text: Column: G. David Henderson: Christ's purification of our sinful body (at the moment of salvation) » April 6, 2013
  Column: G. David Henderson: Christ's purification of our sinful body (at the moment of salvation)
  — "And man did eat angels' food" (Psalms 78:24)
  Today's devotional is a review of a chapter of the book I have written and presently editing, called "Living the Christ Life."
  As seen in today's many Scriptures, God no longer accepts from any follower of Jesus the non-scriptural statement, "So long as we live in our sinful body in this sinful world, we have to sin."
  It's true every person is born with a sinful body that causes us to sin before our salvation (Psalms 51:12). Jesus promised in Matthew 3:10 that his salvation would be his ax, destroying "at the roots" followers of Jesus having a sinful body in our sinful world. "Destroy" in Romans 6:6 reveals Christ's salvation did indeed "destroy" the body of followers of Jesus, as "sin" — at the moment of our salvation.
  Bodies of followers of Jesus are now Jesus' same "righteousness" (Romans 6:13), "holiness" (Romans 12:1), "honor" and "sanctification" (I Thessalonians 4:4), that is empowered with Christ's same resurrection life and power (Colossians 3:4) that empowers us to live Jesus' same moral "holiness" (1 Peter 1:15-16), "purity" (1 John 3:3) and "righteousness" (1 John 3:7) in our sinfully perverted society. God would never command us to live such Christ-like morality if he knew his salvation was powerless to newly create our saved body with his same heavenly authority and power against sin.
  The Greek language for "instrument" regarding our saved body in Romans 6:13 means "military weapon" that has us empowered to overcome every sinful temptation coming from any sinful person, place or substance (Colossians 3:3-9).
  One of the greatest of all miracles happening to the body of every follower of Jesus at the moment of our salvation is no matter how immoral our history might have been before our salvation, Jesus's eyes see the body of his saved followers as "chaste virgins," having never committed one immoral sin (2 Corinthians 11:2). This is the reason Jesus chose a former harlot (Mary Magdalene) — rather than his apostles — to be the first to tell of his resurrection (John 20:15-18)!
  For the person feeling they are the most immoral person reading today's devotional, Jesus will do the same for you and your body the very moment you obey all his salvation instructions (Hebrews 5:9). Anyone adding, removing or re-arranging even one word to Jesus's salvation instructions renders your body remaining "sin."
  Such Christ-like changes to our saved body enable God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit to endlessly dwell inside as their holy temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). They have never, nor will ever, abide inside a sinful body.
  Our saved body can sin, but 1 Corinthians 3:17 warns that if followers of Jesus use our saved body for such, or fill it with improper foods, beverages or illegal drugs that God never created our body to ingest, it will self-destruct with fearful, painful, nauseating diseases — even premature death.