Made in His Image: The Spiritual Significance of Our Physical Bodies
The following sermon was delivered on 28 July 2024 as part of our ongoing Being Human Series. In it, Tim Horman explores what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God, focusing on our physical bodies. Building on last week's exploration of "Imago Dei," we now examine the significance of our embodied existence. How do our bodies, as those made in God's image, play a role in our spiritual lives?
If you prefer to listen or read, you can find audio and text summaries of this sermon below.
Have you ever marvelled at what the human body can do? Whether it's watching the world's top athletes push their physical limits at the Olympics, witnessing the grace of a professional dancer, or simply savouring a perfectly cooked meal, there’s something awe-inspiring about the human experience. These moments remind us that our physical bodies, far from being mundane, are a remarkable gift from God.
In the Christian tradition, this idea is rooted in the concept of Imago Dei—being made in the image and likeness of God. But what does it mean to bear God’s image in our bodies? What does it mean to be an embodied reflection of God in a world that sometimes views the physical as lesser or even flawed? Let’s explore these questions and consider what it means to embrace our physicality as a divine gift.
The Physical World: A Gift from God
When we look around at the beauty of the world—the vibrant colors of a sunset, the warmth of a hug, the joy of a shared meal—it’s clear that our physical existence is filled with blessings. Genesis 1 and 2 paint a picture of a world that is good, blessed, and full of life. Despite the fall and the brokenness that entered the world through sin, creation remains a testament to God’s goodness.
The idea that our bodies and the material world are somehow lesser or evil is a misunderstanding of the biblical narrative. Throughout Scripture, God affirms the goodness of creation. Psalm 33:5 declares, “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” And in John 3:16, we read that “God so loved the world”—the entire cosmos—that He gave His only Son for its salvation. God’s love extends not just to our souls, but to our entire being, including our bodies.
Questions for Reflection and Discussion:
How do you see the goodness of God reflected in the physical world around you?
Have you ever struggled with the idea that the physical world, including your body, is good? What has shaped your view of this?
The Sacredness of Our Bodies
Understanding that we are made in God’s image means recognizing the sacredness of our bodies. The Hebrew word for "image" in Genesis, "tzelem," often refers to idols—physical representations of gods. In this sense, humans are like God’s "idols," visible representations of the invisible God. Our bodies are not just vessels; they are integral to our identity as God’s image bearers.
This sacredness is foundational to Christian ethics. What we do with our bodies matters because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, as Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Our physical actions have spiritual significance, and the way we treat our bodies and the bodies of others reflects our relationship with God. Every human being, regardless of physical ability or appearance, is endowed with dignity and worth because they are made in God’s image.
Questions for Reflection and Discussion:
How does knowing that your body is sacred change the way you view and treat it?
What implications does the sacredness of our bodies have for how we treat others?
The Joy of Embodied Existence
God created the physical world for our pleasure and delight. Genesis 2:8-9 describes how God planted a garden full of trees that were “pleasing to the eye and good for food.” The world is designed to bring us joy, and our bodies are the means through which we experience this joy. Whether it’s the taste of good food, the warmth of the sun, or the comfort of a loved one’s embrace, these physical pleasures are part of God’s good design.
However, the pleasure that our bodies can bring isn’t just about indulgence. It’s about experiencing the fullness of life as God intended. When we live in harmony with God’s design—embracing the proper boundaries and purposes He established in creation—we experience deep satisfaction and joy. This isn’t about seeking pleasure for its own sake, but about recognizing that our bodies are gifts from God, meant to be enjoyed in ways that honor Him.
Questions for Reflection and Discussion:
What are some ways you experience joy and pleasure in your physical existence?
How can we balance the enjoyment of physical pleasures with living in a way that honors God?
The Struggle with Brokenness
Despite the goodness of our bodies, we all experience the reality of brokenness. Our bodies age, get sick, and eventually die. We may struggle with body image issues, feeling inadequate or ashamed of our physical appearance. In a culture that often equates worth with physical perfection, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that our value isn’t determined by our outward appearance but by our status as God’s beloved children.
The fall introduced pain, suffering, and death into the world, but it didn’t erase the goodness of creation. The struggle with our physicality is real, but it’s not the whole story. God’s love for us is steadfast, even in our weakness. He sees our struggles and meets us with grace, offering us hope through the promise of resurrection. One day, all will be made new, including our bodies, and we will experience the fullness of life in God’s presence.
Questions for Reflection and Discussion:
How has brokenness in your physical body affected your understanding of God’s love and goodness?
How can we support each other in the struggles we face with our bodies and physical health?
Embracing the Future with Hope
The Christian hope is rooted in the resurrection—the belief that death is not the end and that our bodies will be raised and made new. This hope gives us the strength to live faithfully in the present, even as we deal with the challenges of physical existence. It reminds us that our bodies matter, that what we do with them has eternal significance, and that God is at work in us, making all things new.
As we navigate the complexities of living as embodied beings in a fallen world, we can trust in God’s goodness and love. Our bodies are a gift, designed for pleasure, created with sacredness, and destined for resurrection. God loves our bodies, and He calls us to honor them as part of our worship and devotion to Him.
In the end, the future is physical. The hope of the Gospel is that God is making all things new—our bodies included. So let us live with gratitude for the gift of physical life, embracing the joy, the struggle, and the sacredness of being made in God’s image.
Questions for Reflection and Discussion:
What does the promise of resurrection mean to you in your daily life?
How can you honor God with your body as part of your spiritual practice?
Transcript
Introduction: Imago Dei and Our Embodied Existence
So last week, we explored what it means for humans to be the Imago Dei—to be made in the image and likeness of God. We looked at that in terms of what it means theologically and what the Scripture says about that. Today, we’re going to drill down into a particular aspect of that: exploring what it means for us to bear God’s image and likeness in our bodies. In our physical and material beings, what does it mean for us to be image bearers of God in our embodied physicality as people created in God’s Imago Dei?
The Wonder of Our Physical Existence
Now, the Olympics are upon us, and no doubt you’ve all seen the controversy about the Lord’s Supper. But that aside, over the next few weeks, we’re going to watch the best athletes around the world, including one of our own—thank you for that—do amazing things as they push their bodies to the limit and achieve what would be, for the rest of us mere mortals, impossible feats.
If you’ve ever been to the ballet and watched a professional dancer perform with incredibly controlled grace and power, or witnessed a professional musician perform a complicated piece of music, it’s awe-inspiring. It’s amazing to see what we humans can do with our bodies when we work really hard at it. Likewise, when we eat a perfectly cooked meal, embrace a loved one, take that first sip of coffee in the morning (praise the Lord), swim in cool water on a hot day, hold a newborn baby for the first time, or witness a beautiful sunset—this world is an amazing place, full of incredible things.
The wonder of physical existence simply goes beyond words, and all of this is God’s gift to us as embodied image bearers. Although there are many religious traditions—some versions of Christianity included—that view our bodies and the whole of material creation as something evil, to be held in suspicion, with the idea that salvation is about escaping this physical world into some kind of immaterial spiritual existence in heaven or Nirvana, I want to say at the outset that this is absolutely not the view that the Scriptures put forward for us.
The Goodness of Creation
I love how G.K. Chesterton captures this when he wrote, "You say grace before meals, all right, but I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and the pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching and painting and swimming and fencing and boxing and walking and playing and dancing, and grace before I dip the pen in ink." What he’s saying is that this world is here as God’s gift to us—it’s to be enjoyed. It’s here to be experienced as a blessing, and when we’re attuned to that, we don’t just think about God being involved in only the spiritual stuff like prayer, worship, going to church, and reading our Bible, while He is ambivalent to everything else. No, His presence and goodness are meant to be experienced in all of life—that’s the reason He made us.
The picture that Genesis 1 and 2 paint for us is that our physical, material, embodied existence is graced, blessed, and a gift of God. Despite our rebellion, despite the fall, it still remains good. Psalm 33:5 says, "The earth is filled with the goodness of God." The earth is filled with the goodness of God. Despite the fall, that remains true. Throughout the creation story, we see God saying over and over again, "It’s good, it’s good, it’s good," six times. Then, on the seventh time, He says, "And behold, it is very good." God really loves what He’s made; He thinks it’s awesome. There’s nowhere in Scripture where we’re told that God has changed His mind about that. Nowhere will you find that God now says, "That’s it, the world is done; I’m sick of it; I hate it." No, He’s upset about the sin that has taken root in it, but He’s not upset about His creation itself. That is something He continues to love and bless.
In fact, in John 3:16, we’re told, "For God so loved"—does anyone know how this goes?—"For God so loved the world, not just our souls, but God loved the world." That word in Greek is "kosmos," meaning the whole universe. God loves the whole universe so much that He was willing to give His only begotten Son in order to save it. That’s the promise: God loves this world He’s made, and He still calls it good.
The Challenges of Living in a Fallen World
So, despite how you may feel about yourself, your own life, your own body, what you’ve got going on, the mistakes you’ve made, your failures, challenges, and limitations, despite all those things, God still looks at you and says, "You are good, and I love you, and I’m going to do everything—I have done everything possible—to save you, redeem you, and make you new."
But it’s complicated, right? The fall is really confronting and devastating. As we just read, as a result of our rebellion, the ground is now cursed, our work is cursed, childbearing is cursed. There’s now relational brokenness. There’s relational brokenness between men and women. Right after Adam and Eve transgress the boundaries God set for them and eat the fruit, what happens? They start blaming each other, attacking each other, lying, hiding, trying to shift the fault to the other person. The whole created order is now experiencing disharmony and pain. As Paul puts it in Romans 8, the whole creation is now groaning as if in childbirth, waiting for its liberation from decay. The creation is waiting for God to save, redeem, and restore it—not just us, but everything around us. The whole of what God has made is suffering the effects of our fall, and you can see that in the environmental damage we’ve caused. We humans have done these things, and it’s had a devastating effect on what we all experience in this world now.
But the world is still full of blessing and beauty. I’m so thankful for the good things that God has poured into my life. But it’s also a world full of bombs, barbed wire, and broken hearts.
The Sacredness of Our Bodies
When it comes to our bodies, they still reflect God’s glory; they’re still made in God’s image despite the things we have done. Psalm 139 says, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Or Psalm 8, "What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? Yet you have crowned them with glory and honor." Amazing! As human beings, we’ve been crowned by God with glory and honor—that’s what God sees when He looks at you.
I want to make sure that’s clear as we then talk about some of the challenges we experience around this. Despite that, our bodies still get sick or injured. We age, grow frail, our minds degrade, fade, our beauty fades. As Genesis 3 says, from dust we are and to dust we will return.
It’s really easy, I think, even though we are made in God’s image, to focus on the negative. There are probably very few of us who, if standing naked in front of a mirror, would be particularly happy with what we saw. We can so easily feel embarrassed or ashamed or inadequate about our bodies, or obsessed with achieving some kind of idealized version of the human body, the human form. Perhaps we feel that our value or worth rests on our outward appearance, and therefore, it’s never good enough because we can never get it to where we think it should be.
There’s a massive global industry making hundreds of billions of dollars a year to make sure you keep feeling that way. Most of it is coming at you through Instagram. Turn off Instagram, for goodness’ sake. Clear your heads, get some mental health back. It’s intended to make you feel bad all the time, so you’ll keep spending your money, keep obsessing about it, and make it the focus of your life. Clearly, that was never God’s intention.
The Impact of the Fall on Our Self-Perception
Interestingly, one thing that stood out to me as I read the story is that one of the first effects of the fall was that we became negatively self-aware of our bodies. As soon as Adam and Eve transgress, they become negatively self-aware of their bodies. It specifically tells us they were naked and not ashamed. Then, after the fall, they’re still naked, but now they’re ashamed—now they’re embarrassed by their bodies. Before that, there was total harmony between their inner sense of self and their outer sense of self, their physical form regardless of its size and shape.
But now we live in a world where we feel like our bodies are somehow a strange hindrance to our true identities, and that by changing our bodies—through diets, punishing gym routines, or even more drastic measures like surgery—we’ll be able to heal something fundamentally wounded and broken in the human soul, in the human spirit. We think that by changing our bodies, we’ll be able to fix what’s broken on the inside of us. But that will never work.
In fact, there’s a gym I heard about recently that had this as its slogan: "Come and join the body acceptance movement." The problem, of course, is the irony of that. If we were all just accepting our bodies, there’d be no gyms, right? It’s one thing to be healthy; it’s another thing to obsess about how you look and feel about your physical appearance.
On the other hand, there’s a view in our culture that we’re not our bodies, that our bodies don’t define us, that they may even be superfluous, and that with just the right amount of technology, we’ll be able to transcend them.
The Modern Obsession with Transcendence
There’s a TV show I watched a couple of years back called Altered Carbon. I don’t know if any of you have seen it, but it’s set in this distant future where scientists have been able to isolate human consciousness and memory and store it in data chips, which can then be separated from the body and inserted into any other body. They call those bodies "sleeves"—just empty vessels for consciousness and memory to be inserted into. Regardless of who you once were when you were born, they can separate that out and put it into whatever body you want. You can be whoever you want to be—your consciousness and memory can be inserted there, and everyone’s happy, right?
But in this imagined future, what is our real self? This is one of the questions the show actually asks. If we can just put our consciousness into any body, then what does that mean for our bodies? What is the real you? Is the real you just some kind of non-physical soul, non-physical consciousness? Or is your consciousness actually deeply interrelated and intimately connected to your physical form?
There are billionaires even now trying to figure out ways to do exactly that. In his book Sapiens, I mentioned Yuval Noah Harari last week, so let me just quote him again. He wrote about being human. Harari writes that the next big project of humankind will be to acquire the divine powers of creation and upgrade Homo sapiens into Homo Deus—human gods. Bioengineers will take these old sapien bodies and intentionally rewire their genetic code, brain circuits, alter biochemical imbalances, and even grow entirely artificial limbs. Neural networks will be replaced by intelligent software free of the limitations of organic chemistry. Once the human mind has been separated from its biological base, human history will come to an end, and a completely new era will begin.
People have accused Harari of overstating things, and that might be true. But is that how it works? Is that the real you? Is there some real you inside your body that’s separate from your actual physical form, your embodied existence? Can you just change your physical form without fundamentally altering your personhood? Or is the real you just your soul or consciousness, waiting to be set free from the confines of your body?
The Pagan Roots of Body-Soul Dualism
What’s interesting is that this idea is actually a form of pagan religion. The Greeks believed that the real thing about humans was our disembodied soul. This belief has had a huge influence on Christian thinking over the centuries, but it’s not a Christian idea that there’s this immortal soul inside your body just waiting to be set free from the confines of your physical form. The idea that when you die, your soul will be set free to go off into the ether where it can be reconnected with the divine is not the whole point of existence. That is not the gospel, that is not Christian doctrine, that is not what the Scriptures teach at all.
If that were the case, why didn’t God just make us immaterial beings in the first place? Why did He give us bodies if He doesn’t really like them? What are they for, then? And actually, while we’re asking that question, if God doesn’t like anything particularly material, why did He create the world in the first place? Sorry if I’m getting a little philosophical here tonight, but with that question in mind—why is there something rather than nothing, and what are our bodies for? I want to approach this in three ways. There are three things I want to say tonight.
Three Key Points About Our Bodies
Number one: Our bodies are designed for pleasure. That’s the first thing I want to say. God gave us bodies for pleasure.
Number two: Our bodies are sacred.
And the third thing I want to say is that our bodies, as the Imago Dei, as the image bearers of God, are the basis of all morality and ethics.
Are we good? Are we okay? Turn to the person next to you and say, "We’re okay." Take a breath. We’re going to jump into this.
Our Bodies Are Designed for Pleasure
God’s given us bodies for our pleasure. In fact, I would argue that the whole world exists for this—that the reason God created the world is for our deepest and complete happiness and joy, that we might experience deep and rich and joyful pleasure. That’s the reason there’s a creation at all, and this brings glory to God. As John Piper says, "God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him." But our satisfaction in Him is not just something that happens in our soul; it’s something God intends for us to experience in all of our embodied physicality. It’s part of being human to be in a body, and God desires for us to enjoy Him and all of His gifts in the context of our physical experience in this world.
God’s given us this physical, embodied existence as the arena in which we might experience the fullness of His joy and pleasure. The point is, this world is not necessary. God didn’t have to make it at all. He didn’t need to. The world doesn’t somehow complete Him. We don’t somehow complete God. God was perfectly fine as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, existing for all eternity without us. And yet He decided to create us anyway—not because He needed us, but because He wanted to pour out His blessing, love, joy, and pleasure on a creature, on something that wasn’t Him. He makes us as something that is designed fundamentally from the ground up to experience pleasure, to experience the pleasure of being human, known by God, and filled with His love.
When we experience His love and goodness, He gets glory, and we get the joy. As Genesis 2 says, "Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there He put the man He had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food." Trees that were what? What’s all the vegetation there for? So that it might be pleasing to the eye and good for food. In other words, creation was designed to bring pleasure to our bodies. It’s full of things that are good to look at, that are visually stunning, and things to eat and consume. No doubt the food in Eden tasted incredible; it probably smelled amazing as well. But all our senses were alive and buzzing with this beautiful world that God had given us for our joy.
Everything else that makes life rich and meaningful—relationships, marriage, sex, children, family, friendship, work, rest, creativity—was given for our pleasure and delight but within their proper place, within their proper boundaries. That’s part of what the creation story is doing; it’s showing you where the boundaries are for things. It’s showing you that the birds of the air live in the air, the fish live in the sea, the animals crawl on the ground, and human beings have a function within creation. Marriage has a function within creation. Sexuality has a function within creation. All of this is part of the story, and all of these things God calls good. He’s not embarrassed about our physicality; He loves it, and He calls it good.
What Our Bodies Tell Us About God
What does this tell us about the character of God? If we serve a God who made this world just for our sheer delight and pleasure, what kind of God is that whom we love, worship, and serve? In pretty much all the other creation accounts of the ancient world, humans are essentially created to be slaves of the gods. If you read any of the ancient creation stories outside of the Scriptures, you’ll see they pretty much have this pattern: The gods create humans because they want to be served; they want slaves to do their bidding, to sacrifice to them, to fight their battles, and worship them in order that they might keep gathering and accumulating more and more power. That’s the point of human beings in those other stories—we’re just slaves for the sake of the gods to accumulate power. There’s no thought whatsoever to our pleasure at all. We’re just there to be servants.
You can see how those kinds of stories would serve the interests of various emperors in the ancient world. However, in the creation story, it’s the total opposite. God creates us not for His pleasure but for our pleasure, our delight. He feeds us, takes care of us, provides for us, puts us in relationships and families. He surrounds us with beauty, peace, and freedom, and all of it is just pure gift. What kind of God is this that we serve, who would do all this for us?
It’s in the abundance of these delights that humans respond by giving thanks and glory to God. This is where our worship flows from. As God loves us, embraces us, and pours His blessing out on us, we respond with thankfulness, joy, and delight in His presence. It inspires us to worship. That’s why, in 1 John, we’re told, "We didn’t love God, but God loved us and called us to Himself." The only reason we love God at all is because He first loved us; He first poured out His goodness on us. It’s all for our deepest joy.
As the Scottish Olympian and missionary Eric Liddell (if any of you have seen Chariots of Fire, we’re going back a few years now) once said, "When I run, I feel God’s pleasure." That is absolutely correct. When I run, I feel God’s pleasure—no, I don’t. I don’t feel God’s pleasure when I run; I feel something else. But there are other things I do where I feel God’s pleasure—like sitting by the fire and reading a good book. Oh man, I’m in glory; I’m in the presence of God. But this is exactly right—when we do human things, ordinary human things, they’re intended to be arenas in which we experience God’s pleasure. There’s nothing wrong with that. If we divorce that from the rest of our Christian life and say, "The only stuff that counts is the spiritual stuff," we are missing out on so much of how we were intended to experience God’s presence.
The Character of God in Creation
Amen? Amen. I wonder what that is for you, then. What do you do that enables you to feel God’s pleasure? Maybe it is—please don’t hear me downplaying worship, prayer, and reading Scripture. Those things are important. I’m just saying they’re not the only places where we were made to enjoy God’s presence.
If the whole of creation is an expression of God’s infinite love, then what does that tell us about the character of the God we worship? Obviously, this doesn’t mean we’re given permission to just go off and seek pleasure wherever and in whatever way we want to. I said before, Genesis is not just telling us a story about how the world came to be; it’s also telling us a story about how the world is meant to function properly. It’s establishing proper boundaries for morality and human flourishing. That’s the point of the two trees. I don’t think there were literally two trees in the garden that were a temptation to Adam and Eve—they’re metaphors. The Tree of Life refers to living in submission and dependence on God. That’s where all of this flows from. When we live in dependence and submission to God, we can properly exercise our humanity as it was intended—as we can exercise dominion and rule. That’s how it was supposed to be: eat from the Tree of Life, stay in dependence on Me, live in submission to Me, the Lord says, and everything will flourish as it’s meant to.
Then, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the temptation to seek self-determination, to reject dependence on God and rule the world on our own terms, to cross over the moral boundaries that God had established, to reach up to something that was not ours to take. Isn’t that the nature of the lie the serpent speaks to Eve? He says to her, "God is holding out on you; He’s holding something back. You’re not getting everything that’s yours. He’s restricted you; He’s curtailed your freedom. What you need to do is reach out for what is not yours and take it, and then you’ll really experience what it means to be human. Then you’ll be like God."
The problem is, as soon as we reached out for something that would enable us to be like God without submission to God, it destroyed us. It broke the world, broke our hearts, broke our bodies, broke our minds, broke our relationships—everything was damaged by that one act. And we human beings keep on doing it; we cannot stop ourselves from doing it. That is really the history of the world.
In other words, Genesis 1 and 2 is giving us a moral vision of the world and showing us how our embodied image-bearing, physical image-bearing is meant to properly function within God’s created order. The created order is a guide or a model for the moral order, and the effects of our sin, the effects of our rebellion, have been devastating. We have turned what was meant to be for our joy and delight—these gifts of God to us as human beings—we’ve turned them into gods that we worship. We give our lives to these idols now that were only ever meant to be blessings under the goodness of God, but we’ve now turned them into ultimate things that we seek after for meaning and fulfillment—into things we worship for their own sake: money, relationships, sex, family, power, whatever it might be. We worship these things, we desire them with all our hearts, we want more of them than we can possibly contain, and it’s breaking the hearts of their worshippers.
As C.S. Lewis says, "Idols do this: all idols begin by offering you everything and demand nothing in return, but in the end, they take everything and give nothing in return." Just ask someone who’s an alcoholic to tell you that story. Ask someone who’s addicted to gambling to tell you that story. They promise everything in the beginning, and then they destroy you in the end. That’s how it works; that’s what idols do. When the good things that God has made for us become ultimate things that we worship, they destroy us. They become demonic, degrade us, strip us of our humanity. That’s the warning God gives to Adam and Eve in the beginning: "If you do this, you will die." It will kill you—not straight away, but the whole earth begins to degrade, and we are subject to decay and death.
God has designed us for pleasure, but if we make pleasure our god, it will destroy us.
Our Bodies Are Sacred
The Genesis account of creation, as we explored last week, tells us that the Imago Dei is the basis of all human rights. You can’t have human rights unless you have the Imago Dei. I’m not going to explain that; listen to last week if you missed it. But part of the reason is that if God made us in His image, then that makes us sacred. Now, we are not divine, but we are sacred. That includes our bodies—not just some immaterial soul, but our bodies are sacred. They’re sacred to God, and we should consider them sacred as well.
The Hebrew word for "image" in Genesis 1 and 2 is "tzelem," which almost always refers to idols. Interestingly, in many other places in the Old Testament where you see the Israelites worshiping idols, it’s the same word—"tzelem"—the same word that’s used to describe us as God’s image bearers. We are God’s idols. Now, that’s a bit weird, but what that means is that if an idol is really just a carved statue or an image or a copy of the immaterial, non-physical god that it represents, then in that sense, we as human beings are visible representations of our invisible God in Genesis 1. We are this statue or copy, this image bearer of God, and we bear that in our humanity, in all aspects of our humanity, including our bodies.
Of course, in the story, we’re not so much carved out of stone as fashioned out of dirt, but the point is the same. Theologian Marc Cortez puts it like this: "The image of God is a declaration that God intended to create human persons to be the physical means through which He would manifest His own divine presence in the world." In a sense, that’s what was lost in the fall. We were no longer able to properly manifest God’s presence, character, and glory into the world. But one of the great blessings of the Gospel is that we believe that in Christ Jesus, we’ve been breathed into again by the Holy Spirit and reborn as a new creation that enables us to once again begin to take up our God-given human vocation to image God and His character, love, light, and life into the world.
That’s what we’re here for—to shine the glory of God into the world. We are the light of the world—God shining through us. That is being restored in us through Christ. Now, it’s not entirely lost in people who don’t believe in Jesus. I’m not saying that we Christians are a better kind of human—in a sense, we are, but I shouldn’t say that out loud. The point is, we’re being remade in the image of Christ. We’re not better people because of our own merits; we’re better because we’ve been claimed by Christ, who is the true human being. It’s not about us; we don’t boast. It’s about Jesus, and Christ in us, the hope of glory, is being shown forth into the world through your life.
When you love people, serve people, pray for people, honor people, and use your body in ways that honor others and God, you are showing the world what God is like because you are an idol, an image bearer of the living God. That’s who you are. That’s what your body means.
The Breath of God in Us
This is possible, as Genesis 2:7 says, because "God breathed into his nostrils"—Adam’s nostrils—"the breath of life, and the man became a living being." We believe that’s what Christ has done by the Spirit of God into our bodies once again. It’s kind of like if you’ve read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe—you know that scene where Aslan goes into the witch’s garden, and it’s full of all these statues, and Aslan begins to breathe on the statues, and they start to come to life again? Totally, Lewis is stealing this straight out of Genesis 2.
This is what God did for us. He breathed on us, and we became living beings. We came alive to God, to the world, and to others. That’s what God’s breath in us does. It means, friends, that if we are filled with God’s glory, if we have been made in God’s image, therefore every human being is sacred. Every human being has absolute dignity and is worthy of absolute respect. This is the basis of human rights.
For example, in the U.S. Constitution, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Where did that come from? It came from Genesis 1 and 2. You can’t say that unless you have Genesis 1 and 2. You do not have human rights unless you have this vision of human beings being created in the image and likeness of God, regardless of our capacities—especially regardless of our capacities. This is what I was saying last week: It is not dependent on your skills, talents, abilities, or beauty. The only value you have in this regard, as someone with unalienable rights, is because you’ve been made in the image of God. Therefore, all of you, including your body, is sacred ground—sacred ground.
The Equality of Men and Women
In case it needs to be said (I’m not sure if it needs to be said, but in case it does), this is true for both men and women. Genesis makes this very clear that though our bodies are different, they’re both equal. They’re both made—Genesis 1: He made them in God’s image; He made them in God’s image and likeness, male and female He made them. It makes it very clear that this is not for men, this is not just for women—this is for both. We both equally bear God’s image.
I know that historically some have argued that Eve, because she was taken from Adam’s rib in Genesis 2, is therefore somehow lesser than Adam, and that includes all the rubbish that’s come with that—that that’s why Eve was more susceptible to temptation, etc. But if you read the story carefully, you’ll notice that Adam is standing right next to Eve when she gets tempted. She takes the fruit and gives it directly to her husband. There is equal culpability in this story. Even though Adam tries to shift the blame, it’s very clear they’re both in this together.
Just so there’s absolutely no question that Adam and Eve’s bodies and their humanity are both viewed as sacred in this story, that one is not better than or lesser than the other—in Genesis 2, when God fashions Eve, what’s weird about this moment (and maybe this was one of the things that you highlighted when you guys were talking earlier), the Hebrew word translated "rib" here is actually not used in that way in any other place in the Old Testament. You never see it translated as "rib" in any other place in the Old Testament, only here. What it actually means in every other usage is to refer to the "side" or the "half" of something.
In particular, and this is where it gets really cool, it refers to the side or the half of sacred architecture. So, it’s a word ever only applied to the Tabernacle, the Temple, or the Ark of the Covenant. What this word says is that just like when God took Eve from Adam’s rib, what it’s really saying is like a piece of sacred architecture, God divided the pieces in two, took the one and made them two, and then created two new things out of the same material that were equal or the same but also different.
In other words, it’s not just a rib (I don’t know why we have that in our English translation); it’s like God took a side of the Temple, a side of the Ark of the Covenant, a side of the Tabernacle, and built another one out of that material. That’s what this story is telling you. In other words, men and women together are built from the same sacred architecture, the same sacred material. We are therefore both equal, and this sacredness of our bodies is the basis of all Christian ethics.
Christian Ethics and the Sacredness of the Body
If we are the image bearers of God, if we’re the idols of God, the statues of God, whatever you want to say, what that means is that whatever you do with your body, it’s as if you are doing it to God Himself. Whatever you do to the body of another person, it’s as if you are doing it to God Himself. In ancient thinking, whatever you did to the idol as a representation of God on earth, you were doing it to that god directly. So, whatever you do to your body and whatever you do to the body of another person, it is as if you are doing it to God Himself. That, friends, is the basis of all Christian ethics and morality.
We see this most clearly in 1 Corinthians 6, where Paul is dealing with some really crazy stuff in the Corinthian church. There’s someone who’s sleeping with his stepmother, and everyone’s saying that’s fine, whatever. There’s someone who’s sleeping with prostitutes, and everyone’s like, yeah, whatever. Others are treating the poverty and hunger of other members in the church—the rich members of the church are treating the poverty and hunger of other members in the church—as though it’s really no big deal. Paul just loses his mind at these people.
What the Corinthians are saying to Paul (you can see this in the letter) is, "Hey Paul, it’s no big deal, man. Chill out. Jesus has saved our souls, and that’s the most important thing about us—this kind of interior soul." This is all Greek thinking, not Christian thinking. "Jesus has saved our souls, and that’s the most important thing, so it doesn’t really matter what we do with our bodies. They’re going to pass away; they’re irrelevant. We can do whatever we want with our bodies; it makes no difference at all because my soul is saved. I’ve given my heart to Jesus, therefore I can do whatever I want with my body."
Paul’s like, "You guys have no idea what you’re talking about." He utterly rejects that and says in verse 13, "The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." This is what I was just saying—what we do with our bodies and what we do with the bodies of other people is as if we are doing it to Jesus Himself. So, the body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. "By His power God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us up also." In other words, your body will remain. What you do with your body matters because the resurrection is a real thing. "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ Himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!" And in verse 19, "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies."
Then Paul goes on to say in regard to worship, Romans 12:1: "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." In other words, friends, what you do with your body is deeply and profoundly spiritual. If you’re living a double life, thinking, "It doesn’t matter what I do with my body because my soul is saved," you are living a lie, and you need to deal with that with the Lord because you will grieve the Holy Spirit. Then you’ll wonder why you can’t hear God’s voice, why you never feel His love, and it’s hard for you to worship. You’re like, "I don’t know if God is even real anymore." I’ve seen this repeated over and over again through my life as a pastor—someone who’s really on fire for God, and then they start doing some stupid things with their bodies. I just watch them move further and further down the rows in the church until they’re sitting at the back (no offense to the people in the back), and eventually, they’re out the door. Why? Because if you live a lie—you do one thing with your body and another thing with your heart—eventually, the body wins. The body is so powerful; our desires are so powerful; our longings, our lusts, all of that are so powerful. We’re going to talk about that in a few weeks when we discuss our emotional lives and how we wrestle with some of this stuff.
The Unity of Body and Soul
In Paul’s mind, friends, there’s no distinction between the body and the soul. We are a united whole. Our bodies are not just a vessel for our soul. In fact, the Hebrew way of thinking would be more accurate to say that as human beings, we are embodied souls. We are embodied souls, and it’s all part of the same fabric. That means if we want to walk in the will of God, if we want to know the will of Christ, we have to offer all that we are to Jesus, including our bodies, just as He did for us.
If we want to experience the delight, joy, and pleasure that God intends for us within their proper boundaries, then we have to bring our bodies into obedience under the lordship of Jesus. If we want to know the deep wholeness, peace, and satisfaction that Christ is offering us as His image bearers, then we have to surrender our whole selves to Him—not just our hearts. Nowhere will you see in the New Testament Paul saying, "Just give the Lord Jesus your heart, believe in Him in your heart, and that will be enough." No, that’s just the beginning. You believe in your heart, confess with your mouth, and then you live it with your body. That’s the progression of our salvation. It’s a package deal.
Christ’s Sacrifice for Us
Here’s the thing: We can only do this because this is what Christ has done for us on our behalf. He entered the world; He didn’t just love us from a distance. He didn’t just love us in an invisible way. He didn’t just love our souls, the immaterial part of us. No, He loved us enough as embodied human beings that He Himself decided to take on a body. He came through the body of a woman, took on flesh, and became truly human in order that we might see what this is all about—that our own lives as image bearers of God are meant to look like Christ. That’s what He wants to fashion in us; that’s what He wants to make us become—that our own physical bodies would take on His life and character.
So, He laid down His life. He gave everything for us. He gave Himself as a sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, in His physical body, in order that we might receive the mercy and grace and forgiveness of God. He did that, friends, so that God is not just an abstract concept anymore, but God is someone you can understand because He’s a human being. He became a human being so He could come and look you in the eye and say to you, "Come to Me, all you who are weary, and I’ll give you rest, because I know what it’s like. I’ve been there, and I can help you. Come to Me, all you who are weary, and I’ll give you rest. Come to Me, all you who are sick, and I will be your healer. Come to Me, all of you who are brokenhearted, and I will be your comfort. Come to Me, all of you who are troubled and anxious in your minds, and I’ll renew them. I will give you peace."
This is what Jesus wants to do for us, and this is what the cross represents—God giving everything in order to redeem us in every way. Not just our souls or minds or consciousness or whatever, but our whole human lives—bodies.
The Hope of Resurrection
Now, we know our bodies will still get old, get sick, and we’re all going to die. But the hope of our salvation is the resurrection from the dead—that death is not the end for us, and it’s not the end of our bodies either. One day, we’ll all be raised again in new bodies. Everything will be made new. In the meantime, we have this awesome promise that in our weakness, limitations, and struggles, God’s strength is with us, and God’s strength will be made perfect. So, we don’t have to be everything; we can trust in the power of Christ in us. One day, we’ll see it all—all things will be made new. Our bodies will work as they were intended, our minds will work as they were intended, our hearts will work as they were intended. The whole creation will work as it was intended to—everything will be Shalom, blessing, and peace and pleasure forever.
Conclusion: God Loves Our Bodies
So, God loves our bodies, friends. God loves our bodies, and the future is physical.
Let me finish with this: "So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown perishable is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power." And then from Revelation: "Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." And the best words, I think, in the whole of the Bible: "Behold, I am making all things new."
That is the hope of our salvation.