1Corinthians 6:19-20
Bought by the Blood
There are verses in the Bible which, to me, are cornerstone verses.
By that I mean they are verses that:
1. They teach important truths, usually in a very simple and
easy to understand manner. These are verses that are good to
memorize. They will make you wise and give you access to
God’s power.
2. If you don’t understand them, you will not get your Christian
life right. Some of the cornerstone verses are doctrinal and
some of them practical living verses. This is a practical
living verse. If you are a Christian and you do not
understand it, you likely will not live right.
The cornerstone truth in this verse is that Christians have been
bought, bought by the blood of Jesus Christ.
1Peter 1:18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were
not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver
and gold, from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers;
19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as
of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
For what Jesus paid, He did not get much in return. What did He
purchase?
I. God bought a body to live in.
A. Twice in these verses, Paul mentioned our bodies.
1. \\#19\\ Paul tells us that our bodies are the temple of
the Holy Ghost.
a. A temple is where God lives.
b. Paul was saying that God lives in our bodies through
the person of the Holy Ghost.
2. \\#20\\ In the next verse, Paul tells us that we are to
live in such a way with our bodies that they give glory
to God.
a. To bring glory to God means three things:
(1) It means we please Him with our bodies.
(2) It means we exalt Him with our bodies.
(3) Why? Because our bodies reflect God.
b. God gives three instructions concerning our bodies in
the Bible.
(1) Be modest.
1Ti 2:9 In like manner also, that women adorn
themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness
and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or
pearls, or costly array;
(2) Be distinctive.
De 22:5 The woman shall not wear that which
pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on
a woman’s garment: for all that do so are
abomination unto the LORD thy God.
(3) Emphasize the inner and not outer.
1Pe 3:3 Whose adorning let it not be that
outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of
wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart,
in that which is not corruptible, even the
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is
in the sight of God of great price.
B. Get this. The body is God’s.
1. This verse is not speaking of our eternal spirit. God
does not live IN our spirit. He lives WITH our Spirit
INSIDE our body.
2. God lives inside of us and our bodies are HIS.
C. That is why what we do with our bodies is important.
1. When God says do not commit fornication—sexual sins—He
has every right.
2. When God says do not lie, He has every right.
3. When God says do not be drunken, He has every right.
4. Whatever sin that we commit with our bodies and God tells
us not to do it, God has every right.
5. Why?
a. First because our body is God’s and we are sinning
with it.
(1) God is holy.
(2) It is an abomination—a slap in God’s face— to
take anything that is God’s and use it in a
sinful way.
(3) It is for this reason that God spoke through the
Apostle Peter:
1Pe 1:15 But as he which hath called you is
holy, so be ye holy in all manner of
conversation;
16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I
am holy.
b. Second because when we do such things, we are dragging
God into it too.
(1) God is inside our bodies.
(2) Do we dare take God into sin?
(3) As He looks through our eyes, do we force God to
look at our sinfulness?
(4) As He feels through our fingers, do we force God
to hold sin in His hands?
(5) As God inhales though our lungs, do we force God
to breath our sinful air?
(6) As God hears through our airs, do we force God
to listen to our vulgarity?
(7) As God tastes through our mouth, do we force God
to drink in our corruption?
D. How much does it bother God if we sin with our body with Him
living inside?
1Cor 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple
of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, him
shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy,
which temple ye are.
1. If it were just me saying that, someone would say,
"Preacher, you are being judgmental;… harsh…
unchristian."
2. But that is NOT me saying it. It is right there in the
Bible.
a. That verse is in the same part of the Bible and penned
by the same Apostle that teaches us about grace and
forgiveness and love and mercy.
b. Yet, the verse clearly states that God will destroy
the body that God lives inside of if we continually
defile and commit willful sins against God.
3. Question - You call yourself a Christian, you say God
lives inside of you, yet you are deliberately doing
sinful things with your body.
a. Drunkenness? drugs? adultery? lust? profanity?
b. Have you experienced God destroying you? Have you
even sensed that God was not happy with you?
c. If not, either one of two things must be true.
(1) Either the Bible is a fraud and God is a liar.
(2) Or you are not saved.
Hebrews 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is
he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof
all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and
not sons.
II. God bought a spirit to fellowship with.
A. As I said, twice in these verses, God mentions our bodies, but
as I often say, "We are not bodies. We live in bodies."
B. We are spirits.
1. The Greek word "spirit" is pneuma. It means breath or
breeze.
2. It is used 350 times in the New Testament.
3. It is the word used of the both the Holy Ghost and the
Holy Spirit.
a. I could not find a single time when that Greek word
was not used for both Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit.
b. That means what the Holy Ghost is what we are.
c. That makes sense since when God created Adam, he was
nothing but dirt in the empty shape of a body until
God leaned over the balcony of heaven and breathed
into Adam the "breath of life." \\#Ge 2:7\\
d. At that point, Adam "became a living soul."
C. Truths about our spirit.
1. That is what you are. It is our spirit that thinks, talks
to you, remembers, laughs, loves.
2. It is that spirit that is eternal.
a. It is that spirit that will live forever—either in
hell separated from God or in heaven with God.
b. Our bodies will die but our spirits never die.
3. It is that spirit that Jesus died to save.
4. And God bought your spirit with the blood of Jesus Christ.
Why?
a. Because He loves you—not your body, you.
b. Because He made you to have fellowship with Him, and
He wants that fellowship to start right now.
c. If you are a Christian, you belong to God in your body
and in your spirit.
d. That is a cornerstone truth being taught in this
cornerstone verse.
5. We are to glorify God in our spirits too.
a. Paul mentioned our spirit in \\#20\\.
b. There, as he was telling us to glorify God with our
bodies which God purchased, Paul tells us to glorify
God with our spirits too.
D. People ask, "Is the spirit our brain?"
1. I don’t have all the answers.
2. I believe the brain does the controlling of the body and
the storage of information but it is your spirit that is
making the decisions.
3. And it is your spirit—not your brain or your body—that
decides if you will sin or not.
III. God bought a heart to love Him.
A. If God has purchased our body and our spirit, He must have
also purchased our heart.
1. I am not thinking of the physical heart in the body.
2. I am thinking of the emotional heart.
3. I might say it simpler by saying, "God has bought our
love;" but in truth, love cannot be bought or demanded.
4. Love is a gift that must be offered.
B. So I will say it this way, "With what God has purchased, He
has the right to expect our love and devotion."
1. As long as I live, I will believe God created man so that
He could have a people who CHOSE to love Him.
a. He has the plant world that will glorify Him.
b. He has the animal world that will obey Him.
c. He has the angelic world that will serve him.
d. But in Christ God has a people who have chosen to
love Him.
2. How can we call ourselves a Christian and not love Him?
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