On Fighting Gnosticism

For 20 years or so now, I’ve been happy to read authors fighting Gnosticism in the church.  The part of Gnosticism I refute asserts that spiritual things are all that really matter.  Physical things are incidental and better ignored for the spiritual.

 

I still refute this.

 

But there is a simplistic way to go about this, that contradicts much Scripture.

 

John 6:63 – “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.”

1 Timothy 4:8 – “while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

And most important, and what I want to discuss today, 2 Corinthians 5:1-8

“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

 

There’s an idea running about that questions this.  “God didn’t make us as souls with our body just an incidental carrying case to be shed at death.  We ARE our bodies.  God doesn’t mean for us to exist without a body.  How could we be blessed without a body?”

 

Now, it’s true, our bodies are more a part of our identity than Christians in the past realized.

It’s also true that, long term, God doesn’t mean for us to be without a body.

 

But some are going as far as to deny what Christians have historically asserted as the Intermediate State: that time after our death and before the Consummation, when we are “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8).  Paul assumed, with divine inspiration, that Christians who die in the Lord are immediately with the Lord, without a body, yet blessed more than we are here, WITH a body.  Better to be without a body for a while, and also without sin.  (Don’t assume from this, though, that the body is the CAUSE of all our sin.)

 

Many who overreact against Gnosticism cast about for some other interpretation of this.  We couldn’t be happy and blessed without a body, surely, they think.  So God must give us a spiritual body immediately at death.  Or some other nonsense.

 

 

Here’s how I see it.

God is Spirit.  The Trinitarian love overflowed into a creation beyond Himself.  Of angels who are spirit.  Of a world and creatures who are physical.  And of men who are formed from dust, with the spirit of God breathed into them.

 

God is free to bless angels, only in the spirit.

He blesses His creation in a different way, only in the physical realm.

And He blesses mankind in both realms.

(There is a correlating curse in each of these.)

 

Here’s the key: the physical IS an overflow of the spiritual.  God is Spirit.  We are His image because of the spiritual quality He gave us, separating us from the beasts.  The spiritual IS primary over the physical.  That is not Gnosticism – it’s all over the Gospel of John, after all.  One can even say that the physical things around us, generally, are a (lower-case s) sacrament to point us to the spiritual reality.  Romans 1:19-20: “what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

 

I’m NOT saying physical things are UNimportant.  Scripture says creation was good (Gen. 1:31).  God seems to agree with Adam’s blessing upon Eve, as “flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23).  But spiritual things are more ultimate, and drive physical things.  A spiritually rebellious person tends to have a more chaotic, abusive, or manipulative physical and relational life.  If your spirit is in tune with God’s reality, your physical life will tend to be more peaceful, ordered, and life-giving to others.

 

We should tend to physical things, not as an end in themselves, but as manifesting what is going on in our souls.

 

And this brings us to the resurrection of Jesus.  Jesus is the pioneer, the forerunner, the firstfruits, showing us what is coming for all of us.  And we need to see that physically, because we are material beings in part.  God knows what we need.

 

But we also need to realize that the physical resurrection of Jesus was showing a deeper reality: when God regenerates you, He puts to death your old self, and brings to life a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17).  SPIRITUALLY.  The physical transformation happens in part now, in a changed life.  But its fullness awaits our resurrection at the last day.

 

Jesus was raised on the 8^th day, the first day of a new week, after the old Sabbath (Gen 2:2-3).  Circumcision was done on the 8^th day, to cut away the old and make way for life-giving matter.

 

 

So, as you celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, remember:

-        the physical nature of it – God is going to redeem and restore your physical body and life, as well as save your soul.

-        it is pointing to new life within you that is spiritual, and more foundational.

-        New spiritual life will inevitably overflow back into physical things.  You’ll handle your relationships, money, time, online activity, etc. differently because of this spiritual change.