What God Has to Say About Our Bodies

We live in a world where people believe gender is fluid, our sexual preferences define who we are, and there are as many gender identities as the sand on the sea shore. It’s also increasingly a time where much of human interaction doesn’t take place face-to-face. This means there’s never been a more important time to ask the question, What does God have to say about our bodies?

And I’m glad pastor and author Sam Allberry has answered that question in What God Has to Say About Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves. Allberry writes in the introduction, “While we tend to focus on our body when it’s letting us down, it’s easy to ignore it when it comes to spiritual matters.” Indeed it is, and that is especially a problem considering all that Scripture has to say about our bodies. Allberry divides this 180ish page book into three categories Part 1: Created Bodies, Part 2: Broken Bodies, and Part 3: Redeemed Bodies, and shares a biblical theology of the body in an engaging and applicable way.

A great strength of the book is Allberry’s clear and practical gospel application of the truth he unpacks. The issues he writes about are incredibly personal, often painful, and culturally divisive, and Allberry does a fine job writing winsomely in a way that won’t unnecessarily turn off unbelievers or skeptics.

This is a great book for teaching a gospel-centered theology of the body. I agree with Matt Smethurst that, “This book is medicine for the moment” and with Paul Tripp that “I can’t think of a book that speaks more clearly and more winsomely to our culture’s widening dysphoria.”

Every Christian leader, especially those working with youth, would benefit from reading What God Has to Say About Our Bodies due to how prevalent our culture preaches lies about identity and our bodies. I could see this book sparking teaching series for youth groups and the whole congregations. I also know my wife will use this as a resource for speaking into the lives of the girls she ministers to.

Thankfully, our Creator knows about the problems of our bodies and has shown us the remedy in Christ. I hope Sam Allberry’s new book will point many to the hope we have in Him.

Read an excerpt of the book: Body Shaming Demeans Others and Insults God

Listen to Sam Allberry on the Good Citizen Podcast