Bought with a Price
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you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Prayer: Let your Word come alive to us your church. Build your church Lord, make us strong Lord!
God is doing a lot of great things in our midst. So thankful that we are seeing the Lord bringing us closer together as a church. So glad we are seeing God saving and convicting people.
So thankful we are hungry for more of Him. So thankful that God is baptizing in the Holy Ghost and people are speaking in tongues as the Holy spirit leads and guides.
This morning as we have read this passage of scripture I want us to think about this, Christ has set us free!!!!
Christ does not set us free so that we can do whatever we want to do; Christ sets us free so that we can do whatever God wants us to do.
Let’s take a look at Corinth:
Corinth was an important and wealthy city on the isthmus (narrow strip of land) separating Northern and Southern Greece.
The Apostle Paul spent 18 months there on his Second Missionary Journey and established a church there. Acts 18 gives us considerable detail about Paul’s work in Corinth during that time.
However, in Corinth, the Christian community has been turning to those outside the church (civil courts) to judge disputes between members of the church. In other words, they have been inviting those outside the church to judge those inside the church (6:1-6). This public airing of the church’s dirty laundry damages the church’s reputation in the minds of unbelievers—making it much more difficult for the church to win new people to Christ.
Paul knew that there were things happening in the Christian community where there were disputes, division and chaos.
We need to remember we need to get along. We need to love one another. We need to be images of Christ. If there are grudges or hurts in our hearts towards a brother or sister in the church that does not belong. Go to him/her make it right and forgive and forget.
If we see things we don’t like don’t gossip about it go to the pastor and board and share legitimate reasons why there are questions or concerns. Do it in a Godly manner. Support and love your leadership. Do not tear down or shred growth and integrity of church leadership.
Every noble life is based on self-renunciation. To make a worthwhile mark on the world, we must lose ourselves in a great cause.
Christians have found that cause: we live for God in Christ. We have been brought at a price and are therefore owned by the Son of God.
Think about the state of Bondage Christians are ransomed.
Think about the state of Bondage Christians are ransomed.
A. Paul said in 1 Cor. 6:19
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
You are not your own!
A. There was a time in the lives of the Corinthians, as well as all others, when they thought they were their own. When they thought they followed their own ways.
B. These Corinthians were in bondage to the law and its sentence of condemnation. All unsaved persons are in bondage to sin and its cruelness. All are in bondage to Satan and his wretched service.
C. This power of evil brought on the delusion of liberty, pride, and selfishness. All the while, Satan was drawing tighter and tighter the chains of spiritual bondage.
Spiritual bondage - religiosity is a spiritual bondage! This is where we give the enemy a foothold in our lives by harboring sins against each other.
Religion can easily turn into a type of spiritual bondage when we allow our fears of hell, judgment, or demonic activity to control us or when we adopt a religious mindset that says,
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We are not saved by rituals we perform; in fact, Jesus said that ritualistic religion does nothing but “load people down with burdens they can hardly carry” (Luke 11:46).
Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
Our bodies (not just our spirits or souls) “are members of Christ,” so we are part of Christ’s body. Our bodies, then, are holy, set apart for a sacred purpose, even as Christ is holy, set apart for a sacred purpose.
We are a holy people, created by God for God’s purposes. It would therefore be completely out of character for us to behave in unholy ways.
Think about who Christians are indebted to for redemption
Think about who Christians are indebted to for redemption
Christians are indebted to:
A. The One whose laws and service were forsaken and despised.
B. The One without whose help all sinners would be in eternal bondage.
C. The One upon whom sinners had no claim so far as justice and right are concerned.
D. The One whose heart was moved with pity by the spectable of the sinner’s slavery.
E. The One who graciously resolved in the work of deliverance.
F. The One who was ordained of God who came into the world to save sinners - the Lord Jesus Christ.
“which you have from God?” (v. 19b). The Holy Spirit (mentioned in 19a) is a gift from God—a treasure that God entrusts to each Christian.
For most of us, something we receive as a gift has special meaning, because it reflects the love of the person who gave it. That is especially true if the gift is something that we especially wanted or needed. Each time we see or use it, it reminds us of the one who gave it to us—and of the love and thoughtfulness that inspired the gift.
What could be a more wonderful gift than the gift of God’s Spirit dwelling within us—God’s presence always with us?
What could be more wonderful than knowing that God is available to us to guide and direct our ways—to help us in ways that we could never help ourselves?
Think about the cost at which Christians were ransomed from slavery and purchased and purchased as free bondmen/bondwomen of God.
Think about the cost at which Christians were ransomed from slavery and purchased and purchased as free bondmen/bondwomen of God.
A. It was a price no human was capable of paying.
B. It was a price that could not be counted in an earthly equivalent.
C. It was a price so high that the Son od God had to become incarnate and empty himself of heavenly glory.
Define Incarnate - Jesus left the spleondor of heaven to become man to give Himself - to empty Himself of Heavenly glory so that we could have eternal life!
D. It was the price of the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”
You are not your own you were bought with a price:
Paul doesn’t specify what he means when he says, “bought with a price,” but that should be obvious to anyone familiar with the Gospel.
The verb “bought” points to a past action that has been completed. In a Christian context, “bought with a price” alludes to Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross.
Bought with a price also means substitutionay atonement - making amends for sins or repairing the spiritual damage caused by sin and also restoring relationships that were broekn by sin.
We should have been punished. According to keeping with His holiness we should have been punished.
His love for us meant that He was going to make a way for us to be recociled to Him.
(So if He saw fit to forgive and reconcile why on earth are we hesitant to forgive and reconcile with brothers and sisters - why doe we hold grudges, cause strife or breed trouble in the church?) Is this Goldy?
So in order for us to be reconciled to Him there needed to be a substitutionary atonement!
In the OT that was done through animal sacrifices.
In the NT there is also substitutionary atonement the death of Jesus:
• “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
• Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, 36).
• “being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him” (Romans 5:9).
• Christ is our “Passover”—our Paschal lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7).
• “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3).
• Christ “died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:14).
• “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).
• “Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance” (Ephesians 5:2).
Substitutionary atonement not only satisfies God’s needs for both justice and mercy, but it also dramatizes the dreadful nature of our sin and its consequences.
It helps us to understand that our sins are not just minor mistakes for which a passing apology is all that is needed.
It helps us to understand that “the wages of sin is death” and that we are in desperate need of “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
Think about the obligations this deliverance places on Christians.
Think about the obligations this deliverance places on Christians.
A. There are some negative obligations.
“You are not your own”
The heart is not the Christians - it is Christ’s
The thoughts are not the Christian’s - they are Christ’s
Abilities are not the Christian’s - they are Christ’s
Property is not the Christian’s - it is Christ’s
Therefore He should be honored with it.
B. There are some positive obligations.
Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit.
To love the Lord is necessity to serve him.
All the facilties and opportunities are to be laid on the altar.
We know that sin is harmful, and some sins are quite habit-forming. This is why we need forgiveness. But also when we are forgiven we need to remember we are not our own and we belong to God.
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and trusting God is the way to safety
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
This may seem counterintuitive. How can we trust the One we fear?
What it means is that God—not demons, not other men—has omnipotent power in the universe.
He is the King. If we set ourselves against Him, we are putting ourselves in the only real danger that exists.
But if we trust Him, we are safe. God’s children are free:
So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
Conclusion:
But the most obvious implication of Paul’s “therefore” is that we should glorify God in our bodies.
This is a word that is especially needed in our world today. Our world constantly tells us that we have a right to engage in whatever activity that appeals to us, but Paul says otherwise.
He implies that a Christian who engages in in things activities dishonors God, and says that we need to glorify God with our lives. That is a hard sell in our pagan environment, but we are under obligation to proclaim it.
It is time for each of us to take inventory of our spiritual life.
When we have done this we will see the price that our Lord paid for our redemption and we will want to ensure that we reconsecrate ourselves to him.
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