OUR BODIES

R. Hibbert

Ephesians 5: 23; Philippians 3: 20, 21; 1 Corinthians 9: 26, 27

The verse in Ephesians evidently alludes to our physical bodies—“He is Saviour of the body”. It is very comforting to know that, as being in mortal bodies, subject to all that we are subject to in the sufferings and pressures that we experience in our bodies, some more than others, we are thus linked with this great matter of the truth of Christ and the assembly in this emphasis in verse 23 on the Lord being Saviour of the body.

It shows, beloved brethren, how valuable our bodies are to Christ, and His personal interest in our bodies—“He is Saviour of the body”, so that, speaking reverently and humbly, we have a right, you might reverently say, to put in a claim to the Lord in relation to our bodily needs.

When there is sickness or infirmity of body I believe that the Lord would delight to have us remind Him that He is Saviour of the body. The “He”, I think, is very affecting—“He is Saviour of the body”, and, as I have said, I read this physically; it means our actual bodies. It would assume that we have, according to Romans 12, presented our bodies a living sacrifice, which would be acceptable to Him. That He is Saviour of the body, and that that should be linked with this great matter of the mystery, the assembly subjected to Christ, means that we can be confident and free with the Lord about matters to do with our bodies when we need such practical salvation, knowing that “He is Saviour of the body”. That is one of His functions, if we can rightly use

that word; He is that; so we can encourage one another, beloved brethren, as in mortal conditions and weak conditions, that if our outward man is consumed, yet the inward is renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4: 16). That would be spiritual renewal, while Ephesians 5 alludes to physical salvation.

I wonder if we are sufficiently impressed with the importance of our bodies to the Lord and how He regards them, how He values them, and how He is prepared to serve us in such detail in relation to them in every test; and as long as we are here we shall always have these tests.

There are many among us who are now going through testing conditions. We think of a beloved sister, for instance, and what she has endured today in that regard, and others who are with us too who are going through these actual trials. What a comfort this verse is to us, and the fact that “He” is italicised—“He is Saviour of the body”; so we can count on that as long as we are down here, as long as we are in the body, that He is Saviour of the body. He has that direct interest, and that direct service which He carries on, and yet it would involve our drawing, you might say, on what is available to us in relation to our bodies. How often we forget, and, perhaps, we go to the doctor—which is right enough because he is part of God’s angelic provision—but the great thing to keep in mind in all these testings—and they are testings—is that He is Saviour of the body.

In Philippians we are given this wonderful fact that He is going to change our bodies of humiliation. It is not ‘vile bodies’, as in the Authorised Version, but “body of humiliation”.

We feel it more as we get older that our bodies are bodies of humiliation. It is no disgrace to feel that. It is because we are mortal, but relates to what happened at the fall; so mortality is evident in us;

and yet He is going to change all that in a moment, and not only remove the effects of the humiliation but change our bodies to be like His own body of glory. What a thing that is to think about! I remember a brother when very sick and suffering saying, ‘Well, I am a prisoner to my body; I cannot do anything; I cannot get away from the pain, or the weakness’. But what a comfort that He is going to relieve us of all that and transform these very bodies. He is going to transform these bodies of humiliation to be like His own body of glory. I think that verse of Mr. Darby’s—if you can make comparisons—is like the top note.

‘Like Jesus! Grace supreme!

Like Him ...’ (Hymn 72)

That will be actually so in our bodies; we shall have bodies like unto His body of glory.

Then just a word about the solemn side in Corinthians, which brings in our responsibility. It is very solemn that Paul, one so committed and spiritual, should have this concern as to responsibility for keeping his body right. That is not now a question of physical fitness; it is a question of moral fitness, keeping right morally through constant self-judgment. That is what this buffeting the body would be. We would be sober about the value of our bodies to Christ in the testimony. We need a body to be in the testimony. We cannot be in the testimony effectively without a body, and we cannot be in the testimony effectively if we are careless about our bodies. I do not mean careless physically, I mean careless morally. Perhaps we are not buffeting them as Paul did. This is a very real matter, that we are to be severe on ourselves about anything we are conscious is a hindrance to us. That would apply to everyone, even the youngest. We must learn to deny ourselves, and the power to be used is the Spirit; “If, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the

body, ye shall live”, Romans 8: 13. It is a question of being maintained in usability to the Lord in the testimony, and not being rejected.

What a wonderful thing it is that the Lord should deign to use us, which requires our bodies, but then we need to be on the qui vive, we need to be on the alert all the time, lest the enemy should be getting any advantage through any carelessness on our part, through not habitually buffeting our bodies, as Paul says, because of the possibility of our being rejected. It is a severe thing and it is Paul who says it; but he did it. He buffeted his body, which would be characteristic. He learned to deny himself, and we must learn to do that if we are going to be constantly serviceable; whatever we have been in the past we should be no less in the future; but it depends not only on His being Saviour of the body physically, but our answering to our responsibility in dealing severely with ourselves in anything that would hinder us from being serviceable to the Lord in the testimony.

What a privilege it is, beloved brethren, that in this broken day He should take us up in conditions of mortality and weakness, knowing all that marks us, and yet saying that this is possible, and, indeed, you might say, that this is normal. That is what Paul would say, ‘It is normal; I do this habitually’. It is like your daily exercises. The doctor may say, ‘You should take certain exercises every day for your health’; and that is what Paul was doing; he was taking regular moral exercise to keep himself in trim and to keep the enemy out, for the enemy would damage us. So let us, beloved brethren, use care over our bodies, you might say spiritually, so that we might not become less usable. We might even become unusable. That is not what the Lord desires. There is the responsible side, and it is not pleasant; but the only way to be kept in power is by this rule that Paul practised in a characteristic way by buffeting his body and keeping it under lest he should be rejected.

Word in meeting for ministry, Dundee
23 October 1979