Bought And Paid For

 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?  For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

1 Corinthians 6: 19 - 20 NKJV 

I noticed a physical trainer make the outlandish claim online that the hard work you put in at the gym is the price a man pays for every smile and kind word from women.  Now, as far fetched as his claim may sound, there is a segment of fitness nuts out there who will swear by his theory.  That's just the way it goes.  Every now and the there is some motivational guru who comes along to reinvent the wheel.  Sorry, I just don't adhere to his line of thinking.  Simply because I know that my identity as a man does not lie with the muscles or nutrition I work so hard on, but in my identity in Christ Jesus who is in me.  Yes, it feels good to do well in my exercises and to begin to see the transformation of my efforts, but that's not how this game is played.  The apostle Paul reminded the believers in Corinth of just the same thing in 1 Corinthians.  Paul reminds the Corinthians that the physical body they inhabited was indeed a temple of the Holy Spirit and not something which they could call their own {1 Corinthians 6:19-20}.  Indeed, Paul reminds them that there was a price paid for their mortal bodies.  That price has been paid in full by Christ at the cross.  Dare I say that there is absolutely nothing we can claim about our own bodies.  For whatever we feel that it is which we have paid the price for, Jesus has already been there and done that so we wouldn't have to.  Now, I don't mind the idea that my efforts are improving my health and overall confidence, that's a good feeling in itself.  But am I really providing for who I really am?  No, Jesus is in charge of that score.  Basically what this comes down to is that realization of who it is we are.  Is my identity tied to this flesh and blood body I inhabit?  Again, Paul had other ideas.  Paul believed that it wasn't his own self which he was tied to, but Christ who was in him {Galatians 2:20}.  

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who love, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

Galatians 2: 20 NKJV 

I remember how shell shocked I was when I first was introduced to the scripture of Christ Jesus in me.  This was radical thinking!  I remember thinking to myself, 'No wonder Paul was persecuted!'  So, I get it when there are others who cannot seem to grasp the belief that Jesus could reside in a mere man.  But am I a mere man?  Is that where my identity lies?  Well, Paul tells us in Romans that we are not in the flesh but in the spirit {Romans 8:9}.  It is this spirit identity that remains when our time on earth is done.  It is this spirit identity by which we were created in Gods very image {Genesis 1:27}.  Can we make the claim that our flesh body was bought and paid for by Jesus?  Perhaps, but I believe that Jesus was more interested in preserving what mattered...our spirit identity.  For it is the Spirit identity of Christ which lives in us today.  I know, a lot to handle right?  Let me just say that the traditional teachings of the mainstream church have not helped us in our understanding of Christ in us.  However, that does not mean that it's not a reality.  It simply means that there are those who have not yet received the Lords revelation of Christ in them.  I once counted myself among that crowd.  So it is that I continue to work on my strength and health, in the knowledge that I have been bought and paid for by Christ Jesus.  

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.  Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

Romans 8: 9 NKJV 

~Scott~