Life in the Human Body I. Questions A. How are we to consider life in the human body? B. What importance, if any, does the body have to our lives? C. Is the body intrinsically evil? II. Introduction A. It is something that we have always had and yet often leave unexplored B. Most of us have a very ambivalent or outright hostile relationship with it! C. Many think it is irredeemable, a major hindrance; something we would be better off without D. What is it? The human body! E. We do well to consider the human body and how we ought to relate to it in light of what God has made known in Scripture III. The Integrity and Value of the Human Body A. God has made human beings with bodies as part of the creation (Genesis 1:24-28) 1. Much has been made of humanity's superiority to other creatures, often to the point of denial of humanity's place in the creation 2. God did make mankind in His own image, and God is a spirit indeed (John 4:24) 3. But God made us in human bodies of the same "stuff" as the creation and other animals as part of the animal kingdom 4. When God made humans, He made them with souls, spirits, and bodies: all three constituent parts make us human 5. Thus, the idea that we "are" something like our minds/souls as distinct from our bodies is contrary to the creation and to Scripture; we "are" our bodies, souls, and spirit; the body is not something opposed to us or distinct from us; it is as much a part of us as our minds and souls, etc. 6. The quote of (likely misattributed to) C.S. Lewis, "we don't have a soul. We are a soul. We happen to have a body" sounds good to Westerners, and we will see why, but is not consistent with what God has made known in Christ, and certainly cannot make sense of the hope of the resurrection of the dead 7. When God made humans, it was very good (Genesis 1:31): our problem, as humans, is not that we have bodies! B. The human body is fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) 1. It is very easy for humans to take the human body for granted, focusing only on what does not work 2. We often see people try to compare the human body to a machine or a computer or something like that; all such comparisons do little service to the complexity and skill latent within the human body 3. Consider all the various functions the human body accomplishes at any given moment; think of all the things your body is doing right now! 4. If anything, we should prove even more thankful for how well the body functions in general when we see when it does not do so! 5. Even with our advanced medical understanding and technology we still learn even more about how the body functions, its symbiosis with many bacteria and viruses, and have much more to learn about its functioning C. Our ultimate hope is the redemption of the body in the resurrection (Romans 8:23, 1 Corinthians 15:20-58, Philippians 3:20-21) 1. Far too many Christians have put their hope in some sort of disembodied heavenly bliss in the afterlife 2. There will be a time when we will be disembodied in heaven, yet in that form we will be waiting for the resurrection of life (Philippians 1:20-24, Revelation 7:9-17) 3. Resurrection is anastasis in Greek: that which died must "stand again" 4. Second Temple Jewish people, as well as the Greeks of the age, understood well what anastasis meant: the physical body that had died would be brought back to life (John 11:24, Acts 17:16-32, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; cf. 2 Maccabees) 5. Christians historically have confessed the immortality of the soul; spiritual regeneration takes place at baptism as seen in Romans 6:1-4, yet Romans 6:1-11 spoke of how Jesus died and was raised to die no more, thus referring to the body 6. Thus, our ultimate hope as Christians is not to be forever parted from the body, but for the body to receive transformation unto incorruption and immortality, and to share in eternal life in the resurrection body D. God has therefore made us with physical bodies, and considered them very good; the human body is wonderfully and fearfully made; our ultimate hope is to be restored to the body in the resurrection IV. The Corruption of the Body A. Human bodies have become subject to corruption and decay as in the whole creation (Romans 5:12-21, 8:18-23) 1. Corruption and decay entered the creation through sin (Romans 5:12-21) 2. Sin entered the creation with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1-24) a. Important aspects of that narrative: Satan tempts Adam and Eve to doubt God's goodness, desire to know beyond the boundaries God established for them b. No argument about historical reality of Adam and Eve, yet the story is also archetypal: we all fall prey to "the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," doubting God's goodness and learning beyond the boundaries God would have established for us c. The curse: pain in childbirth; produce bread from ground with sweat and toil; death 3. Many went beyond what is written in terms of "original sin," but the doctrine of "ancestral sin" makes better sense of humanity's present plight a. Death has spread to all because of sin (Romans 5:12-21); all subject to the slavery of death (Hebrews 2:15) b. We have not inherited any specific sin from Adam; instead, we have inherited the effects of Adam's sin: corruption, decay, death, propensity to turn to sin 4. In this way all suffer because of the effects of the first sin even if they have not sinned; thus we can understand how and why people are born with mental and physiological difficulties and disabilities, why it is possible for babies and children to suffer and die 5. This is why even though the human body was made good, it has become corrupted: it ages, falls apart, wants things that may not be good for it, etc. (cf. Ecclesiastes 12:1-9) 6. But how corrupt is it? B. The "Flesh" Versus the "Spirit" (Galatians 5:16-26) 1. Many have come to the conclusion that the human body is irretrievably corrupt and depraved, and the imperative of focusing on the mind/spirit in "spirituality," based upon their understanding of Paul's frequent contrast between the "flesh" and the "spirit" 2. This kind of contrast is exemplified in Romans 7:18, 8:8-9, 13:14, Galatians 5:16-26: Paul said nothing good dwelled in his flesh; those in the flesh cannot please or serve God; the flesh is opposed to the spirit; Christians must avoid the works of the flesh and manifest the fruit of the Spirit; Christians are to make no provision for the flesh to satisfy its desires and must crucify the flesh and its passions 3. How can we make sense of this? Is the body worthless and depraved? 4. Paul uses the Greek word sarx for "flesh"; consider the great controversy with the NIV and its translation of sarx in many places as "sinful nature" a. Many have decried such a translation because of what is believed to be its Calvinistic nature, as if it is a confession of total depravity b. Some might take it that way, but what is often left out of such a condemnation is what the NIV translators might have been concerned about! c. Sarx as "sinful nature" in many instances of Paul's writings is the attempt to reconcile how it could be that the physical body was made good, will be raised from the dead, and yet Paul would speak of sarx in such hyperbolically evil and depraved terms d. In such an understanding, Paul is not condemning the body/flesh as such but the corrupted aspects of fleshly desire: the desires and behaviors manifest in the "works of the flesh" (Galatians 5:19-21) e. Very similar to parallel condemnations of "the world," not the created order of rocks, birds, and trees, but the lusts and desires which have corrupted the world (1 John 2:15-17) 5. Thus, when we see such condemnations of "the flesh" or the "works of the body," we must understand that Paul is not condemning the human body as such, but the corruption and disorder within it that tempts us toward sin 6. Paul confessed he continued to live in the body and its flesh; the issue throughout is the focus and what path and direction we go with the body (Romans 8:1-13, Galatians 2:20)! a. Paul provides two contrasting ways b. Will we live as we used to in satisfying the desires of the flesh, that is, the corrupted and disordered desires which led to our active harm and the harm of others? c. Or will we live according to the Spirit, providing appropriate self-control and self-discipline to direct the body toward healthy thoughts, feelings, and practices which manifest the fruit of the Spirit to our benefit and the benefit of others? C. Thus we can see the human body was made good but has been corrupted by sin and death; only Jesus could have liberated us from the law of sin and death in the flesh; now we must follow the Spirit and no longer live according to the desires of the flesh V. Life in the Human Body A. So what should life in the human body look like? B. Tension in the Body 1. Hopefully you are presently not stuck in a state of tension and stress; hopefully you are relaxed at the moment 2. Nevertheless, even in a relaxed state, your body remains full of tension 3. The only time when your body releases tension fully is at death; such leads to rigor mortis and the like 4. For you to remain in the position in which you currently find yourself, muscles are in tension; without tension the body would literally fall apart C. As in the physical body, so in life: we live in a constant tension within our bodies D. The tension is between the body as good and the body as corrupted, and imbalance in that tension is always unhealthy E. The Body as Good 1. God has made the human body, and it was made good! 2. So many experience a lot of body hatred; many dissociate themselves from their bodies, presuming and acting as if "it" is different from "them" 3. We focus a lot on the ways in which our bodies do not "measure up": beauty, weight, function, etc. 4. Many rationalize body hatred by appeals to what Paul has said regarding controlling the body and following the Spirit, presuming such demands constantly shrugging off any signs the body gives of issues or distress, a desire to "mortify the flesh" by beating up the body in various ways, or justifying dissociation, as if focusing only on the mind/soul makes them more "spiritual" and less "fleshly" 5. Yet consider Paul's "throwaway" appeal in Ephesians 5:29: no one hates their own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it; Christ does the same with His body, the church, and Paul made this appeal to explain how husbands are to love and care for their wives! 6. Paul did not preach dissociation and hostility to the body as such; discipline and self-control, certainly, but Paul never denied that we live in the body as human beings and never suggested that we should somehow attempt to transcend it! 7. Colossians 2:20-23: asceticism might seem like the way to go, in just attempting to through the will to suppress the desires of the flesh, but Paul considers this the precepts and doctrines of men, and of no use against the indulgence of the flesh 8. Body hatred does not glorify God, nor does dissociation! 9. Our body is as much us as our mind or our soul and spirit 10. God has so designed the body to be lived in and experienced; to heed its signals and provide for its basic functions; there is no condemnation to making sure the body has the food and drink it needs, receives appropriate exercise, and its functions are honored and respected and appreciated for what God designed them to do 11. In many respects all of us would do better to listen more to what our bodies are telling us, and to always remember that our bodies are not a dissociated "other," but "us"! F. The Body as Finite 1. Many prove frustrated with their bodies because they find them constraining 2. This is an understandable frustration, but we must remember that God has made us that way: we are finite, created creatures! 3. Remember the serpent's temptation: to become like God (Genesis 3:5) 4. God has put eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11); we are made in the image of our Creator, and ought to create, but in our corruption we are tempted to want to transcend our limitations 5. Such animated much of Greek philosophy and contempt for the body: bodies did not live up to the ideal of the form and limited ability and understanding 6. In a thousand ways we want to "be like God" and transcend the finitude of our bodies: we presume in so many ways to be as the creator and are not content as the created 7. This can bleed into eschatology: many find it hard to imagine existing in eternity in an embodied, finite form, but why would we expect or presume anything else? 8. In our laments regarding sin and death, let us avoid lamenting our finitude: God made us human, finite, embodied, part of the creation, and it was good! G. The Body as Corrupt 1. While God made the body good, the body has been corrupted through sin and death 2. The body, in its present constitution, cannot endure indefinitely; even at its best, it will decay, grow corrupt, and perish 3. The desires of the body may have important reasons, and many of them can be exercised in certain ways to the glory of God, but they have also become greatly corrupted, and often lead us away from what is good and healthy and toward what works toward our ruin and destruction 4. Our society simultaneously expresses great body hatred while worshipping at the feet of the idealized body: youthful, healthful, thin, symmetric, sexually desirable 5. We are consciously or subliminally thus continually tempted to consider anyone who does not meet those standards as lesser, even and especially ourselves; it becomes very easy to define people by how they do not meet that standard: by age; by weight; by aesthetic; by disability; all contrary to Matthew 7:1-6, James 2:9-11, 4:11-12 6. How much effort and many resources get expended toward beautification of the form which is ultimately vanity? Thus 1 Timothy 4:7-8! 7. Society also encourages satisfaction of desire and has nothing but contempt and scorn for exhortations against many forms of lasciviousness, sexual deviant behavior, and the encouragement of sobriety and self-control 8. Not everything the body wants is good; not every itch should be scratched! H. "The Line" 1. And now, for all those questions which arise: Is beautification of the body "wrong"? Should we exercise the body, and if so, how much? When do we go from "listening to our body" to "indulging the flesh"? Likewise, when do we go from "buffeting the body" to no longer "nourishing and cherishing the flesh"? 2. All of these questions, in their own way, are trying to find "the line," looking for certainly and explicit directives of "do this, don't do that" 3. Such is an understandable impulse...and one that has led not a few into judgmental dogmatism, extremism, and all kinds of abuse and a lack of health in Christianity! 4. Instead, we need to live in that tension 5. God has revealed all of these things and given all of these exhortations: they are not mutually contradictory, for they are designed to keep us from excess in any direction 6. We must consider ourselves soberly to see where we may go too far one way or the other 7. Ironically, most Westerners tend to manifest both excesses at the same time: obsessed about the body while also hating it 8. Our goals ought to feature physical and spiritual health: living as integrated bodies/minds/souls/spirits; maintaining the body in healthy but not obsessive ways; confessing the corruption of the flesh and on guard against its desires; yearning for the ultimate embodiment of the resurrection of life I. Such is the way life in the human body goes: it was made good; it has been corrupted by sin and death; we await the redemption of the body in the resurrection of life J. May we glorify God in our bodies (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20), and obtain the resurrection of life in Christ! K. Invitation Scripture, Meditation, and Application 1: God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27). God made us as human beings, with minds, souls, spirits...and bodies. Our bodies are not separate from "us"; "they" are as much "us" as are our minds and souls. God made human beings in bodies and it was very good. Humans have many difficulties and problems; living in bodies is not intrinsically bad or wrong. Why is it good to remember how God made us human and with bodies? 2: I will give thanks unto thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Wonderful are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well (Psalm 139:14). When we consider our bodies we often focus on what does not work as well or what is not going right with them. We do well to give thanks to God for how fearfully and wonderfully we are made. The human body is an amazing organism with great abilities and functionality. Even many of the things we find problematic are often designed to warn us and to compel us to adapt our behaviors. The Christian faith should not feature body hatred. How can we give God thanks for our human bodies? 3: For the creation was subjected to futility – not willingly but because of God who subjected it - in hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God's children (Romans 8:20-21). The human body was made very good but has been subjected to corruption and decay on account of sin and death. For this reason we are born with many limitations and difficulties. We experience decay and death. Our desires are often disordered, directing us in ungodly and unhealthy ways. The present body will perish; everything lavished upon it, therefore, ultimately proves vain. How should sin and death inform how we live in the human body? 4: Who will transform these humble bodies of ours into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself (Philippians 3:21). The goal of the Christian faith is not to permanently escape the body; the hope of God in Christ is in the resurrection of the dead, the reanimation and transformation of the human body to live forever. The problem with the human body is not its physicality but the sin and death which have corrupted it. When the body is fully redeemed from sin and death, it can function as God always intended it. For this day we yearn, hope, and pray. Why do so many desire to escape from bodily existence?