The Truth about Our Bodies
Human well-being requires harmony with reality. As we walk in the truth about our bodies, we must avoid two common pitfalls found in secular thinking. We are neither inconsequential evolved animals nor supernatural beings ourselves. We are children of God, couched in creation.[1]
In the first pitfall we view our bodies as clumps of cells to be done away with when necessary. We mutated here by chance, this view says, so our highest good is to feel pleasure. Therefore, if we feel pain, it’s okay to end it all. In the second pitfall, we balk at our limitations and finiteness and we seek to be our own gods, to create our own selves, to forge our own destinies.
We are neither evolved animals nor divine beings. We are embodied souls formed by a grand and omnipotent God. Two psalms of King David shed light on this crucial truth. He says of God, “You formed my inward parts; / you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Ps. 139:13). And marveling at all of creation he says, “What is man that you are mindful of him . . . ? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings / and crowned him with glory and honor. / You have given him dominion over the works of your hands” (Ps. 8:4–6). Not divine, but not mere animals either.
Our bodies are gifts designed by a good, sovereign, beauty-making God. We must care for, protect, and cherish each and every human body, each and every human life. Our conviction as children of God is that these lives are not our own, but belong—body and soul—to the Creator. Life is a gift to steward, not manipulate, exploit, or dispose of as the world sees fit.
Shifting Hope
As a culture we are out in a far country, obsessing over our bodies and counting on them to deliver us power and satisfaction through beauty and ability. But, going back to my mom’s point to me when I was a young girl, these bodies are not a guarantee. They can be lost. In fact, living in a post-Genesis 3 world means they will definitely be lost, if not in a sudden calamity, then over time. We must come to ourselves, like the Prodigal Son, and admit that we have sinned against heaven and before God (Luke 15:17–18).
The apostle Paul says outwardly we are wasting away, but there’s hope because “our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). Daily we experience the painful reality that our current bodies languish on the outside, but we have hope because our eternal God renews us on the inside.
Our bodies cannot bear up under the weight of what worldly values want them to deliver. If we’re looking to them for meaning, significance, and security, we will be disappointed and even devastated. We were not made to fix our eyes on ourselves or on each other, whether in real life or online. We were made to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith (Heb. 12:2). Hope in God, as the psalmist says (Ps. 42:5, 11).
The Heart of Beauty
What might it practically look like to place our hope in God and not in our own appearance and abilities? How might we actually apply this in real life? Outward beauty is tricky because it’s something we come back to every time we glance in the bathroom mirror. It’s something that feels worth at least some time and effort and money. But then just as quickly it feels wrong and ungodly, or like a waste. It’s hard to know exactly what Christ-followers ought to pursue here.
As is always the case in the Christian walk, it’s the heart that matters. The Lord said to the prophet Samuel, “The LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). From the heart flows life (Prov. 4:23).
God himself is beautiful, and he is the very maker of beauty. The mountains and seas and colors of creation are breathtakingly beautiful. God is not opposed to outward beauty—he makes it! And we, created in the image of God, love to behold beauty too. We ooh and aah and experience rejuvenation in beautiful contexts. Therefore, the pursuit of outward beauty is not wrong or sinful when it’s grounded in the right heart.
The apostle Peter gives specific instructions here when he says, “Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious” (1 Pet. 3:3–4). Peter warns us not to put our hope in our hair or jewels or clothing—things that pass away, things that communicate worldly status. Rather, let us hope in what is imperishable, that which is not of this world. May we have hearts centered on the God who does not pass away. May we be gentle and quiet—not fretting, not freaking out—because we trust in Christ Jesus above all else. While we are certainly free to enjoy it, you and I must not depend on outward adornment, because we already have an immovable and inward identity in Christ alone.
Paul tells Timothy that women ought to adorn themselves with “what is proper for women who profess godliness” (1 Tim. 2:10). The questions the Christian woman must consider are, Does my outward appearance profess godliness? Does it reflect my inner heart? Does my hope in God shine through?
May we be so secure in Jesus, so grateful that we have been transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of the beloved Son (Col. 1:13), that it shows. May our emphasis on our outward appearance stay in its rightful place—not the object of our hope, but an expression of the unique, innately beautiful creatures we already are. May we be freed from the world’s standard of beauty and commit ourselves to God’s standard of beauty. Sure, wear the makeup and jewelry and cute clothes. But don’t let them quiet Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). May your outward appearance and mine reveal that we rest and rejoice in a risen Savior and no longer rush to rely on ourselves.
Who Is Able?
Just as the pursuit of beauty is not wrong when it’s properly grounded in hope in God, neither is it wrong to pursue one’s abilities. In fact, it’s wrong not to. We are made by God and for God (Col. 1:16). We are called to use our bodies for his glory (1 Cor. 6:20).
When I drive my daughters to school in the morning, we pray on the way. Each day’s prayer shares a similar thread. I constantly ask the Lord to help them and to show them how to steward their day, their skills, and their resources for his glory alone. I thank him that their identity is not contingent on making the team or the play or the grade, because their identity is already forever secure in the person and work of Jesus. Even if my prayers sound like a broken record, I think it’s worth repeating, as I know they will hear the exact opposite all day long. Their teachers, coaches, and friends will communicate directly or indirectly that their worth is in what they can do. And that’s just not true.
Greatness in God’s kingdom is the very opposite of greatness in ours. Jesus surprisingly, even scandalously, said, “‘Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.’ And he took them in his arms and blessed them” (Mark 10:14–16). Jesus even said, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:4).
The world tells us to trust in ourselves, to try our hardest, to put our hope in our own abilities. But as we approach God, Jesus says we must be like children: weak, vulnerable, and trusting.
In God’s view, the last shall be first (Matt. 20:16). The poor in spirit are blessed and the meek inherit the earth (see the Beatitudes in Matt. 5:1–12). We are called to boast in our weaknesses alone, because God’s grace is sufficient and his power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). As Paul says, we can be “content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when [we are] weak, then [we are] strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).
She who is truly able trusts in Christ alone.
Content taken from Cultural Counterfeits: Confronting 5 Empty Promises of Our Age and How We Were Made for So Much More by Jen Oshman, ©2022. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Jen Oshman has been in women’s ministry for over two decades as a missionary and pastor’s wife on three continents. She’s the mother of four daughters, the author of Enough about Me (Crossway, 2020), Cultural Counterfeits (Crossway, 2022), and the host of All Things, a podcast about cultural events and trends. Her family currently resides in Colorado, where she and her husband serve with Pioneers International and they planted Redemption Parker, an Acts29 church. Read more of Jen’s writing at jenoshman.com.
[1] Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011), 389.