1 Corinthians 6:20
“You were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies.”
The bleak picture of mankind lost and condemned, banished from God’s presence is a reality made clear in God’s Word.
We were created by God for God, but something awful happened, we were kidnapped and taken prisoner by the sinister forces of evil. We chose to become the devil’s slaves. We were trapped, captured, instead of resisting temptation, we yielded willingly to the enemy.
1. SLAVES TO SIN
The simplicity of this reality reminds us that the false god of this world has also blinded us to our condition of lostness.
2 Corinthians 4:3-5
“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”
We are chained to the consequences of our choices. We have followed the melody and we have marched to the tune of God’s arch enemy. Like the children who chose to follow the Pied Piper we are in a realm which is the antithesis of God’s will, condemned by our own selfish choices we are in bondage. The slave market of sin parades us as fallen mankind.
2. PRICE FOR OUR PARDON
With contaminated blood defiled by the devil’s hold over us, we stand in shame in chains. The master of evil demands a price for our soul. The Court of Divine Justice requires a price – who will buy us as slaves to sin from our hopeless misery? Jesus did not bargain with the devil for our redemption. He was willing to pay the price so that the Divine Court of Justice would transact the purchase from the master of evil to the Master of Goodness, love, forgiveness and pardon.
This is the Gospel that we don’t belong to the world nor the devil and neither do we belong to ourselves. We are not our own. We are bought with the price of His blood. Life is in the blood.
3. PURCHASED POSSESSION
We are God’s purchased possession and as such we are His property. The context of this verse in 1 Corinthians 6:20 is preceded by v9 -19
v9-19 “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our 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. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 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.”
We have died to our old condition and now possess a new status.
We, our soul’s, are washed.
We are sanctified.
We are justified.
Our spirit is redeemed.
Our body is redeemed.
1 Corinthians 15:51-58
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.”
