The Bible provides many interesting and exciting details about our glorified bodies. First and foremost, they will never age, decay, suffer, mourn, or die but be imperishable and eternal.
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:53, “For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.” He also stated in 2 Corinthians 5:1, “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Paul went on to describe the glory of our new bodies in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, “It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” Revelation 21:4 also assures us, “There will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
Our new bodies will also be like Jesus’ resurrected body in form and function. The Bible says we will bear His image in heaven just as we bore Adam’s on earth. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:47-49, “The first man [Adam] was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man [Jesus] is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust [Adam], so also are those who are made of dust [us]; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those [believers] who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man [italics added].”
It also says in Philippians 3:20-21, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”
Considering these facts, what was Jesus' glorified body like? For starters, it still comprised of flesh and bones and could be handled and touched like before. One example is when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary grabbed Jesus’ feet and worshiped Him on the day He was resurrected (see Matthew 28:8-10). Another example is when Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection and told them to touch Him because they thought He was a spirit (see Luke 24:36-40). One week later, Jesus instructed Thomas to put his hand into His side because Thomas did not believe Jesus had risen from the dead (see John 20:26-29).
Another interesting fact about Jesus’ new physique was that it could consume food, which is both curious and exciting. Whether His new body "processed and digested nutrients" the same as before remains a mystery, but Jesus nonetheless enjoyed feasting with His disciples and breaking bread with them.
In Luke 24:41, after appearing to His disciples on the evening of His resurrection, Jesus asked, “Have you anything here to eat?’” They responded by giving Him a piece of a broiled fish, which Jesus ate on the spot. Several days later, Jesus cooked some fish and bread on the shore of Galilee and ate breakfast with some of His disciples who had been fishing all night (see John 21:9-15).
In addition to the familiar aspects of Jesus’ glorified body, it displayed some brand-new and unusual capabilities. One was Jesus’ ability to instantly appear in a room without physical barriers like doors or walls inhibiting Him. John’s gospel recorded how Jesus suddenly appeared to His disciples in a secured room on the evening of His resurrection.
John 20:19 says, “So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’” It also states in John 20:26 that Jesus appeared again to them eight days later despite the doors being shut. It reads, “Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you.’”
Another remarkable thing about Jesus’ glorified body was its ability to vanish instantly. Luke recorded an occurrence of this phenomenon in his gospel when Jesus broke bread with two men in Emmaus. He wrote in Luke 24:30-31, “When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, and He vanished from their sight.”
Therefore, since Jesus will transform our natural bodies into conformity with the body of His glory, 1 John 3:2 sums it up best when it says, “We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”
I hope this information is encouraging and excites you about what will come when Jesus transforms your lowly body into one fully equipped for eternity with Him.
