Jesus is God (cf. John 1:1; 8:38, 49, 54), and God is spirit (John 4:24). Yet, Jesus came to have a body. It was first an embryo in the womb of a virgin named Mary. On the night He was born, shepherds saw the body of the Savior “wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12). He became a carpenter Who used His hands to build and repair homes and furnishings (Mark 6:3). That body, in its prime, was nailed to a cross. Coming into the world, Jesus said to the Father, “…a body you have prepared for me…” (Heb. 10:5).
Before His death, Jesus had the body of a human being. He looked like a man. He acted like a man. He was a man. He was born as you and I were born, except without the seed of an earthly father, for He was “born of woman” (Gal. 4:4). As a child, Jesus grew as you and I grew, i.e., “in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). As a man, He hungered (Matt. 4:2), tired (John 4:6), slept (Matt. 8:24), was tempted (Matt. 4:1-11; Heb. 4:15), perspired (Luke 22:44), bled (John 19:34), and died (Matt. 27:50). Indeed, the Word became flesh (John 1:14). Though fleshly and human, the Lord’s body was able to do some amazing things. Jesus “passed through” crowds of people (Luke 4:29, 30). Defying gravity, He walked on water (Matt. 14:28-33). He vanished from people who were seeking to kill Him (John 8:59; 10:39).
After the death of Jesus, His body was taken down from the cross, anointed with a mixture of myrrh and aloes, and wrapped in clean, linen cloths (John 19:39, 40). That very body is the same that was raised, and the tomb where He was buried became empty (Matt. 28:6). His flesh did not see corruption (Acts 1:3). His body was the same after His resurrection as it was before His death. It was still a body of flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). The scars in His hands and side could be seen and felt (John 20:27). The Lord was hugged by Mary (John 20:17), and other women “took hold of his feet and worshiped him” (Matt. 28:9). He ate with the apostles, and walked by the Sea of Tiberias with Peter (John 21:1-15). Though the Lord’s body after the resurrection was still material, it was able to do some amazing things. Jesus vanished from the sight of two disciples with whom He was eating (Luke 24:31). Though the apostles were locked behind closed doors, He suddenly “stood among them” (Luke 24:36; cf. John 20:19).
Jesus is now in glory (Heb. 1:3; John 17:4, 5). As he was ascending from earth to heaven, His body underwent a change, for there is a difference in the earthly body and the heavenly (1 Cor. 15:40). Inspiration tells us that when the end of time comes, Jesus will appear, and “we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Jesus inhabits a body now that is like the body we will have when we get to heaven (Phil. 3:20, 21). If we are still alive, when Jesus comes, our bodies will change in much the same way as did His during His ascension (cf. 1 Cor. 15:51, 52). God will change our bodies into the likeness of the Lord’s body in its glorified state. “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50), therefore, the Lord’s body of flesh did not go into heaven. If in the next life the Lord’s body and our bodies will be similar, then they will be imperishable, glorious, powerful, spiritual, heavenly, and immortal (1 Cor. 15:40-58).
Jesus has another body, a spiritual body, of which it is imperative that we be a part. It is the church (Eph. 1:22, 23). If we die not being a member of the Lord’s church, then we will never get to know the joy of the heavenly, glorious body that the Lord wants us to have. Jesus loves the church and died for her (Eph. 5:25, 29, 30). To get into the fleshly, human body, we are conceived. To get into the spiritual body of Jesus Christ, we are baptized (cf. 1 Cor. 12:12, 13; John 3:5, 6). To get into the immortal, heavenly body, we must “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor. 14:5-58). –Andy