A Body Twice-Owned
One of my favorite authors, Tim Challies, wrote a great entry long ago, and I wanted to examine portions of it with you. Check out what he says...
"God owns your body as its Creator.” He hand-crafted every bit of your DNA. David celebrates God’s good design in Psalm 139, where he says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (13-14).
David’s body was actually God’s possession, carefully designed and deliberately assigned. The same is true for you—God owns your body because he created your body.
“God also owns your body as its Savior.” You had rebelled against God and sinfully claimed your body as your own. You decided to negate God’s claim over your body and to assert ownership of it yourself. But God drew you back from this treasonous rebellion, and as you accepted his offer of forgiveness and reconciliation, you ceded all your rights and restored proper ownership. In return, God actually took up residence within.
So Paul asks, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). This is why he can appeal to you and every other Christian “to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1).
To present your body as a living sacrifice is to present everything you have and everything you are to his service, to place it all under his authority. Your body is not your own. Your body is God’s, to be cared for as he demands, to be committed to his service.
Tim Challies encourages us that when it comes to the body we are to present it, steward it, nurture it, and employ it.
We're gonna peel back those layers. Is that cool? It's gonna be intense. I think we're in for a good time. Guys, I've said it before, but bodily stewardship is so complex, and this series will help stir that certain truth. Let's do this.
- Jimmy Peña
