CREATED: Body & Soul
[Read Genesis 2:5-7, 21-23]
Last fall I spent three long months dealing with back issues. I know many of you have had to deal with much worse physical issues, but this was pretty difficult. It seemed like I couldn’t do anything to make my back feel better and since my back was a mess, I couldn’t do anything either. It was frustrating. I had so many things I wanted to do but I couldn’t do them. One day, I go so frustrated I yelled, “I’m tired of this STUPID body!!!”
I know many of you have been there before too. As you’ve gotten older, one of Jesus’ sayings is taking on new meaning: “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” And, since the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak, we get frustrated, right? We can’t do the things we want to do and we get frustrated that our bodies are holding us back.
So when we read this morning's passage, things begin to make sense...a least a little bit. We read, “Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground...” (Genesis 2:5, ESV). We think, “Yeah, I kinda feel like I’ve been made from dust—not chiseled out of rock or marble or granite.” And, to some degree, that’s part of why we’re told God made us from dust. This needs to humble us. I love the way John Calvin responds to this passage, saying, “Let foolish men now go and boast of the excellency of their nature!” (p. 111). This is also why Abraham responds to speaking to the Lord, saying, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.” (Genesis 18:27, ESV).
So, there’s this interesting contrast, isn’t there? Last week we talked about how we were created in the image of God, the crown of creation, full of dignity, value, and worth. Now we’re being told we’re made from dirt. It’s important to hold these things together in tension. If you forget that we’re made of dirt, you can begin to think WAY too highly of the human race—even begin to worship our “greatness and glory” (which we see happening right now). Yet, on the other hand, if you forget that we’re the crown of creation, full of dignity, worth, and value, you can begin to think we’re nothing but dirt—worm food, without meaning and purpose (which we also see happening). So, we need to hold these things in tension.
This passage also reminds us that our bodies are good. Actually, the entire physical realm of creation is not only good, but VERY GOOD—including our bodies. That’s an important reminder for each of us when we get frustrated with our bodies. God gave us this body. He created us with bodies AND it is VERY GOOD.
Along these same lines, Herman Bavinck reminds us, “The body is not a prison, but a marvelous piece of art from the hand of God Almighty...” (2.555). That understanding flows from the use of the word “formed” in our passage. Remember our passage says, “Then the Lord God FORMED the man of dust from the ground...” (Genesis 2:7, ESV). Later on in scripture, in the book of Isaiah, we read a rebuke of God’s people: “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles?’” (Isaiah 45:9, ESV). Many people need to hear this rebuke today, but I want to look beyond the rebuke this morning. How does this passage use the word “formed”? It uses it to describe the work of a potter with a piece of clay. That’s what God is doing when he is FORMING humanity from the dust of the earth. He is forming us like a potter with clay, creating a work of art—not a prison that holds us back. Our bodies are VERY GOOD.
Then, we read passages in God’s Word where the Apostle Paul says, “I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body...” (Philippians 1:20, ESV). The goal is to honor God with our bodies. That’s because, as we read elsewhere in scripture, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord...” (1 Corinthians 6:13, ESV). Our bodies are made for the Lord to be used to honor the Lord.
One more quick side note on the goodness of the body. This is why it’s not good to hurt the body or murder someone. It is a desecration of something God has called very good. To cut yourself or intentionally hurt yourself, or to hurt someone else or murder them—which is hurting the body very badly, right?— is to desecrate the body that God has called good. Rather, we are to take care of our bodies and treat them as the gift of God that they are. That means sleeping, eating, working, and exercising properly. It also means accepting the limitations of our body. The limitations are there to remind us that we are not God and refocus our trust on Him.
Yet, we are more than just a body. If we keep reading our passage, we read, “Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Genesis 2:7, ESV). It’s important to know that the last word of that sentence—“creature”—is actually the Hebrew word for SOUL. The man became a living soul. So, God created humans—body AND soul. We read the same thing in the book of Zechariah, “Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him.” (Zechariah 12:1, ESV). So, there is more to us than just our physical body. We have a soul—an invisible aspect of our being.
Most of the time we don’t even think about our soul. Yet, in times of deep grief, we become painfully aware, don’t we. Those times when there’s a heavy weight upon our soul. We can’t explain it, but we know the heaviness is there. You can’t measure it on a scale. You can’t medically or physiologically diagnose the heaviness. It’s just there, hanging upon our soul. I’m sure you’ve felt it before.
So, we’re not just physical beings, there’s an invisible aspect of our being. And, because we live in a world that is trying to deny the existence of any invisible, spiritual realm, the church has sometimes overemphasized the spiritual aspect of our being. There’s a fairly common saying I’ve heard over the years: “We’re not bodies with a soul, but souls with a body” or something like that. Yet, that’s not quite true. That’s insinuating that our humanity—the essence of who we are—only resides in our soul AND that our bodies don’t really matter.
But that’s not what the Bible teaches. It teaches that the essence of our humanity resides in our bodies AND our souls. So, we can say that we are embodied souls or ensouled bodies, but both of those options subtly place an emphasis on either our body or our soul. We don’t want to place an emphasis on either of them. We are BOTH body and soul and we need to hold BOTH in proper tension. As we’ll discuss in the next section, many of the problems revolving around sexuality are the result of separating body from soul. We must not do that. God created us body and soul. He placed them together. And what God has joined together, let not man separate.
This is why the Heidelberg Catechism begins the way it does. “What is our only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul—to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.” Our body and our soul belong to Jesus Christ—they are made for God. Not just our body. Not just our soul. BOTH of them belong to Jesus.
And, since our bodies and our souls are connected and cannot be separated, our sexuality is also connected to our body and our soul. We cannot disconnect our sexuality from our body. We cannot disconnect our sexuality from our soul.
If we’re honest with ourselves, we know this is true. Here’s one example that I don’t think will get me into hot water. It’s become culturally appropriate to say something like, “It doesn’t matter what’s on the outside. It’s only what’s on the inside that matters.” Now, of course, there is some good truth there. Of course it’s more important to be beautiful on the inside than on the outside. So, don’t hear me wrong. However, that saying is subtly deemphasizing the body and is probably not helpful.
To prove my point a bit, imagine giving your wife a Valentine’s Day card that says, “I don’t like your body, but your soul is pretty neat.” That’s not going to fly and it’s not going to get you any brownie points. Most likely you’ll be living in the dog house. Why? Isn’t that the right thing to say? Isn’t what’s on the inside more important than what’s on the outside? Not quite. That will NEVER be an acceptable thing to say to someone we love because we are not just souls, we have been created BODY AND SOUL and we need to recognize BOTH of those realities in our spouse—and in those around us. The proper thing to say is “Baby I love you—body and soul” and then LIVE and ACT that way because it’s true.
Because our souls and our bodies are connected and cannot be separated, we also need to be saved body and soul. That’s why Jesus took on flesh and was born as a man. If he came only as a spirit, he could have saved our soul, but not our body. If he only came as a body, he could have saved our body but not our soul. But he came as one fully God and fully man—body AND soul—so he could redeem us in our body and in our soul.
Because Jesus had a body, he ate and drank and grew tired and slept. But he also had a soul. We see the combination of his body and soul in the Garden of Gethsemane when we read, “And he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death’” (Mark 14:34, ESV) and as he prayed drops of blood began to come from his forehead—a connection between body and soul. And then, as he hung on the cross, dying for the forgiveness of our sins, his final words were, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46, ESV). So, at his death, there was a separation between his body and his spirit. His spirit went to be with the Father, but his body was laid in a tomb...but not forever. On the third day he rose again from the dead—BODY and SOUL. Jesus didn’t remain an invisible spirit but his body and soul were reunited and rose again from the dead, where he walked around on earth eating and drinking and talking to his discipled, and eventually ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of his Father in heaven. And he did all of this BODY and SOUL.
The same is true for us as well. I think many forget about this reality from God’s Word. We are all aware that when we die our bodies are buried in the ground and—for those who have given their lives to Jesus and have been redeemed—their souls go to be with the Lord. But that’s not the end of the story. We will not go on throughout eternity as an invisible soul. Just like Jesus, there will be a period of time where our soul and our bodies will be separated. However, just like Jesus, our soul and our body will be reunited again one day—when Jesus returns—and our bodies will be raised from the dead (just like Jesus). We read about this beautiful, powerful truth in 1 Corinthians 15. I recommend you go home and read the entire chapter this afternoon, spending time to meditate on it, but I’ll give you a little taste right now. “So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body...Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 51-53; ESV).
That’s quite a beautiful picture, isn’t it? Our bodies will enter the ground broken and frail and fallen apart and weak, but will be raised from the dead perfected, strong, and never to fall apart again. The creation around us will also be changed—we’ll live in the new heavens and the new earth. And we’ll spend the rest of eternity in this new heavens and new earth, worshiping our Creator with our BODIES and our SOULS.