Body Matters: Finding Freedom in Christ's Redemption

Have you ever felt at war with your own body? Perhaps you've tried to escape it through overwork, screen time, or numbing behaviors. Maybe you've obsessed over perfecting it, measuring your worth by fitness levels or appearance. Either way, the message is clear: your body, as it exists right now, isn't enough.

This powerful message challenges that harmful narrative by exploring how God sees our physical existence. Drawing from Genesis, we discover the radical truth that our bodies are created in God's image and declared "very good"—not as temporary shells holding the "real us," but as intentional, valuable parts of our whole being. This truth stands in stark contrast to ancient Gnosticism (which viewed bodies as bad and spirits as good) and modern tendencies to either dismiss or idolize our physical selves.

The incarnation takes this truth even further. When "the Word became flesh," God didn't merely appear human—he fully entered the human experience. Jesus felt hunger, fatigue, and pain. He enjoyed food, friendship, and rest. This wasn't God hovering above our weakness but stepping directly into it. And if God was willing to take on flesh, our bodies must matter deeply.

Discipleship, then, can never be reduced to right beliefs or spiritual practices alone. It must include how we treat our physical selves. Our choices about sleep, food, movement, and rest aren't disconnected from faith—they're opportunities to honor God with our whole being. And ultimately, the resurrection confirms that God's plan isn't to save us from our bodies but to redeem them completely.

What might change if you started seeing your body not as a problem to solve but as part of God's masterpiece? Consider thanking God for your body today, imperfections and all, and ask how you might honor him with your physical life this week. Will you give your whole self to the One who gave His whole self for you?

Chapters

• 0:00 The Body as a Problem
• 4:09 Created in God's Image
• 7:12 Gnosticism vs. Christian Truth
• 10:16 God Became Flesh
• 15:00 Discipleship Includes the Body
• 17:51 Practicing Embodied Faith
• 21:14 The Hope of Bodily Resurrection

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

And welcome to our Madison Church online audience. I'm Stephen. We live in a world that treats the body like a problem. I think we live in a world that treats the body like a problem. What I mean, on the one hand, is we treat our bodies as though they are something to escape, and so maybe, perhaps, home life isn't going very well for you. So you know, I'll just go into work early, an hour or two or four, and you know, I got to stay late because I've got this deadline and it's really critical that I hit it and I do a good job, and so I'm going to stay late an hour or two or four, and then, pretty soon, we're working 12-hour days in the name of doing a good job at work, so that we can escape from whatever's happening at home. Perhaps that's not an option for you, so instead you stay at home and you numb out and escape on a screen. You're scrolling on Instagram over and over and over and over, and those minutes turn into hours and you don't realize it. And then you think about all of the hours you spent scrolling this week and you're like it's almost like an eight-hour shift or a couple days worth of work. Or you play the video games and you're in a different world, completely different from the one that we live in now, and it's so immersive. So there's that on the one hand, and on the other hand, we're told that the body is something to make perfect. We need to perfect ourselves. We measure our worth by how beautiful we are or how in shape or fit or healthy that we are. You don't have to look far to see how kind of fitness culture has turned into a little bit like a cult in some cases, not always. It's not just about health, it's about identity. This is who I am. I'm a gym bro, or whatever the female version of that is, but I go to the gym all the time, once or twice a week. This is my identity. It's who I am, and my gym is my community. These are my people. It's where I find belonging. It's even salvation. These are my people. It's where I find belonging, it's even salvation. You say things like if I eat clean, work out hard enough, track my macros, I'll finally be enough.

Speaker 1: 2:13

Now, this is two sides of the same message, isn't it Escaping my body or just going all in on it? But the message is the same. It's that your body as it is right now, sitting in this seat or wherever you're watching or listening, it's not enough, as is. We either need to take something away or add to it, and so, one way or another, we are chasing impossible standards. Okay, because you're never going to make your body perfect and you're never going to fully be able to escape it, and you're never going to fully be able to escape it.

Speaker 1: 2:50

Some of us, we hide from our bodies, numbing our pain, ignoring our limits, until we're confronted and have to because we're burned out or we're dealing with a really bad addiction that is ruining our lives. Others of us obsess and compare ourselves to people we don't know and who, honestly, don't exist outside of a highly curated and filtered photo on social media. But what do you do and many of us are here today when your body isn't enough? I mean, in both cases, the body becomes something to fear. Fight or fix. We're either fearful of our body. We need to fix it, something to fight within me. But what happens when you wake up sore? Like I've been playing golf this weekend and I woke up. I'm a little sore today. It's just golf, I use a cart. How am I sore? What happens when you wake up tired in the morning, you're like well, I got nine hours of sleep, what more could I have done? What happens when you look in the mirror and you notice that I'm getting older? I don't look as good as I used to, when illness and aging reminds you that your body has limits, has limits.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Well, god tells a better story, and that is that Jesus didn't come to save us from our humanity, but to redeem humanity. Okay, he didn't come to save you from the things we're talking about, he came to redeem those things. When we go to Genesis, the very first pages of Genesis, we hear a radical story about our bodies, our physical bodies. God said let us make human beings in our image, to be like us, and they will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on earth and all the small animals that scurry along the ground. And so God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God. He created them, male and female. He created them. And then God looked over all he had made and he saw that it was very good.

Speaker 1: 5:01

So a moment ago I mentioned what do we do when our bodies are something we want to escape or make perfect. And we're sitting here and maybe we're not content with the shape of our body or the state of it, but we're told each and every single one of us we're made in the image of God, and that includes the physical body, your physical body, created in the image of God and, despite what you might think, despite what might have been told to you said about you, god declares you're very good, that as you are, you are created very good. Your body is not an accident, it's not a mistake, it's not a temporary shell holding the real you inside until you pass on and then you're released. Your body is part of what Paul calls God's masterpiece. You are the crown jewel of God's creation. God intentionally designed us. We are created as a whole person, not just our minds and not just our souls, but bodies as well, woven together in God's image. And that truth holds for every body, not just the young, not just the strong, not just the able-bodied, but every single body, whether living with disability, illness or limitation. Every body bears God's image and is declared very good.

Speaker 1: 6:40

In the earliest centuries, one of the first false teachings the church had to face was called Gnosticism and I was telling a buddy about this a couple days ago that we're in a series called Blurred and we're talking about Gnosticism, and he said that's a tough sell. I hope you don't advertise it like that. And I thought about it and I'm like you're right and no, we did advertise it just like that. But the Gnostics and it is relevant to us living today the Gnostics believed that the spirit was good and the body was bad, and you can see how that type of thinking is still prevalent in Christian circles 2,000 years later. This is not a Christian belief, this is a Gnostic belief. The Gnostics believed the spirit was good, body bad. Salvation, they said, came by escaping the physical world and finding some higher, secret knowledge, belief in God.

Speaker 1: 7:27

And while you and I don't call ourselves Gnostics, it's that lie, that kind of creeps into our theology. How we see God, how we live out our faith, we see it in the way that our culture treats our body. On the one side, we dismiss the body. It's unimportant, it's what's on the inside that counts. Well, that's Gnosticism. On the other side, we obsess over our bodies, making appearance or performance the ultimate measure of worth. Look how good and spiritual I am. I read my Bible every day. I pray every day. This is me, and even in church. Yes, we slip into this thinking of spiritual stuff. Yes, there's my body and it's bad and I got to harness it and make it do the things that it's supposed to do, while at the same time, we celebrate spiritual stuff or what we perceive. Prayer, bible study, singing. This is what really matters, that's the stuff. And when we do that, we say, well, our bodies don't count.

Speaker 1: 8:28

But the story we read in Genesis, it won't let you believe that You'd have to completely dismiss it. I'm not here to talk about Genesis. And is the earth 6,000 years old or 6 million years old? That's not the point right now. The point is in this story we are told we are created in God's image and he declares it very good. And this should change how you see yourself this morning, even if your body is ill or tired or you look in the mirror and you don't see the person you used to see or the person that you want to be. You're created very good. But it doesn't just change how you see yourself. It ought to change how we see each other, because every single person in here and out there is created in that same image of God. So before we talk about what went wrong or how Christ redeems us, we need to start by acknowledging the body is a gift. It is a very good gift. Our body is a part of God's good creation and that means our bodies are worth honoring, not ignoring.

Speaker 1: 9:41

We go to the New Testament this isn't just an Old Testament idea. We go to John's gospel, and John opens his gospel with this claim. It says in the beginning the word already existed, the Word was with God and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through Him and nothing was created except through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created and His life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it. And so the Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness and we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father's one and only Son.

Speaker 1: 10:29

And this is a radical thing to write and to say, even 2,000 years ago. I think it's true today, but 2,000 years ago every other religion or philosophy in the ancient world taught that the divine was distant, so very far away out there somewhere where who knows they're untouchable and they're way beyond flesh. The gods would stay over there and were down here, and if they ever did come down here, it was just to play games and screw around with us. We were entertainment, and it's in that culture that the gods are there and we are here, and the only time they come down is to mess with us. To read then John's claim that God went from there to here and it wasn't to mess with us but to redeem us is a powerful shift in worldview. John says something that no one else had ever dared to say before, and that was that the eternal God creator, god, breathes the same air that you and I breathe today.

Speaker 1: 11:33

He ate meals, he walked dusty roads. He experienced everything it meant and means to be human. Tummy aches and headaches and all. God doesn't just hover above our weakness, though. This wasn't a mirage, an appearance. Jesus entered into it. He knows what it's like to be tired. Have you thought about that? Jesus took naps. Jesus went to bed. He felt tired after a long day of walking. He knows what it's like to feel hunger. We read all the time Jesus is eating and sitting at the table. His body felt weak. It needed food so he could be strengthened. He knows what it's like to carry stress. We read about this in the Easter story. He was so stressed out that he sweat blood. Jesus knows joy and laughter, grief and pain. He didn't come to erase the human experience, but rather to redeem it.

Speaker 1: 12:40

Sometimes we act like being spiritual means leaving humanity behind. We become hyper-religious, detached above everyday life. But if God was willing to take on a body, then our bodies must matter at least to some degree. If Jesus lived fully human, then following him means embracing humanity, not running from it, and this is good news for us. It means that your limits, they're not failures. They're part of what Jesus came to restore. It means our bodies aren't obstacles but rather vessels through which God is glorified. It means that salvation, the salvation that we have in Jesus, isn't escape, isn't escape, it's renewal. The Word became flesh and because of that your flesh has eternal worth. If creation tells us that the body is good and the incarnation shows us that God himself took on flesh, then discipleship, following Jesus and becoming like Jesus, can never be reduced to having the right beliefs, the right thinking or private spirituality.

Speaker 1: 13:56

Following Jesus is not only about believing. It isn't about believing the right doctrines, praying the right prayer, but it's allowing Jesus's lordship to transform every part of our body mind, spirit and body. The apostle Paul puts it plainly in 1 Corinthians 6.20. He says God bought you with a high price, so you must honor God with your body. He doesn't say mind here, he doesn't say soul or spirit With your physical body. That's how comprehensive the gospel is the message of Jesus. He purchased it all, not just my thoughts, not just your Sunday mornings, but our entire embodied life. This means discipleship touches on how we eat and drink, how we rest and work, how we move throughout our day, how we show up in relationships. This isn't being over-spiritual, it's being spiritual and physical. It means that our choices about sleep, stress, sexuality, diet, exercise and even posture are not disconnected from the faith, and even posture we're not disconnected from the faith. They're all opportunities to glorify God or to live divided lives. And this freedom that Jesus offers us this is the freedom that Jesus offers us. It's freedom from divided living.

Speaker 1: 15:28

Too many of us we struggle with our faith or with the real world because we're trying to live a disintegrated life. God wants us to reintegrate, to bring it all together to live a life and to follow Jesus in a way that includes our mind, body and spirit, in a way that submits our mind, body and spirit under his lordship and to his kingdom. That when we pray, god, let your will be done, it's not just the way I think or my spirituality, but also my physical body as well. Discipleship means recognizing that how we treat our bodies is a part of worship, and it means learning to see every ordinary physical moment perhaps eating dinner with your family, taking a walk, going to bed on time. It's a struggle.

Speaker 1: 16:18

For me, it means that these things are a chance to honor the one who gave his life for us in the first place. And so, as we go on this week you leave here and you go to work or you go home you do the things that you have to do this week, from the time we leave here to the time that we come back next week let's pay attention to the way that we treat our bodies, and not with guilt oh, I shouldn't have done that. Now I'm ashamed and not with comparison I did really good this week and y'all didn't but with gratitude, god, thank you. My body gets hungry and the joy that it is to eat something really good that I really like, and the strength I feel. God, thank you that when I go to sleep I wake up the next morning rested, my thoughts a little bit more organized. God, thank you for this.

Speaker 1: 17:10

We assume things sometimes if we're not careful. That being spiritual means well, I've got to pray and read my Bible and, yes, it includes that. But it also includes how much we sleep or don't sleep, what we eat, how the rest of our body feels. Paul reminds us in Romans 12, give your bodies, your physical bodies, to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he finds acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. So let's practice Madison Church an embodied faith.

Speaker 1: 17:49

Begin by thanking God for your body. I know that might sound elementary, simple and easy, but I also bet a lot of us don't do that or haven't done it. It's a great first step. God, thank you for this body. Imperfections and all Difficulties and challenges and all, but after you, thank God for your body.

Speaker 1: 18:11

Perhaps the next question, a more challenging question, something to ask God to pray and reflect on, is how can I honor you with my physical life this week. Maybe that looks like getting enough rest this week, instead of staying up late and then going through the day the next day on fumes. Maybe it means slowing down and enjoying meals with gratitude rather than rushing through them. Maybe it's just moving your body, not out of shame but out of stewardship and joy. Maybe it's resisting the trap of comparison, remembering that your worth isn't in how you measure up, but who God says that you are.

Speaker 1: 18:55

These practices are not self-help. It's not self-improvement, it's not image management. I'm not trying to help you find another 20,000 followers on Instagram because you're so cool. This is about worship and it's about treating our bodies as the gift that they are. You are saying, god, I trust you with all of me, not just my thoughts and not just my prayers, but all of me, because following Jesus is never disembodied. It's about offering every part of our lives words, thoughts, choices, body back to the one who gave himself all of those things to us.

Speaker 1: 19:35

The story doesn't end with Jesus taking on flesh or even dying in the flesh. Yes, that's how the story goes. Jesus took on flesh, he died. But the story reaches its climax in a bodily resurrection, a physical body resurrection. It was on that third day that Jesus rose again bodily from the grave, not as a spirit and not as a ghost, although that is what some of the early disciples who saw him thought he must be a ghost. No, he was really there, physical, glorified body. He ate fish with his disciples, he let Thomas touch his scars and, as the theologian NT Wright reminds us, the resurrection is not an escape from the material world, a redemption of it.

Speaker 1: 20:22

Jesus' bodily, physical resurrection reminds us that the future is not an escape from the body but a renewal of it. And that changes everything. Because if God created our bodies as good and Jesus redeemed humanity by stepping into it, then the resurrection confirms it forever. No one can take that away from you. Our bodies matter, not just now but for eternity. Our hope as Christians is not to leave the world behind, floating off as some disembodied soul. Our hope is in a new creation, and that's the picture that Revelation poses for us, poses for us, shows heaven coming to earth. Not us escaping earth for heaven, but God coming back to us, the promise that God will raise us in renewed and resurrected bodies fit for an eternal kingdom. And that promise is not about becoming someone else or fitting into our world's idea of perfection. It's about being made whole again. And for those who live every day with pain or limitation or disability, whether those things are seen or unseen, the resurrection means God will not erase who you are, but rather complete who you are, body and spirit in his presence. And if that's the future, then how we live today in our bodies matters Our acts of care, stewardship, gratitude and embodied worship.

Speaker 1: 22:07

It's not wasted, gratitude and embodied worship. It's not wasted. They are rehearsals for a resurrected life with a resurrected King. Every time you honor God with your body, you are participating in the story he is writing from creation to new creation. And so let me leave you with this challenge.

Speaker 1: 22:23

And so let me leave you with this challenge Will you give your whole self mind, body, spirit to the one who gave his whole self for you? Will you live an integrated life, refusing to divide the spiritual from the physical, choosing instead to honor God in every ordinary embodied moment? As we come to the communion table, as we do every week at Madison Church, this is the most physical reminder of the gospel. You have a bread and juice, something we can taste, something we can touch, eating and drinking. It's here at the table, the communion table, that Jesus invites us to remember that his body was broken and that his blood was poured out not to rescue us from our humanity but to redeem our humanity. And so, as you hold the bread and you hold the cup in your hands, remember those words. The word became flesh, he lived, he died, he rose again, and one day so will we.