Our Physical Body: Its Value And Purpose

Feature 4 – July/August 2020 – Grace & Truth Magazine

The Physical Body:
Its Value And Purpose

God’s Plans For His Temple
When Moses recorded God’s commands against the worship of the false gods of the nations, he also wrote God’s purposes for the only true place for worship. It would be for an expression and teaching of unity, for the gathering of God’s people and a witness to the world. Rejecting the religions of the nations, he said, “Ye shall not do so unto the Lord your God. But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, even unto His habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come” (Dt. 12:4-5 KJV ).

Verses 6-7 go on to show that it was to be the place for sacrifice, communion with God and rejoicing with one’s fellow worshipers. It was for all the family, for families together, and for all the tribes. Moses stressed that the place was not for doing what seemed to be right in the eyes of men. It was a unique place where the people of God could meet with Him and rejoice.

Even the gorgeous temple built by Solomon was only a temporary building, which points us to the future when something more glorious will be revealed. Solomon pointed this out, saying that God does not dwell in temples made with hands. Second Chronicles 6:18 records part of his prayer: “But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house which I have built!”

A Spiritual Temple
The Samaritan woman who had come to a well and met the Lord Jesus argued with Him concerning places of worship, saying, “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain;* and ye [Jews] say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship” (Jn. 4:20). The Lord Jesus answered her with a new teaching which explained that God had great plans for what was to become His dwelling place. He told the woman at the well that worship was not to be in either of the places she had mentioned; instead, something entirely new was to be the pattern, of which the old is but a shadow. He continued, “We know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (vv.22-24).

To understand Scripture, find other passages which take up the same thought and give fresh information. A verse in Matthew’s gospel amplifies the statement of the Lord Jesus in John 4. Matthew recorded the Lord as saying, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt. 18:20). This clearly describes worship in spirit and in truth. It is also clear that this is the answer to the physical temples which the Samaritan woman mentioned. We see in Matthew that the meeting of even a few saints is the temple of God. We do not need a building since the gathering is all that matters.

The church described here is also a display of unity and a witness to the work of God. Paul wrote, “For He [the Lord Jesus] is our peace, who hath made both [Jew and Gentile] one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace” (Eph. 2:14-15).

This unity is also a temple that is not built with material things. Paul continued to describe this unity as “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (vv.20-22).

Our Physical Bodies
Furthermore, just as the gathering of the saints to the Lord Jesus in their physical bodies is a spiritual temple, so also the individual bodies of the saints are temples of God. Paul explained this to the church at Corinth. “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

We are here on earth for the pleasure and the purposes of God. The unity, made by the indwelling of every true believer by the Holy Spirit, is an essential witness to the power and love of God and to the unity of the Godhead. We are “to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3) and be “renewed in the spirit” of our minds (v.23). The apostle went on to show how God has equipped us to do Him service and be a blessing to the world. We have everything needed to live spiritual lives in our material bodies (vv.7-16).

To illustrate the service of God which blesses others, we may think of the river which flowed out of Eden, the blessed garden of God. It divided into four parts (Gen. 2:10), and therefore, as four is the universal number, we can make an application that it was God’s desire for a renewal after the fall of Satan. At the time, the first couple were God’s representatives; now, we are.

In another scene we see that Moses struck the rock and water issued from it for the refreshing of the people. God told Moses, “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel” (Ex. 17:6). Also, water is to come from the millennial temple to water the earth and to bring life to the Dead Sea (Ezek. 47:1-9). The heavenly city and the very throne of God shall, too, be a source of pure water for the earth (Rev. 22:1-2).

A truly wonderful fulfillment of these prophetic scenes is also found in us and for us. In John 7 we read: “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive ...)” (vv.37-39).

We are to announce the gospel of salvation in the Lord Jesus, which comes from God, as His Spirit shows it to our spirit. Here is the glory and the purpose of our bodies. We are raised up by a very great God who promotes us to such a high position as the men of earth cannot possibly imagine nor understand. We believers, though mortal and feeble humans, are promoted to be ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20)! GT

ENDNOTE
* According to history, the Samaritans worshiped at Mount Gerizim, and a temple they built there was destroyed in the 2nd century before Christ by John Hyrcanus, a Jewish leader and high priest.

By Roger Penney