The records of Creation teach the importance and dignity of the human body. When God had made all other parts of the material universe and before He formed the human frame, He called a solemn council of the Trinity. With the most majestic deliberation He decreed, “Let us make man in our image after our likeness”, and it is added, “And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7).
The reason God has so honored the human frame is made very clear in the subsequent revelation of Jesus Christ and the great mystery of the Incarnation. The human body was designed to be the ultimate climax of the whole creation and later to be the eternal form of the incarnate God Himself.
The human body is an instrument that can either be used for evil or for righteousness depending on us. The human body responds to what we tell it to do.
One of the gravest errors of all the centuries has been to depreciate the body.
We need to sanctify our bodies and this requires working at it daily.
Romans 6:12, 13 (TLB) – “Do not let sin control you puny body any longer; do not give in to its sinful desires. / Do not let any part of your bodies become tools of wickedness, to be used for sinning; but give yourselves completely to God – every part of you—for you are back from death and you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for his good purposes.”
What we want to talk about is a sanctified or separated body.
Listen to what the priest had to do in their consecration service: Exodus 29:20 – “Then you shall kill the ram, and take some of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tip of the right ear of his sons, on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood all around the altar.”
Matthew 5:29,30 – “if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast if from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. / And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
The word “reign” in Romans 6:12 means “to be kind, to exercise kingly power.”
The phrase “you shall obey” means “to listen, to hearken; used of one who upon the knock at the door comes to listen who it is.” It also means “to hearken to a command, to obey, be obedient to, to submit to.”
We are not to let sin have any power over our bodies. We are not to pay attention to or listen to sin in any way.
It is essential in order to experience the true sanctification of the body that it be cleansed from all impurity and physical sin. There are bodily transgressions as distinct as those of the soul and spirit are.
A sanctified body is a body cleansed from gross, sensual indulgences. Read 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8. Those who dwell in heavenly places are not exempt from watching diligently against the sins of the flesh. Are your bodies separated from all unholy use and all abuse?
The sanctified body is a body cleansed from the indulgences of the appetites in every excessive or unnatural form. It is a body that abhors the coarse sin of gluttony and the pampering of its tastes.
The sanctified body is a body whose hands are clean. The stain of dishonesty is not on them. The withering blight of ill-gotten gain has not blistered them. They have been separated from every occupation that could displease God or injure a fellow man. These are hands that do good and not evil. They reach out to help not hurt.
A sanctified body is a body whose feet are cleansed from every false way and unhallowed step. They go not in the paths of sinners and the walk of worldliness and folly. They are not found in ungodly or unwholesome places. They walk not in the broad road that leads to destruction, but have turned aside from every forbidden way to walk in the footprints of the Lord, to carry His message and to do His will.
A sanctified body is a body that is known, as physical health is known, by the appearance of the tongue. Just as a physician asks to see your tongue when he or she examines you, there is no surer test of a sanctified body than the condition of its tongue. A sanctified tongue is a true tongue. It is cleansed from every form of falsehood, mumbo-jumbo, deception and lying, whether it be the daring perjury of the criminal, or the polite deception of fashionable society. It has also abandoned profanity in every form.
Above all other forms of abuse of the tongue, it has put away evil speaking, the abominable gossip of society, the habit of repeating all that one hears, and especially the evil that affects another. It dare not give publicity to an unkind report or an unfavorable whisper respecting another’s character, or even utter that which it knows to be false, unless under the stern necessity of protecting another’s soul from danger, and then only when it has first spoken freely and plainly to the offending one directly. It has learned the golden habit of stillness and finds its greatest blessing in its own suppression and habit of silence and communion with God.
Has God sanctified your tongue? Will you give to Him the reins of this member, and, henceforth, relinquish to Him the right to hold it in suppression, to keep it from idle, evil, false or foolish speech, and use it wholly as the instrument of His will and service?
The sanctified body is a body that has been cleansed from the sins of the eyes. It has purposed that it will not look on evil nor on vanity. It refuses to see the faults of others or to dwell upon the spectacle of temptation or the fascinations of vice.
It is a great thing to learn to turn away your eyes from beholding vanity and to remember the injunction of the wisest preacher: “Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm” (Proverbs 4:25, 26).
The sanctified body is a body that has cleansed its sense of hearing and put up curtains on its ears against all the sin that assaults our senses from without. It refuses to hear evil as much as to speak it, and puts gossip and slander to flight by looking boldly in it face, and demanding, “How dare you.”
Isaiah 33:15-17 – “Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil: / He will dwell on high: His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks… / Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; They will see the land that is very far off.”
The sanctified body is a body whose dress is free from worldliness and sin, and marked by that modesty and simplicity that neither attracts attention by its being excessive or defective. Is your person a simple, earnest, modest witness for Christ?
In the 12th chapter of Romans the Apostle Paul beseeches us to present our bodies a living sacrifice. In a later epistle he speaks to the Corinthians, as not they’re own but bought with a price, therefore expected to glorify God in their bodies which are His.
The dedication of the body implies the setting apart of our entire physical beings with every organ and member as the property of God, the object of His special care, and the instrument of His special will and service.
The eloquent yet simple hymn of Frances Ridley Havergal:
Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my hands and let them more
At the impulse of Thy love.
A consecrated body is one that recognizes itself as the property of God and recognizes Him as the Guardian and Keeper of all its interests and needs.
Read Romans 6:13. This tells us that the hands are presented to Him to work for His glory, whether it be in our secular calling or in our ministry for others. This of course, implies that our works are consecrated as are our greetings. Even the grasp of our hands speaks for Christ.
It means that our tongues speak only at His bidding and for His glory. We regard every word as a trust or service and our speech is always with grace seasoned with salt for the edification of others. A consecrated tongue will not speak even the commonest word without waiting upon God for His direction, and looking to Him for His approval.
Consecrated ears will be very attentive to all that He would have us hear, as well as dead to all other voices. Consecrated eyes will see a thousand opportunities that others pass by unheeded, a thousand beauties and meanings in things that others miss.
Consecrated feet will find the path of duty always easy. The highest stairs, the loneliest walks, the most repulsive journeys, the most self-denying tasks will be a willing service for their Lord.
