God's Sovereignty and Our Bodies

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The Sovereignty of God and Our Bodies

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

                  Today's mantra is that “my body is my own,” so we can do what we desire with our bodies. However, Paul confronts when we use our autonomy and self-determination as a basis for sexual perversion and a justification for any type of sexual expression. 

In 1 Corinthians 6:12-18, Paul addresses those who would argue that sexual immorality is justifiable since we have authority over our own bodies. Just as people do today, they argued that all sex is permissible since we have the rights over our own body. This argument then leads to the right to have an abortion. The argument is that the woman has the right to her own body, and so if she desires to have an abortion, it is permissible. Yet Paul reminds us that the redemptive work of Christ and God’s sovereign control extends to all things in our life, including our body. 

Sexual desires are good and wholesome in the context of marriage, but when we give complete reign to our desires, then they become our master.  We become controlled by our sinful sexual desires. This is true when people bound up their identity with their sexuality instead of finding their identity in Christ.  As a result, they become enslaved by their own sin (Romans 6:15-23). In verses 19-20, Paul reminds us that God’s redemptive work in Christ not only delivered us spiritually from sin but physically as well. Ultimately, everything we have and who we are will be brought under God’s sovereign control. He has authority over us because he is the one who created us. As our creator, he has the right to control and govern all aspects of our lives (Isaiah 45:9). He also has authority over us because of the redemptive work of Christ. Christ redeemed us from our bondage and slavery to sin, so now we belong to Christ. We do not belong to ourselves. This confronts the very heart of the modern idea that we establish our own identities and have autonomous freedom to do anything with our bodies that we desire. Not only are we to surrender our spiritual lives to the control of God, but we are also to surrender our physical lives and bodies to Christ. Just as we honor Christ in our spiritual life, we honor Christ with our physical bodies as well. This leads us to a complete reorientation of our life. Our surrender to Christ is to be all-inclusive so that everything in our life – our dreams and desires, goals and plans, actions and thoughts, identity and sexuality – is brought under the umbrella of Christ so that we do all things to glorify Him rather than pursue our own pleasure. We are not the masters of our bodies, identity, or even our lives. God has complete authority over all things. The challenge for us is to bring all aspects of life under the sovereign authority of Christ so that we might glorify Him in everything we do and find our identity in Him rather than the world in which we live. We not just to bring our sexual desires and identity under the authority of Christ but to recognize that we belong completely to Him so that we bring our whole life and existence under His rulership. This is a daily and continual act of surrender. Today, bring all your desires, wishes, goals, plans, and pleasures to Christ, surrender them to Him, and seek to bring Him glory in all you do.

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