THE BELIEVER’S BODY
R. J. Campbell
1 Corinthians 6: 19, 20; Galatians 6: 17; Romans 12: 1
I thought of these scriptures before coming tonight, beloved brethren, as to the references in them as to the body of the believer, and Paul referring to his own body. I just have an impression of what our bodies are capable of from the divine side. We think of the disrespect that men in the world often have for their bodies, particularly at the present time, and the abuse of the human body. We should think of these things, beloved brethren; how degraded, how depraved man is! The believer should value his body as a means of expressing something for God’s pleasure. Referring to the Lord Jesus, you think of that blessed, precious body of His, a body that was prepared for Him, a body in which everything that God could ever desire from man was expressed, that we might contemplate it. Our brother has referred to it1, the burnt-offering. In the life of Jesus there was never a thought, never an action, never a step outside of the divine will, that body conveying to men all that God was towards men, and in the conveying of that yielding so much to heaven in His life here. Our brother has referred to Him saying He was “Altogether that which I also say to you”, John 8: 25. Think of the intrinsic holiness of Jesus. Think of the blessed perfection of that Man here. You know, as we contemplate Him, how purifying it is, to think of the beauty and intrinsic perfection of that blessed Man here. It purifies your mind.
But, dear brethren, that we might appreciate what we are in ourselves, the apostle Paul says here, “ye have been bought with a price”. Now that means that we are not free agents; we cannot do what we like; a price has been paid that we might be secured, that our bodies might be secured, for the divine pleasure, that we might be here as devoted persons using our bodies in the support of the testimony and in the pursuit of God’s will. Men use their bodies for other things, for the pursuit of pleasure, for the pursuit of lust, the pursuit of everything that the devil would use men for, but the believer realises that he has been bought with a price, and not only that, but his body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now that is very suggestive, that within the believer, you might say the believer’s body, is a shrine, an area where the Holy Spirit dwells. I just feel the possibilities as to what we can do positively with our bodies as appreciating the purchase price that has been paid for them, and appreciating the fact that they are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Now that would make us very sensitive—“your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God”. The purchase price has been paid, beloved brethren, in the death of Christ. Each divine Person has been involved in the securing of the body of the believer for the divine pleasure. The purchase price has been paid in the death of Christ; and the blessed Holy Spirit has come to reside in the believer, to take up His abode there; His desire is to rest complacently there. Oh that we might give Him scope, that we might not grieve Him in any way, that we might appreciate that He is with us, as the Lord Jesus says, He “shall be in you”, John 14: 17. So near has He come to us that He would affect our inwards, as our brother has said, He has come right within our affections, in our hearts, so that He might dwell there and govern us in every way, and the Spirit has been given of God.
Well, may we appreciate that a price has been paid for us. How devoted it would make us, how zealous in the pursuit of the divine will it would make us, as we realise that a price has been paid, that our bodies are temple of the Holy Spirit, and that the blessed Holy Spirit has been given of God, and the apostle says “ye are not your own”.
Well, do we realise that? As we have things to do in the testimony here we are under divine control; we are under divine leading; we are under the leadership of the blessed Holy Spirit in the testimony here; “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”, Romans 8: 14. So the apostle says, “glorify now then God in your body”. I believe it would make us think of God, as our brother has said; not so much to think of men; not so much of what the brethren think; not so much of what men think—though we should be very careful as to what men see in our lives here—but we should think of God—“glorify now then God in your body”, so that God is getting something from us as we are in the pursuit of the divine will here.
I thought of Paul saying, “for I bear in my body the brands of the Lord Jesus”. You know, beloved brethren, Paul had marks on him, even physical marks that he had suffered in his devotion to Christ and to the testimony. You think of those scourgings; think of the pressure that Paul went through. Five times he received forty stripes save one; think of the physical sufferings of Paul, but he devotedly suffered for the testimony here in relation to Christ. Paul realized that there was a stamp on him, which he was prepared to acknowledge at all costs when he said to the Galatians, “for I bear in my body the brands of the Lord Jesus”. That man was marked by Christ, marked by Christ for the testimony, and he realised he was under the Lord’s control; the Lord owned him. He possessed him, and he bore in his body the brands of the Lord Jesus. Well, that mark is to be on us, and may we realise that we bear it as we pursue our lives here, that we are not our own but have been marked by Christ. So even in suffering for the testimony something enters into our lives, something should enter in even as to our bodies, so that we are marked for the divine pleasure and for the support of the testimony here.
I read in Romans because Paul is using this lever to encourage the Roman saints to devote themselves entirely to the will of God. This is the culmination of very severe personal exercises in Romans. The exercises of Romans are not a light matter, and I just wish for myself that I knew more about them, that in experience we might go through things morally with God and arrive at this position, this final conclusion, so that our whole body is under divine control. We have been through the exercises of Romans; we have our members under control; we have our mind controlled; we are now intelligent persons; and we place our bodies on that altar and thus can say to Him, ‘It is for You’. We place our bodies in relation to God, and it has been well said that if we place our bodies there we can never take them back again; they are there and they are there as committed to God. Paul says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God”; he is using this lever to appeal to these Roman saints to present their bodies “a living sacrifice, holy”. I believe it links with what has been said that it is not merely the outward thing, but it is “holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. There is not so much emphasis on righteousness here, it is holiness.
It is the inward state of a believer formed through exercise with God and he is prepared now in devotion to God to place his body on the altar unreservedly, never to be taken back again; and Paul says, “which is your intelligent service”.
Well, when we have our mind controlled in Romans the whole body is controlled, and it means that we are intelligent persons, and we devote ourselves entirely to the will of God.
What bodies these are, beloved brethren! From one standpoint, weak, mortal bodies, some of the older brethren feeling the infirmity of the body, but a time is coming when we shall have a body like unto His own body of glory. In the meantime things are worked out in these human vessels; things are being formed, divine work is being formed in us that will find its place in eternity. It is wonderful what is being worked out in the lives of the saints, and in these bodies something shines out; the vessel has been broken—think of the mortal character of these bodies—but yet in them there is a treasure being worked out that will yet yield in glory in that eternal day. May we appreciate what we have, beloved brethren—our bodies, which we have been given that we might use them rightly according to divine pleasure, as Paul says, that they might be for the glory of God. May it be so for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Glasgow
29 December 1981