Meditations on Manhoodნიმუში

SANCTIFIED MANHOOD

The whole manhood of the Christian has already been sanctified! It is not merely that with his spirit he serves his God, but he yields his members to be instruments unto righteousness to the glory of his heavenly father. “Know you not,” says the apostle, “that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit”? Surely that which has been a temple of the Holy Spirit shall not be ultimately destroyed! It may be taken down, as the tabernacle was in the wilderness, but taken down to be put up again! Or, to use another form of the same figure, the tabernacle may go, but only that the temple may follow. “We know that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” It is a joy to think that as Christ has redeemed the entire man, and sanctified the entire man, He will be honored in the salvation of the entire man, so our complete manhood shall have it in its power to glorify Him! The hands with which we sinned shall be lifted in eternal adoration; the eyes which have gazed on evil shall behold the King in His beauty; not merely shall the mind which now loves the Lord be perpetually knit to Him, and the spirit which contemplates Him, delight forever in Him, and be in communion with Him—but this very body which has been a clog and hindrance to the spirit, and an arch rebel against the sovereignty of Christ, shall yield Him homage with voice, and hands, and brain, and ears, and eyes!