Men's Thoughts vs. God's Word

During the four centuries before Christ (from 400 BC), Greek philosophers were establishing a lie. That lie was that there is a dichotomy in the human nature--a strong distinction between body and spirit. The philosophers taught that the human body is evil, and that the human spirit is good. This is not what the Bible says.

The Bible teaches that every human being has the human nature (the Bible calls it the flesh). Our human nature is inclined towards evil, but having this nature does not cause our bodies to become evil. The flesh is evil, but the body is not.

Although the Bible teaches that one's flesh certainly will corrupt one’s body and one’s spirit if one does not find a solution to control the flesh. But having a body does not automatically make us evil. It makes us vulnerable to temptation. Jesus himself came with a body. Jesus came in the flesh. The result was that he was susceptible to temptations, not that he had any evil in him!

... when Christ came into the World, he said: 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me' (Hebrews 10:5).

... what the Law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3).

To follow the flesh is to become carnal. But if we can mortify our flesh, we can follow the Spirit of God. If we crucify our flesh, people like you and me can receive the Holy Spirit, who activates our dead spirit, and hence we become spiritual people, holy in spirit and in body.

Jesus our Lord is the shining example of victory over the flesh. He came in the flesh and he never sinned, obtaining a glorious resurrection from God. His Father, through the resurrection, rewarded Jesus for his obedience. God granted Jesus a divine nature, authority, wisdom, eternal life, and power.

Wisdom from God

Jesus has become for us wisdom from God (1 Corinthians 1:30). That is, we learn from Jesus that having flesh—the human nature—does not make us evil. Our flesh is bound to our body, and it draws us to sin, yes. However, when we become resurrected, we'll get a new nature--the divine nature--just like Jesus got the divine nature.

So, Christians now, with this wisdom in Christ, hope to get a glorified body in the Resurrection. Greek philosophers scoffed at the idea of a resurrection because they saw no use for the body. Their goal was to become spirit beings without bodies! They influenced early Christian thinkers with a Christian version of philosophy called Gnosticism. That dangerous sect taught that Jesus resurrected as a spirit being and that there is no bodily resurrection for believers.

Paul and John's Battle

The apostles Paul and John were very active combatting against Gnosticism in their day. Look closely at what they wrote in their epistles. Here's Paul speaking:

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the Dead, how can some of you say that there is no Resurrection of the Dead (1 Corinthians 15:12)?

Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge [gnosis] (1 Timothy 6:20).

Here's the apostles John:

... many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God... This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood (1 John 4:1-3, 6).

... many deceivers [Gnostic preachers] have gone out into the World who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.

Whoever goes ahead and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds (2 John 1:7-11; KJV).

Our Resurrected Lord

Even if Paul and John had not taken up the fight to combat Greek philosophy in the Church, the evidence that Jesus was resurrected in a real body was already established long before their work started. Jesus' resurrection is the conclusive proof that having a body is desirable and good. Jesus came back in a body, eating in the presence of his apostles, inviting them to touch his hands and feet.

'Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have' [said the resurrected Christ] (Luke 24:39).

Don't you hope to have a body someday like the one Jesus has?

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).