Essay 27 (4/17/04)

THE MYSTERY OF THE HUMAN BODY OF CHRIST

This subject -- however incomprensible it may be to us -- is important because what is true of the body of Christ is to some extent true of our own bodies. Not only did our Lord take on a human body like our own in what theology calls "the Incarnation," but we are destined to have a heavenly body like his. One of the great promises is "We shall be like him" (1 John 3:2). So this essay is about hope -- hope as it related to the destiny of our "earthly house" (2 Cor. 5:2).

I will state my case in a series of propositions.

1. Christ now has (in heaven) a body. It is a human body, for since the Incarnation he has been a human being -- but it is spiritual, not physical.

The Bible makes it clear in 1 Cor. 15:44 that there are spiritual bodies, even if it is unfathomable for our finite minds. We accept by faith what reaches beyond our reason. And Philip. 3:21 says that Christ now has in heaven such a body, except that there it is called "a glorious body." Christ is not now of the same nature that he was as the eternal Logos (Word). The eternal Word is now Jesus -- a human being in a heavenly, glorious, spiritual body. 1 Tim. 2:5 puts it this way: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." He is our man in heaven -- a human being like ourselves -- one who makes intercession for us.

2. Christ existed in eternity with God as the Word. He had consciousness as a person. He decided -- in view of God's will -- to become a human being for the sake of fallen humanity.

The same passage that says "the Word was God" also says "the Word became flesh" (Jn. 1:1,14). This "becoming human" was a free decision on the part of the Word, the preexistent Christ. This is made clear in Philip. 2:6-7: "Who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness."

Notice the verbs indicating free choice: he did not consider, he made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. The Word freely chose -- in reference to what he saw to be God's will -- to take on the likeness of sinful flesh. This implies consciousness -- and there can be no personality (personhood) apart from consciousness. The Word was aware of who he was -- equal with God -- but he decided not to hold on to this. So, he "humbled himself" -- or made himself nothing -- and became a human being, with all its limitations and difficulties.

3. In becoming a human being Christ temporarily as a baby and a child gave up his consciousness, and gradually regained it as he matured toward manhood -- just as every person does -- except that only Christ had preexistent consciousness.

It is too much for us to think of the eternal Logos who created heaven and earth to be sqeezed into the body of an infant, or to imagine God inhabiting the body of a little boy. That is the mystery of the Incarnation -- God was in Jesus, even as an infant. This may be part of what "he emptied himself" means -- he "became nothing" in that he temporarily gave up consciousness.

We are to understand that Jesus as a baby -- and in his growing-up years -- was like all the rest of us. He was not a monstrosity, as some tales in apocryphal gospels have depicted him -- such as having his clay pigeons coming to life and taking flight, and his bringing back to life a playmate accidentally killed.

As a baby and small child Jesus had no more awareness of who he was than you or I had of who we were when we were that age. The eternal Word had become human, and his self-awareness was temporarily suspended. He became nothing, as Paul put it. He appears to have had considerable awareness of who he was by age twelve. Luke 2:41-50 records the astonishing story of twelve-year old Jesus sitting among the teachers of the law in the temple -- not only listening to them, but asking them questions. Verse 47 says, "Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers." It reads as if the scholars were questioning him before it was over! And at only twelve! He told his parents on that occasion, "Didn't you know that I must be in my Father's house."

This informs us of his growing consciousness, but it must have been very gradual in unfolding. He certainly knew who he was when he went to John for baptism at about age thirty, but -- insofar as we know -- he was not actually acknowledged to be the Son of God -- not publicly at least -- until his baptism. And it is strongly implied that some things were not completely resolved in his own mind -- particularly the Cross -- until Gethsemane. That would explain his puzzling prayer, "Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will" (Mk. 14:36). This strongly points to his humanness. He was not part human and part divine. He was wholly human and wholly divine. Again, the mystery of the Incarnation.

4. In becoming man Christ took on the limitations and frailties that all physical bodies have. He had these limitations during all of his life on earth.

As a man Jesus had to walk if he wanted to go somewhere, or ride a beast of burden -- and he became tired and sweaty like anyone else. Once rich in eternity, he became a poor man for our sake (2 Cor. 8:9), and he was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin (Heb, 4:15). He was not without sin because of some inherent moral immunity. He willed not to sin. He suffered agonizing pain -- probably more intensely because of his sensitive nature -- not only at the Cross but all through his ministry.

In temptation and suffering he passed the test for moral goodness, and there can be no such goodness apart from hardships. Temptations may differ, but they come to all of us. Those who do not suffer or are little tempted are not found among the noble souls of history.

Our Lord's purpose in becoming man was to reveal God through the medium of the human body. He demonstrated moral excellence and obedience to God by the way he endured temptations and suffering. He showed how God's character can be revealed in a human being.

5. Once Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified one, became the risen Christ, he assumed a spiritual, resurrected body -- a body free of the limitations of his previous physical body.

Jesus' resurrected body -- not a resuscitated body -- was of a different nature from his physical, earthly body -- even if it bore similarities to it. He was now free of its limitations. He did not have to walk or ride to get somewhere. He could be there instantaneously, as if time and space were irrelevant. He walked through closed doors. The stone was not rolled away from the tomb so Jesus could get out, but that witnesses might get in!

He appeared and disappeared right before his disciples' eyes. He had at least some of the marks of crucifixion on his risen, spiritual body. He ate food in their presence, but only to demonstrate his reality, not because he needed food. He appeared to them off and on for some forty days -- as if now moving in two worlds -- before he finally ascended.

We may suppose that the body he now has in heaven -- human but not flesh and blood -- is the same as his resurrected body. I suspect that when we see Christ in glory, we will see what the disciples saw when they beheld the risen Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified one. Paul reported in 1 Cor. 15:8: "Last of all he appeared to me." We will see what Paul saw. That is a Wow!

6. As joint-heirs of Christ, we shall each have a body like his -- a spiritual body -- with the same freedom from the limitations of our earthly bodies.

This is where we come in. The promise is ours -- We shall be like him! The promise is made clear, over and over. Paul could not make it clearer in 1 Cor. 15:49: "Just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man (Adam), so shall we bear the image of the man of heaven." He tells us even more in Philip. 3:20-21: "Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."

Our "lowly bodies" are bodies limited by time and space. We grow old and die; we suffer pain and are tempted; we are heirs to untold misfortunes in our earthly pilgrimage. All this ends. No more pain, no more heartache, no more sickness, no more death. Everything becomes new. We have new bodies -- like unto Jesus' glorious body. No more limitations. Like him, we'll be able to move from one part of the universe/universes to another instantly -- serving God in such glorious ways that it is beyond our fondest dreams.

Paul got a glimpse of this when he was caught up into the third heaven, as he tells it in 2 Cor. 11. It was so overwhelming that he was given a thorn in the flesh lest he make too much of it. What he heard or saw was such that it was both ineffable and unlawful to tell. The first means that words could not describe it, the second means if he could describe it, it would not be allowed.

Three other of the apostles had a similar experience on the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw a bit of heaven on earth. Inhabitants of heaven came down, apparently in their spiritual bodies, and the apostles recognized them as Moses and Elijah. And they saw Christ transfigured in glory -- apparently as he would be in his resurrected body. Conversation took place. It was real but overwhelming. Peter got so excited he was ready to build three churches, right there on the spot.

Peter describes all this as "very great and precious promises" (2 Pet. 1:4). They are so great and precious that we might have to be prepared by the Holy Spirit to experience them. If Peter was moved to build three churches, I wonder what some of my resourceful sisters and brothers might come up with once they are exposed to it all!

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