The Body Spiritual: A comparison of the physical and spiritual body

By Victoria Moots

Are you intrigued by the wonders of the human body? The apostle Paul was also and compared it to the spiritual body of Christ, the Church. Surprising things can be learned through comparison of the physical body to its spiritual counterpart, as you are soon to discover.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Oct 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647733452

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The Body Spiritual

A comparison of the physical and spiritual body

Victoria M. Moots, D.O.

The Body Spiritual

Trilogy Christian Publishers A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2020 by Victoria M. Moots

All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without written permission from the author. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

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For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-1-64773-344-5

E-ISBN: 978-1-64773-345-2

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the many people (family members, patients, and friends) who encouraged me to publish a book of my medical sermons. A special thanks goes to Christy Rogers for her many hours of typing and for using her computer skills, which I lacked, in order to make it possible. Since tribulation worketh patience, I know that God will bless her with an extra serving of patience for enduring the many tribulations that I gave her through the multiple revisions and corrections that I handed to her before we finally finished our project. But I must also thank God for His inspiration to write and His enabling, for without Him I could do nothing.

Introduction

The content of this book is a melding of two distinct but inseparable disciplines of study: medicine and the Bible. The physical and the spiritual realms have been knit together.

As both a minister and a physician, I have been inspired by the fact that most people in the Bible sought out Jesus to meet their physical needs, but He also ministered to their spirits in order that they might be healed body, soul, and spirit. The apostle Paul compared the physical body to the spiritual body of Christ in chapter 12 of his letter to the Corinthians, as well as in Ephesians 4:15–16.

As I began to practice medicine and continued to study the Bible for my sermons, the Holy Spirit impressed on me that the various functions of the body and many common diseases have a spiritual correlation. At that point I began to give sermons that were basically medical parables that illustrated spiritual lessons. Such physical illustrations made it easier for people to understand the Bible.

This book is a compilation of some of those sermons that have been given over the past thirty-two years at camp meetings, church fellowship meetings, women’s retreats, and Bible conferences, as well as in our own church. The subjects cover a variety of common topics, and they vary in length and complexity. Hopefully, they will appeal to readers of different ages and spiritual maturity and backgrounds.

Each topic was inspired by an encounter with an actual patient in my practice or from my own personal experience. These sermons are intended to provide both practical medical information as well as spiritual truth. Each is complete in itself and can be studied in more depth through the Scripture references provided, in a Bible study group, or during your own devotional time.

Scars

Have you ever had a scar? Not long after birth we begin to accumulate scars, not just physical but emotional scars. I am going to discuss how scars are formed in the natural and apply that to our emotional scars, examining what they mean to us and why scars are necessary.

You may wonder why scars are necessary and why God couldn’t make our wounds heal without scars. Wouldn’t that be nice? But scars are a necessary part of the wound healing process. You may also wonder, Why were there scars in Jesus’ body? Why wasn’t His body healed completely when He was raised from the dead? We are going to look at the answer to these questions.

Scars are part of the natural healing process; they appear in all sizes: long, short, wide, and narrow, and they all tell a story. They tell a story of something that happened in the past, whether it was an injury or a surgery. They have a personal meaning to us. Also, bodies are identified by scars, tattoos, and other markings that are found by the coroner. As a doctor I can find out on a physical exam what kind of surgeries you have had, even if you have forgotten. I see a scar, and I ask, What was this from? Sometimes as you are telling me, you may become a little bit emotional because of the circumstances associated with the scar.

Scars are important physically and spiritually. Jesus was identified after His resurrection and will be identified in the future by His scars. In John 20:19–29, we read the account of when Jesus appeared to His disciples behind closed doors. He showed them His hands and His side, and they believed. But one of the disciples, Thomas, who wasn’t there, stated that he would not believe unless he saw for himself and was able to put his finger into the print of the nails and thrust his hand into the wound in Jesus’ side. We all know where the scar came from in His side: It was where the soldier thrust the spear into His heart to be sure He was dead. (I am going to talk a little more about what that scar meant later.) Thomas wanted to see the physical evidence that Jesus had been raised from the dead, so Jesus did appear to him later and invite him to examine those scars, and he believed.

Zechariah 13:6 states, And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. So, we see that Jesus’ scars were His identification. Also, Zechariah 12:10 says, …they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.…

As stated previously, scars are a reminder of an injury or surgery. They tell a story, and they can be a testimony of healing. Scars are not evidence of crucifixion, because you must be alive to make scars. Anyone else other than Jesus who was crucified did not have scars from that event, because they all died before any healing process could take place. Scars show healing, not just injury. Jesus’ scars were evidence of His resurrection and healing.

Now let us examine the physical process of wound healing and scar formation to better understand their spiritual meaning. In the physical, this is a very complex process, but I am going to try to simplify it a little. It is actually called regeneration, which means replacement of destroyed tissue with new tissue.

Doesn’t God do this spiritually for us also? The Scripture says that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [creation]: old things are passed away; and all things are become new (2 Cor. 5:17). So, when He regenerates us by virtue of the new birth, He replaces the old, destroyed tissue with new tissue. He doesn’t just patch up our old, sinful life. He gives us a new life, a resurrection life; we are born again. This means the regeneration of our lives occurs when He takes away the old and replaces it with the new. Therefore, one of the purposes of scars in our lives is to create a new thing that is pleasing unto God.

Fibrosis is the formation of connective tissue, which we call scar tissue. That is what we see on the outside of our bodies as evidence of healing, but there is something very important going on inside of our bodies at the same time. Tissue injury, either through an accident or through surgery, causes bleeding that starts inflammatory events into motion. It happens spiritually and emotionally also. Sometimes we get angry and we become inflamed, but God uses that inflammation, for it is a necessary part of wound healing, both natural and spiritual.

Special cells, called mast cells and macrophages, release inflammatory chemicals that cause the capillaries (small blood vessels) to dilate (open up) and become permeable (or leaky). This allows white cells and plasma, which is rich in clotting proteins and antibodies, to seep into the injured areas. This happens very quickly, forming a clot to stop the bleeding, and it holds the wound edges together, sealing it off from bacteria. Then the outer part of the clot hardens and forms a scab. That’s nature’s Band-Aid, which helps to protect the wound. Dead cells and other debris in the wound are eaten up by the macrophages (like Pac-Man).

In the spiritual sense, the Holy Spirit cleans up our emotional wounds in much the same way doing a hidden, inner work to rid us of the harmful debris that Satan and the world throw at us to try to destroy us. This is taking place underneath, below the scab, not on the outside. People sometimes try to add insult to injury by the things they say and the things they do to us, but on the inside the Holy Spirit is working in us to cleanse and heal us.

While the inflammatory process of wound healing is going on, the first phase of tissue repair, called organization, begins. God is well organized. He does all things decently and in order, according to His plan for our lives, according to His schedule. Sometimes we get a little impatient and start picking at the scab. We say, Okay, I want to see if there is any new skin under there. So, we pull the scab off, and subsequently the process of healing takes longer. We do the same thing spiritually, but God is patient. He continues to work with us, and the process of healing goes on. As a result, we may get a minor infection in there because we have messed with it, and the scar may become a little bigger. But God works all things together for our good; the bigger the scar, the bigger the testimony can be. Even when we mess things up, God continues to work on the inside.

Next, granulation tissue forms, containing new blood vessels (capillaries) and fibroblasts, which grow into the wound to bridge the gap where the tissue has been split apart. The fibroblasts are somewhat elastic and actually pull the edges of the wound together to aid in the healing. How does this apply to us spiritually? In the same manner, God is working in us to help pull our broken lives and hearts back together. As we continue to cling to Him, it helps the healing process. The macrophages (the Pac-Man cells) begin to dissolve the old blood clot, which was necessary in the first place to stop the bleeding. Every part of the healing process is necessary. We can’t leave any of the steps out. Everything that God does in our lives to help us heal from emotional scars is necessary, even the inflammatory phase, when we get angry with God. But God uses that inflammation for healing.

At the same time, the outer layer of skin (the epithelium) begins to regenerate, growing under the scab. Collagen fibers are laid down, and granulation tissue forms a fibrous patch that we call a scar. That is the permanent part of the healing process that stays there to hold the wound edges together. The scab needs to stay on until it begins to loosen around the edges and fall off. We need to leave our hands off physically and spiritually while God is doing the healing. The Holy Spirit is not only working in us, but He is also working in the other people, the ones who have hurt or injured us in some way, healing the inflammation.

We have all seen signs of inflammation: a little swelling and redness around the wound that is usually gone in a few days and does not indicate infection. If it is getting worse, then it could mean an infection is taking place. In the natural body, doctors usually sew the wound edges together to speed up healing and decrease the amount of scar tissue needed to seal the wound, but there will always be a scar.

When we have been offended, when we have been hurt, we need to go to the Lord, the Great Physician. He can decrease the size of the emotional scar we will have if we turn it over to Him early in the process. He can heal us if we turn it over to Him later, too, but we will have a bigger scar.

The amount of scar tissue formed depends on how deep and how wide the wound is. That means something to us spiritually also. Ephesians 3:18–19 tells us of the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of God, which passes knowledge. What does that mean to us? It means that no matter how deep or how wide our emotional scar is, His love can go deeper and wider than anything we have ever experienced. Why? Because Jesus experienced all our emotions. He became a man; He became like us. He suffered emotional wounds, His friends turned against Him, He was betrayed, He experienced grief, His earthly father died, He thirsted, He hungered, He was tired. There is nothing that we have experienced that Jesus hasn’t already experienced for us. And so, His love is deeper, higher, and wider than our wounds. It passes our knowledge to understand that; we just need to experience it. How do we comprehend it, then, if it passes knowledge? We lay hold of it by experience, and then we know how great His love is. Whatever emotional need we have, don’t think that He can’t heal it. His love goes deeper and wider, and then He draws us close to Him, just like the fibroblasts do, to bring about the healing.

So, scars are necessary. We need to not pick at the scab, nor get impatient; just give the Lord time to work in our lives, keeping our hands off both physically and spiritually, allowing Him to do the healing.

The scars of Jesus tell a story of love and obedience to the will of His Father. He could have avoided them. But what did He pray in the garden? …not my will, but thine, be done (Luke 22:42). He said in Hebrews 10:7: …I come to do thy will, O God. So, He went through the process of obtaining those scars because of His love for us. The scars in His hands will be seen by the world. But He had another wound. The scar from the wound that pierced His heart was only seen by those who were close and intimate with Him. He was behind closed doors, because in order to expose that wound, He had to pull apart His clothing, to partially disrobe. Only those who were close to Him and familiar with Him were allowed to see and touch that wound.

In Philippians 3:10, we read that Paul desired to know Him in the fellowship of His suffering. He desired to be close and intimate with the Lord. He wanted to know Him in the power of His resurrection. The power of His resurrection was evidenced by the fact that He had scars in His hands and side. Paul said he wanted more than just evidence, he wanted to fellowship with Jesus’ suffering, being made conformable to His death. He wanted to enter into the suffering that Jesus experienced, not just the physical suffering when the soldier took the spear and pierced into His heart. He wanted to understand the emotional pain that Jesus experienced when He hung there on the cross, the