Journal Entry – Glorifying God in my body
As I was reading “Future Grace” by John Piper, I ran across this paragraph. ”Our bodies fit into that same category of physical things that God created for a reason. He is not going to back out on His plan to glorify Himself through human beings and human bodies. So in I Corinthians 6:19-20 Paul says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” Why does God go to all the trouble to dirty His hands, as it were, with our decaying, sin-stained flesh, in order to reestablish it as a resurrection body and clothe it with immortality? Answer: Because His Son paid the price of death so that the Father’s purpose for the material universe would be fulfilled, namely, that He would be glorified in it, including our bodies forever and ever. … God will not disregard or dishonor the work of His Son.”
As I read this, it struck me. I had always known and accepted Jesus died for me, but I took it to mean my soul. I read and knew my body would be changed, but never associated it with God’s glory as John Piper did in this paragraph. All of a sudden I realized, Jesus died not only for my soul, but for my body. My imperfect body riddled with disease, aches, pains. The body I hated because of how it looked, how it felt, what it caused me to feel. Not only did Jesus die for it, but regardless of my feelings, God created it for me, for a purpose, for His Holy Spirit to reside in.
I knew at that moment, that the hatred I held for my body was dishonoring the price Jesus paid, and dishonored the work God did for me. I am working toward loving myself, not because I am all of a sudden at my perfect weight, or because I am no longer sick, or my disease is gone… but simply because God created me and found me worthy of redemption, and worthy of a changed glorified body, and because Jesus saw me worthy and loved me enough to die for me. Not just my inner me, the complete me. It gives a whole new meaning when I read verses like, “But the very hairs on your head are all numbered.” (Matt 10:30) It’s not just because He’s omniscient, but because He loves to hold me and count them, because He created them, because now when I brush my hair I can remember, “He created even my hair to call people to see His glory, His perfection, His creativity and to give Him praise.”
Oh that I would see my imperfections as “light afflictions, creating in me an eternal weight of glory” (II Corinthians 4:17). Imperfections that God allows to cause me to leave my self reliance behind, driving me further into His arms where I can rely on Him and His strength, so that I may truly, “glorify God in my body.”
Perfect!