DOES GOD HAVE A BODY?
Scriptures are cited from the King James (Authorized) Version, unless stated otherwise.
Question: Does God have a body?
Answer: The Bible clearly proves that God is not simply a great mind without a body, but that
He has both, as are shown in the following points: (1) Jesus stated that He has a shape
(John 5: 37); (2) The resurrected Spirit, Jesus, is in His image (1 Corinthians 15: 45)
(2 Corinthians 3: 17) (Colossians 1: 15); (3) Christ’s Body, or Bride , the saints, will have spirit
bodies like His (1 Corinthians 15: 40-49; 51-54) (1 John 3: 2) (2 Peter 1: 4); and (4) they will see
His face (Revelation 22: 4), which cannot be done with a bodiless mind, because it would not
have a face (for a face implies a body, though not necessarily a material body); and (5) the scene
of Exodus 33: 18-23 clearly proves that God has a body. Furthermore, God must have a body
that consists of a spirit substance, and His having heaven as His abode also implies this
(Psalm 73: 25) (Ecclesiastics 5: 2) (Matthew 5: 16).
The Scriptures, in ascribing immortality to God, imply that His body consists of life principle,
which seems to be the thought of John 5: 26: “The Father hath life in himself,” that is, inherent
life, self-existence. This passage implies that God has immortality because He has life in
Himself, that is, His very essence is immortality.
Furthermore, we know that God has a soul (Hebrews 10: 38). And His soul, like every other
soul, consists of two parts: life principle and a body. Therefore, it seems that His body must
consist of life principle. And if God’s body consists of life principle, we can readily see why He
must be immortal – death-proof; for the death of any individual is the separation of the life
principle from the body.
Therefore, if God’s body consists of life principle, it follows that there can be no separation of
life principle from His body, since His body is life principle. Jesus also attained immortality,
“life in himself” (John 5: 26) in His resurrection. This is also true of the saints, His Bride, in
their resurrection (1 Corinthians 15: 53, 54, 45-49) (2 Peter 1: 4) (1 John 3: 2). Therefore, the
highest order in the spirit world, God, Jesus and His Bride – those of the Divine nature – having
self-existence, immortality, would seem to have bodies consisting of life principle.
That no other spirit beings have such bodies, and hence are not immortal, is proven by the fact
that Lucifer (Isaiah 14: 12-20), now Satan, a cherub (Ezekiel 28: 14, 16), and thus a member of
the highest order of the other spirit orders, will be destroyed (Isaiah 14: 15; 27: 1)
(Ezekiel 28: 16-19) (Hebrews 2: 14).