeeze every little bit out of it, but sorry
if I die at 46. I'm 46 right now. But I need
to care for it, yet not idolize it. Because I've
been there before in the past. It's like, perfectly
sculpted and this and that, wanting that. I don't
want that. I wanna be a steward of it. And so
it began a journey. since December 6th till now
of being more intentional about the stewardship
of my body so that if God wants to use it, it's
available. If he chooses to take it, that's his
because it was always his. And I'm grateful for
that process. It's been deeply impacting on discipleship.
Like you think, oh, that's another compartment
of life. That's something, no. If everything
that I said so far is true, and the very theology
of the body in light of the universe is how God
created us as embodied creatures, it is part
and parcel to our discipleship. It's not the
only part. And it shouldn't be, again, an idolization
of it. But I had to confront myself and say,
how am I living? And make some changes. And by
God's grace, those changes have affected the
way I think, they've affected the energy that
I have, the way that I feel, and by His grace,
He can use that for His glory, or He can take
me home tomorrow, that's not the point. See,
I'm not trying to live forever. I actually don't
want to live forever. Man, when you read enough
of the Bible, you're like, woo -hoo, take me
now! But then you're like, well, I can't live
recklessly and then make Him take me now, can
I? So it's like this weird place that you have
to live in, right? How you eat, how you rest,
how you sleep, how you work, how you use your
God -assigned and God -given sexuality, how you
handle stress, how you pursue health, all of
it is discipleship, and all of it can be worship.
The world tells us that freedom is being self
-owned and self -defined, but scripture tells
us that freedom is belonging to the one who made
us, redeemed us. and has set good boundaries
for our good. And so the Christian call is not
to express ourselves without restraint, nor to
despise our physical life or existence, but to
offer all of it up as worship. We are invited
to present our bodies as living sacrifices in
grateful response to God's mercy. And this is
the true and better vision of identity. Not divided,
not disembodied, but whole, an embodied creature
offered up to the glory of God. Will you join
me in praying?