One night an older friend with chronic health problems advised: “Take care of your body. You are going to need it for a long time.” The next morning I woke up thinking about a question Apostle Paul once asked: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24 New American Standard Bible). 

When we are young, life is pleasant, and the last thing we want is to be free of our bodies. But as they break down, we begin to realize what they actually are – one-way tickets to the grave. 

This may explain why legends have long been told about the existence of a Fountain of Youth – a spring that can cure illness and make a person young again. Many, including Spanish explorers, traveled thousands of miles in search of its magical waters. 

Today our search continues – not with ships and charts – but with test tubes, computers and genetic engineering. 

It’s as if humankind cries out with Apostle Paul: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from this body of death?” 

Paul, like my older friend, had health problems. He called it a “thorn in the flesh.” Yet Paul’s question goes beyond sickness and death and reaches to their cause. You see, the Bible tells us sickness and death exist because “sin” -- things that go against God’s laws -- entered our world and messed it up. 

The bad news is our corruption is total. The good news is there is hope. 

Paul put it this way: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8.20-1). 

In other words, our only hope of escaping our one-way ride is to become a child of God. How do we do this? Fortunately, not only did Paul ask the question, he also answered it. He said, “Who will set me free from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” 

We can all become children of God by believing in Jesus. As the Bible says, we can actually be born again, “not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). 

Paul’s discovery was not a magical spring or costly lotion, but in a person. He said, “But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you” (Romans 8:11). 

Paul didn’t mean he would never have to die physically, he meant – when he did die – he didn’t have to die spiritually because he believed in Jesus. 

Jesus proved He had power over sin and death when He rose from the dead, and when He brought others back to life, including His friend Lazarus. Yet before He did this miracle, He wanted to make sure his message was clear. When He told Lazarus’s sister, “Your brother will rise again,” she said, “I know that he will rise again on the last day.” 

But Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life: he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.” 

Then he asked this woman the most important question she would ever be asked: “Do you believe this?” 

Now her eternal destiny rested on her answer.