2 Peter 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 
	We are deep in our consideration of heaven. Last time, we ended with the fact that we no longer fear death and that we rejoice in the sinless state of those beloved Christians who have preceded us into heaven. While we miss them greatly on this earth, we would not subject them again to the sinful condition from which they have been rescued. They are with Christ and even now partakers of the sinlessness of the redemption of their souls in Him.
	While this is true at this moment, there is a final stage of redemption that awaits both those who have gone before and us. According to Dr. Donnelly, the Bible indicates that the completion of salvation will be in the fact that our bodies will be raised in Glory. Quote, For we will be like Christ not only in that our souls will be made perfect in holiness, but in that our bodies will be raised in glory. End quote. 
	In his Easter message, Greg made mention of this aspect of our redemption. It would be beneficial to consider what awaits our heavenly, glorified bodies in order to come into a fuller and richer understanding of the completeness the salvation that has been instituted in Jesus Christ. 
Quote, The idea of the immortality of the soul is not distinctively Christian. For many centuries before Jesus, Egyptians, Persians and Greeks shared with the Jews a conviction that there was an immaterial part of man that would never die. Even in our own materialistic age most people have a vague yet persistent belief in an imperishable ‘self’, a part of us which continues to exist after its separation from the body.
	 What is peculiar to scriptural faith is the teaching that our bodies will also survive death. In asserting a physical resurrection the Bible is unique and yet many believers have, at best, a tenuous grasp on this doctrine. The blame for such hesitancy rests partly with an ancient Greek Philosopher.
	Plato (427- 347 BC) has influenced human thought in a variety of ways for nearly two-and-a-half thousand years, but in our present context he is significant for the way in which he devalued the material in favor of what is spiritual. End quote. 
	Plato’s teaching is explained in this manner, quote, ‘the soul is…considered a superior substance, inherently indestructible and therefore immortal, whereas the body is of inferior substance, mortal, and doomed for total destruction. Hence the body is thought of as a tomb for the soul, which is really better off without the body.’ Plato’s memorable slogan, soma sema – ‘the body a tomb’, encapsulated this view. He taught that human beings are immortal souls imprisoned in inferior bodies of flesh. Only that which is spiritual is worthwhile. All that is physical and material will ultimately be left behind, discarded forever. End quote. 
	As Christians, fighting the good fight, we have a tendency to fall into the trap of Platonism. We know that we are at war with the desires of the flesh and we struggle with the remnants of the old nature which infests our bodies. We consider these physical bodies a hindrance at every level to the total glory of God that we desire to give Him. As the Apostle Paul writes, Rom 7:14-24, For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 
	We have a great difficulty in separating the sinful nature of the flesh from the creative body that God has given us. We equate this decaying body with the decay of its nature, many times oblivious to the fact that God will resurrect even these bodies by the glorious and triumphant work of Christ Jesus. 
	This misunderstanding is in a great part due to the fact that the desires of these bodies often direct our thoughts and actions away from the truth of our now in place spiritual reality of Christ. James asks the question that plagues our daily experience in these bodies in James 4:1. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?
The Apostle Peter admonishes us with the following in 1 Peter 2:11, Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul. We find ourselves so in bondage to the sinful, natural desires to feed the lusts of these bodies that we equate the physical body itself as the burden, as the target of our disgust and frustration. We forget the fact that we are fighting against the curse of the sinful nature. 
Rather, we link that together with the idea that it will cease to harass and harangue us when we are rid of these physical bodies. So we look forward to a false sense of spiritual release when we are to be set free from the confines of these human bodies. This is Platonism at its core.
	However, the Word of God relates that there is a different aspect that will be in place in the manner in which God deals with us through especially these physical bodies. Rom 7:4-6, Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. 
It is even in these physical bodies that we will now bear fruit to God in newness of spirit. We are even now, in this human body, joined to Christ Jesus. The war which rages in us is very real, but it is a war of the two natures, the old in its death throes against the new nature of Christ that is even now being manifested in us, even in these physical beings.
	We read earlier the anguish of the Apostle Paul in Romans Chapter 7. Let us continue through that anguish into what is now true of us. Rom 7:25-8:11, Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you. 
	Notice some key phrases in this passage that should ring out in our ears and hearts and soul. He condemned sin in the flesh… He did not condemn our body of flesh, but the sin that had reign in these bodies. …you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit… This is not a condemnation of our physical bodies but the sinfulness of the old nature that is attached to these bodies. Now that we are in Christ, we no longer live by that old nature, but by the new nature of Christ, directed by the Holy Spirit. We are still in these bodies of flesh but under a new governmental system, the government of the Holy Spirit. 
	And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. Yes, our bodies are dying under the curse of the law, and we are to consider that old nature of these bodies as already dead. But, now in Christ, the missing aspect of these bodies, our spirit, has been made alive. We continue to live in these bodies, but now with a spirit which is completely alive and attuned to God. It is not separate from these physical beings, but a vital aspect of our entire being under the creative hand of God. 
	Please note what the Apostle Paul now proclaims at the conclusion of this passage, But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you. 
As Jesus Christ was physically resurrected from the dead, so will these mortal bodies be resurrected by the Holy Spirit. We now have life, eternal life by the manifest work of God Alone. That life is at work, even now, in these physical bodies. In this age, we are subject to the corruption of the curse. Our bodies are decaying, but they will be made alive just as Jesus Christ’s body was resurrected and glorified.
I know that we are spending a long time on this aspect, but it is an important reality to take to heart. The New Testament writers also spent much time with regard to this as we have already seen. 
As well, consider Rom 13:14, But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. Note the emphasis is to make no provision to the lusts of the flesh, the old nature, the old man, as we often call it. This is not a statement against meeting the physical needs of our bodies: food, rest, exercise, etc. Those things are necessary and vital for our bodies to be healthy for as long as God ordains for us in this life. It is the lusts which are to be neglected and rejected, but not the body.
	In Gal 5:16-25, we have the Apostle Paul specifically identifying the lusts and the fruit of the flesh in opposition to the fruit of the Spirit. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 
What is evident is that these two elements are both contained within the working of our physical bodies. We either live according to the one or to the other, but that living is in these human bodies. These fruits are evidenced by the manner in which we use our physical bodies on this earth, today.
	This, then, brings us to the conclusion of this morning’s deliberation as delineated by the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor 6:19+20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. 
Please note that we are to glorify God in our body. We are not instructed to glorify Him despite our physical body, but that especially in our body. There is a call to be glorifying to God. We are to live by the fruit of the Holy Spirit, in subjection to His guidance and counsel as we walk on this earth. God Alone knows the plans and purposes that He has for these bodies of flesh. They are no longer ours. They have been bought at the tremendous price of Jesus Christ’s own blood. They are not to be considered as merely the entombment of our spirit, but as part of the entire person that God has created in Jesus Christ. Therefore, we need to see His hand, even in the earthly bodies that we have, and to consider Him in the very manner in which we live our lives on this earth. Do not buy into the lie of this age that there is no value in life. All that God creates is to be appreciated and considered in the terms of His handiwork and a vessel for His glory. This we will take up next week, Lord willing. So be it.	
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Amen. 

This morning’s benediction reading is 1 Kings 8:56-60 "Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised; not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant. May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers; may He not leave us or forsake us, that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances, which He commanded our fathers. And may these words of mine, with which I have made supplication before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each day requires, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no one else. Amen.