1 Corinthians 6:19, 20 What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?… Every noble character and life is based upon self renunciation. A man, in order to make his mark upon the world, must lose himself in some great cause, that e.g. of his country, of science, of art, of humanity. Is there an all absorbing aim in which men generally may justly lose themselves? If there be, it must be the highest, all comprehending, perfectly and lastingly satisfactory. Christians have found this secret: they live to God in Christ. They are not their own, for they are bought, they are owned by the Son of God. I. THE STATE OF BONDAGE FROM WHICH CHRISTIANS ARE RANSOMED. 1. There was a time, a state, in which they thought themselves "their own." They followed their own desires and went their own way. 2. But in reality they were in bondage - to the Law and its sentence of condemnation; to sin and its cruel fetters; to Satan and his wretched service. 3. The power of evil then fostered the delusion of liberty, flattered pride and fostered selfishness, all the while drawing tighter and tighter the chains of spiritual bondage. II. THE LIBERATOR TO WHOM CHRISTIANS ARE INDEBTED FOR THEIR REDEMPTION. They were ransomed: 1. By One whose laws and service had been forsaken and despised. 2. By One without whose help bondage would have been eternal. 3. By One upon whom we sinful men had no claim based upon right and justice. 4. By One whose heart was moved with pity by the sad spectacle of our slavery. 5. By One who graciously resolved to do and to suffer all that might be involved in the work of our deliverance. III. THE COST AT WHICH CHRISTIANS WERE RANSOMED FROM SLAVERY AND PURCHASED AS THE FREE BONDMEN OF GOD. 1. It was a price which no mere man could by any possibility have paid. 2. It was a price which could not be reckoned and estimated in any earthly or human equivalent. 3. It was a price in order to pay which it was necessary that the Son of God should become incarnate, and empty himself of his glory. 4. It was a price which consisted in "the precious blood of Christ." IV. THE OBLIGATIONS WHICH THIS PURCHASE AND REDEMPTION LAY UPON CHRISTIANS. These may be regarded in two aspects. 1. Negatively. "Ye are not your own." Your heart is not your own, but Christ's; your thoughts are not your own, but his who liveth in you; your time is not your own, but is redeemed for the Redeemer; your abilities and influence are not your own, but are to be consecrated to him to whom you owe both them and the bias which has been given them; your property is not your own, but his who claims your all. 2. Positively. "Glorify God therefore." The praise is due to him who in his own mind conceived the purpose of redemption. The service is due to him whom to love is of necessity to serve. All the faculties of our nature and all the opportunities of our life may well be laid, as a consecrated offering, upon the altar of God, whose we are, not only by right of creation, but by right of grace and redemption, whose we are by every tie, and whom we are bound to serve as the best expression of our gratitude and the best exercise of our liberty. - T. Parallel Verses KJV: What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? |
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