Our Bodies Belong to God

August 10, 2025 Background Scripture: Romans 12:1 - 21; 1 Corinthians 6:12 - 20 Lesson Passage: 1 Corinthians 6:12 - 20 I believe in the free moral agency of mankind. The book of Genesis makes that clear. Mankind is created in the image and after the likeness of God. God gives directions to His own will. He created mankind with the same ability. Adam was created by God and given the ability to make decisions, or to have a will and not to live based on his instincts. Other lifeforms in this world live and survive based on their instincts. On the other hand, mankind was not created to be independent of all. Mankind was created to be submissively dependent on God. Submission is necessary because being dependent is an act of the will of mankind. When Adam followed the guidance of the serpent, he was led away from the will of God and unintentionally became enslaved to sin. It was an act of his will to follow the serpent, but his dependency on whatever he submits to was not under his control. When sin entered this world through Adam, mankind became enslaved to sin. We are born into this world enslaved to sin and remain so unless we are delivered from it through salvation. Because of His love for mankind, God offers us salvation through the atoning death of Jesus Christ. Salvation frees mankind from the dominion of sin and death. However, we are not set free to do as we please. Salvation frees us to submit to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation restores to us the ability to be submissively dependent on God. God purchased our souls with the blood of Jesus Christ for this purpose. For those of us who are in Christ, we belong to God. Just as we were slaves of sin when we were unsaved, we are now the servants of God because of salvation through Jesus Christ. God expresses His will to us so that we might serve Him sincerely. As slaves of sin, we sought to please our flesh in every way; sin demanded that we be disobedient to God's will. As children of God, we are admonished to serve God and not to please our flesh. This choice causes Christians to be confronted with a dilemma. Because we still live in our flesh, we still have an overwhelming desire to please our flesh. This feels natural to us because we were born this way. However, after we are saved and learn the will of God for us, we desire to please God, but it doesn't feel natural to do so. Our lesson today is a reminder that Christians are obligated to submissively serve God. Pleasing our flesh is rebellion against the will and dominion of God. We have been delivered from sin so that we can submit to God. Submission brings us under the power of the one we submit to. We were saved and spiritually joined as one body to be a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives each of us a gift to use as part of the body. Some gifts are for the building up of the body, and some gifts allow the body to serve others. The use of spiritual gifts brings glory to God. When the entire body of Christians functions as one to do God's will, then are we an expression of God's image and likeness in this world. This is in accordance with God's will for humanity, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion ..." Through mankind who has been made holy, God exercises physical dominion in the physical world He created. His will is done through the creature He created for that purpose. An unsaved person cannot fulfill this purpose because of sin's dominion. Neither can saved individuals fulfill God's purpose if we rebel against God by embracing sin. Christians have a dilemma because our flesh craves sin, but our bodies belong to God. Therefore, through submission to God, we receive the help we need from the Spirit to do God's will. Robert C. Hudson July 31, 2025