The Human Body by Flora E. Warren

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 7, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 26.

The Human Body

By Flora E. Warren

By Flora E. Warren

I. Glorifying God

To many people the thought of God is like some myth of childhood—indistinct, unreal. Yet it was God’s purpose that every one should know Him, and look upon His face. And since He can not speak with us face to face, He tells us of Himself in His word.

In the first chapters of the Bible God tells of His last and crowning work—the forming of man: “God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him.” Gen. 1:27. “In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him.” Gen. 5:1. In other words, man is a “specimen” of God.

The word of God says that man is “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Ps. 139:14. Those who study the various organs and cells of the body, and the work of each, can better understand what a wonderful structure it is.

God fitted the body to be the dwelling-place of the mind, and a wonderful thing is mind.

Dwelling-Place of God

There are grand structures on this earth, planned by wise designers, beautiful works of art, by master artists; but the living structure, man, formed by God in His own image, is the most wonderful. The body is “curiously wrought” (Ps. 139:15) and fitted for the temple or dwelling-place of the Spirit of God. In the New Testament we read this: “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?” 1 Cor. 6:19. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” 1 Cor. 3:16. “Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them.” 2 Cor. 6:16. God desires to be glorified in His temple. He has created the soul-temples for this purpose. “For I have created him for My glory.” Isa. 43:7; Rev. 4:11.

All nature testifies to the glory of God. But to man made in God’s image was given the high calling of revealing God’s great glory in the soul-temple. O wondrous calling! God would live in man, demonstrating the laws of life, whereby man could live forever. There is no higher calling than was given to man. Did men follow this high calling? Do men and women live forever? Do all people at this time give us right ideas of God? Ah! that is where the sad story comes in.

Choosing Death

There came a day when man chose to follow his own desires. God tells in His word how and when that time came. In studying what God says concerning Himself, we will find He never compels any one to obey His laws. He simply tells His laws of life, and the result of obedience or disobedience, then gives each soul opportunity to obey or disobey. Those who choose to live will live forever. These laws are the only laws of life, so it is plain that one may obey and live, or disobey and perish. It can not be otherwise.

God told the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, of His laws of life, also His purpose in creating man. God gave them the privilege of choosing life or death. The beings formed to represent God were very dear to Him, and He did all that was possible to show His children the sad results of disobeying His laws of life. He told them the great suffering it would bring on themselves and on their children. God also made it very clear to them what obedience would bring; the happiness and peace they would find in yielding their wills to Him, that He might show His glory, His life, in them. They would ever live, and rejoice in all God’s wondrous works, and their children would enjoy these privileges with them.

God has told us of the decision they made, why they made it, and how they had to leave their beautiful Eden home where stood the Tree of Life. God warned them in particular of the enemy who would seek to gain their attention in some way; and told them the one place where he would be allowed to entice them—at the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We may read the account in the first part of the Bible, of the way in which the enemy deceived them. It seemed to them it would be pleasant and profitable to know both good and evil.

They chose to eat of the forbidden tree, and as the result they found God’s word true: “In the day that thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt die.” Gen. 2:17, margin. They began to die as soon as they disobeyed the words of God, which are His laws of life. This was the beginning, the cause, of all the misery, the sorrow, and death on this earth, which continue to-day. All the deformed and diseased bodies and the enfeebled and deranged minds which have existed, and those now existing, are a part of the result of the choice our first parents made.

The great enemy, Death, lurks on every side, destroying the wondrous works of God in nature, and taking our dear ones from us, thus showing more clearly than words could do the terrible result of transgressing the words of life, which are the laws of the eternal God. “Sin [the transgression of the law of life], when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:15.

Transgression has greatly marred the image of the Divine in man. The body in its dying condition shows but little the likeness

of God. What must we then conclude? Has God failed? Has He changed His purpose for man? Must every soul perish, and none know the joy of living forever in God’s likeness? In Rom. 3:23, God says: “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” In other words, all have failed to accept their high calling, failed to represent God. All have transgressed the laws of life, and the end is death. Is there, then, no hope for the sinner?

The Complete Redemption

O wondrous story! “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness [right doing] of God in Him.” 2 Cor. 5:21. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, “gave Himself for our sins” (Gal. 1:4), first, to live on this earth in the likeness of sinful men, subject to all the temptations which sinful souls would meet (Heb. 4:15), that He might conquer sin for all, and make it possible to restore the likeness of God in all who have faith in Him. He was made “sin for us.” He took upon Himself human flesh. He was a “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Read Isa. 53:1-11. He knew “the feeling of our infirmities,” for “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” Matt. 8:17.

For thirty-three years Christ lived on earth in human form, meeting the tempter in the strength of God, and constantly yielding His will to the will of His Father, that all who believe His victory over sin may follow His example and live the life God first intended man to live. Jesus is the sinner’s Substitute, the Sin-bearer. “The Lord hath made the iniquity of us all to meet on Him.” Isa. 53:6, margin.

Those who are weary of sin and long to be free from its bondage may find freedom in Jesus. All who “hunger and thirst” after right-doing will surely be filled. Matt. 5:6. Those who find repentance for sin will find pardon and cleansing in the Saviour of men. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. All may be saved from transgression who believe in Jesus. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus [Saviour], for He shall save His people from their sins.” Matt. 1:21.

Healing for the body and the soul is found in Jesus, the Restorer. During His life on earth He healed those suffering from diseases of every sort, and restored to natural form the bodies deformed in various ways. The sick in body and in mind flocked to Him from all directions, and He healed them. All He required was faith in His power to heal them and save them from sin. Some whose bodies were eaten by the dread disease, leprosy, until they did not resemble human beings, came to Him for healing. All who came received life and health. Even those possessed with devils were not turned away. Wherever He found souls longing to be free from sin, Christ gave them freedom. He besought those bound by any sinful habit, to find rest in Him, and some accepted the invitation.

Jesus is the same Healer to-day. After He lived for us, Jesus suffered death, the penalty for our transgressions. “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: . . . and with His stripes we are healed.” Isa. 53:5. “He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was He stricken.” Verse 8. He loved us enough to live for us and die for us that we might live.

The Way of Life

Jesus “gave Himself a ransom for all.” 1 Tim. 2:6. He has purchased every soul. We belong to Him, and need no longer be slaves of transgression, if we will only accept our freedom in Him.

The apostle Paul rejoiced that Jesus had opened the way to freedom from sin and its result. He wrote in Rom. 8:2, 3: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” Jesus took upon Himself the likeness of sinful men, that sinful men may be restored to the likeness of God. He has indeed loved us “with an everlasting love.” Jer. 31:3.

We can not fully comprehend such wonderful love, but we may rejoice that God’s purpose for man is the same. “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Cor. 6:20. In obeying the laws of life and health, and yielding our wills to God, we will glorify Him both in body and spirit. “It is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Phil. 2:13. Christ has paid the price for every soul, but many will not accept the gift of life. He waits at this time for every one to choose which they desire, life or death.