Bought with a Price: Glorify God with Your Body

The Centrality of the Cross and the Radical Implications of Salvation

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, April 2nd, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. With our attention focused primarily on verse 19b and verse 20 of this chapter, the words which read as follows, You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Glorify God, therefore, in your body. I want us to consider what I am calling the radical implications of salvation by the cross of Christ.

0:47 Now, no one familiar with the contents of the New Testament would dispute the statement that the death... of Jesus Christ upon a Roman instrument of execution called a cross is central to the religion of the Bible. The message which we are called upon to proclaim is actually designated in 1 Corinthians 1.18 as the word or the message of the cross. So central is the cross of Christ. That it becomes synonymous with the very message of the Christian faith. The apostolic preaching

1:38 is described in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 2 as a preaching of Christ and him as crucified. Further on in this very epistle, the apostle teaches us in chapter 15 that the fundamental building block in the gospel is the cross. So, the apostle teaches us in chapter 15 that the fundamental building block in the gospel is the cross. So, the apostle teaches us in chapter 15 that the fundamental building block in the gospel of our salvation is the truth that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

2:09 And that same apostle in an epistle in which he has defended the fact that what Christ did upon the cross has fully turned away all of the wrath that we deserve for our sins. That most prolific and energetic, of all of the apostles declared in Galatians 6.14, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so for this reason, the centrality of the cross in the New Testament is everywhere patent, and in a very real sense, it is the doctrine of Christ crucified that is the great reference point by which to measure all doctrines as well as the seedbed out of which grow all of the major motives and perspectives of the New Testament. On the Christian life. Now, we see this very clearly in the passage that will be the focus

The Corinthian Context: Fornication and Paul's Complex Antidote

3:28 of our exposition this morning, verse 19b and verse 20 of 1 Corinthians chapter 6. But before we examine the text itself, I want you to note with me, by way of considering the setting of these words, that here in this paragraph, Paul is omniscient. Here Paul is obviously treating the subject of fornication, that is, illicit sexual activity stone stone statue. And to highlight here that he is plotly redirecting the subject against the words in the following passage.

4:02 sexuality is lots that is life throughout the great-growing Roman in which Certain students simplest action issue here in 3 we find much of the thinking in our own day where popular so-called family entertainment as well as other more concentrated forms of sinful behavior are right with this mentality that fornication is not a sin in this very paragraph he concentrates in dealing with the subject on a biblical view primarily of the body eight times the word body appears in this paragraph and it is clear when the apostle takes pen in hand to deal with the subject of fornication as it was still being done as a problem in the ongoing sanctification of the believers there at Corinth

5:20 that he did not have a simple one-strand antidote to the sin of fornication unlike many in our day who would say if a man is a Christian and he is struggling with the sin of illicit sexual activity he has some demon of lust and he has some demon of lust and that that demon of lust ought to be identified named and cast out and when it is he will be delivered from any real ongoing struggles with the sin of fornication well there is not the slightest suggestion in Paul's treatment of this subject in a context in which it was a chronic problem that there was demonic activity involved there is not the slightest suggestion there are others who would say well the problem is if Christians are struggling with sins of sexual impurity it's because they have not gone on to a higher level of Christian experience they need either to be cleansed from inbred sin in the terminology of old Wesleyan perfectionism or in the language of many in our day they need a further or more intense baptism in the Holy Spirit

6:45 they need an additional experience yet unobtained if they are to find fundamental deliverance from the sin of fornication and again one reads the apostolic treatment of the subject in its most concentrated portion here in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and perhaps the only other place that he can find it is in the Bible even comes close to this in its concentrated treatment of the subject is 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and there is not the slightest suggestion by the apostle that the reason they are having struggles with this sin is because they lack some higher experience in the Holy Spirit now those are facts my brethren and unless we believe that the problem of fornication in our day is so utterly unique that it needs an antidote that goes beyond that which was given by an inspired apostle then we had better come back to that which the Holy Ghost has given us in the word of God and not pretend to be wiser than God himself and the antidote which the apostle gives to the sin of fornication is not a simple

8:12 one note answer it is a complex intricate cord of biblical truths truths that must first of all come to the enlightened understanding through the ministry of the Holy Spirit which must then be believingly embraced by the child of God and then practically implemented in terms of the demands which those who are born of the Holy Spirit and those truths make upon the believer now that's not a simple answer and this is why people flock to those who say are you weary of your struggles with sexual impurity here is the answer let's name the demons of lust and cast them out and you'll be forever delivered or come and get this coat of many colors experience and you will be delivered you see all of these things are in the Bible all of us wants the easy way out but there is no simple easy way out according to the scriptures and in this very paragraph the apostle brings before the Corinthian believers such truths as the purpose for which the body was created verse 13 meats for the belly the belly for meats but God shall bring to naught

Key Truths in Paul's Antidote to Fornication

9:39 both it and them but the body is the body it is not for fornication but for the Lord he says the starting point in dealing with illicit sexual activity is to answer the question why do I have a body in the first place why do I have a body in the first place a body with sexual drives and sexual organs and the capacity for sexual activity Paul says you have a body that was given you for the service of the Lord who gave it you start by letting that truth filter down in and take possession of the soul then he says you consider the ultimate destiny of the body in resurrection glory and he says the Lord is for the body and God both raised the Lord and will raise us up through his power why does he bring in the body? why does he bring in the doctor of the resurrection when dealing with the problem of fornication? well what he's saying is that body given for the service of God is given to serve God not in this life only but in the ages to come in resurrection glory and in resurrection power it wasn't given to be a little temporal playground

11:09 to titillate your nerve endings according to your own itches and urges God has placed such a dignity upon the body that he's going to raise it up at the last day as surely as he raised the Lord Jesus that body with which you are now tempted to fornicate is a body that bears the dignity of one mark for resurrection glory don't demean its dignity by imposing in fornication he plants the doctrine of the resurrection as part of the antidote to fornication then he goes on to bring in the doctrine of union with Christ verse 15 do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? in a way that I cannot understand not just my spirit he states that later he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit but he says your bodies are members of Christ in a way that I do not fully understand yet I believe because it is stated in the word of God I in the totality and integrity of my redeemed humanity am part of the mystic body of Christ I am united to Christ the head and that includes my body shall I then he says take away the members of Christ

12:37 and join them to a harlot what is the antidote to sexual impurity? it is not a great spiritual experience or casting out some demon of lust it is absorbing these great truths why did God give me a body? he gave me a body in which to serve him this body will serve him in resurrection glory this body is united to Jesus Christ and he goes on then to deal with these other facets of spiritual reality the peculiar self-destructive nature of fornication the awesome fact of the inhabitation of the very Holy Spirit himself in our bodies and you see in each one of these things he is not telling the Corinthians you need to get something you don't have he is saying come to grips with what already and there is all the difference in the world between those two things he is not saying seek something you do not yet have he says come to grips with the realities that already are but then as he deals with these

The Climactic Truth: 'You Are Not Your Own'

14:04 six or seven strands that constitute the biblical antidote to sexual impurity or to fornication notice that the climactic one draws us right in to the cross of Christ fully aware that there is a debate as to whether or not the question mark in verse 19 ought to be found where it is in the old 1901 after the words which you have from God or whether it ought to be found and ye are not your own it really is irrelevant for the purposes of what I want to underscore and so I will follow the translators of the 1901 where the question mark is placed after the words which you have from God and then we have these words you are not your own for you were bought with a price glorify God therefore in your body and in these words we have what I am calling the radical implications of salvation by the cross of Christ and notice with me first of all as we consider these words serious the searching

15:32 affirmation with which they begin you are not your own to every Corinthian believer the apostle makes this very solemn searching affirmation you are not your own now in the day when men are constantly being urged to do their own thing to be their own person where self realization and self actualization and self fulfillment and self expression are the gods of modern man to be told you are not your own is nothing short of radical but that's exactly what the text says and that the apostle affirms this in this setting with reference to the sin and problem of fornication in particular that it is not limited to that problem is clear because in the very next chapter dealing with a totally different subject he says in verse 23 you were bought with a price

16:59 do not become the bond slaves of men he picks up the same strand of thought and emphasizes it in a totally different setting and for totally different reasons but our text begins with this solemn affirmation you are not your own now what do they mean well they mean exactly what they say that the believer in Jesus Christ the one who has come to embrace the word of the cross the one who has seen himself condemned guilty standing under the wrath and curse of God because of his sin and has looked away from himself to Jesus Christ as presented in the gospel God's divinely appointed sin bearer the one who though he knew no sin was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him everyone who has come to faith in that savior the Lord Jesus who has received forgiveness and pardon from the virtue of his cross

18:26 who has been accepted before God on the grounds of the doing and the dying of the son of God of every such one the word of God says you are not your own you are not your own now he had earlier been treating and I'd indicated he emphasizes very clearly the doctrine of the body eight times the word body is found in the paragraph but here he does not say and your bodies are not your own but he says you in the totality and integrity of what makes you you body soul and spirit your body with all of its faculties and appetites and capacities your mind with all of its faculties and capacities and energies your soul your passion your intellect your will your emotions all that makes you you you are not your own no part of you belongs to you you are not your own no faculty no capacity no ability no possession is your own independent of Jesus Christ

19:50 now that obviously has tremendous implications in this context it meant that the Corinthians had to begin to think in terms of the fact that they were not free to choose what to do with their bodies and their bodily appetites and passions that they were not free to choose the ends for which they would live and the standards by which they would regulate their lives they were to face this simple solemn affirmation in the recognition in their heart of hearts that they were in no sense to regard themselves as their own property you are not your own if you're a Christian you are not your own but then he follows this affirmation with what I'm calling a satisfying explanation how is it that we have come to the place as Christians where it can be said of us that we are not our own well the solemn affirmation of that fact is followed by this satisfying explanation for you were bought

The Satisfying Explanation: 'Bought with a Price'

21:16 with a price you are not your own for you are not your own here's the explanation you were bought with a price notice he does not say you are not your own for you were created by God now that would be true that's the emphasis of Psalm 100 we're to come into his presence with thanksgiving and into his courts and gates with praise we're to know that the Lord is God it is he who has made us and not we ourselves and we are as the old writers would say we are God's possession by right of creation he made us but you see in this passage God's ownership is not referred to the fact of creation but is referred to the reality of redemption you are not your own for you were bought with a price you were bought with a price and while in this passage he does not say who bought us and what is the price that was paid to buy us from the analogy of scripture we know that this is a reference to nothing less

22:44 than the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ which as it is set before us in many facets of biblical categories as one of those facets it is viewed as a ransom paid it is a price paid by which to release us from bondage and the scripture makes it abundantly clear that we were held in bondage to our sin and were in a state of slavery because of our sin and in that condition we stood under the penalty of a broken law and until that law was satisfied we could not be justly released from our bondage to that law and to its condemnation and from its enslaving power the same family of words is used to describe the work of our Lord Jesus as the one who did the purchasing in Revelation chapter 5 and verse 9 words familiar to many of you I know John is given to see realities in heaven and one of them that he saw was described in chapter 5

24:12 with the lamb in the midst of the throne verse 9 and they sing a new song saying worthy are you to take the book and to open the seals thereof for you were slain and did purchase unto God with your blood men of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and made them to be unto our God a kingdom and priest and they reign upon the earth you were slain and did purchase unto God with your blood so when the apostle gives as the satisfying explanation for this solemn affirmation that we are not our own that we have been bought with a price he is referring to nothing less than the work that Christ accomplished when he spilled his blood in the agony and shame of the vicarious curse bearing of Golgotha the price was nothing less than that which is described by Peter in first Peter 1 verses 18 through 20

25:38 on the heels of an exhortation as to how we are to walk in holiness and in the fear of God with an eye to our future judgment we are due to do so all the while knowing something and what we are to know is given to us in verse 18 in following that you were redeemed you were bought you were ransomed you were purchased not with corruptible things with silver or gold from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers but with precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot even the blood of Christ and so when the apostle gives as his satisfying explanation for this affirmation that we are not our own the explanation is we have been bought with a price we were purchased at the price of the bloodletting of the son of God himself and surely this explanation satisfies any rational creature who is thinking in any way after the pattern of the word of God if one so worthy

27:06 as the Lord Jesus God incarnate the God man the one who described in Philippians chapter 2 emptied himself taking the form of a servant if he should lay down his life to win us back to God if he should lay down his life to pay the price of his own life's blood purchasing us at the price of his own agony upon the cross surely it is reasonable that all those thus purchased should say here Lord I give myself away is all that I can do love so amazing so divine not only demands but shall have my life my all Romans 14 tells us that this was one of the very explicit purposes that our Lord had in his death Romans 14 verses 7 through 9 passage we considered in conjunction with our dealing with the subject of Christian liberty and you see how

28:34 interlaced is God's truth none of us lives to himself verse 7 none dies to himself no true Christian lives to himself self is not the focal point of his life he does not die to himself whether we live we live unto the Lord whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord's we are not our own we are the Lord's why for to this end Christ died and lived that he might be Lord of both the dead and of the living and so he sets before these Corinthians this simple truth are you Corinthians united to Christ by faith have you come in the felt awareness of your sinfulness and hell deservingness and have you found peace of conscience pardon forgiveness and acceptance through the blood of Jesus and the blood of the incarnate God man the Lord Jesus Christ then he follows that declaration you are not your own and the price was nothing less than the blood of the incarnate God man the Lord

The Solemn Obligation: 'Glorify God in Your Body'

30:04 Jesus Christ then he follows that declaration you are not your own the explanation you were bought with a price with this statement of their solemn obligation the last part of the text what does this then say to the Corinthians and what does it say to us what obligation does it lay upon us glorify God therefore in your body and the little particle translated therefore is an unusual connected it's not the ordinary connected and one careful student of the language in which Paul wrote has suggested the translation should be to give the sense of it by all means then glorify God I am not my own because I've been bought with a price it is clear then that sensual gratification I am not at liberty to express my sexuality in terms of anything that approaches the mentality of our day it is my body to do with as I please the whole concept of sexual

31:33 preference assumes the notion of sexual autonomy that I have a right to determine what I shall do with my sexuality no one who has made me a sexual being has defined the parameters in which my sexuality is to be expressed to his glory and though I was the slave of sin and as the slave of sin in the language of Romans 6 presented my members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin if I'm a Christian I am the purchased property of the Lord Jesus Christ I am not my own I've been bought with a price therefore I am under a blessed but nonetheless solemn obligation to glorify God in my body I know some of you have translations that add and in your spirit which are his which along with our bodies belong to him there is strong indication that when Paul penned this letter he did not pen those words that they

33:01 were not a part of the original letter that Paul sent to the Corinthians for the great issue with the Corinthians was the issue of the bloodletting of the son of God you are to glorify God in your body because it is purchased property because it has been purchased at the price of the bloodletting of the son of God you are to glorify God in that body in my body when the activities of my body are determined by a right rule and are carried out by a right motive to a right end God is glorified in my body when its activities are determined by a right rule and that is in his word that fornication is sin that adultery is sin

34:30 that God has told me that gluttony is sin that God has told me that laziness is sin that God has told me that a host of bodily activities in which man indulges are violations of his mind and they are present only because of the horrible intrusion of sin into the human race and in a day when pagan philosophy on the one hand either said bodily actions are a matter of indifference all that matters is the state of the soul and of the heart the body of God as God taught us that we know all in our mind that we serve God and we will serve God forever in the age and in the beginning come. And so it shouldn't surprise us to find such statements as these. Turn over please to

Paul's Example: Magnifying Christ in the Body

35:59 Philippians and see the perspective of the apostle. He is imprisoned at Rome and he's writing of the various activities that he knows are going on outside the prison among certain gospel preachers and he's indicating his response to those realities and in that setting he says verse 19 I know Philippians 1 19 that this shall turn out to my salvation through your supplication and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing shall I be put to shame but that with all boldness as always. So now also Christ shall be magnified, now look at the language, in my body. Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death, for to

37:19 me to live is Christ as the focal point of my life. How do I live out my life but in a bodily existence? Therefore, if my passion to please and honor and glorify Christ is something more than a passing devotional notion, Christ must be magnified in my body. If my body must be confined within a house arrest circumstance, in that setting, I want Christ magnified in my body. In my reaction to my captors, I want to magnify Christ in my body. When that very body was placed in stocks and its back was lacerated there at Philippi, He had the same passion that Christ be magnified in that body. And though the hand and feet were restrained. The heart and the tongue were not restrained. And so he and

38:32 his companions sang praises to God at midnight. Later on in this very epistle, when he thinks of the return of the Lord Jesus, notice what he longs for according to verse 20 of chapter 3 of Philippians. For our citizenship or commonwealth is in heaven. Whence we wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice what he says. Not who shall perfect our spirits from all the remnants of sin, so that we may be able to serve him with sinless mind and affection. Now he looked forward to that. That's why to depart and to be with Christ was far better, even though the intermediate state is abnormal when soul and body are temporarily separated. But the the Paul's great earnest longing was not primarily for the intermediate state, but it was the return of Christ and the consummation of redemption, at which time he said he shall fashion anew

39:40 the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory. You see, the apostle had a wholesome biblical perspective on the place of the body. And it's in this body and in this body alone that we serve God for whatever allotment of time is marked out for us. And therefore a solemn obligation is upon you and upon me, who claim to be the purchased property of Jesus Christ, to glorify God in our bodies. I ask you by way of application, dear child of God, have you come to me now in this life and in the next life? to grips with the simple realities of first Corinthians 6 19b and verse 20 that as a Christian you are in no sense your own property you are not your own you are not your own that means all of your bodily appetites all of your bodily passions all of your faculties and all

Application: Self-Ownership, the Lord's Table, and Daily Life

40:58 of your energies they are in no sense you be self-determining in their activities to be self-determining in the standards by which you will regulate those activities you are not your own and why are you not your own you were bought for the price well God willing we're going to come to the Lord's table tonight and there on the table will be sitting the loaf and the fruit of the bread Now when you take that loaf and take the cup Can you do so intelligently and joyfully with this realization By claiming a faith interest in the body of Christ given up in death for me In the blood of Christ shed for me Can you intelligently and joyfully from the heart say That means I am not my own and I'm glad I'm glad I've been bought by another I am glad I don't belong to myself

42:20 You see if you partake of the bread and of the cup And you have any irritation and reservation with this solemn affirmation You're not your own To some degree you're involved in an acted out lie To take of that bread and to take of that cup Is to say that I have not only come to rest In the provisions for sinners secured by the body and blood of Christ You're not only saying that I live by the virtue of Christ crucified I feed by faith upon the Lord Jesus He is my life I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me That I'm saved I'm saying in a fresh affirmation of joy I'm not my own I've been bought And the price was nothing less Than the horrible, shameful, agonizing death of the Lord Jesus Can you say as you come to the table That being true that I'm not my own

43:42 I am committed to glorify the God of redeeming mercy and grace In this body That is that people seeing me Will know something of why God made man in his own image That I may by the power of the Holy Spirit And by the enablement of divine grace Live for the very purpose for which I was made Namely to glorify God Whether I eat or drink or whatsoever I do I am to do all to the glory of God Therefore you see I cannot detach what I'm declaring at the table From what I do at my own dining room table day by day Do I imbibe the kinds of foods ordained by God For adequate, balanced nourishment In such amounts as are necessary To give me the energy to carry out My God-given tasks To the praise of God Or does my table Become in a sense An idol's table At which I worship the God of my belly

45:08 Take in food Simply because I like it And in such amounts as I want to take Not such amounts as I need You see to glorify God in your body means That at your table Your dealings with food Are cross-centered Are Christ-centered Have reference to the glory of God What I eat What I drink Carry it into every relationship These Corinthians were to carry it In its context Into the whole matter Of their sexual urges And capacities And powers And even the past practices All had to be carried out by God To be evaluated by this new reality You're natural You've been bought with a price You're to glorify God In your body Because of the presence of children And young people And I would not be the occasion of sin Do you married couples see what this means? The whole notion that what any married couple Does behind closed doors Is their business I reject that

46:36 It is God's business Because I'm a man I'm a man Because he's behind the bedroom door He has marked out in his holy word If not a detailed manual Of sexual practices that please him He has given broad strokes Of guidelines by which To educate the conscience Scripture speaks of that which is against man And the scripture speaks of Let all untuneness Not be named amongst you As becomes Satan Some of you who've imbibed the world's Notions that a marriage ring And a marriage certificate Are a license To any practice of sexual intimacy We choose No, you're not your own You've been bought with a price Glorify God You go to your Bible with the prayer Lord help me to discover from your word The principles that ought to regulate Our intimate life So that we are conscious That we glorify you In our bodies You go to your Bible You take that into every single area Of bodily function Bodily appetite Bodily capacities And as we come to the Lord's table tonight

The Nature of Biblical Christianity and Concluding Prayer

48:04 Make God grant That for us as the Lord's people There will be a fresh And a joyful Reality We are not alone You've been bought with a price And that our deepest passion and longing Is that the God who bought us Would be our God Would be glorified in these bodies While we yet serve him in this life In our bodily existence And then to know That in the resurrection We shall be given a body In which we will serve him Without weariness Without sickness and disease And pain And without even the need for sleep For there shall be No night there And the scripture says They shall serve him Day and night And follow the Lamb With a serenity Doing your own thing And once in a while If your conscience troubles you Think about Jesus And what he did on the cross And God's unconditional love And it will all be fixed up My friends that's bogus Damning Substitute Christian faith Biblical Christianity says Salvation is all in Christ All provided by him

49:32 When he cried out It is finished There is nothing we can add To that which he did But when the spirit of God Opens the eyes Of a guilt stricken sinner To the wonder of Christ Accomplished work upon the cross That sinner who's prepared To abandon all confidence In himself In his works In his performance Past, present or anticipated In the future The same Holy Spirit Who brings the sinner To abandon all confidence To abandon all confidence To abandon all confidence To abandon all confidence To abandon all hope Of trusting in himself And brings that sinner To rely wholly and solely Upon Christ And his sacrifice On behalf of sinners Always reveals Such a loveliness in Christ That that sinner Who rests wholly upon him Gives himself completely to him And says Here Lord I give myself away Is all that I can do I'm glad to be here I'm glad to be purchased Out of the slave market To sin Out from under the bondage And condemnation Of my sin I'm delighted Lord To be purchased To be your bonds For to this end You died and rose That you might be Lord Both of the dead And of the lame So I leave you

51:01 With that simple Fundamental Very elementary Meditation this morning You are the one You are not your own What's the explanation for that You were bought with a price What is the implication Glorify God therefore In your body Let us pray Our Father we thank you For your holy word We thank you that it is a lamp Unto our feet And a light to our pathway We pray that you would take This portion of your word And so write it upon Our hearts That with renewed joy We may own the reality Of what you have made us By your grace Your purchased property No longer our own And we're ashamed That so often We take what is yours And use it in ways That dishonor you Lord have mercy upon us And as we anticipate Coming to the table tonight The privilege That will be ours To take of the emblems Of the broken body And the poured out blood Of the Son of God May we not

52:29 By our partaking Declare a lie But oh that our partaking May be an affirmation From the heart Of our joyful acknowledgement That we are not our own We have been bought with a price And we are committed In the strength and grace Of your grace Of your spirit To glorify you In our bodies Seal then your word To our hearts We pray And may your blessing Rest upon us As we leave this place We ask in Jesus name Amen