David said, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made….” (Ps. 139:4). The more we learn about these bodies given to us for “tabernacles” on our earthly pilgrimage, the more we appreciate just how truly wonderful they are!
Your heart is a perfect pump; the nervous system has never been equaled by any modern technological invention; our voice reproduces sound that no high tech medium can match in quality or definition; the eyes are cameras more precise than has been manufactured by man; the nose, lungs and skin are a ventilating system without equal in preciseness and effectiveness, and the spinal cord, serving up instant actions and reactions accompanied by appropriate and timely warnings to a complex city of nerves and nerve endings is in a class of its own. No wonder the Psalmist exclaimed that we are wonderfully made!
God fashioned the man and the woman and said that everything was “very good.” Because of sin, though, Adam’s descendants begin to die the day they are born. Studies have shown that a person reaches his or her peak as far as learning and retention of knowledge at or about the ripe old age of 20. I’ve always said that you could take a look at your high school graduation picture and see yourself at your very finest—at least physically. For most it seems to be “down- hill” from then on!
But though our bodies often take merciless beatings from us, they somehow keep going usually for seventy or eighty years or more. Death, because of sin, will ultimately overcome every one of us, except those who are taken up in the Rapture, sending us to the grave. Thanks be to God, though, for victory over death. Because Jesus Christ conquered the tomb, we too shall one day rise victorious. Our bodies will then be changed, made like unto His glorious body (Phil. 3:21), reunited with our spirit and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (I Thess. 4:13-18) Amen.
As a believer, you can look forward to living without any possibility of death in a body not subject to sickness, decomposition, deterioration, pain, aging or change in any way, shape or form. You will resemble your present, physical self but without any blemish. You’ll have a “make over” that will be out of this world! Glory!
There are some special considerations we ought to give our present “tabernacles”: (1) We are urged to present them as a living sacrifice daily to God, because it is our reasonable service to do so (Rom. 12:1,2); (2) We should yield the members of our body as instruments of righteousness with which to serve God and not as instruments of unrighteousness with which to serve “self”; (3) We should know that our bodies have been claimed and purchased by Christ’s blood and, therefore, they do not belong to us (I Cor. 6:19, 20); (4) We should remember that the body in which we tabernacle is not given to us for fornication, but to use to bring glory to God (I Cor. 6:13); (5) We should, knowing our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, (2 Cor. 6:16) refrain from abusing it in any way, including the following:
- Tattooing
- Eating disorders
- Sleep deprivation
- Drunkenness
- Gluttony
- Nakedness
- Drug addiction
- Self-mutilation
- Adultery, fornication, immorality
- Idolatry
May God give us a Biblical appreciation for this tabernacle of flesh, blood and bones specially made for our earthly journey and one day to be remade for our eternal habitation.
“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.” (I Cor. 6:19,20)
YOU and GOD 