Question: What kind of body did Jesus have when He arose from the dead?
Answer: In regard to this question, I am reminded of what I heard a prominent Bible teacher, conference speaker, and preacher say a while back. He said that as a Bible teacher and conference speaker, he had many questions put to him and he always had an answer for every question. Then he went on to say that many times his answer was, “I don’t know.” That is my answer to this question: “I don’t know.” And I can add to that, “I don’t know how or where to find out.”
Since the question is presented and we are into it, I might notice a few points in regard to it which do not in any way answer the question as it is phrased. The text in I Timothy 3:16 is pertinent to the discussion. It reads thus, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” The incarnation of Jesus Christ (God manifest in the flesh) is a great mystery. Likewise is the resurrected body of Christ a great mystery. It seems to me that just as it was necessary for Jesus to possess a dual nature (both divine and human) in carrying out the phase of His ministry and redemptive work down here upon the earth and introducing God to man; so it would still be necessary for Him to possess the same dual nature yonder in heaven where He has gone to engage in His intercessory ministry and represent man to God and make intercession for us. In order for His intercessory ministry to be effective in a full measure with the Father, it would be necessary for Him to have a body with the scars and marks on it (nail prints in His hands and feet, and the spear gash in His side) which He received at Calvary where His redemptive work was fully accomplished and fulfilled to show before the Father as He interceded and pled for mercy for sinful men.
Many times when praying for people who are critically ill and need special mercy from God, I say to God the Father in my prayer, “Father, please look upon your Son as He stands in Your presence right now to intercede for us and plead with you for mercy and look especially on those stripes on His back and remember that they were placed there for the healing of the people.” (Isaiah 53:5 and I Peter 2:24.) This thought has often added inspiration and faith to my prayer in urgent cases.
We know for certain that the body of Jesus arose and came out of the sepulchre. It was the same body that was buried that arose. When certain of His followers came to the sepulchre on the morning of the resurrection with spices to anoint His body they found the stone rolled away and they went into the sepulchre and “found not the body of the Lord Jesus.” His body had gotten up and walked away from there alive, and the tomb was empty. That resurrected body had the wounds and marks in it that caused His death, and He drew special attention to this when He appeared to His disciples and told them to, “Behold my hands and my feet,…” (Luke 24:39), and proceeded to say, “…handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” He convinced Thomas of His identity in the same way (John 20:26-30). He ate fish and honeycomb in their presence (Luke 24:41-43).
This body was different from what it had been during the time of his ministry and work with His disciples. In this body He could appear, disappear and reappear. In Luke 24:31, He just vanished out of their sight. In John 20:26, He appeared to His disciples right through a closed door. This was a spiritual body, but it was not a spirit as Jesus Himself declared in Luke 24:39. His body was sown a natural body; it was raised a spiritual body. (I Corinthians 15:44.)
According to Acts 2:27, the body of Jesus never saw any corruption. God never allowed it to stay in the tomb long enough for decomposition to set in. But in the process of resurrection, His body underwent a change. The glorious thing about all this for us is that the same change will happen to us in the morning of the resurrection on that last great day. “We shall rise and be like Him, when we see Him as He is.” Philippians 3:21 says, “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body,…” I Corinthians 15:51-52, says, “Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
In the last great day every living saint upon the earth shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and put on that same kind of body Christ had when He arose from the dead. In that body we will rise right up from the earth just like He did, and straight upward we will fly to meet the Lord in the air to forever be with Him. Inspiring, glorious, and wonderful thought!
All of this, both His and ours, is a mystery and called so in the Scriptures. It is all in the hands of God, and both Christ’s resurrection and ours are works of the power of God. The nature of the resurrection and the changes that are to take place are reserved with God, only to be revealed to us in that day. As far as I can see from here on, we will just have to leave it that way with the Lord and in that day we will understand it all. I John 3:2 tells us that it does not yet appear what we shall be, but that when He appears we shall see Him as He is and be like Him. Only if we could tell what we shall be, would we be able to tell how Christ was at His resurrection and how He is now, for we will be just like Him, but the Scripture states plainly that we do not know that. It is all reserved with the Lord Himself until then.
