PRESENTING OUR BODIES
D J Willetts
Romans 12: 1, 2
1 Corinthians 6: 12-15 (to “Christ?”), 19, 20
These scriptures refer to our bodies. The apostle uses his spiritual persuasion to the saints that he is writing to: “I beseech you therefore”; it is a strong word. He says, “by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice”. He is reaching the end of his treatise as to the gospel in this book. Having touched this doxology in the end of chapter 11, “how unsearchable his judgements, and untraceable his ways! … For of him, and through him, and for him are all things: to him be glory forever. Amen” (v 33, 36), his mind immediately travels to this great matter of what we do with our bodies. We may not feel that we have much that we can give the Lord. We may not feel we have travelled far in the way of intelligence. It seems to me the apostle is using all the energy that he has in divine grace to appeal to the saints to present their bodies a living sacrifice.
I suppose if we want to see a perfect example of a living sacrifice, we see it in the Lord Himself. Perhaps that is where we should start. The Lord would have us take account of the fact, “thou hast prepared me a body”, Heb 10: 5. In that body He did what He says of Himself, “I do always the things that are pleasing to him”, John 8: 29. You can understand He did that in those early private years, largely unknown to us. Heaven is opened and a voice could say, “This is my beloved Son”, Matt 3: 17. The footsteps of the Lord Jesus, the actions of the Lord Jesus in every moment of every day, drew out the acclamation of the Father. He was a living Sacrifice; He was alive to God. We get that reference earlier in Romans: “in that he lives, he lives to God” (Rom 6: 10), which refers to His present position in glory. It is a remarkable statement; it goes on in that section, “so also ye, reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”, v 11. The proof of being alive to God is what we do with our bodies, and that would take us to a passage in Romans where he says, “For even as ye have yielded your members in bondage to uncleanness and to lawlessness unto lawlessness, so now yield your members in bondage to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were bondmen of sin ye were free from righteousness. What fruit therefore had ye then in the things of which ye are now ashamed? for the end of them is death. But now, having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life”, Rom 6: 19 - 22. I suppose the answer to that is seen in Romans 8 where he says, “if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live: for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”, Rom 8: 13, 14. These are stupendous matters.
The apostle says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God”. What compassions he had enlisted in the earlier part of the book. What a way we have been taken, to use another prophet’s words,
…from the dung-hill he lifteth up the needy,
To set him among nobles; and he maketh
them inherit a throne of glory,
1 Samuel 2: 8.
What our past history was in all its disgrace towards God we can now use that as being members committed by the power of the Spirit to God Himself. It speaks of a living sacrifice. It is not just getting through: it is living, a living matter. I suppose if we refer to our bodies, it takes in our every member. The Lord speaks about these things. He speaks about, “if therefore thine eye be single” (Matt 6: 22), and then he says, “if thy hand or foot offend thee, cut it off”, Matt 18: 8. He speaks about the members of our bodies as if to remind us that God Himself is taking account every day of every movement in it of what we do with our bodies.
We each have a body; so however young we are or however old we are we can commit it to this living sacrifice. You think of it sometimes when you see some of the older saints and their bodies becoming very frail. Mentally, it may be, they become even more frail, but there is something there that is for the divine pleasure as being a sacrifice for God Himself. It says, “be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. The renewed mind comes to light in Romans 7 where the mind serves God’s law: it comes under new control, v 25. Each one of us, as having the Spirit, has been given the power to be superior to the influences the flesh can bring upon us.
I read this passage in 1 Corinthians 6 because I find it very remarkable. I do not suppose any of us would put ourselves into the awfulness of what the Corinthians had been involved in. It was known as the most corrupt city at that time. The Lord had secured personnel from there and the apostle is addressing them here. He says, “the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body”. I find that interesting; the two things are very closely connected: the body for the Lord and the Lord for the body. It comes into Ephesians 5, “He is Saviour of the body”, v 23. You may say, ‘I commit myself wholeheartedly to the Lord; what does that mean for my body?’. At the present time people are very occupied with their bodies: what about being occupied with what our bodies can be for the Lord Himself? It says here, “for the Lord”. Each of our bodies can be a body for the Lord, in contrast to what they have been. There had been a dramatic change in the lives of the Corinthians, which became obvious to anyone who had known them in their previous conduct. He goes on, “Do ye not know that your bodies are members of Christ?”. That is a remarkable thought, that our “bodies are members of Christ”. I think what that means is that wherever we go, whatever we do, we take Christ with us. We often say that wherever we go we take the brethren with us, and that is true as chapter 12 shows. This seems to be a more specific matter. Perhaps it would involve a more delicate action. It says, “Do ye not know that your bodies are members of the Christ?”. Therefore, we take the Lord with us wherever we go.
The end of the section is very striking to me. “Do ye not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit”. That is something else that is profoundly encouraging, that as receiving the Holy Spirit He will never leave us. The body is to be temple of the Holy Spirit, a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. We have scriptures about not grieving the Spirit (Eph 4: 30); so that “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own”. He gives the appeal again. There is something about the way Paul writes; he has affectionate appeal in the way he puts it: “ye are not your own? for ye have been bought with a price”. Who could measure what it has cost God to secure us in our bodies to be here for His pleasure? It says, “ye have been bought with a price”. What a price! He does not finish there; he says, “glorify now then God in your body”. You may ask if that is possible: Scripture does not present to us impossibilities. Scripture always presents to us what is normal. I think it is a normal thing that we would use our bodies to glorify God. I say these things by way of encouragement. We perhaps look back on our lives, and say we could have done more. May we be encouraged for the rest of our time.
That is another expression that comes into Scripture, “the rest of his time”, 1 Pet 4: 2. Whether it be short or whether it be long we know not, but we all have the rest of our time. What are we going to do with our bodies for the rest of our time? May we just be encouraged that we might be here for the pleasure of God.
Word at a meeting for ministry, Birmingham
5th May 2021