Genesis 1:26, 27
How amazing and gracious it is to have come to realize clearly the fact that Jesus is God who has a body from eternity to eternity while reading the Bible of the Old and New Testaments. How dare humans imitate God! It is true that angels were created as servants when they were created from the beginning, but humans were created as sons of God when they were created. From the time God had the idea to create man in mind, man was a child of God. Just as a child resembles his parents, so God made man to be like himself. He said in Psalm 49:20 that man was created to be honorable, but he who does not know what has come is like a beast that perishes.
According to commentaries, books on Genesis, and pastors’ sermons, the word in Genesis 1:26, “Let’s make man in our shape, our image,” says that the shape and form resemble God’s inner nature. It does not explicitly say that Genesis 1:26 literally made man in the image and likeness of God. It is true that we were made in the image of God and in the likeness of God. From now on, we will be looking at the fact that God made us in our shape and likeness to be like Him. and if we were created to resemble God, God must have an image from Genesis. It is to look at the case where it appeared to people with it. To solve this problem, we must first understand the meaning of the word that Jesus is the person of God.
First, Jesus is the person of God.
1. The Meaning of God’s Substance
The phrase ‘Jesus is the body of God’ appears quite a lot in the Bible. The word body means the fundamental body. It means God’s body. As far as we know, God is mistaken as having no body. Satan deceived us. The Bible says that God has a body. However, it does not mean that all three persons of God have each body, but that only Jesus has a body. It is true that Jesus had a form, that is, a body, just like us humans from eternity. God is a trinity. This means that the three persons have one body. God the Father is a spirit. God the Holy Spirit is also a spirit. That means they don’t have each body. But God the Son has a body. This body becomes the body of God the Father, the body of God the Holy Spirit, and, of course, the body of God the Son. The three persons share the body of God the Son. To see God the Father is to see the body of God the Son.
John 14:6-7, ‘Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you knew me, you would know my father too. From now on you knew him and saw him.’
This verse is so important. In verse 7, ‘From now on you have known and seen him’ means that to know and see Jesus is to know and see Heavenly Father. In the middle of the conversation with the Pharisees, Jesus said in John 8:18, 19, ’18 I am a witness for myself, and the Father who sent me also testifies for me.’
Then the Pharisees asked in verse 19, ‘…Where is your father?’ Jesus answered, ‘You do not know me, nor do you know my Father. If you knew me, you would know my father,’ he said.
At that time, not only the Pharisees but also Jesus’ disciples did not know much about Jesus. In John 14:8, Philip asked Jesus, ‘Lord, show us the Father. That will be enough.’ Jesus answered, ‘Philip, I have been with you so long, and you do not know me?
If you do not understand the words that the three persons share one body and that Jesus is the person of God, you will not know what these words mean.
To see Jesus is to see Heavenly Father. To see Heavenly Father is to see Jesus. The image of God the Father is the image of Jesus, and the image of the Holy Spirit is the image of Jesus. You can say that ‘God is one’ (John 10:30) means that there are three persons, but the body is one. That body is the body of Jesus. Because the three persons share one body with each other. ‘I and The Father is One.’ This means that the three persons have one body.
2. Bible Verses of the Body of God
Let’s find the verses in the Bible that express ‘Jesus is the body of God’.
1. 2 Corinthians 4:4, ‘Christ is the image of God.’
The Father and the Holy Spirit have no form, but Christ has a form and is the image of God.
2. Philippians 2:6, ‘Although he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be gained’
3. Colossians 1:15, ‘He is the image of the invisible God…’. Here, God the Father and God the Holy
Spirit are invisible, but Jesus is God who has a visible image.
4. In Hebrews 1:3, ‘This is the radiance of God’s glory, the very image of His body.’,
It means that Jesus exists in form.
5. Genesis 1:26, 27, ‘God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness…’. Here, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit do not have an image, so how do you say ‘we’? It means that the triune God shares the body of God the Son. The image of God, who is the Trinity, refer to God the Son, the image of Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God and the body of God.
In verse 27, ‘God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created male and female’. In verse 26, the plural pronoun ‘we’ was used, but in verse 27 it was changed to a singular pronoun. Instead of ‘we’, it was expressed as ‘self or God’s image’. The ‘image of self’ or ‘image of God’ in verse 27 refers to the image of Jesus. To have the image of the invisible God, he has the same image as the same One from all eternity and forever.
Second, Jesus before the incarnation
What kind of image or shape did Jesus Christ have before incarnation? In the Old Testament, most of the Gods who relate to people, appear to people, and save people as “Jehovah God” is God the Son. When He appears to us, He sometimes sits on a throne, moves with cherubim and angels, sometimes appears as a plain man, and sometimes as a majestic One who shines in the glory of God.
1. Genesis 1:26,27, “26 God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ 27 God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
2. Genesis 3:8, ‘8 When they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden that day when the wind blew, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. He called and said to him, “Where are you?” Here, “I heard the voice of God.” It was said that Adam and Eve escaped “the face of Jehovah God,” and that Jehovah God called Adam.
Adam and Eve show us how they often took a walk with God the Son, who had an image in the Garden of Eden.
3. Genesis 12:7, ‘The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.”
4. Genesis 15:1, ‘After this the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward.” When He appears, the Bible clearly states that He appeared in a dream among visions.
5. Genesis 17:1, ‘When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am the Almighty God; walk before Me and be perfect.”
6. Genesis 18: 1-2, 33 ‘The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, and he was sitting at the door of the tent while it was hot. As soon as he saw them, he ran out of the tent door to meet them and bowed down to the ground. 33 When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he went away immediately, and Abraham returned to his own place.
7. Genesis 26:1-2, ‘1 The first famine came in the days of Abraham, and another famine came in the land, and Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines. dwell in the land indicated . The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land I will show you.
8. Genesis 28: 12, 13, ’12 I saw in my dream a ladder standing on the ground, the top of which reached to heaven, and I saw the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants.”
9. Genesis 32:24-30, ‘Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with Jacob until daybreak. 25 Seeing that he could not overcome Jacob, he struck Jacob’s thigh joint and Jacob’s thigh joint with him. 26 He said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 The man said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” 29 Jacob asked and said, “Tell me your name.” The man said, “Why do you ask for my name?” And he blessed Jacob there. He said that his life was preserved.’ Angels cannot bless people. It is God who Jacob wrestles with in this verse.
10. Genesis 35:1, 13, ‘God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from the face of your brother Esau…” 13 God went up from him in the place where he spoke with him.’
11. Isaiah 6:1-3, ‘The Lord sat on a throne high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple, and seraphim stood over it, each with six wings. With two they covered their face, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew and sang to one another, saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.”
12. Ezekiel 1:25-28, ’25 A voice came from the expanse above the head (cherubim), and when the creature stood up, it lowered its wings. 26 Above his head, above the firmament, was the shape of a throne like a sapphire stone, and above the shape of the throne was a shape like a human figure. 27 I looked, and the shape from the top of the waist was like hot iron, and it was like fire inside and around it.
13. Daniel 10:5, 6, ‘Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and I saw a man clothed in fine linen, and around his waist was pure gold of Uphaz. 6 And his body was like topaz, and his face was like the light of lightning, and his eyes were like torches, and his arms and feet were like bright brass, and his voice was like the voice of a multitude.’
14. Daniel 3:25, 26. “The king spoke again, saying, “I saw four men, unbound, walking through the fire, and they were not hurt, and the appearance of the fourth was like that of a son of the gods.” Servants Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out and said, “Come here.” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire.’
The third, incarnation of Jesus
In the Old Testament Age before the incarnation, when He appeared to people, we confirmed that He had come in the flesh. The body of Jesus before incarnation has the body that transcends time and space. It is also the body that appears to many people at the same time as one body. However, the body at the time of incarnation cannot transcend time and space. Born in the body of Mary, the mother at the time of his incarnation, he became the body identical to ours, unable to transcend time and space. It was in order to bear the sins of humans. He came to have the same nature as humans. He had to be thoroughly human, and at the same time he had to be the true God. But also mysteriously, the Lord could be transformed into the glory of God at any time (Matthew 17:2). He was able to mobilize twelve legions of angels (Matthew 26:53). But He did not use the authority. He used the power only by the holy Spirit.
Jesus came to tell us many wonderful things about Heavenly Father. Among those facts is the fact that God is a trinity. And the fact that God the Father and God the Son share the body of the Holy Son with each other. John 14 tells us that the day Jesus was crucified was not far off. ‘Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to his Father except through me. If you knew me, you would also know my Father. From now on you knew him and saw him. 8 Philip said, Lord, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us. 9 Jesus said to him, “Philip, I have been with you all this long, and you do not know me. He who has seen me has seen the Father. Why do you say show me the Father?” If you knew me, you would know my father too. From now on, I knew him and saw him again.
Knowing Jesus and seeing Jesus means knowing Heavenly Father and seeing Heavenly Father. This means that the triune God shares the body of God the Son, but God the Father and God the Holy Spirit have no form, so to see Jesus is to see God the Father.
Fourth, Jesus Christ, the God who resurrected and ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God’s throne in bodily form.
1. After being resurrected, He stayed on earth for 40 days, showing the resurrected body to people, allowing them to touch. Although the body of the resurrected Jesus was constitutionally perfect as God’s body, its appearance was the same as before his death on the cross and after his resurrection. If it were different, Jesus’ disciples would not have recognized the resurrected Jesus. If so, the disciples would not have believed in the resurrection of Jesus. Although the image of Jesus before and after the resurrection was the same, the constitution of the body before and after the resurrection was completely different. The body before resurrection was a pure human body, but the nature of the body after resurrection completely became the nature of God’s body. The constitution of the body before resurrection did not transcend time and space, but the constitution of the body after resurrection completely transcended time and space.
Luke 24:36-43, ‘While they were saying these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 37 They were amazed and afraid, and thought that what they saw was a spirit. 39 Look at my hands and feet and know that it is I. Touch me and see. A spirit does not have flesh and bones , as you see I have. 40 After he has said this, he shows them his hands and feet. 42 Then he gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate in front of them.’
A resurrected body has flesh and bones, but it is a body that transcends time and space and can eat and drink.
2. Acts 1:10-12, ’10 As he was going up, the disciples were looking closely at the sky, and two men in white stood beside them, 11 saying, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up at the sky? This Jesus will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” The Bible clearly reveals to us the scene of his ascension to heaven with the same face he showed his disciples after he was resurrected.
3. Acts 7:55-56, ‘Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. You can’t miss it Stephen says that the one who is standing on the right hand of the heavenly throne is Jesus.
4. The appearance of Jesus in Revelation 4 and Isaiah 6. The image of Jesus on the heavenly throne seen by Isaiah 2, 700 years ago is the same as the image of Jesus seen on the heavenly throne by Apostle John 2,000 years ago.
Revelation 4:2 “Immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and someone sat on the throne, and he who sat on the throne was like a jasper stone and a sardine stone, and there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald stone. ‘
He sits on the throne because he has a body.
5. In Revelation 1:13-16, this is the appearance of Jesus who ascended to heaven and is in heaven. It’s a human figure.
‘13 One like a son of man between the lampstands, clothed in clothes that trailed by his feet, and with a gold belt around his chest. His voice was like the sound of many waters. ….16 He had seven stars in his right hand, and a double-edged sword came out of his mouth.’
Even in the New Testament times, the Bible shows that God always has a body.
6. Revelation 19:11-16, ‘Then I saw the heavens opened, and behold, a white horse and a rider on it, whose name was Faithful and True. He judged and fought with righteousness. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns, and he has a name written on it, which no one knows but himself… … … . 14 The armies of heaven followed him, dressed in fine linen, white and clean, riding on white horses. 15 From his mouth came a sharp sword, with which they would strike down the nations, and he would rule them with an iron rod; 16 His name was written on his clothes and on his legs, saying, “King of kings and Lord of lords.”
It shows us that the body of the Lord who will go away at the end of the world is the same. Likewise, the image of the Lord coming to carry out the battle of Armageddon is also a human form.
7. Revelation 22:3-4, ‘There will be no more curse, and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will serve him, 4 and they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.’
To see his face means that we will see the face of Jesus again in the holy city, New Jerusalem. Just as Adam and Eve saw Jesus face to face in the Garden of Eden, and the disciples of Jesus saw each other the face of the incarnated Jesus, we too will see the face of the Lord face to face in the future. Jesus, who used to walk in the Garden of Eden, will walk with us in the holy city, New Jerusalem, through the forest of the trees of life, which grow thickly on either side of the river of life.
Likewise, Jesus had an image and a body from eternity, and he had an image when he became flesh and ascended to heaven and when he was in heaven, and he will forever have an image. After the completion of the incarnation and the ascension into heaven, I saw the heavenly Jesus who had a human-like body. Jesus is the body of God, and He had that body, form, image, and likeness from eternity, and He has it forever. Because He had a physical body, the Lord appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the flesh in the Old Testament times. Also, just as He appeared to people in the flesh in the Old Testament times, in today’s real world, God appears to people He wants, at the time He wants, in dreams, visions, and body. You don’t know how many stories there are about meeting Jesus around us.
Hallelujah A~ men.
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