The Christian faith holds that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the eternal God, is God incarnate. This means that God became a man. This is a fact to anyone that doubts it. He vacated his eternal Godlike body to put on a body in the likeness of man—earthly flesh. Before Jesus became a man, he existed in the eternal realm, in an eternal body, as the 2nd person of the Trinity. Being fully God, and equal in majesty with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Before creation, the Son of God, the holy and eternal one, knew that he would remove himself from his divine appearance in the eternal realm and materialize on the earth in bodily form—he became a servant of men (Phil. 2:6-7). The eternal God became flesh and lived among men (Jn. 1:14a). He did this to become an atoning sacrifice for the sins of man (Heb. 2:17).
When Jesus took on the appearance
of a man, he still retained His position in the Godhead. He still maintained
his function as the 2nd person of the Trinity. Except when he dwelt
among men, he was God in a human body instead of God in a divine or eternal body.
Nevertheless, as a man, back in the 1st half of the 1st
century AD, he was still God (Jn. 14:11). The Son of God willingly left the
eternal realm to be born as a man. He was crucified as a man and resurrected
from the dead as a man. When Jesus ascended back into the eternal realm, he was
a man. But once he entered back into the heavenly realm his earthly body was
changed into a heavenly one, the same kind of body the church will receive once
raptured (1 Cor. 15:49; Phil. 3:20-21; 1 Jn. 3:2). Jesus did not change back
into the divine body he had before he left the eternal realm to become a man.
No, he did not. Jesus became a man at his incarnation and remains a man forever.
He is a man in heaven, but a man in a glorified or heavenly body. The apostle Paul referred to him as ο ἄνθρωπος
Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς (o ánthropos Christós Iisoús) “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim.
2:5c, Textus Receptus). When he comes again to set up his earthly kingdom, he
will still be a man, but to be precise, he will be a heavenly man. Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, will be a man forever, but a man in a glorified body.
Some believe Jesus took on the
nature of man once he was incarnated. I disagree with that assumption. The
nature of man is a fallen one. Jesus was born in human flesh, but he was not
born with man’s sinful nature. People are born sinners because of Adam’s
disobedience. Adam was given a pure/sinless spirit when God breathed life into
his body, but his disobedience corrupted his once sinless spirit. Therefore,
his offspring are created with a corrupt spirit because Adam corrupted his
spirit. That is why every person is born a sinner with a sinful nature.
God created Adam as a living נֶפֶשׁ
(nep̄eš—pronounced neh'-fesh) soul/spirit, clothed in an earthly body. When God
breathed life into Adam’s earthly body, he created his spirit being. But, after
the creation of Adam, every person is created a living soul/spirit by the
fertilization of the female egg with the male reproductive cells (sperm cells).
A human’s spirit being is immediately created at fertilization (conception),
and then follows the embryo. If God were to create the spirit being of every
person after Adam, they would not be created with a sinful nature. Every man's
spirit would be pure and sinless like Adam’s was initially because God does not
create sinful beings. But because God commissioned Adam to multiply and fill
the earth, to be a co-creator, he designed Adam to procreate. Therefore,
because Adam corrupted his soul/spirit, every person after him is created with
a corrupt soul/spirit. That is why a person must be born again—born from above.
Their spirit must be recreated pure or sinless by the sealing of the Holy
Spirit, or they cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Man’s corrupt spirit transforms his
soul and body. It converts them into sinful beings. Man’s corrupt spirit is
manifest in the way he thinks, speaks, and acts. When God recreated himself in
the womb of Mary, he did not recreate himself with a sinful nature because he
is perfect, he is pure. Jesus needed to drink, eat, and sleep just like any
other person because he was born in a body of human flesh. But he did not sin.
Jesus was emotional as a man, but he was also emotional in his eternal body.
Because emotions come from within the spirit of a man, and from within the
spirit of God—God is a triune spirit, each spirit having a divine body. When an
angel expresses any emotion, it comes from within their spirit being. All
angels possess an individual spirit within their heavenly body. Satan
manifested pride that came from within his spirit when he rebelled against God.
Every spirit being is unique. Each one, whether God, angel, or human, is
distinct.
The reason why Jesus was able to
bypass the sinful nature of man is because when he took on the form of a human
embryo, it was not the result of a human male’s reproductive cells. Instead, he
took on the form of a human embryo through the recreating power of God, coagulating
with the egg cells in his mother’s ovaries. In other words, the human body of
Jesus was not created by the union of his mother’s ovum (the female
reproductive cell) and the reproductive cells of a man. Satan has convinced his
servants that Jesus was conceived by debauchery. Thomas Paine (1737 – 1809),
wrote in his three-part book, Age of Reason (1794, 1795,1807): “What is
it the Testament teaches us? — to believe that the Almighty committed
debauchery with a woman engaged to be married, and the belief of this
debauchery is called faith” (Age of Reason, Part II, Section 20).[1] Those who have the Spirit of God dwelling
within their spirit being know that there was no sexual act involved in the
conception of Jesus Christ. It was a divine miracle.
Having said what I wrote above, the
book of Ezekiel reveals what Jesus looked like before he became a man. Before
he became a human embryo and then grew into the man Christ Jesus. How Ezekiel described
the pre-incarnate Messiah could be considered what some would call a Christophany
or Theophany. A theophany is a visible manifestation or appearance of a deity
or a god. Many civilizations throughout history claim to have experienced
theophanies. Like the ancient Greeks, Assyrians, and Egyptians. To name a few.
The preceding civilizations have experienced their gods in person, who came to
instruct them. However, their gods were fallen angels whom they accepted as
gods. Their theophanies were not the God of the Jews and Christians. A Biblical
theophany is a visible appearance of God but not necessarily in human or
physical form.[2]
The pillar of a cloud was one such incident. When it descended at the entrance
of the Tent of Meeting, the Lord was in it, God would speak to Moses there (Ex.
33:9). Some claim that when Yahweh appeared to Abram/Abraham, those were
theophanies (Gen. 12:7; 17:1-27; 18:1-21). However, the theophanies that
Ezekiel experienced were mainly visions from God as the heavens opened up to
him (Ezek. 1:1). He witnessed Israel’s pre-incarnate Messiah, Jesus. He saw
Jesus in a vision more than once before he miraculously became a man.
When Ezekiel was exiled in
Babylon, about five years after his captivity, he saw the four living creatures
that surround the throne of God in the eternal realm (Ezek. 1:4-21; Rev. 4:6-8).
The four living creatures are cherubim (Ezek. 10:15). Over the heads of the
four living creatures, Ezekiel saw what looked like the arch of the sky, the firmament
(Ezek. 1:22a). The firmament had the appearance of crystal (Ezek. 1:22b). Below
the arch of the sky that gleamed like crystal, each of the cherubim stretched
out two of their wings straight towards each other, and kept their other two
wings close to their bodies (Ezek. 1:23). When they would move, their wings would
sound like many waters rushing, like the voice of Shaddai (the Almighty), they would
sound like the commotion of armed force, and when they would stand still, they would
drop their wings to their side (Ezek. 1:24). You can see that Ezekiel was
trying to describe the sound he heard as precise as possible.
After Ezekiel experienced the
appearance of the four living creatures in graphic detail, he heard a voice
come from above the cherubim, and above, the arch of the sky the voice caused
the cherubim to stand still and lower their wings to their side (Ezek. 1:25). From
the place Ezekiel heard the voice, he saw a throne made of sapphire stone, and
an image that looked like a man (Ezek. 1:26). The man on the sapphire throne
appeared to be from the waist up, glowing like metal full of fire, and from his
waist down it also looked like fire—he beamed with brilliant light (Ezek.
1:27). The image that looked like a man was the pre-incarnate Messiah.
The intense fire and the
brightness of the light that surrounded the pre-incarnate Christ may be an
allusion to his purity in his pre-incarnate state. Anything impure or sinful would
be immediately consumed in his literal presence. This brilliant light would not
be exclusive to the Son of God. This bright light would be shared with the
other two members of the Trinity, the Father and the Holy Spirit of God. The
fire that Ezekiel saw would also reveal that God is a consuming fire (Deut.
4:24; Heb. 12:9). The sapphire throne that the Son of God was sitting on, had surrounding
it what looked like a rainbow after the rain (Ezek. 1:28). The apostle John saw
the same when he was brought up to Heaven and saw the Father (Rev. 4:2-3). He also
saw a rainbow wrapped around the head of a mighty angel who comes down from
heaven after the sixth angel blows his trumpet—this mighty angel has an extraordinary
appearance (Rev. 10:1-3; 9:13). The color of the bow they saw is allusive to God’s
majesty and gloriousness. However, the rainbow they both saw is also allusive
to the mercy of God. God established a covenant with Noah, his offspring, and
every beast of the earth, that he would never destroy the Earth with a flood
again (Gen. 9:9-11). The sign of this covenant is a rainbow (Gen. 9:12-17). The
rainbow is a sign that resembles God’s mercy. God, out of mercy for the earth
and all that live in it, will never flood the whole Earth again to destroy the
living. Also, God displays a sign of mercy around his throne. The rainbow after
a rain reminds God of his covenant of mercy between him and the earth (Gen.
9:13), and the rainbow that surrounds his throne reminds him that his mercy
will last forever. The rainbow around the head of the mighty angel is a sign
that even though this angel is miraculous in appearance, he is a servant of the
God of mercy.
The pre-incarnate Son of God,
spoke to Ezekiel and told him to get up on his feet (Ezek. 1:28c-2:1). The
Spirit of God entered Ezekiel and helped him up on his feet (Ezek. 2:2). The
Son of God then sends the prophet to the people of Israel calling him, בֵּן־אָדָם
(bēn-'āḏām) Son of man (Ezek. 2:3). In the sixth year of Ezekiel’s captivity, possibly
fourteen months after the pre-incarnate Messiah first appeared to him in a
vison, Jesus appears again (Ezek. 8:1-2). Matthew Henry (1662–1714) wrote in
his commentary that the second vision of the pre-incarnate Christ likely occurred
after Ezekiel had finished lying on his left side for 390 days bearing the sins
of Israel and before he had to lie on his right side to bear the sins of Judah.[3]
This time the Son of God reaches out from the eternal realm, grabs Ezekiel by
the hair, as the Spirit of God brought him to the edge of the heavenly realm to
show him Jerusalem (Ezek. 8:3)—the reason why Ezekiel did not cease to exist
when the Son of God grabbed him by the hair was because Ezekiel had the Holy
Spirit enter him previous to that seizing of his body. Jesus shows Ezekiel
Israel in her iniquities (Ezek. 8:4 – 9:11). Then, Ezekiel sees the sapphire
throne again, in the firmament over the heads of the cherubim (Ezek. 10:1). The
voice from the throne, the pre-incarnate Messiah, told the man clothed in linen
to scatter burning coals over the city of Jerusalem (Ezek. 10:2). The above is
just a small testament to the pre-incarnate Jesus. Daniel also saw the
pre-incarnate Messiah (Dan. 2:44-45; 7:13-14). The Ancient of Days whom Daniel
saw is God the Father (Dan. 7:9-10).
After Jesus Christ had completed
his mission as a man on Earth, he was then raptured into the eternal realm from
which he came (Acts 1:9). Once he was back in heaven, his appearance changed.
His body of human flesh was glorified so that he could live in the eternal
realm again (Phil. 3:20-21; 1 Cor. 15:49). He now lives in a heavenly body
again. He does not have the same eternal body he once had before he became a
man, the one that Ezekiel and Isaiah saw (Isa. 6:1-13). Because his earthly
body has now been glorified. Jesus now has a body of heavenly substance that once
was made of earthly flesh: “There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but
the splendor of the heavenly bodies is different from that of the earthly ones”
(1 Cor. 15:40, CSB). His resurrected earthly body was raised imperishable and
immortal; eternal (1 Cor. 15:42). His dead earthly body was raised a spiritual
body (1 Cor. 15:44).
The apostle John records what
Jesus looks like now that he dwells in the eternal realm again. Remember, he
died in an earthly body and was raised to life in an immortal body. Once he
ascended back into heaven, his resurrected body was then changed into a
heavenly body. Is he recognizable to his mother Mary, since she and he are both
in heaven? I believe so. She is there in her spirit being, and he is there in
his heavenly body. Once she departed from this world and entered Heaven in her
spirit, Jesus and she were reacquainted. I assume Mary is waiting for her soon-to-be
resurrected body to be glorified once her Son comes to rapture the rest of the
body of Christ. I presume the same thing happened when his half-brother James
departed.
John wrote, that when he saw
Jesus on the Isle of Patmos, he was dressed in a garment that reached his feet,
and a golden sash draped over his shoulder and across his chest (Rev. 1:13). His
hair was white like the wool on a lamb’s body, the color of fresh fallen snow,
and his eyes were like flaming fire (Rev. 1:14). His feet looked like brass,
refined in fire and his voice had a roaring sound like when sea waves roll
(Rev. 1:15). John saw his face glow like the sun (Rev. 1:16). Jesus told John
to write to the church in Thyatira: “‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes
like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze” (Rev. 2:18,
ESV). John saw Jesus again in a vision of his future second appearance, his eyes
were like a flame of fire (Rev. 19:12).
The images of the Lord Jesus
Christ, before he came into the world, during his incarnation, and then when he
went back into heaven, reveal that his appearance was different in every era of
his revelation. The Son of God has gone through numerous transfigurations. The
first was his pre-incarnate state: The Son of God existed in an eternal Godlike
body that was in the likeness of and equal to God his Father. The second was
his incarnate state: The Son of God put off his eternal Godlike body to put on
an earthly body. The third was his glorified state: Jesus, the man, was
transformed from his earthly body into a heavenly body. Although his appearance
changed three times, he still retained the distinction as the 2nd
person of the Holy Trinity throughout each metamorphosis.
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[1] Age
of Reason, Part II, Section 20
[2] What
is a theophany? What is a Christophany?
[3]
Matthew Henry Commentary – chapter 8 (Bible Study Tools)
https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/ezekiel/8.html
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