Embodied God // January 7, 2024

Read Col 2:1-10

Our bodies are often in the background when we think about our spiritual lives, but contrary to how many think, the Bible puts our bodies in the foreground of our spirituality and humanity. The Bible is not alone, as many wrestle with serious questions about the importance of the body in our cultural climate. When we are tempted to be more “disembodied” than ever, we will turn our attention to the beautiful mystery that our God is embodied and created us to be embodied. 

1. God Fully Values Our Bodies

When Paul wrote Colossians, most philosophies and belief systems did not value the body. Many of these philosophies, some continuing to this day, portray salvation or enlightenment as a kind of escape from the body because the body is limited and weak, akin to a “prison” for our souls. Of all the world’s religions, belief systems, and worldviews, only the Bible provides a solid basis for believing in the value and worth of our bodies. Even secular materialism, which is popular today, can’t provide any basis for valuing the human collection of atoms from that of other animals or even inanimate objects.

The incarnation provides us with a basis for the value and worth of our bodies - “the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ” (Col 2:9). The present tense, “dwells,” connotes a permanent rather than temporary situation. God values our bodies so much that he chose to dwell in one forever. At this very moment, our God is embodied, just like us, which should impact how we value our bodies and the bodies of others.

2. God Fully Understands Our Bodies

We know that Jesus now dwells bodily in heaven, but how did he get there? The beauty of the incarnation reminds us that Jesus lived through all our bodily experiences from womb to tomb. God could have simply commanded us to understand Him and obey with our bodies.. After all, He is the Lord our God, who made us and deserves our full attention, devotion, and obedience. Instead, He took on a body and fully experienced physical pain, suffering, and trauma so that he could fully understand us and bring us back to Him. 

In his fully divine nature, Jesus knows everything. But here, we are taught that Jesus’ understanding of our bodies goes to an even deeper, more personal level. His understanding of the human body in a fallen world is not only truly divine from the outside, but truly human from the inside. He was like us “in every way” (Heb 2:17), yet without sin. Therefore, when we turn to Him in His Word, we approach not a distant deity but a God who understands us more than we understand ourselves.

3. God Is The Full Authority On Our Bodies

Living with a body in a broken, sinful world will come with challenges, temptations, and difficulties. We will all need to look to something to interpret all these things, make sense of them, and guide us. Will it be our feelings? Will it be the current cultural consensus? Will it be a reaction to the current cultural consensus? As our embodied God, Jesus is the expert and the authority on the human body. He is not only powerful but personal. Our authority on the body is not a “book” but a person who values and understands us. No one else fully knows what bodies are for, how they are to be used, healed, and made whole. This is foundational for appreciating the Bible’s specific teachings on the body. It can help us with practical issues concerning sexuality, gender, technology, health, and appearance.

4. God Is Fully Invested In The Total Redemption Of Our Bodies

What brings everything together in this text is that we are told  Jesus is fully invested in the redemption of all of us. His work won’t be done until we are made whole - body and soul. We all will have experiences with our bodies that remind us of their brokenness, frailty, and alienation from God. The Bible teaches us that the reason we often feel alienated from our bodies is because we are alienated from and hostile to God through sin (Col 1:21). The gospel tells us what God has done about this alienation. 

The beauty of the Gospel embedded in verse 10 is that there is nothing else we need to be “filled” (complete or whole) that is found apart from Him. The wholeness of Jesus as the God-man makes all the difference as his eternal embodiedness is our guarantee that we will become whole persons just like him. Jesus did not leave the glory of heaven, become fully embodied only to be alone forever in a glorified and whole human body! He came to where we are, to bring us where he now is. We will one day be as he is - whole - in both body and soul. 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

  2. Why is it important we affirm that God fully values the body? How might this challenge some teaching that separates soul and body or gives higher value to spiritual (ie non material things) than physical, bodily things? 

  3. What might it look like to value your own body as God does? What about the bodies of others (all types and kinds of bodies)? What are some things that keep us from valuing our body and others?

  4. Where is it hardest to believe that God understands us (bodily) in “every way”? What difference would it make if we truly believed this for our bodily needs, temptations and struggles? 

  5. How does God’s example to take up our human nature in order to understand us “from the inside” motivate us to do that for others? What might this like especially for those who have different kinds of bodily struggles, pains or needs?

  6. What are some ways that we struggle with God’s full authority on our bodies, and which ones are prevalent in our culture? How can we trust that His authority is loving and good? 

  7. Discuss how this gospel assures and promises us that God is fully invested (100%) in the full (100%) redemption of our bodies. How does knowing this help with the biggest issues we have with our bodies? (examples - our appearance, our aging, our bodily pain, our bodily illness, fear of death, sexuality, not feeling at home in our bodies)

BONUS REFLECTION

REFLECT: Colossians 1:15-22. Refer to this text for full description of how invested God is in the reconciling all things (physical, bodily).

REFLECT: Is there something about your experience in the body that you have not thought mattered to God or repressed out of fear that God or others wouldn’t understand? Whether or not you share this aloud, take time to pray about this, confess your need for help, and receive God’s love toward you in Christ.