The Resurrection of the Body (The Creed, Part 20)

[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

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I believe in the resurrection of the body. Today, as we talk about bodies and why our bodies matter, I want to ask you a silly question. How did you learn how to ride a bike? Did you learn how to ride a bike by pulling it up on YouTube and watching a YouTube channel? Did you learn how to ride a bike by reading a book? The answer is no. You learned how to ride a bike by going through the motions. By getting on a bike and pedaling. And yes, even overcoming that fear of falling. Eventually, if you go through the motions enough, your mind and your heart catch up and you’ll soon learn to love riding a bike.

I say that because there’s this interesting phrase we use a lot in Christianity. I’m just going through the motions, and what we mean by that is that our body is engaged, but our heart, our mind maybe isn’t. Oftentimes what we mean is that God just wants my heart, or God just cares about my heart. So a person won’t go to church because they would just be going through the motions and they’re being true to themselves by not going to church.

Well, if going through the motions is when our body is engaged but our mind isn’t, I want to flip the coin on that and ask, what do we call it when we engage our mind but not our body?

We call that hypocrisy. I’m thinking one thing, but my actions are showing something very different. As Christians, we have to be alert and aware of how dangerous hypocrisy is.

For instance, a person can go to church week after week, but then if they just plunge themselves right back into their sinful life the other six days of the week, their faith is simply imagined. Even though they know the right things about God, they’re just imagining that they believe in him.

Or, for instance, a Christian might say that they trust in Jesus as their Savior, that when they die, they believe that he’ll take their soul safely into heaven. If we say that on the one hand, but on the other hand, don’t show that trust by the physical action of giving offerings to God and showing him that we actually, truly, really trust him, then that trust is only imagined.

A person can say, if I go to church today, I would just be going through the motions because my heart’s not in it. I’d rather just stay at home and listen to the service or sermon while I’m at work this week. But imagine if for a moment, if you’re in a long distance relationship with someone, it’s been months since you’ve seen them, and so you tell them, I’m going to be in town this week. Can we spend time together? And instead they respond by saying, I’d rather not. Let’s just FaceTime later. You would be right in feeling hurt. You would be right. And feeling like that relationship isn’t real.

God cares about our bodies, and every time we confess these words, I believe in the resurrection of the body, we’re saying that our bodies and our life in the body matters. Our life in the body matters so much that Jesus Christ himself assumed a true human body, mind, heart, and soul so that he could live a life of perfect harmony between his thoughts, his words, and his actions. And he laid that life and that body down as a perfect sacrifice for you and me on the cross. And he did that to take your body and your life and make it his own.

Your body belongs to him. So let us live our life and our faith in the body in a way that harmonizes with our faith. And what’s so beautiful about this statement is that your body matters so much that even after your soul goes safely into heaven, God protects and preserves your body, and one day on the last day will raise that body up, glorify that body so that you, together, soul and body, will be face to face with the Lord in eternity.

Amen.