Wholeness & Holiness: Guarding The Avenues

In the beginning, God formed humanity from the dust of the ground and breathed into that dust the breath of life. The Bible’s first portrait of us is not of a ghostly spirit floating toward heaven but of a living, breathing unity — flesh animated by divine breath. Body and spirit, dust and glory. That’s the original meaning of wholeness.

When Scripture says that God saw all He had made and declared it very good, it includes the body. Our physical life was never an accident or an afterthought. The human form itself was meant to be a sanctuary where the presence of God could dwell.

Wholeness and holiness were never meant to be two different projects. They were two sides of the same creation. To be holy was to be whole; to be whole was to live in harmony with the God who made you.

II. Broken Wholeness

Then sin fractured everything. The Fall didn’t just introduce guilt; it introduced disorder. Our minds lost clarity, our bodies began to decay, our emotions turned chaotic. We became divided beings — longing for heaven while chained to habits that drag us down.

That’s why redemption is not merely the forgiveness of sin; it’s the restoration of harmony. God’s goal isn’t simply to get us to heaven someday, but to get heaven back into us today.

When Paul pleads in Romans 12 : 1-2 to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,” he is not shifting from spiritual talk to practical advice; he’s showing that worship and wellness belong together. Our lives — our thoughts, choices, appetites, even our sleep patterns — are places where grace can take root.

III. The Gospel Restores

Everywhere Jesus went, He made people whole. He didn’t divide His ministry into spiritual and physical. He forgave and He healed, sometimes in the same breath. When He touched the leper, He restored more than skin; He gave back dignity, belonging, and joy. When He raised Jairus’s daughter, He told them to give her something to eat. Even in resurrection, Jesus cared about breakfast.

That’s why the gospel is not an escape from the body but the redemption of it. Our Savior carried scars after He rose, proof that redemption does not erase our humanity — it transforms it. He came to give life, and to give it “more abundantly” (John 10 : 10). Abundance isn’t luxury; it’s balance. It’s living in rhythm with God again.

IV. The Temple of the Holy Spirit

Paul wrote, “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” (1 Cor. 6 : 19). He didn’t say the body contains a temple; he said the body is one. In Israel’s history, the temple was the meeting place between heaven and earth. It was a place of beauty and reverence, not obsession. Likewise, the Christian’s body is a sacred space for God’s indwelling presence.

To care for this temple is not vanity but reverence. Holiness is not about polishing the marble; it’s about protecting the Presence. The Spirit who sanctifies the soul also calls us to steward our physical lives.

That stewardship was nearly forgotten by the mid-1800s. The world reeked of tobacco, quack medicines, and ignorance of basic sanitation. It was in that setting that God impressed a small group of believers with a startling insight: health is spiritual.

V. A People Who Remembered the Body

In 1863, while the Civil War tore America apart, a modest Christian woman named Ellen White had a vision that would plant seeds of global reform. She saw that the gospel must touch the stomach as well as the soul — that obedience to God’s laws of life was not bondage but blessing.

The early Adventists built sanitariums — centers for healing that combined prayer, hydrotherapy, fresh air, and simple food. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg at Battle Creek made breakfast famous for all the right reasons. Loma Linda University would later anchor a world network of hospitals built on the same conviction: the Creator cares how His creatures live.

And modern science has vindicated that conviction. Studies on the Adventist Health Advantage show that people who live by those simple principles — plant-based diets, rest, exercise, abstaining from alcohol and tobacco, strong community, and faith — live significantly longer and healthier lives. Loma Linda, California, stands as one of the world’s official “Blue Zones.”

But longevity was never the point. The point was loyalty. Health reform was not about pride in performance but participation in redemption. As Ellen White wrote, “The health message is the right arm of the gospel” — not the head, not the heart, but the helping arm that serves.

VI. The Shift of Temptation

In the nineteenth century, the great intemperance was what people ate and drank. Today, the greater intemperance is what people watch and absorb. We’ve moved from stomach to screen.