YOU HAVE BEEN BOUGHT.

Full and absolute bodily autonomy is the loudest battle cry for most abortion advocates. We all know the chant. We've seen it on signs, shirts, Internet memes, and even tattoos. However, it is also the earliest and predominant schism caused by sin; namely, humanity's choice to reject God's goodness and moral law in an effort to pursue life apart from its Author & Giver.

Jumping into the nuance, Christians must embrace the fact that at first glance, authority over our bodies seems not only reasonable, but good. Shouldn't individuals have the right to say "yes" or "no" to what they allow to happen to or within their own bodies? What's the alternative? Seriously! Chase that thought for a minute. But then recognize that, in reality, this really isn't the reason most abortion advocates carry signs saying, "my body...my choice".

Every civilized society has recognized the evil of things like rape, forced or coerced sexual encounters, and the manipulation or taking advantage of the most vulnerable people in a society. That's why laws against these things exist. Moral societies, with a desire to see others treated with dignity and respect, have always been advocates of ensuring mechanisms exist to hold evil people accountable for their evil acts.

But that's not enough. As sin has continued to damage, confuse, and destroy God's creation, humanity's efforts to rid themselves of God's morality has also continued to spiral out of control. Generation upon generation of men have given themselves over to all kinds of perversion and sexual immorality and as these sins have been celebrated—within an open-minded and indulgent culture—the natural result has been the suppression of shame and a  callousness towards the damaging effects of such a lifestyle. In short, the godless culture has forgotten how to blush.

Naturally, as men have embraced and endorsed these sinful lifestyles—and the culture has looked upon them with lust instead of scorn—women looked at men with envy and bitterness. Why should men be able to live these kinds of carefree (albeit careless) lifestyles, without consequences? Why are women always the ones left to deal with the byproducts of baseness or the collateral damages of corruption?

Enter Feminism
Disguised as the advocacy of women's rights, what it really has shown itself to be is the advancement of feminine decadence. Peddled as a pathway to equity, egalitarianism hasn't paid-out the dividends it promised. Instead of elevating women, it has further corrupted the goodness of God's design. In their pursuit of justice, women found themselves in the exact same predicament they were in before; namely, left to deal with the calamities and natural consequences of unchecked autonomy. 

And as the culture has gyrated, unapologetically, further down the hole of moral corruption the only remedy our culture has been able to provide, to stop the bleeding, is to create band-aids to try and hide the hideous results of hedonism.

Abortion, birth-control, child-support, OnlyFans, pharmaceuticals to treat STDs, legalization of prostitution, HPV vaccines for children, erythromycin eye ointment for newborns, and many other things are the culture's efforts to erase the aftermath of iniquity. But unlike true cures, the side-effects of these treatments always come with a cost.

The True Cure
It would be easy for Christians to throw our hands up in the air and say, "to hell with them". And sadly, many Christians have not only taken an apathetic approach to addressing these things, but they have even gone so far as condoning them or participating in them.

But there is a cure. Not only for those who profess Christ, but also for those who would be blessed to live in a society where professing Christians actually choose to submit to the authority of scripture and model their life—and their culture—after the moral principles laid out in God's word.

This is precisely what the Apostle Paul was aiming at, in his first letter to the Church of Corinth. Dealing with a church of young believers, who found themselves in the middle of an immoral culture who lived by the motto: "food for the body and the body for food".

This statement was often used, in a flippant way by the culture, to imply that if something feels good, then therefore it must be good. Just like food was meant for the stomach and the stomach was meant for food, so too was a man's body meant for sexual pleasure. Therefore—as the culture suggested at that time—if pleasure was the end result of a sexual activity, than that activity must be good for the man.

But we know this isn't that case. Just because something feels good, it does not indicate that it is good. Good is defined by the source of Good; namely, God. What God calls good is good and what God calls evil is evil; regardless how it makes us feel.

The appropriate response of any Christian, when facing questions about whether something is good or evil, is to examine the word of God. If the Bible condemns something—whether explicitly or implicitly—it doesn't matter how it makes a person feel. 

Returning to Paul's letter to the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 6:13), he helps us see this clearly.  
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Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body

​Though food is meant for the body, the body is meant for God. This captures the very center of the human experience. Man was not created for our own pleasure. Man was created, by God, to glorify him and fully enjoy him forever.

Therefore, any efforts we make to do things—which feel good for our body—must be done with an awareness of and submission to what God has called good. For man, pleasure is not the treasure. Glorifying God is the treasure, and enjoying peace in our relationship with him is the natural pleasure that comes from this aim.

God's Body. My Choice.
This is why the mantra, "my body...my choice" is not only foolish but also a lie. No man, woman, or child owns themselves. We are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. We are all owned, and more specifically as Christians, we have been bought with a price.

Our body, is God's body, and the only choice we have is whether or not we will submit to him as our Savior and King.

When Christians understand and choose to live into this reality, not only does it lead to their own pleasure—a pleasure which lasts eternally and never leaves guilt or shame—it also becomes an invitation for others to taste and see that the Lord is good.

Pleasure, in its truest and fullest sense, is not a fleeting feeling. This is why people don't make an idol out of pleasure, but rather, make an idol out of the things they take pleasure in the most. In the words of John Piper, "Pleasure is not the object of worship; pleasure is the worship".

But when we worship false gods, we also come to realize that the pleasures they promise don't last. Why does sexual sin continue to get more and more grotesque? Why is porn hub the 13th most visited website in America; above Hulu and Netflix? Because as much pleasure as people hope to find in their false gods, it is always futile; like chasing after the wind.

Pleasure isn't our treasure. It can't be. On the contrary, the Treasure—namely God—leads us to the pleasure of being freely and fully satisfied in him forever. When Christians gladly submit to God and his good and perfect design, we are lovingly led to an abundant life. This life is not a fleeting feeling or a passing amusement. This life profoundly surpasses all other counterfeits, which always leave a bitter taste and a lasting scar. When God's people taste the kind of pleasure, which can only be found in the true Treasure, we can gladly and unapologetically say: "God's body...my choice".

​And this is the battle-cry our culture so desperately needs to hear, so they too can taste and see that the Lord is Good.