It’s a question we’ve all thought of at some point: What exactly will we see when we finally meet Jesus? Will He be a spiritual presence, a mystical force, or something we can actually see and touch? The answer from Scripture brings remarkable comfort—grounding our hope in a future in the physical reality of our risen Lord.

Biblical Foundation: A Resurrection Body With New Properties

After His resurrection, Jesus went to great lengths to prove He wasn’t merely a spirit. “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have” (Luke 24:39). He invited Thomas to touch His wounds (John 20:27). He ate fish with His disciples (Luke 24:42-43). Each action demonstrated an undeniable truth: the risen Christ possessed a real, physical body.

So after His resurrection, Jesus’s body did retain physical evidence of His suffering, yet was glorified. And while His body was indeed physical, it also had new properties. For instance, He appeared suddenly in locked rooms and ascended bodily to heaven. The continuity of His physical form, coupled with its glorified state, points to the nature of His resurrection body—it’s both fully human, yet fully perfected.

The Ascension: Jesus’s Body In Heaven Now

The account of His ascension reinforces this reality. As the disciples watched, the physical Jesus was taken up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. The angels’ promise was specific: “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Not a different Jesus—the same one, with the same physical body, though glorified.

The ascension, then, is another direct affirmation of His ongoing physical presence. This was not a shedding of His body, but rather an elevation of it into the heavenly realm. The angels who appeared afterward assured the disciples He would return “in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” The ascension signifies that Jesus, In His glorified body, now reigns at the right hand of God. Hebrews 1:3 confirms He is seated there, and in His human nature, He intercedes for us. Jesus remains fully incarnate and is the God-man forever. His bodily presence in heaven is central to His role as our Mediator, Priest, and Advocate. Hebrews 4:14-16 speaks of Jesus as a compassionate High Priest who sympathises with our weaknesses. He is able to empathise with us precisely because He retains His humanity, which includes His glorified, physical body.

The Present Reality: Christ’s Glorified Body

Christ’s present existence isn’t less physical than His earthly life—it’s more. His body was transformed, not discarded. Paul calls Him “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20), indicating that His physical resurrection body pioneers the way for ours. Today, Jesus continues His ministry in heaven bodily, serving as our “great high priest who has passed through the heavens” (Hebrews 4:14).

Future Hope: Meeting Christ in Glory

When we see Jesus, we will see Him as He truly is (1 John 3:2). The glimpse John received in Revelation 1 staggers the imagination: “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of rushing waters… His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (Revelation 1:14-16). This was the same John who had leaned against Jesus’ chest at the Last Supper, yet when he saw the glorified Christ, he “fell at his feet as though dead” (Revelation 1:17).

This vision reveals something profound about our future encounter. The Jesus we will meet combines overwhelming majesty with physical reality. He will be recognizable yet transformed, physical yet glorified. More remarkably still, we will be like Him. Paul explains Christ “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). This transformation doesn’t mean we will become less physical—it means our bodies will be raised imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). Just as John needed Christ’s touch and words of comfort to rise from his overwhelmed state, we too will need our transformation to bear the weight of Jesus’ glory we will encounter.

Practical Implications

The physical nature of our hope extends beyond our bodies to all creation. “The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). Christ’s physical presence in glory—the same presence that overwhelmed John—guarantees the physical renewal of all things. The One whose face shines like the sun will make all things new, not by abolishing the physical world, but by transforming it to match His glory.

Understanding the physical reality of the glorified Christ transforms how we live now:

• It affirms the dignity of our bodies. They aren’t temporary shells but are destined for glory.
• It assures us eternal life will be tangibly real, not ethereally vague.
• It provides comfort in suffering—our physical pain will give way to physical glory.
• It motivates godly living, knowing these bodies will be transformed, not discarded.

Jesus in Glory: Will He Have A Physical Body?—Conclusion

The Jesus we will meet in glory isn’t a spiritual abstraction but our physically resurrected Lord. His glorified body right now in heaven testifies to God’s commitment to physical creation and our physical redemption. Every time we take communion, we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26)—not just spiritually, but physically and gloriously.

This truth changes everything. We won’t float as disembodied spirits through an ethereal heaven. We will walk with real feet on a renewed earth, see with real eyes our physical Lord, and touch with real hands the wounds that purchased our salvation. As Paul declares, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12). That face-to-face meeting won’t be a metaphor—it will be the most real encounter we’ve ever known.

 

Jesus in Glory: Will He Have A Physical Body?—RELATED FAQs

• How can a physical body be in heaven? Our difficulty here often stems from viewing heaven as a purely spiritual realm and physical bodies as limited by current natural laws. However, Christ’s glorified body demonstrates that physical existence can transcend our current limitations while remaining truly physical. Heaven, as Scripture reveals it, is ultimately united with a new earth (Revelation 21:1-3), forming a realm where physical and spiritual perfectly unite.

Will we recognise Jesus and others in heaven? Jesus’ disciples recognised Him after His resurrection, though sometimes there was an initial moment of uncertainty until He chose to make Himself fully known. In our glorified state, we will have perfect recognition of Christ and of one another, just as Peter, James, and John recognised Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-4). Our recognition will be even clearer than our earthly understanding, for “then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

• How does His physical body relate to His divine nature? Christ’s two natures—divine and human—remain distinct yet perfectly united in His one person, even in His glorified state. His physical body is the true expression of His human nature, while His divine nature remains infinite and omnipresent. This mystery, known as the hypostatic union, continues eternally, as Jesus remains forever both truly God and truly man, with His physical body being essential to His human nature.

What will it mean for us to have glorified bodies—how will it be different then? Our glorified bodies will be imperishable, glorious, powerful, and spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:42-44)—not subject to decay, sickness, or death. Like Christ’s resurrection body, they will be physical yet transcendent, able to eat (as Jesus did) but not dependent on food, able to move through physical barriers (as Jesus did), yet remaining tangible and real. These bodies will be perfectly suited for eternal worship and service, free from all effects of sin and corruption.

• Will our glorified bodies age or change over time? Our glorified bodies will exist in a state of perpetual perfection, neither aging nor decaying. They will be eternally sustained by God’s power in a state of perfect maturity and vigour, similar to how Christ’s glorified body remains unchanging. This doesn’t mean a static existence, but rather one of dynamic perfection that never diminishes.

• Will we eat and drink in our glorified bodies? Jesus ate and drank after His resurrection, showing that glorified bodies can enjoy physical pleasures, though they don’t depend on them for sustenance. The Bible speaks of the “marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9) and Jesus mentioning drinking wine new in His Father’s kingdom (Matthew 26:29), suggesting that eating and drinking will be part of our eternal experience—not from necessity but for joy and fellowship.

• Will our glorified bodies have gender? While there will be no marriage in heaven (Matthew 22:30), our resurrection bodies will maintain our created identity, including gender, though transformed and perfected. Jesus remained recognisably male after His resurrection, and nothing in Scripture suggests our basic identity as male and female, created in God’s image, will be erased. Rather, these aspects of our identity will be perfected and freed from all effects of the fall.

 

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