“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” — Romans 12:1, 2.
THE human body is a marvelous testimony to the personality and the wisdom of God. It is inconceivable that anything so wonderful should have come into existence without the guiding hand of a personal Creator. “He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see?” (Psa. 94:9.) In creating our bodies He designed them for the highest of all purposes: that they might be used to glorify Him.
When He saves a man He claims all there is of him. Some have thought that if the soul is saved, it is a small matter how the body is used. But the believer’s body is the vehicle through which he expresses himself, and it is to be recognized as a sanctuary in which God dwells by His Spirit, as He dwelt, first in the Tabernacle and then in the Temple of old. The spirit of man is the holy of holies, and the body is like the building itself, all of which was to be kept holy to the Lord. All debasing habits, all unlawful appetites, all evil inclinations are to be judged in the presence of God, confessed as sin, and rigidly turned away from, in order that we may rightly represent Him in this world, through whose grace we have been saved.
“Laid on Thine altar, O my Lord divine,
Accept my will this day, for Jesus’ sake.
I have no jewels to adorn Thy shrine,
Nor any world-proud sacrifice to make:
But here I bring within my trembling hand
This will of mine—a thing that seemeth small,
And Thou alone, O God, canst understand
How when I yield Thee this I yield Thee all.”