GUESTBLOG: Are Our Bodies Really That Important?

Our bodies are made up of millions of cells, hundreds of bones and muscles, over a
mile worth of nerves, arteries and veins but amazingly they are each working in unison every
second of every day to keep us alive. Something that we hardly take time to think about. It is
so often the case that when we forget about the work that something or somebody is
doing we don't appreciate it nearly as much as we ought to. Our bodies are not only
amazing they are the 'cherry on the top' of God's intricate plan of creation. The
account in Genesis 1+2 reaffirms this.

Humanity had a deeply spiritually problem that God met in a deeply physical fashion- Tyler Huckabee

As we work our way through scripture, the constant reminder of God as the creator of
our bodies is something that is highly important (Psalm 139 as one great example of this).
And it is important that we are reminded of this truth because as we move into reading the.
New Testament and of the accounts of the life of Jesus the Son of God, we see that Jesus
cares for people's bodies in the same way that his Father does. In a broken world where our
bodies our failing on us Jesus came and healed and cast demons out of peoples physical
bodies. Jesus didn't just come to do this though, ultimately, as we know and find out in the
Gospel accounts, Jesus went and took up his cross for each of us. He willingly put his body
through the immense physical brutality of the crucifixion, in place of you and me, so that we
might have a way back into the loving the relationship with God the Father who, don't forget,
created our bodies!
 

So God created our body, Jesus went and died for our bodies and if we so choose to
have faith in this then we are assured that God's Holy Spirit will come and live in our body
(read 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV and MSG)
Pause for a second and think about the amazing timeline of history that scripture takes
us through. From the point of creation to the cross and to life within us. 3 acts of complete
and utter radical grace! Pure and simple grace. 3 acts each played out by the 3 parts of the
Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirt. Just so we are on the same page. Every aspect of God
lovingly and graciously cares for our physical existence. You might now be thinking, "okay so
where does that leave me?" And it's a completely valid question.
 

ARE OUR BODIES IMPORTANT?

The 3 simple yet profound truths about the Trinity caring for our body, leave us in a
place where we can say something along the lines of:

"I know that you created me, died for me
and live in me, so help me with every cell, muscle, bone and nerve to give all the glory and
worship that you deserve".
Jesus' says greatest commandment is this; "Love The Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)

What a magnificent mandate that it for each of us. In other words Jesus is asking us to love God
with all of our emotional, spiritual, intellectual and physical well being. And by saying this he
is encompassing every aspect of our existence. We should love God with our bodies. But do
we truly do so? In what ways are we doing? In what ways may we presently not be doing so?
How might we be able to truly begin do so from this point on?

God called us to be set APART from the world and by responding to this call; we are
Acknowledging Psalm 139, Proclaiming Romans 12:1 with our life, Answering YES to
the question in 1 Corinthians 6:19, Rejoicing in the truth of 1 Corinthians 6:20 and
Telling people that our bodies really are that important

Danny Driver is most passionate about Jesus and Sport (in that order too). He is beginning training as an Ordinand in September 2014 having spent 11 months as a sports intern in York doing Sweaty Church. He loves watching most sport but finds that playing it is far better! He is also keen on films and photography in my spare-ish time!