The Gift of the Body: Part 2

Nathan Pellegra

The Church of Corinth; Struggling to be in the world but not of the world • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

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1 Infant holy, infant lowly, for his bed a cattle stall; oxen lowing, little knowing Christ the babe is Lord of all.

Last Sunday, we studied the passage before us about the gift of the human body and the way in which the Lord calls his people to use their bodies for His glory. This message from Paul comes is directed to the Corinthian culture that was immersed in devaluing the body and struggling to leave their immorality of their old lives behind.

As a review, we looked at the Lord’s purpose for the body

1. His Purpose

we were created in God’s image

we were commanded to worship God and rule over the earth

sin’s corruption led to the body being worshipped or devalued in humanity, turning away from God’s original design

the Corinthian church was claiming a freedom in Christ, being liberated from the bondage of sin but yet still giving themselves over to indulgences of the flesh of their old life before Christ.

Paul addressed two phrases that were used in the church like hall passes of Christian liberty so they still indulged in immorality.

“All is lawful for me”. Paul responds with but not all things are beneficial and I shall not be mastered by anything.

“Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will do away with both of them.” Paul responds that the body is actually for the Lord and the Lord for the body and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead proves just how important the plans for our bodies are in the design of God.

The summation of Paul’s message then is “the body is for the Lord” (13) and the our response (20) “therefore glorify God in your body.” It is because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross that we find value in the plan of God for our bodies and our souls. Our souls are redeemed by Christ in his first coming and our bodies will be redeemed by Christ in his second coming. Our souls were made new by his death and resurrection and our bodies will be made new.

This next section in 15-20 looks at why we are to glorify God with our bodies. We saw the Lord has a purpose for our bodies that He fulfills in Jesus Christ and now he shows why we should glorify God.

2. His Possession

A. The Church is Part of Christ

Notice the words and phrases used here.

“members of Christ”

1 Corinthians 6:15 NASB95

15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!

Being a member means that something is a part of something else. Your arms have lifetime membership to your overall body. They are used to serve the physical body and are used in conformity with the other members. Paul is stating that we are part or members of Christ’s body. As members of His body, we are called to function in unity with the others members and glorify the Lord with our actions, representing the Lord Jesus as His body on earth.

Paul point is that you cannot glorify God as a member of the Lord’s body if you are also joining yourself physically to sin of any kind, most notably sexual sin. Paul asks the rhetorical question: Shall I snatch away (separate by force) the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? God forbid.” This statement makes a clear and bold doctrine about the undivided unity of God’s people with Christ in spirit and body. We are united to him and therefore, we cannot remove his limbs and feet to be used for immoral purposes, they have found a new place of dwelling.

Why is this impossible? The second phrase that Paul uses answers this question.

“joins himself to the Lord” (16-17)

1 Corinthians 6:16–17 NASB95

16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.” 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

Using the metaphor of marriage and the spiritual union, Paul quoting from Gen 2 about the union of husband and wife and how God makes them one flesh, as they cleve to one another. This cleaving often cited in marriage ceremonies is the glueing of two things together and making them inseparably one. This finds application for husband and wife in the marriage bed as well as life as a whole. God has ordained that men and women unite as one person through the covenant of marriage and what He joins together, let not man separate.

Intimacy in marriage is just one example of the union both physically and spiritually that a man and woman experience in marriage. You cannot deny such a union for God created such a union to bring joy and fulfillment for the body and soul. Most importantly, Paul then uses marriage once again, as he does in Ephesians, as a picture of our union with Christ as his bride. We are joined to Him, inseparably for all eternity and our greatest fulfillment of that union is to glorify his name in the way we represent him on this earth.

All of these phrases then point to the reality that a person who is follower of Jesus Christ is wed to Christ more significantly than a man is wed to a woman. The marriage covenant is a incomplete metaphor because marriage is not eternal but our relationship with Christ is eternal. Jesus taught his disciples in John 15 about the union with him,

John 15:5–6 NASB95

5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

Jesus is teaching them about the mystical union of the follower of Jesus whereby he is united with Christ. We should consider this union with Christ a way to look in totality at our relationship with him. In others words, our union with Christ was part of the great plan of redemption whereby the Father sends the Son in the world to save sinners.

Our Predestined Union:

Romans 8:29–30 NASB95

29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Our Union with Christ, like the great arranged marriage of heaven, is Grand Plan of the Father, in eternity past, whereby He would give His Son a bride, redeemed and cleansed from sin. That bride would consist of elected individuals chosen by God to believe, unite with Christ in faith, and reflect the glory of God in this earth, and worshipping the Son as Head for all eternity.

“Union with Christ is not something ‘tacked on’ to our salvation; it is there from the outset, even in the plan of God.”

-Bruce Demarest

You believe in Jesus Christ today, because God preordained that you would belong to and be united with Christ in the future.

Our Accomplished Union:

The Union that was predestined to occur was actualized in the birth of Christ into the world. That sinless Son of God who came would bring forth the necessary redemption for his bride, whereby she once was a slave to sin, now she is freed from bondage and unites with Christ in marriage relationship as her redeemer comes to bring her salvation.

This is what Paul means in verse 20,

1 Corinthians 6:20 NASB95

20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

This accomplishment of the Savior who gave his own life is the greatest sacrifice a husband can give for his wife, to lay down his very life for her salvation and redemption. This is what Jesus accomplished for his Bride, the church and this is why the church is so united to Christ as a bride is united to her groom.

Our Applied Union

The union with Christ is planned by the Father, Accomplished by the Son, and is enacted or applied by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the agent of change who brings redemption’s effect upon us in our regeneration. When we express faith in Jesus Christ, this faith is generated by a work of the Spirit in the individual to see the depth of sin and the need for a salvation in Jesus Christ alone. We can then see all three persons of the Godhead at work in our union with Christ through the work of redemption.

Paul is showing us this truth in relating the union with Christ to the Spirit living in us. When Jesus rises from the dead, he sends the Spirit down to continue the work in His people. The Spirit that falls upon all believers at their regeneration is a act of the Spirit of Christ living in all of us. He is the application of redemption so that believers will walk in holiness, reflecting imperfectly, yet reflecting Jesus to a lost world.

Paul states,

1 Corinthians 6:18–20 NASB95

18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Paul calls the Corinthians to live in holiness because they are wed or glued to Christ through his work of redemption. This holy union cannot be undone and united again to the world. Notice how he connects the call to holiness....”flee immorality” with the dwelling of the Spirit in every believer. The Spirit’s abode in every follower of Jesus is proof that Christ has regenerated the heart and power for the believer to live like Christ in the world.

The Spirit as Proof

Romans 8:9–10 NASB95

9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

Paul teaches that the Spirit indwelling the believer is proof of our belonging and union with Christ. It is literally the Spirit of Christ in us therefore we can proclaim that Jesus lives in us…and the Holy Spirit lives in us. Can you see the effects of the Spirit in your life? If so then you know that Christ has saved you. Those are manifested fruits of holiness and obedience towards Christ and his words to men.

The Spirit as Power

The power of the Spirit at work in you is how you overcome the temptations of the flesh. Paul states the Holy Spirit dwells in you and you are the temple. The temple represents the place where God dwells and the temple is made holy by God. Therefore, the Spirit is the power to make you holy and cleansed so that the Spirit may dwell in pure places. Christ’s work of redemption leads to purity in the believer so that the Spirit can indwell us.

Look again at Ephesians 5:25-27

Ephesians 5:25–27 NASB95

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.

The Spirit empowers the church to live holy lives so that they can reflect Jesus as his body in the world. The Spirit makes us holy day by day because redemption in Jesus Christ and our union with him has already made us holy in the sight of God.

B. The Church is Purchased by Christ

Our union with Christ not only means that we are part of him as his body, but that we belong to Him as his possession. Paul states,

v. 20, You are not your own, you were bought with a price

This language is language of ownership and belonging. We belong to God because he is our creator. All that we have belong to him in obligation as the one who created it. But this goes beyond that which the creator possess in his material estate.

This type of possession is linked to redemption, to a particular people, which Christ died for and paid with his blood the price for their freedom. This people, the bride of Christ, are a treasured possession, of all that God owns in this world.

THe Lord called Israel his “a people for his own possession” in Ex 19:5 .

Exodus 19:5 NASB95

5 ‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;

The HB word SEGULLAH translated here as possession, actually means a prized gem or treasure among all one’s possessions. You can have a great collection of artwork with great value, but if you have the original Mona Lisa in your collection, then nothing else compares in value.

The thinking of Paul here is that the Corinthians consider living in old sins. Paul is saying to them that they now belong to the King as his prized possession of all that he owns. Men, I hope that your wife feels this type of love from you in regards to all other women in the world. This is how Christ prizes his bride, the church, whom he loves and has purchased out of love. Therefore, our union with Christ is being a part of him and being purchased by Him.

Why do we need purchasing?

This is redemptive language because as Paul states in Romans, we are enslaved. Before Christ, a sinner is a slave to unrighteousness and therefore needs a ransom price paid for his/her freedom. Peter wrties,

1 Peter 1:18–19 NASB95

18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

Jesus Christ pays that penalty with his life. As he put on flesh, fully human and fully God, he becomes the perfect and only substitute for sin. Christ had to put on human flesh to live a sinless life as a human and represent man.

What does our union with Christ as part of Christ and purchased by Christ mean?

We live holy as he lives in a through us. This is what he has purchased us for…freedom from sin. We live holy by his power and we live for his glory as freemen and women.