Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.  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: 18-20

Paul is speaking to the Corinthian Church and exhorting them to flee sexual immorality, this exhortation is absolutely necessary today in a world where sexual boundaries have disappeared; Paul warns that sexual sin is a sin against the body, he is talking about the physical body. There are certain things that hurt the body, sexual sin hurts the body.

Now this is why Paul was so emphatic against sexual sin; he said the body just as the spirit has been bought with a price, redeemed by the Lord God unto himself. In other words we are no longer the owners of our bodies but merely stewards of the body that the Lord has given to us for our stay here on earth.

Wow! Our body and our spirit have been bought with a price! Many people can relate with the fact that our spirits have been bought with a price, this is commonly taught in Church

In whom we have redemption through his blood even the remission of sins. Eph. 1:7

But what we have not heard so much about is that the body too has been bought or redeemed with a price.

The Holy Spirit can only abide in redeemed lives; the work of the cross was complete, spirit soul and body.

When was the body redeemed?

We know the spirit was redeemed at the cross when Jesus shed his blood to pay the price for our eternal salvation but when was the body redeemed?

Let’s look at the prophecy of Isaiah on the great work of redemption

Surely He has borne our griefs (holi)- sicknesses, diseases

And carried our sorrows (mak’ob);- afflictions

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed. Is.53:4-5

The King James bible reads Jesus bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, in the same way that he carried away our sins and became sin for us, but what many do not recognize is that the word griefs and sorrows here were wrongly translated so by the King James version, in other parts of scriptures those words  griefs (holi)  and sorrows (mak’ob) actually were translated as sicknesses  and afflictions.

In other words Jesus bore away our sicknesses and afflictions

Now you understand why it is by His stripes that we are healed

The prophet Isaiah highlights the two main planks of the great redemptive work of Jesus, to wit the redemption of the body and the spirit, today we have in a measure the initiation of that redemptive work through the healing ministry of Jesus but just as the redemption of the spirit will be perfected in the resurrection even so the redemption of the body will have its complete work when this mortal body will put on immortality and this body susceptible to corruption will become incorruptible even like the glorified body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But let us go back to the redemption of the body

The healing ministry of Jesus was the working out of this redemptive grace; Matthew tells us that in his gospel

When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick,  that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:

“He Himself took our infirmities

And bore our sicknesses.”  Matt. 8:16-17

Mathew confirms that our understanding of Isaiah’s prophetic word is correct, Jesus in healing the sick and casting out devils was taking our infirmities and bearing our sicknesses.

He is still doing that today just as He is still forgiving sins today.

There are people who tend to minimize the redemption of the body in favor of the redemption of the spirit or soul but God did not do that He offers both on the same table in the same person.