A Body Prepared By God

“Wherefore when he [Christ} cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.” Heb. 10:5

The Old Testament sacrifices that appeased the judgment of God for sin in the lives of the Israelites were fine…as far as they went. The trouble was, they were always meant to be temporary and foreshadowing (Heb. 10:1-4). It was “foreordained before the foundation of the world,” says Peter (1 Pet. 1:20) that God would provide himself as a sacrificial Lamb. But for this to be accomplished, God would need a body. A spirit could not die nor shed the blood that eternal redemption would require. This is why the body had to be prepared by God and conceived by the Holy Spirit, a Body infused with Deity but susceptible to the pain, anger, hunger, tears, and sorrow of those He came to save.

This is all beyond my ability to fully fathom, though I accept it, and by faith, have appropriated it for myself. I have claimed God’s final sacrificial Lamb as my Sin-bearer! I’m aware God is worshipped “in spirit” (John 4:24); but He is glorified in your body, as well as your spirit (1 Cor. 6:20). In fact, when it comes to finding and doing the will of God, the first thing you have to settle is the ownership of your body (Rom. 12:1). Having said that, now let me tell you what else the last four words of this verse say to me.

God has prepared a body for me, as He did for His Son; not infused with Deity, of course, but indwelt by it (1 Cor. 6:19). And He prepared it with His glory in mind. All I have to do is find out how. It must be stated as a matter of course that every sin against the body is a sin against God, wouldn't you agree? But beyond that, I believe our God has fashioned each of us to bring glory to Him, in our own individual ways, by talents, skills, affections, and temperaments that can be honed and utilized to honor and magnify Him to the best of our abilities. And I believe He sometimes prepares weak, sickly bodies to bring Him the most glory of all. But it works both ways. As George H. Morrison has said, “ You can train your body to be the best of comrades. You can train it to be the deadliest of enemies.”

I leave you with one question to ask yourself. I hope you will take it seriously and not answer till you’ve meditated and prayed about it:

“How did God prepare my body to serve Him?