What does it mean to be human?

What do our bodies tell us about God?

EMBODIED IMAGE BEARER

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Genesis 1:26-28

Our physical bodies are part of God’s GOOD DESIGN.

• Your body has DIVINE DIGNITY.

Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule…

The Idol of Optimization:  My body is a PROJECT to be PERFECTED.

Your body is the TEMPLE of God.

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

• Your SEXUALITY is SACRED

So God created mankind in his own image…
male and female he created them.

The Idol of Sexual Autonomy: My BODY, My RULES

Your body is made FOR God.

I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 

1 Corinthians 6:12-13

The sexual confusion so prevalent in our world and in our own hearts is simply the human desire for heaven gone berserk. 

- Christopher West

• Your EMBODIMENT is ETERNAL.

God blessed them…

The Idol of Self-Deification: I can become GOD LIKE.

Humanity's next targets are likely to be immortality, happiness and divinity. Having reduced mortality from starvation, disease and violence, we will now aim to overcome old age and even death itself…And having raised humanity above the beastly level of survival struggles, we will now aim to upgrade humans into gods, and turn Homo sapiens into Homo deus.

- Yuval Harari, Homo Dues

Your future is bodily RESURRECTION.

By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.

1 Corinthians 6:14

Jesus took on FLESH and never LEFT it.

Living as an Embodied Image Bearer: 

• Be PRESENT in your body.
• Honor GOD with your body.
• Commit to PHYSICAL Community.