New Bodies

Phil, When we get our new bodies, will they be in the same image as our earthly ones but in a perfect state, so some of us with larger than normal waists would be slimmed down and the skinny ones would be fattened up to a healthy size?

Here’s a good set of references about us being “like Jesus”. The first set are widely regarded as referring to our CHARACTER:

Rom 8 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the LIKENESS of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

2 Cor 3 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his LIKENESS with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord

Pet 1 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may PARTICIPATE IN THE DIVINE NATURE and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

The thing about these references is that when you look at the language, it does not actually SAY that they ONLY mean our character and nothing else.

Things get a bit more awkward if you start looking at a few other passages:

1 Jn 3 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be LIKE him, for we shall see him as he is.

Now there’s a real nocundrum! (as my next door neighbour used to say.)

THIS sort of “like him” cannot be passed off as me just being more like Jesus in my daily walk, because it specifically says I will NOT get this sort of “like him” till he appears!

It actually is starting to look like the Bible actually means we will LOOK like him – not just behave like him! (Which we will still do, of course.)

Then you come across this next reference and you’re sunk!

Phil 3 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 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.

This sentence is firmly anchored in the day that Jesus returns to the earth from heaven. It can mean nothing else.

And what will happen to us on that day? Nothing could be more plainly stated: Jesus “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body”.

So it’s NOT just our CHARACTER which God wants to be like Jesus. He has got it planned for us to LOOK like Jesus too. That means PHYSICALLY, in case it hasn’t already sunk in.

So, you and I might be a LITTLE TINY bit wider than is medically recommended for our height, and other people might be so skinny they have to be careful of the cracks in the pavement.

But from this, I think that we will all be evened out – maybe not all identical, but all more like an ideal.

AND, just to complete the picture, now look back at the earlier verses I quoted. Ask yourself whether you think they COULD be understood as referring to our Resurrection Bodies as well as our character?

[I think 2 of the first three quotes definitely COULD be understood that way, and the third one is less likely. Can you work out which one I mean?]

Some people have gone further and suggested that we will all look the same AGE as Jesus too. This begs the question, “what age then?”

Will it be his age when he died, or some other age? The Bible doesn’t actually say, but I’m looking forward to being quite a bit younger than I am!

[Or maybe YOU’RE going to become just as OLD as me!!!!:-]>

(Only joking!)

So will our new bodies look the same as our earthly bodies look? That’s like saying “Will we recognise each other?” For more on this, see the Question “What would Heaven be like”, currently on page 2 of the Discussion Board, but in a nutshell I would say we WILL be able to recognise each other.