Our body is weak, defiled, sinful, and mortal. It seems unbelievable that the Lord could be for our body. But when we see God's ways of salvation, we will understand. When the Lord Jesus descended to the earth, He was incarnated in the flesh. He had a body. When He was on the cross, He bore our sins in His own body. When we join ourselves to Him by faith, our body is also nailed to the cross with Him. Hence, He releases our body from the power of sin. In Christ, this body has now been resurrected and ascended to the heavens. Now the Holy Spirit dwells in us. Therefore, we can say that the Lord is for our body. He is not only for the spirit and soul, but also for the body.

There are several meanings to the words "the Lord [is] for the body." First, the Lord is for the body because the Lord desires to deliver our body from sin. Almost all sins are involved with the body. Many sinful actions are initiated by the peculiar physiological constituents of the body. For example, drunkenness is the result of a craving in the body. Reveling is the result of the demand of the body. The wrath of many is influenced by the peculiar constitution of their body. A physiological makeup that is overly-sensitive and provocative easily leads to frigidity, severity, and harshness of speech. The reason many people have a peculiar disposition is that they are peculiar in their physiological constitution. Many people are especially defiled, wanton, fornicating. and lawless because their physiological constitution is different from that of ordinary people. When they are dominated by their body, they commit all these sins. But the Lord is for the body. Therefore, if we first offer our body to the Lord and acknowledge that He is the Lord of all, and if we claim His promises by faith, we shall see that the Lord is for the body; that is, He will deliver us out of sin. Therefore, no matter what kind of physiological constitution we have—whether it is weaker than others or not—we can rely on the Lord to overcome it.

Second, the Lord is also for the sickness of the body. Just as He annihilates sin, He heals diseases. In all things concerning our body, He is for us. Therefore, He is also for our illnesses. Our illnesses are for the purpose of revealing to us the power of sin on our body. The Lord Jesus wants to save us completely. Therefore, whether it is sin or illness, He desires to deliver us out of both.

Third, the Lord is also for our living in the body. The Lord wants to be the strength and life of our body so that our body would live by Him. In our daily living, He wants us to experience His resurrection power and see that our body also lives by Him on this earth. (The above two points will be covered in detail in a separate chapter.)

Fourth, the Lord is also for the glorification of our body. This is for the future. The highest point that we can attain today is to live by Him. But this does not involve changing the nature of our body. When the day arrives, the Lord will redeem our body and make it the same as His body of glory.

We should not neglect the importance of the words: "The body is...for the Lord." If we really want to experience that the Lord is for the body, we must first practice having the body for the Lord. If we do not consecrate our body completely to live for the Lord, and if we use our body according to our own desire, to please and enjoy ourselves, it is impossible for us to have the experience of "the Lord for the body." Only when we put ourselves completely in the hands of God, submitting to His orders in all things and presenting our members as vessels to righteousness, can we prove that the Lord is truly for our body. He will give us life and power. If our body is not for the Lord, we cannot experience the Lord being for our body.