Offering Our Physical Bodies to God

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1)  

I was singing a new song in my prayer time a couple of weeks ago, rededicating myself to God. I found a simple chord progression, containing a bit of tension & urgency and as I began to sing I wanted to sing about giving God my whole self: spirit, soul, & body. Here's what came out of my mouth: 

Here's my heart,
Here's my soul,
Here's my body;
Take it all.

Giving God our Bodies too

As I began to sing that song, something interesting began to happen to me. The first was that I found it strange to be offering my body to God in a worship song. Maybe I had done so before, but I didn't remember doing it. Secondly, I found it strange that I was finding this strange. It's not strange to offer God our hearts in song, or our souls, but our bodies?

I did a quick search of my song databases for "body" and "bodies" and though I found a few references to the fact that our bodies are God's temple, and will be raised on the last day (as well as references to the Church as the Body of Christ, and to Christ's body on the cross, or risen, etc.), I did not find a single song that gave voice to the command above: offering God our physical bodies.

Why is that, I wondered. Why are we quite free to offer God our hearts & souls, but then ignore offering Him our physical bodies? Are we latent anti-materialists (those who believe physical matter is evil), or Gnostics (some of whom believed the physical body was irrelevant)? Is there something in us that wants to hold at least something back from God, or assume that God isn't interested in anything besides our hearts?

What is going on here?!

The Resurrection of the Body (or not)?

When we say the Apostles Creed (that ancient summary of apostolic teaching), we say that we "believe in the resurrection of the body." I sometimes wonder whether people actually believe what they're saying. After all, the way they talk about heaven and the afterlife, it makes you wonder why God would even bother with raising our bodies. Our bodies don't seem to be necessary or even preferable to the life of a disembodied spirit in heaven.

I know that's not how the Bible talks about life after death, nor about what will happen when Christ returns. But it is how a lot of Christian folks talk. A few less sophisticated ones will just tell you that they don't believe that God is going to raise our physical bodies at all; He'll just give us new, spiritual bodies. That's not a Biblical idea, but it certainly fits their theology of the afterlife better.

But that isn't what the Bible says, is it. Here's the relevant quote:

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. (1Corinthians 15:42–44)  

The body that is buried is the one that will be raised. It is raised into a different sort of body than it was, but it is not discarded, left behind or forgotten. At the resurrection, these same bodies we're walking around in today, are the bodies that will be raised that last day. They will be transformed into spiritual bodies, but we don't get a different body.

When Jesus was raised from the dead on Easter Sunday. His transformed body was different than it was, but it was still His body--complete with scars and the ability to eat fish (Luke 24:36-43). Jesus even invited Thomas to examine his wounds and put his hand into His side (John 20:27). And yet, he could simply appear in a room (Luke 24:36), or vanish (Luke 24:31). The same, but different.

"The Misdeeds of the..." What?

I have sometimes puzzled over this verse in Romans 8:

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)  

What does Paul mean by "the misdeeds of the body (soma)?" Is this just another metaphor for whatever it is "flesh (sarx)" stands for in this passage? Or, is there a sin problem directly related to the physical bodies we have?

The Bible talks about us as having a spirit, soul and body. Yet for some reason we tend to assign sin only to the spirit and soul parts of us. I wonder why.

My body has desires. When it's hungry, it wants to eat. When it's thirsty it wants to drink. When it gets tired, it wants to sleep. From time to time, it wants sex. It doesn't always want what's best for it either. My body really likes potato chips. It seems to crave at least some things that aren't good for it, or good for the rest of me either! 

So can our bodies sin? Can they misbehave? Are our bodies actually capable of "misdeeds?" I know that many translations just have "deeds" here instead (Greek: "praxeis"), but the implication is the same in the context. Commentators want to skirt the issue of the physical body being anything but a neutral entity in their discussions, but Paul often contrasts body and spirit (as in the passage from 1Cor. 15 quoted above). I wonder whether we are reading our assumptions about the neutrality of the body into the text, thereby missing the possibility that our bodies, as well as our souls and spirits are fallen and need to submit to God. 

If we open that door: that our bodies as well as our spirits and souls need redemption, transformation and submission to God, then we can also begin to ponder whether Paul's use of the term "flesh" might mean something more than the sinful tendencies of our souls, or sinful attitudes, etc. Some passages more than others tend to lead me to leave that door open (e.g., Gal. 5:16; Eph. 2:3).

In 1Peter 2:11 we read that we are to (literally) "...abstain from fleshly desires which wage war against your soul." Most translations put "sinful" in place of "fleshly (Greek: sarkikos)," and we should acknowledge that to do so is an interpretation of what Peter means to convey. What if Peter is telling us something important about a spiritual battlefield we rarely think about? The world of Peter's day, as much and perhaps even more than the world in our day, encouraged indulging physical desires of all kinds (food, drink, sex, etc.). Consider with me for a moment that the ancient world (along with our own) is being pulled into sin not merely by corrupt souls & spirits, but by our physical bodies also damaged in a way that pulls it in sinful directions.

As I write this, I want to make clear that I'm pondering, not concluding.

"Offer Your Bodies as a Living Sacrifice"

Back to the verse quoted at the top of this blog entry:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1)  

In spite of, or perhaps in addition to, Jesus teaching that God wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24), Paul urges us to offer our bodies to God as an act of worship. It is interesting that Paul does this and that so few composers of worship hymns/songs pick up on it as significant.

When I began singing that song (above) to the Lord, offering Him my heart, soul and body, I found myself giving something I'd not consciously given before--at least not in that way. It was a curious and wonderful prayer & worship experience and it has changed the way I think about myself in relation to God. I'm not sure I intended to, but I think I had assumed that He didn't really want that part of me--the physical part.

Maybe you've seen the slogan: "We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a physical experience." What that slogan does, is minimize the significance of the Biblical teaching that we are body, soul and spirit, not spirits merely inhabiting bodies. I don't just have a body, I am one. If my body hurts, I hurt. If it's sick, I'm sick. When it's hungry, I'm hungry (etc.). If you punch my body in the nose, you hurt me, not just my nose. Sexual assault doesn't just damage a body, it damages people. Physical abuse injures people, not just people's bodies. We are bodies and souls and spirits. This is an inescapable reality that slogans can't trump.

When we offer our bodies to our marriage partners, we engage in a deeply personal and intimate act of trust in relationship. The offering of our bodies is offering a significant part of who we are. As we make ourselves physically vulnerable to each other, we risk being more deeply loved, or more deeply hurt than we could be in most other human relationships. Our bodies are a significant and essential part of who we are. Offering our body to someone is not something we should take lightly, or do as if it's insignificant. This is no less true when offering our bodies to God.

If you have never done so, join me today in exploring how we can offer our physical bodies to God, in every way that would please God. Join me in resisting the temptations to indulge those physical desires that would move me away from God. Join me in worshiping God with my physical body: in my physical posture as I pray and worship, in my voice, in what my hands choose to do (or not do), in what I eat or drink (or don't), and in every other way I can submit my body to Him.

I'm wondering. I'm pondering. But I'm giving Him my all--including my physical being.

Besides, He lives in here--inside my body--anyway. Make it a home fit for Your glory, Lord.