The Body May 11, 2006
Posted by noshoes in Church, Friends, Wisdom?.trackback
I am reminded that the body and the spirit are two entirely separate entities. The body is the temporary home of the spirit a temple if you will. Yesterday at church one of my friends and a fellow manly man was strolling up the sidewalk to the church.
Last week I saw him on several occasions with a bandage wrapping his forearm and you can bet I was anxious to see the damage. I asked him how and he said it was the result of a car accident.
Now that the gauze was no longer present I quickly asked to see the injury. It is a beauty and I can imagine the scene of the accident was very bloody. I have had my share of stitches and the experience is a mixed one. It always strikes me funny as the doctor numbs the wound and begins to vigorously scrub the area inside and out. For an experience physician the procedure is routine and they think nothing of sewing you back up.
This is where I start pondering. I have an abiding faith in the God of the Bible and I have been aware from an early age of God’s Word concerning the body. Seeing the stitches reminded me that the body in little more than a suit of skin and flesh and bone. When the body gets torn, ripped, or cut we have it sewn back up and carry on with life.
There will come a day for each of us when we will no longer reside within our body as we once knew it. Our body will eventually wear out just like an old comfortable outfit and it will be thrown away, with much pomp and circumstance in many cases, where it will return to the dust God made it from.
When we know the truth about the body we can live in liberty!
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. Romans 7:23-25
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Romans 8:10
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Romans 8:13
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James 2:26
As alway it is a decsion for each individual. It is a responsibiltiy given to each person by a wise and loving God. When you hear the truth you will do somthing with it. The only question is what?
oww what happend?
Just found your blog,
God bless
Maria in the UK
http://www.inhishands.co.uk
I love that parallel — the sewing up old clothes and sewing up the body that clothes our spirits now. Excellent image. And true.
good blog! I will check your site again!
http://uriahministries.wordpress.com
tim kurek
Interesting post. Let me say though that I have reservations about thinking of the body as a mere adjunct of personality, since, as Genesis tells us, it was also God Himself Who fashioned the clay; and Scripture also promises that our present bodies too will be changed into “spiritual” ones, and will thus be part of the future life…
That said, God bless, and thanks for the story:)
Interesting article. The pic was a bit of a shocker! But, alas, the body does go through an array of destruction all its own. Thank God, we are more than just a body. Whether we like it or not, we all come to the final day when the body dies. And, we all die the same way, just in different circumstances. Thanks for your contribution!
Great Blog! Even so, Come Lord Jesus Come!
Your thoughts are interesting. I am inclined to disagree with your understanding of the situation. If you recall, Jesus rose to new life, the tomb was empty. This is what is promised for us as well. It is not a minority reading of the New Testament, it is the premise upon which it rests, the resurrection. A bodily resurrection is what is display throughout the New Testament. I like the imagery you are working with, but if you consider the resurrected Christ, he is still bearing the scares of his wounds and he is recognized by his disciples. There are times when Jesus appears in a locked room or disappears from the table after breaking bread with them. It is the incarnation, the Word made flesh, and he is the first fruits from among the dead. It is not the popular understanding in the Christian world today but it is a biblical understanding.
Peace,
Kevin
hkevinderr
Very interesting take on the issue. It is very comforting to know that Jesus still bares the marks that won our freedom. I just wonder about all those who were burned at the stake, boiled alive and beheaded for their faith. They might be a bit unsightly in their resurrected bodies if they have to slip back into the old one. In fact Christ would be almost unrecognizable if he bore all the marks of the scourgeing he received. I would guess that He chose to leave some traces for our appreciation but I do not believe there is any reason why we would be left all scared and battered for enternity but I do not have any difinitve answers only my own ideas from my study of scripture.I do acknowledge that the Bible seems to state that the material with which we are made up of will be reclaimed and reused as part of God’s faithful promises.
God Bless and see you in heaven scars or no scars I will be happy to be there!
I am really convinced that Christian spirituality is centered in our bodies. If you read the creation account in Genesis, man is created and called a living soul, not said to have a soul. The difference is very important, for example, the difference between having a banana and being a banana. We know and experience the world, and Christ through our bodies. If you read the Sermon on the Mount closely, you will notice that it is very much centered in living our faith, our spirituality is very much present in physical world, which again if you consider the Genesis account, it was created good. All this is not to discount the reality of heaven, but neither should the experience of faith in the physical world be discounted, nor the body. Paul talks about the Spiritual body we will receive upon our resurrection, he does not detail the specifics, but Jesus is the example. While it is a spiritual body, it is a body, and not just a mass of energy or some disembodied spirit, it is a bodily resurrection. I doubt that the horrific effects of various deaths will be carried over, but scares could well be a badge of honor in the service of Christ. Consider the special role that Martyrs play in the book of Revelation. Thanks for thinking this through with me.
Peace,
Kevin
Very well put I am going to have to give this concept more thought for sure. I appreciate you spending the time to express thses ideas.
Billy
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Perhaps it would be best to say that while spirit and body are distinct they are not truly separate. If they are separated, the body dies. While they are still together we are a whole person and body and spirit work together inseparably, as long as both are reasonably healthy. Spirits in heaven are with the Lord, which is best, but they are not with their bodies, a less than ideal situation for the human being. They are waiting, like the martyrs under the altar. At the resurrection body and spirit will be united.
Yes, the body is dead – or what we would call “dead meat” i.e., condemned to die. But that is not its natural fate (it’s only because of sin) and it’s not its final fate either, because of the resurrection. I think it’s most important of all to remember that Christ put on human nature, both soul and flesh, and took both of them into death and then out of it again. In other words, he has both dignified and redeemed physical nature and while we should not be afraid of the body’s death, we should also live in hope of the body’s resurrection. Hopefully our souls are walking in that new life already.
Gruesome picture!