Bought With A Price

(1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

Two of the most important factors in the Christian life are covered in this section of scripture. It also gives us two excellent reasons why we must do as the final few words in this section tells us; “Glorify God in your body.”

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. – (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

It also teaches us a few other things that are worth reviewing and taking note of. It is a tremendous work the Lord is doing in us and these few verses show us just how deeply and how much God has done and is continuing to do to bring us into His kingdom and presence.

A Temple of the Holy Spirit

First let us look at this part of verse 19.

There are a lot of differing ideas, thoughts and myths about the Holy Spirit in the Christian world. Some believe the Holy Spirit is just a force, like the wind, some believe the Holy Spirit is God, some believe the Holy Spirit is an angelic being or a collection of angelic beings and other believe a whole bunch of other things.

What we do know about the Holy Spirit conclusively is that when the Holy Spirit comes upon a person or when they receive the Holy Spirit, the spirit dwells within that person. That is the message of this verse.

Look at the words of the verse. “…your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you…” Where does it say the Holy Spirit resides? In your body as a temple within YOU. The Holy Spirit dwells within every person who has received the Holy Spirit and is with us 24/7. Jesus made this same point with the disciples when He said,

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. – (John 14:16-17)

At the time Jesus spoke these words the Holy Spirit had not come upon and entered the disciples, but He was with them. After Jesus had died, the disciples then received the Holy Spirit sent from God the Father to dwell within them, and we can see how that came about at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.

The next thing to consider from this verse in Corinthians is how did people receive the Holy Spirit? Well the words again tell us that the Holy Spirit was sent from God. It says of the Holy Spirit, “…whom you have from God.” In addition we see that in Jesus' words I quoted from John 14:16-17 above, He tells us that the Holy Spirit is sent from God the Father at the request of Jesus.

Note also that nowhere is the the Holy Spirit referred to as God. He is always either the Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth, counsellor, helper, comforter and a few other names, but nowhere is the Holy Spirit described as being God. The definition of the Holy Spirit as part of a trinity of God is based on false teaching and the wrong translation of one scripture in the bible. (1 John 5:7-8 is the scripture in question and in most cases it has been corrected in modern translations. Check the KJV and see the difference. For a good discussion on this issue check this link.)

To put it bluntly, there is no trinity. There is God the Father, there is God the Son and there is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not called God anywhere. The Holy Spirit is sent by God to serve us for the sake of bringing us to salvation.

Bought With A Price

The next part of this verse tells us we were bought with a price.

Christians are not their own. We belong to Jesus Christ and He paid the ultimate price for us in His death. We did not come cheaply. Indeed it was the highest price anyone could ever pay for anything.

What He bought for us with His death was our lives. We owe Jesus a debt of life. He gave His life so that we may live, so we owe Him everything because without life there is nothing.

Think about this for a moment. Every person on this earth is doomed to die because of sin. We know that the wages of sin is death and that all of mankind has sinned. Thus, all mankind will die. Death is the payment that pays the debt of sin incurred by mankind. And without death and the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness and no release from sin as we are told in Hebrews 9:22.

Knowing this, what would you be prepared to give or to pay in order to live and not have to go through death? There is no price too great that most people would not be prepared to give in order to find life if they had the opportunity. But because the only price that can be paid for your life is your death, that is, your death must occur to pay for the debt of sin you have incurred over your life, then it is not possible for anyone to pay the debt themselves.

Logically, you cannot die so that you can live. You cannot give up your life and then retake it because you owe the debt of sin and therefore are required to pay the price of sin which is to die. You can't then go and get a “refund” to get your life back. The only way you or anyone could get their life “refunded” is if they did not deserve to die in the first place because they never sinned and thus earned death.

And that is where Jesus comes into the picture.

Jesus never sinned but He paid the price of death like every other man. When He was resurrected His life was “refunded” back to Him because death could not hold Him because He had never sinned.

But rather than just accept the “refund” and continue on living, Jesus offered His “refunded” life to all of mankind. He said that if we come to Him in faith, believing that God resurrected Him from the dead then we can have His refund and take on His life.

But how do we enter into His resurrection? Well you can't be resurrected unless you die, so we had to still go through a death. But instead of it being an actual death we go through a symbolic death which we treat and which God sees as being our actual death. We do this when we are baptised in water.

The symbolism of baptism is this. We go into and under the water, which symbolises our death and burial with Christ, that is we take on His death. Then as we are raised up from the water we are resurrected with Christ and take on His “refunded” new life in the spirit. We become new creations, born again, born from above, born of the spirit because all we have to do is to believe that this is the work and the purpose of the Father.

Thus, Jesus paid the price for sin and death and He bought our lives when He died for us and when we chose to believe. And because His was the perfect sacrifice it is available to anyone who has faith.

Glorify God In Your Body

Because of this wonderful and amazing gift of life given to us, and because we are now no longer our own but Jesus Christ bought us with His life, we must live lives that will glorify God.

We do not seek to continue in the sinful ways that lead all mankind to death. Instead we seek to find the pathways of righteousness and holiness, learning to live as Christ lived.

We seek to do what is pleasing to God and the lord Jesus Christ since we now belong to Christ as He purchased our lives with His life. He has set us free from sin, but not so we can do whatever we want, and certainly not so we can partake in the licentiousness of sin. Instead we are free now to learn what is right, what is good, what is holy and what is true so that we can please God in this new life He has given us.

And this glorifies God because we choose to do what is good in His eyes. We choose to give God the praise, glory and worship He deserves since He did what we cannot do. He gave us life where we were doomed to death.

Remember this always and in all you do recall that God is watching. Jesus paid the ultimate price to give you the chance to live, not just for a while longer, but to live into eternity. The least we can do is honour that gift by following the ways of the Lord and learn what is pleasing to God in all we do and say.

You might also like:

Conspiracy Against Jesus
Breaking Of Bread In Communion
The Trial Of Jesus Before Caiaphas
Breaking Bread In Remembrance
Eating The Flesh And Blood Of Christ
Dealing With Sin In The Church
Jealousy The Green Eyed Monster
The Gospel Message
Wages Of Sin
You Must Be Born Again
You Are Clean
The Great Commission Part 2
The Great Commission Part 3
The Resurrection Of The Lord
Are You A Sinner
The Truth Will Make You Free
Why Jesus Died
What Is Truth
Jesus Could Not Be Held By Death
Baptising The Ethiopian
The Most Important Thing
Obedient Slaves
Mystery Of The New Covenant

John

Hi! I’m John, the owner, author, and editor of this site. Over the past 50+ years as a Christian I have been teaching, preaching and writing about the Bible to help Christians gain a deeper insight into the scriptures that are easily understood. I also answer specific Bible related questions, so feel free to contact me.