“Ye are not your own: for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which are God’s.” 1 Cor. 6:19-20
Charles Spurgeon hated sin. In fact, he said that “it is no slight thing to be holy.” In his view the “redemption wrought on Calvary” required the death of all a man’s sins.
Indeed, the subject was a difficult one to address. In hunting sin like the Apostle Paul one had to “mark its hideous deformity,” hurling “argument after argument” “like javelins,” and by no means “spare the filthy thing.”
In particular Spurgeon noted that “bodily unchastity” was a “sacrilegious desecration of our manhood,” a “violation of the sacred shrine” where the Spirit dwells. Indeed, addressing such sins was difficult lest the denunciations of a “detestable evil” promote it through unguarded speech.
In short, Spurgeon insisted that “[the] outer life is the test of our inner life; and if the outer life be not purified” then “rest assured the heart is not changed.” Simply, “the faith which does not bring forth the fruit of holiness is the faith of devils”
In the first section of his sermon, Spurgeon began with the “Blessed Fact – ‘Ye are bought with a price.’” Here Spurgeon began by noting that God’s grace in creation in itself should be a sufficient motivation to holiness. After all, “surely he who feeds, nourishes, and upholds our life should have our service.” But God had a preferred motivation, namely gratitude for “redemption.”
Here Spurgeon reminded his congregation to “look ye back to the day when ye were bought, when ye were bondslaves to your sins.” Indeed, Spurgeon wanted his hearers to remember “the just sentence of divine justice” so that the glory of redemption would be especially conspicuous.
Indeed, the blackness of man’s sin served to magnify the “inestimably precious [price] paid for you.”
So high was Spurgeon’s view of the blood that he lamented “Ah! those words slip over our tongue very glibly.” That Christ’s blood was shed “to buy our souls from death and hell is a wonder of compassion.” Indeed, it “[filled] the angels with amazement” and ought to “overwhelm us with adoring love whenever we think of it.”
Thus, the inestimable value of the blood, and the agony it caused the Saviour, demanded the mortification of sin. Indeed, after reflecting on the suffering of Christ, Spurgeon exclaimed, “Oh, by Gethsemane, by Gabbatha, by Golgatha, by every sacred name…remember that ye were ‘bought with a price,’ and ‘are not your own.’”
In the second section of his sermon, Spurgeon examined a “Plain Consequence arising from the blessed fact.” Here Spurgeon began by noting a “negative” dimension, “Ye are not your own;” and a “positive” dimension, “your body and spirit are God’s.”
Indeed, rather than viewing God’s right as master over the believer as a burden, Spurgeon rejoiced. In fact he exclaimed “How thankful you and I should be that we are not derelict to-day!” Indeed, because of God’s providential care believers were not left to “the wild waste of chance.”
Furthermore, God’s providential rule was a blessing because “there is no ruler so tyrannical as self.” Spurgeon went so far as to say, “he that is his own master, has a fool and a tyrant to be his lord.” Indeed, Spurgeon thought that it was a “blissful thing not to be our own” for man’s “imperious lusts are cruel slave drivers.”
One implication of this truth which Spurgeon seized upon was that because no believer is their own, the Christian had “no right to commit uncleanness.” Furthermore, Spurgeon believed he had “no right to let myself lie waste.” Indeed, because he belonged to Christ he had “no right to let my faculties run to waste.” Simply, the “Christian has no right to be idle.”
In the third, and final, section of his sermon, Spurgeon articulated the “Natural Conclusion, ‘Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit.’” First, “the Christian man’s body should glorify God by its chastity.” Additionally, Spurgeon believed that a man could make “his ordinary avocations the exercise of his spiritual priesthood.” Indeed, in all things the Christian was to glorify God in their body because they were “bought with a price.”
“Oh, that every Christian felt as if the honour of God and the church rested upon him, for in a measure it certainly does!”
Why you should take up and read:
For Charles Spurgeon it was “no slight thing to be holy.” Furthermore, Spurgeon reveled that he had been “bought with a price.” But, the precious blood of Christ demanded the highest degree of personal holiness. In this sermon, Spurgeon exalted the precious blood of Christ and called believers to a lifestyle of radical holiness. For the one wishing meditate on being “bought with a price” please be encouraged to take up and read.
Here is the link to the Sermon of the Week:https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/bought-with-a-price#flipbook/
Phillip Ort serves at the Director of The Spurgeon Library at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City where he is also pursuing a Master of Divinity degree.
