Recently I was talking theology with a Catholic friend of mine. (Growing up in the South, I haven’t had too many Catholic friends. Up until the last two or three years, I could say “my Catholic friend” and people would know who I was talking about.) My friend made the comment that Jesus is still incarnate, that is, He still has a physical body. I hadn’t really thought about that before. I was a little surprised, not because I thought he was wrong or because the position seems silly. I was surprised because I had always imagined Jesus as not having a body in heaven. Not that I had given it too much thought, but my knee-jerk imaginations were of Christ without a body (ghost-like).
I had no reason to reject the Catholic view, and honestly I immediately began believing it. I realized I had no reason to disbelieve it, and a few reasons to believe.
Anyway, I was reading Colossians a few days ago and came across this verse: For in him [Christ] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
Notice that the verse says that the fullness of the deity dwells bodily. The verb is present tense. So, I wonder, could this be implying that Jesus is still incarnate?
To my more orthodox readers, I want to say that I grew up in a Protestant denomination that looked down up any systematic theology. In fact, it simply refused to do it. Of course, refusing to do systematic theology meant resisting complex doctrines of the Trinity (and refusals to even use the term Trinity since it isn’t in the Scriptures), but using complex (and faulty) reasoning to condemn the use of instruments in worship. So, don’t be shocked at my ignorance about traditional trinitarian and Christological thought–I am but the product of my upbringing.
Tags: Bible, Christianity, Incarnation, Jesus
October 14, 2008 at 9:03 pm |
It’s interesting that you’re thinking about this today–I just had a very similar conversation in a Bible Study on Monday night, and it was the first I had thought about it.
October 14, 2008 at 9:16 pm |
I’m not 100% sure we can know with certainty, but here’s what I (and many others) think. Jesus appeared to many after his resurrection. We will someday be resurrected like Jesus, and also have such a body as the one he had at that time. He made several appearances in his resurrected form, and did things like ate, drank, carried on conversations, and walked. Before his followers very eyes he ascending into the heaves, and the angels promised he would return the same way. I believe Jesus appeared in his resurrected body, and someday we will do the same.