There has been a very destructive concept that found it’s way into the Church through monasticism and asceticism. The idea that body is flesh and vile, and that spirit is what must be cultivated. This comes from a heresy known as Gnosticism that claimed a duality of body and spirit, that the body was evil and the spirit was good. This very dangerous concept not only survived in spin offs called Mainchaelism which had Augustine of Hippo for a time, and Catharism which was rampant in France in the Middle Ages, but it is in direct violation of the Incarnation of God, our Lord Jesus Christ who the Nicene Creed affirms was Born of the Virgin Mary, who did have sex later with Joseph her husband and had kids, “But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus..” (Matthew 1:25), but she was a virgin when she had Jesus. The Apostle John tells us to be beware of these heresies against the body, because they speak against Christ, “I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist,” (2 John 1:7), “This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here,” (1 John 4:1-3), and the apostle Paul says, “For no one ever hated his own body, but [instead] he nourishes and protects and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,” (Ephesians 5:29).
Man and Woman is made in the Image of God (Genesis 1:27) and when God made Adam he made a body and breathed a spirit into it, “Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being,” (Genesis 2:7), and Woman was made from Adam’s rib, “Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” (Genesis 2:22). Woman has a body for she is made from Adam who has a body, and so the two are flesh, with God even saying their union, sexual intercourse makes them one flesh, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24). The body of humans is Edenic, it is made in the Image of God, and then God himself took on this very same flesh to pay for our sins on the Cross, “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges ; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 1and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5-11). And when Jesus rose from the dead he also had as body, a new body (John Chapter 20), and the Apostle Paul affirms we shall one day get incorruptible bodies to replace these ones, meaning we shall not remain disembodied spirits forever as some erroneously think,
“But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?”What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed.Similarly there are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.
It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.
The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like[b] the heavenly man.
What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.
But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:35-58).
Our Lord Jesus Christ’s Second Body had the marks of His Crucifixion,
“Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” (John 20:27), and this Same Jesus our Lord also ate a fish to prove he was not ghost or spectra, but He had a genuine resurrected body, “And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence..” (Luke 24:40-43). If Jesus Our Lord has a new body, and it even has the marks of His Sacrifice, then we know as Paul says, we shall attain new bodies at the Resurrection and they will have the marks of our sufferings perhaps. What is key about all of this is that body is crucial, God is not going to have us just be spirits. No! And so while we are on this planet we are to marvel and enjoy our bodies we have now! For they are gifts of God to us! The human body is beautiful because its made in God’s image! Both Male and Female! (Genesis 1:27). All this nonsense about neglecting the body with excessive fasting and even reviling it as temptation, is the false teaching of men who are antichrists! God gave us these bodies and you are not cherish them not tear at them!
The body is a treasure. With it we are able to feel, give and receive affection, see all the wonders of this world, hear all the beautiful sounds of birds and delights of music! The body is something to marvel at and be thankful for! It is with two bodies, a man and woman is able to bring new life into this world! A miracle that Call The Midwife series on BBC/PBS draws attention to! God formed us in the womb the Psalmist proclaims, “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:13). That is why I say and I say now people who shame make up and displaying their bodies in optimal way are wrong! It is merely presenting what God formed through participation of a man and woman in sexual intercourse in a light that accentuates its beauty! We do not deride the beauties of art and music, why would we the sublime bodies of the sexes whom the artisans even captured in statuary, paintings, and many other mediums? The human figure is a beautiful sight, and any one in a church who rails against it as vanity and vulgar shall be called to judgement one day, for they have the spirit of the Cathars and Gnostics in them, not the Spirit of Christ who himself has a Body!
The Church needs to remember the body is precious as is the Spirit, the two are pillars that make up a human being. An attack on either is to erase what it means to be human, what it means to be in the Image of God, and its an attack on Christ too for he is God Incarnate! Amen.
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