With the Dignity It Deserves

“And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.” (1Co 6:14 AV)

Paul is making an argument against fornication.  The promise of the resurrection is his third argument.  This struck me as worthy of being studied.  I could not make the connection between stewardship of the body and the promise of the resurrection.  What would our eternal state have to do with keeping the body under subjection?  In fact, the way most of us look at it, our bodies are fallen.  They will be replaced by something that is not.  So, if we fall, it would be natural.  What is natural will be replaced by something supernatural.  In a carnal way, the promise of the resurrection might work against sanctification.  Yet, Paul makes a case that the promise of the resurrection should be a motive for bodily sanctification.  How?

Our wise fathers and writers proposed two workable applications.  The first is simple.  If we are promised a glorified body and the LORD is resides in our current one, why abuse the current one if our identity is with the glorified one?  The comparison might be an old car sitting in a barn.  An antique that sits there because there will come a day someone will buy it and restore it.  So, anticipation of that day motivates the owner to keep it in the best possible condition awaiting that day when it will be made perfect again.  This makes sense.  As a motive, it has worth.  However, if this old body will be completely transformed into perfection, what difference does it make to how far from perfection that process starts?  If God is going to glorify the body, it matters not what condition He finds it in.  It will still end in perfection.  The second way to look at it is from dignity and respect.  Let’s use the same illustration.  There is a 1927 Buick gathering dust in a barn.  Why keep it in a barn?  If miracles can happen, why not throw it in the back field somewhere?  It doesn’t matter if it returns to the earth, a miracle will restore it.  Yet, that is not how we treat things.  Knowing it will one day be restored, we treat it not as it is, but what it will become.  That is the idea here.  Jesus suffered immeasurable degradation to His physical body.  Not because of His own sin, but because of ours.  That did not afford Him the liberty to abuse His earthly tabernacle.  He still washed, bathed, ate, drank, and refuse unclean things like vinegar on a sponge.  Treating the body as God will make it and not as it is shows respect and dignity to what God has provided.

So, whether it is fornication, gluttony, laziness, or neglect; sins against the body are sins against the dignity of the body which Christ inhabits and will transform.  Seeing as how God will raise our corruptible bodies incorruptible does not give us the liberty to abuse what will be changed.  Rather, just the opposite.  If we have been given this earthly tabernacle intended to be used and transformed, then it must be treated with the respect by which it is given.  Our bodies, as corrupt as they are, still have worth.  They still have purpose.  There is a reason God gave them.  They are a gift intended to be used for His glory.  If God will raise us up perfect and without blemish, then we must treat that which God finds worthy to be transformed with respect and dignity.  Fornication or any other sin against the body shows disrespect toward that which God finds change-worthy.