In response to the post ‘The Nature of Pentecostal Theology’, four questions are asked and we decided to answer them with a separate blog post.

The four questions are:

  1. What was the nature of the body of Christ after his resurrection? 
  2. Did Jesus Christ rise from the dead with a glorified body as described above? 
  3. Did Christ appear in a spiritual and glorified body behind closed doors?   
  4. When did Christ receive his glorified body after his resurrection? 

Question 1: What was the nature of the body of Christ after his resurrection?

There are two possibilities: 

  1. It was a fleshly body, or 
  2. It was a glorified body. 

There is no possibility that He could have been both as the two is incompatible (so different in nature as to be incapable of coexisting). 

The fleshly body is the body that Christ received with his incarnation (born from Mary): 

1 John 4:2 “This is how you could recognize the Spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledged that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.” 

The glorified body is the body of Christ before and after his incarnation. 

  1. Before his incarnation: Moses asked the Lord in his glorified state if he may see his face. The Lord replied: Ex. 33:20 “You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live”.
  2. After his incarnation: The apostle John saw him in his glorified state on Patmos: Rev. 1:14-17 “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. … His face was like the sun shining in all his brilliance”.

His appearance was of such a nature that John had lost his consciousness and fell like a dead person at his feet. 

One of the main reasons why Christ became flesh was to die for our sins. He did not die by natural causes but on a cross where his fleshly body was severely and fatally wounded.  

A glorified body cannot be wounded in the flesh and die, because it is a spiritual body without flesh, and is therefore not perishable and corruptible. Christ had to become flesh in order to die. 

We will also inherit this spiritual body of Christ.  

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15: “There are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies, but the splendour of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendour of the earthly bodies is another.” (verse 40)

“So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. … It is sown a natural body; it is raised as a spiritual body.” (verses 42 and 44)

“For the perishable man must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality.” (verse 51)

This spiritual body is also called a glorified body: 

“And we eagerly await a Saviour from heaven, 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 glorified body.” (Philippians 3:20-21) 

We conclude:  

A fleshly body is perishable and mortal. It is a body that could die by deadly wounds on a cross as what happened with Jesus Christ in the flesh. 

A glorified body is spiritual and is imperishable and immortal. It is a body that could not be wounded until death on a cross – Jesus Christ glorified at the right hand of the Father. 

Question 2: Did Jesus Christ rise from the dead with a glorified body as described above?

  1. There is no single scripture in the Bible that says that Christ has risen with a glorified and spiritual body. This means that the belief that Christ has risen from the dead in a glorified and spiritual body has no scriptural foundation. 
  2. The belief that Christ was risen with a glorified and spiritual body is based upon an assumption that a natural and fleshly body cannot appear behind closed doors, as Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection (Luke 24:39 and John 20:19). Only a spiritual and glorified body is able to do that. 
  3. The fact is that Christ walked with his natural and fleshly body on the water of the sea (Matthew 14:23), even Peter was able to walk on water on the command of Christ (Matthew 14:29). 
  4. The disciples initially did not believe it was Christ, but a spirit (Matthew 24:26), because a natural and fleshly body cannot appear behind closed doors or walk on water. 
  5. In both cases Jesus declared: 

“Why are you troubled … It is I myself.” (Luke 24:38-39 – behind closed doors)

“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” (Matthew 14:27 – walked on the water)

  • The message is: Don’t underestimate God. He is able to change the natural into the supernatural. 
  • The assumption that God in Christ is not able to appear in a natural and fleshly body behind closed doors is to totally underestimate God and to try to limit Him in accordance with that which is natural! 

Question 3:  Did Christ appear in a spiritual and glorified body behind closed doors? 

Jesus replied:  

“Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see; a ghost (spirit) does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” (Luke 24:39) 

This happened after Christ’s resurrection. He replied that He is not spirit, but flesh.  

Conclusion

Christ did not appear in a spiritual and glorified body to his disciples, but according to his own words in a fleshly body, not a spiritual body, because a spiritual body does not have flesh and bones as He had. 

This truth is not only confirmed by Christ himself, but also by: 

  1. Peter said in Acts 2:31 – David prophesied in terms of His resurrection that: “His body did not see decay”. (reference to Ps. 16:10) 
  2. The fact of the empty grave. Christ’s fleshly body did not remain in the grave. 
  3. The confession of the earliest church. The Apostolic Faith Confession (Final product: 390 AC – Council of Milan): 

I believe in God the Father, the Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth

… I believe in the Holy Spirit, I believe in a holy general Church …

And then it ends with: I believe in the resurrection of the flesh (referring to Christ) and eternal life.

Consequences 

If Christ had been risen in a spiritual and glorified body, then the following should also be true (and we know it is not):  

  1. No one would have been able to recognise Him, and then no one could testify that He has indeed risen from the dead. 
  2. Christ should have the same body in heaven as He had when he appeared behind closed doors. That is a body, according to His own words, of flesh and bones with the scars of the cross still visible. 
  3. Christ will be the only one with a scarred body in heaven, because we will have perfect and glorified bodies. In other words, our bodies will be greater in glory than the body of Christ!! 
  4. That a spiritual and glorified body could display fleshly wounds and scars that speak of that which is perishable and mortal. That is in conflict with Paul who says a glorified and spiritual body speaks of that which is imperishable and immortal (1 Corinthians 15:51). 
  5. Christ’s spiritual body and glorified body looks like his fleshly body. This implicates that our glorified bodies that we are going to receive with the return of Christ will also look like our fleshly bodies. This conflicts with 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 “We will not all sleep (die), but we will all be changed – in a flash, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet”. 1 John 3:2 “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be, has not yet been make known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as He is.” Now we cannot see him as He is, we will die (cf. Exodus 33:20 and Revelation 1 :14-17).

Question 4: When did Christ receive his glorified body after his resurrection?

He actually prayed for it: “And now Father, glorify Me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began”. (John 17:5) That is the glory he had before He became flesh, and the glory which He will receive after his days in the flesh.  

Something similar is said by Paul: “I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does perishable inherit imperishable”. (1 Corinthians 15:50)

In other words, Christ did not ascent to heaven with his fleshly body. The only conclusion we can make is: With Christ’s ascension, his fleshly body was consumed by his spiritual and glorified body. 

Something similar will happen to us with the return of Christ when we will meet him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Our fleshly bodies will in a wink of an eye be changed into glorified bodies. Exactly how it is going to happen, we do not know. It is metaphorically described in: 

1 Corinthians 15:54 “Death (mortality) has been swallowed up in victory.” 

2 Corinthians 5:1 and 4: “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven. … For while we are in this tent (flesh), we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed (to die in the flesh), but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal (flesh) may be swallowed up by life.”     

Summary 

There is no scriptural support for the view that Christ has risen from the dead in a glorified and spiritual body. It is a viewpoint that is built upon speculation.  There is plenty scriptural support that Christ has risen from the dead in a fleshly body. It is a viewpoint that is built upon a solid Biblical theology.