01: Our Mortal Bodies Also

01

Our Mortal Bodies Also: The Good Purpose of Our Physical Bodies

by Rachel Witzig | Tokyo, Japan

Inhabiting a physical body is exhausting.

It would be easier if humans simply did not possess bodies. At least, that was my conclusion after a tearful conversation with a friend who had, once again failed to resist the disordered desires of their body. Eating disorders, self-harm, drug and alcohol addiction, sexual addiction, violence, image-centered obsession; we regularly treat our bodies not as God’s carefully designed craftsmanship but as objects to be used in the pursuit of power and pleasure. Our bodies bear the weight of weariness brought on by living in this sin-tarnished world.

At that time, I took comfort in the commonplace belief of Christians that, after death, I would arrive in Heaven unburdened of my physical body, free to worship the Lord in spirit forever.

What later came as a shock was the realization that this belief is not actually Christian.

What later came as a shock was the realization that this belief is not actually Christian. After reading the book Surprised by Hope, I was forced to reconsider Romans 8 in the Bible and was jarred by what I found. The “redemption of our bodies” (8:23)? New life being given to “[our] mortal bodies also” (8:11)? These verses tell us that God wants to restore the entirety of us—physical bodies included. What a contradiction to the belief that our bodies are mere flesh and bone, doomed to perish along with this sinful world. If Paul’s words in Romans, and Christ’s promise of resurrection, are to be taken seriously, they ascribe undeniable worth to our body and a tremendous hope for our future. If God sees fit to raise up re-embodied humans rather than disembodied spirits, then it follows that he values our bodies and sees them as worth rescuing.There must be something within our bodies that brings us closer to God.

Each of these experiences come to us through the physical medium of our bodies; only afterwards can we attempt to explain them as a metaphysical experience of the mind or soul. Simply put, God gave us physical bodies as a means to discover more of Him.

When I reflect on my experiences with classical ballet, I recall moments of awakening in my spirit which came through my body’s participation in artistic expression. Using my body like this seemed to draw me closer to the great Artist. The same is true of those who sense the presence of God in the swell of a symphony or those who feel satisfaction in their bones after working hard in the garden or kitchen all day. Each of these experiences come to us through the physical medium of our bodies; only afterwards can we attempt to explain them as a metaphysical experience of the mind or soul. Simply put, God gave us physical bodies as a means to discover more of Him.

Our bodies also give us powerful ways to provide comfort to others and express solidarity. The Apostle Paul’s instruction for Christians to greet each other with a “holy kiss” is a call to move beyond mere intellectual or sentimental expressions of love into embodied action (2 Corinthians 13:12 is one of four references in Paul’s letters). In the Gospels, we frequently see that Christ healed people through physical touch, not merely the spoken word (Mark 7:33, 9:20-1, Matthew 8:3, to name only a couple instances). When Paul urges believers to abstain from sexual immorality, he did so on the grounds that the human body is a sacred temple, intended to house God’s Spirit and display his glory (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

Imagine, then, the implications all this has for how we regard our bodies. For those of us who are not comfortable in our own flesh, or may downright despise it, the idea that God loves and intends to perfect it through resurrection offers a refreshing hope. It is encouragement to those who are tired of convincing ourselves to eat when we really wish to be a different body size; to those who wrestle with the burden of having habituated our bodies to chemical or sexual relief for stress; to those who bear the scars of self-injury; to those who suffer daily from chronic disease or injury, and to those who desperately want to bear children or simply possess the same health and abilities as our peers; we are gently but firmly encouraged to remember the worth God has given to the bodies we now possess. I say “gently” because the Bible makes it clear that God “knows how we are formed” and “remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:11). He is not “unable to empathize with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15), patient with us as we learn to use our mortal bodies for His glory. Knowing that God places such value upon our bodies should give us hope that, in this life, his Spirit can redeem the bodies we currently inhabit.

These bodies are not a prison that condemns us to sin. They have been designed with the glorious purpose of drawing us closer to God and others.

As disordered and frail as our bodies may be, we are called to view them with respect. These bodies are not a prison that condemns us to sin. They have been designed with the glorious purpose of drawing us closer to God and others. With the glorification of our physical bodies in sight, let us all press on.