Does God Have a Physical Body?
God is an infinite spirit Being. He does not possess a physical body like men. The apostle John declared, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Man is finite (Psalm 103:15-16) but God is infinite (Psalm 145:3; Job 11:7; 36:26). The Almighty is not subject to the same limitations as finite human beings.
Some may wonder: what does the verse in Genesis 1:26-27 mean? “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Both man and woman were created in the image of God. That image was most evident in terms of their spiritual nature. Man and woman became “living souls,” or rather living beings, endowed with a free will, a self-conscious personality. The male and female had the ability to have a mind, will, intellect, emotions, and moral capacity.
The nature of man reflected the divine holiness of its Maker until sin shattered the divine likeness (Romans 5:12). It is only through Christ, the brightness of the glory of God and the “express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3), that man’s nature can be transformed into the image of God once again (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ezekiel 36:26).
The Incarnation
However, God chose to reveal Himself to humanity in a male body. “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14 also Matthew 1:21). God brought His Son into the world, having prepared for Him a body (Hebrew 10:5). His name was Emmanuel, which means literally, “God with us.” The Son of God came to dwell, not only among us, but to be identified with the human family (John 1:1–3, 14; Romans 8:1–4; Philippians 2:6–8; Hebrews 2:16, 17).
In the Old and New Testaments, male pronouns are used in reference to God (Genesis 1:16; John 1:1-3…etc.). In the New Testament there are nearly 900 verses where the word theos – a masculine noun in the Greek—is used in direct reference to God. And in the gospels, Jesus Christ referred to God as the Father using male pronouns in reference to God. In the Gospels alone, Christ uses the term “Father” in direct reference to God nearly 160 times “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
